whole
career reflects credit upon human nature.

Peace hath its victories no less renowned than war, and the picture of
the American Cincinnatus striving as earnestly on the green fields of
Mount Vernon as he did upon the scarlet ones of Monmouth and Brandywine,
is one that the world can not afford to forget.

CHAPTER IX

THE STOCKMAN

A various times in his career Washington raised deer, turkeys, hogs,
cattle, geese, negroes and various other forms of live stock, but his
greatest interest seems to have been reserved for horses, sheep
and mules.

From his diaries and other papers that have come down to us it is easy
to see that during his early married life he paid most attention to his
horses. In 1760 he kept a stallion both for his own mares and for those
of his neighbors, and we find many entries concerning the animal.
Successors were "Leonidas," "Samson," "Steady," "Traveller" and
"Magnolia," the last a full-blooded Arabian and probably the finest
beast he ever owned. When away from home Washington now and then
directed the manager to advertise the animal then reigning or to exhibit
him in public places such as fairs. Mares brought to the stallion were
kept upon pasture, and foal was guaranteed. Many times the General
complained of the difficulty of collecting fees.

During the Revolution he bought twenty-seven worn-out army mares for
breeding purposes and soon after he became President he purchased at
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, thirteen fine animals for the same use. These
last cost him a total of L317.17.6, the price of the highest being
L25.7.6 and of the cheapest L22.10. These mares were unusually good
animals, as an ordinary beast would have cost only five or six pounds.

In November, 1785, he had on his various Mount Vernon farms a total of
one hundred thirty horses, including the Arabian already mentioned.
Among the twenty-one animals kept at the Mansion House were his old war
horses "Nelson" and "Blewskin," who after bearing their master through
the smoke and dangers of many battles lived in peace to a ripe old age
on the green fields of Virginia.

In his last days he bought two of the easy-gaited animals known as
Narragansetts, a breed, some readers will recall, described at some
length by Cooper in _The Last of the Mohicans._ A peculiarity of these
beasts was that they moved both legs on a side forward at the same time,
that is, they were pacers. Washington's two proved somewhat skittish,