r condition is serious, but I expect that you will recover," Dr.
Bard replied.

"Do not flatter me with vain hopes," responded the president. "I am not
afraid to die, and I am prepared to hear the worst."

"I confess, Mr. President, that I am not without serious apprehensions,"
added the doctor.

"Whether to-night or twenty years hence makes no difference; I know that
I am in the hands of a good Providence," was the royal answer of the
Christian ruler.

His tour through the New England States was attended with every
demonstration of honor that love and confidence could devise. At Boston
the president's well-known punctuality set aside all conventional rules,
and asserted its superiority. A company of cavalry volunteered to
escort him to Salem. The time appointed to start was 8 o'clock in the
morning. When the Old South clock struck the hour, the escort had not
appeared; nevertheless Washington started, and reached Charles River
bridge before the cavalry overtook him. The commander of the cavalry
once belonged to Washington's "military family," and the latter turned
to him and said:

"Major, I thought you had been too long in my family not to know when
it was eight o'clock."

At Philadelphia, to which place the seat of government was removed in
1790, the president frequently entertained members of Congress at his
own table. They soon learned that there was no waiting for guests in his
mansion. Precisely at the hour, Washington took his seat at the table,
whether guests had arrived or not. One day a member came in ten minutes
after the family were seated at the dining table. The president greeted
him with the remark: "We are punctual here."

He arranged with a gentleman to meet him with reference to the purchase
of a pair of horses. He named the hour. The owner of the horses was ten
minutes behind the time, and he found the president engaged with other
parties. It was a whole week before he was able to see the president
again. The latter taught the dilatory man an important lesson.

At Philadelphia, a house belonging to Robert Morris, the national
financier, was rented, and converted into a presidential mansion as
imposing and elegant, for that day, as the "White House" at Washington
is for our day. It was not contemplated to make Philadelphia the
permanent seat of government. Washington thought the capital should be
located on the Potomac, and it was respect for his judgment especially
that located it where it