and strangers of distinction. Immediately,
on their approach, the attention of the governor was seen to be directed
toward a tall and martial figure, that marched with grave and measured
tread, apparently indifferent to the scene around him. The lady now
archly observed, 'I perceive that your excellency's eyes are turned to
the right object; what say you to your wager now, sir?'--'Lost, madam,'
replied the gallant governor; 'when I laid my wager I was not aware that
Colonel Washington was in New York.'"

Washington kept his own books at the same time that he attended to the
business of his vast estates. The same neatness, method, and accuracy
characterized his accounts at Mount Vernon that characterized his
writing books at Mr. Williams' school. They were models.

When Mrs. Washington went to Mount Vernon to live, the mansion contained
only four square rooms on the ground. In this condition it remained
until the close of the Revolution.

During the Revolution she was wont to spend the winter with her husband
in his winter quarters. The accommodations were always meagre. One of
these winters he occupied a small frame house, unfurnished in the second
story. The general could get along with the meagre comforts, but he
desired better accommodations for his wife. So he sent for a young
mechanic and fellow-apprentice.

"Mrs. Washington will tell you what she wants, and you will make the
changes under her direction," he said to them.

Soon Mrs. Washington was in their presence.

"Now, young men," she said, "I care for nothing but comfort here, and
should like you to fit me up a beaufet on one side of the room, and some
shelves and places for hanging clothes on the other."

The mechanic said afterwards that "every morning Mrs. Washington came
up-stairs to see us; and after she and the general had dined, she always
called us down to eat at her table. We worked very hard, nailing smooth
boards over the rough and worm-eaten planks, and stopping the crevices
in the walls made by time and hard usage. We studied to do everything to
please so pleasant a lady, and to make some return in our humble way for
the kindness of the general."

When the work was completed, Mrs. Washington was surveying it, when the
mechanic said, "Madam, we have endeavored to do the best we could. I
hope we have suited you."

"I am astonished," Mrs. Washington replied. "Your work would do honor to
an old master, and you are mere lads. I am not only sa