should take to, as the
readiest means of ridding himself of such troublesome feelings. No
wonder, then, that our young surveyor was grave and thoughtful beyond
his years; and that the lonely forest, with its ever-changing beauties
and wild seclusion, viewed through the bewitched eyes of love, should
have had greater charms for him than the noisy, bustling haunts of
men. That you may have a more distinct idea of the appearance of
Washington at the time of which we are speaking, your Uncle Juvinell
will conjure up, from the lingering lights and shadows of his dull old
fancy, a little picture, to be gilded anew by your bright young
fancies, and hung up in that loftiest chamber of your memory which you
are wont to adorn with your portraits of the good and great men and
women who have blessed the earth, and of whom we love so much to read
and hear.

It is a summer morning, and the eastern mountains fling their shadows
long and huge across the lonesome valleys. Our little party of
surveyors, having spent the night on the summits of one of the less
lofty peaks of the Blue Ridge, are slowly descending its shrubby skies
to the more densely wooded parts of the wilderness below, of whose
waste fertility many a broad tract have they yet to explore, and many
a mile of boundary-line have chain and compass yet to measure and
determine. Still lingering on the summit far above, as loath to quit
the contemplation of the splendid prospect seen from thence, stands a
tall youth of eighteen, with his right arm thrown across his horse's
neck, and his left hand grasping his compass-staff. He is clad in a
buckskin hunting-shirt, with leggins and moccasons of the same
material,--the simple garb of a backwoodsman, and one that well
becomes him now, as in perfect keeping with the wildness of the
surrounding scenery; while in his broad leathern belt are stuck his
long hunting-knife and Indian tomahawk. In stature he is much above
most youths of the same age: he is of a handsome and robust form, with
high and strong but smooth features, light-brown hair, large blue
eyes,--not brilliant, but beaming with a clear and steady light, as if
a soul looked through them that knew no taint of vice or
meanness,--and a countenance all glorious with a truth and courage,
modest gentleness, and manly self-reliance; and as he thus lingers on
that lonely mountain-height, glorified as it were with the fresh pure
light of the newly risen sun, with head uncovered and