the negroes' winter clothes, while the
good old lady directs them all, incessantly knitting herself and
pointing out to me several pair of nice colored stockings and gloves she
had just finished, and presenting me with a pair half done, which she
begs I will finish and wear for her. Her netting too is a great source
of amusement and is so neatly done that all the family are proud of
trimming their dresses with it."

This domestic life was dear to the heart of our Farmer's wife, yet the
home-coming did not fail to awaken some melancholy memories. To Mrs.
George Fairfax in England she wrote, or rather her husband wrote for
her: "The changes which have taken place in this country since you left
it (and it is pretty much the case in all other parts of this State)
are, in one word, total. In Alexandria, I do not believe there lives at
this day a single family with whom you had the smallest acquaintance. In
our neighborhood Colo. Mason, Colo. McCarty and wife, Mr. Chickester,
Mr. Lund Washington and all the Wageners, have left the stage of human
life; and our visitors on the Maryland side are gone and going
likewise."

How many people have had like thoughts! One of the many sad things about
being the "last leaf upon the tree" is having to watch the other leaves
shrivel and drop off and to be left at last in utter loneliness.

Like her husband, Mrs. Washington was an early riser, and it was a habit
she seems to have kept up until the end. She rose with the sun and
after breakfast invariably retired to her room for an hour of prayer and
reading the Scriptures. Her devotions over she proceeded with the
ordinary duties of the day.

She seems to have been somewhat fond of ceremony and to have had a
considerable sense of personal dignity. A daughter of Augustine
Washington, who when twelve years of age spent several weeks at Mount
Vernon, related when an old woman that every morning precisely at eleven
o'clock the mistress of the mansion expected her company to assemble in
the drawing-room, where she greeted them with much formality and kept
them an hour on their good behavior. When the clock struck twelve she
would rise and ascend to her chamber, returning thence precisely at one,
followed by a black servant carrying an immense bowl of punch, from
which the guests were expected to partake before dinner. Some of the
younger girls became curious to discover why her "Ladyship" retired so
invariably to her room, so they slipped ou