ray
God keep you and yours.

"Your loving brother,
"JOSEPH BALL."[458:A]

At length the mother's affectionate opposition prevented the execution
of this scheme. George Washington now devoted himself to his studies,
especially the mathematics and surveying.

The marriage of his brother, Lawrence Washington, with Miss Fairfax,
introduced George to the favor of Thomas Lord Fairfax, proprietor of the
Northern Neck, who gave him an appointment as surveyor. He was now
little more than sixteen years of age. After crossing the Blue Ridge,
the surveying party, including George Fairfax, entered a wilderness
where they were exposed to the inclemency of the season, and subjected
to hardship and fatigue. It was in the month of March, in the eventful
year 1748; snow yet lingered on the mountain-tops, and the streams were
swollen into torrents. The survey-lands lay on the Shenandoah, near the
site of Winchester, and beyond the first range of the Alleghanies, on
the south branch of the Potomac, about seventy miles above Harper's
Ferry. This kind of life was well fitted to train young Washington for
his future career: a knowledge of topography taught him how to select a
ground for encampment or for battle; while hardy exercise and exposure
invigorated a frame naturally athletic, and fitted him to endure the
privations and encounter the dangers of military life. He now became
acquainted with the temper and habits of the people of the frontier, and
the Indians; and grew familiar with the wild country which was to be the
scene of his early military operations. His regular pay was a doubloon
(seven dollars and twenty cents) a day, and occasionally six pistoles
(twenty-one dollars and sixty cents.)

Appointed by the president of William and Mary College, in July, 1749, a
public surveyor, he continued to engage in this pursuit for three years,
except during the rigor of the winter months. Lord Fairfax had taken up
his residence at Greenway Court, thirteen miles southeast of the site of
Winchester. A graduate of Oxford, accustomed to that society in England
to which his rank entitled him, fond of literature, and having
contributed some numbers to the _Spectator_, this nobleman, owing to a
disappointment in love, had come to superintend his vast landed
possessions, embracing twenty-one large counties, and live in the
secluded Valley of the Shenandoah. Here Washington, the yout