wanted water-cresses! Go with Grace, Cecilia my child, and when you
get home, give this five-dollar bill to your friend Frank, and tell him
it isn't the first time a little act of kindness has brought luck."

[Begun in HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE No. 24, April 13.]

THE STORY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON.

BY EDWARD CARY.

CHAPTER IX.

Very soon after General Washington was elected President a war broke out
between France and England. It was natural that people in this country
should wish to help the French, who had helped us. But General
Washington saw that if we once got in the way of taking a part in wars
between other countries, where our own rights were not in danger, we
should always be at war. He saw, too, that we were a small nation then,
compared to the nations of Europe, and that we might easily lose the
freedom we had fought so long for. He dreaded to put our freedom in
danger unless compelled to. So he issued an order to the people, as he
had a right to do, not to take part with one nation or the other, but to
mind their own business.

This was wise, because the British government was only too ready to pick
a quarrel with us. General Washington also went further. He made a
treaty of peace and commerce with Great Britain, which kept war from our
shores for twenty years, and gave the country a chance to grow. The
people did not like this treaty much. There was a great deal of
ill-feeling toward Great Britain, growing out of the long fight we had
had with her. But General Washington, who was ready to fight for real
rights, felt that it was wrong to get into a quarrel from mere angry
feeling. He was very anxious to keep the two countries at peace until
their people could get calm, and go to trading with each other, and
learn to live together in friendship. Surely this was both sensible and
good. It was fortunate for the country that a man was at the head of its
government wise enough to see what was right, and firm enough to do it.

Just at the time Washington was elected President, the French people
rose against their government, which had many faults, and drove away
many of their rulers, and cut off their King's head. Among the leaders
was Lafayette, who, however, was no party to the cruelties which were
practiced. The other kings of Europe undertook to restore the King of
France to power, and in the war which followed Lafayette was taken
prisoner and closely confined. His wife wrote to Washington, asking him