From Farm House to the White House - 912 Freedom Library

Farm House to the White House, by William M. Thayer 128
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 satisfied, but highly gratified with what you have done for my comfort."
She was accustomed to say, after the Revolution, "I heard the first cannon at the opening, and the last at the
closing, of all the campaigns of the Revolutionary war."
She survived her husband by two years. As death drew near, with mind clear and heart staid on God, she
awaited the final summons with calmness and sweet resignation. She called her grandchildren to her bedside,
"discoursed to them of their respective duties, spoke of the happy influence of religion, and then triumphantly
resigned her spirit into the hands of her Saviour," and expired.
Mount Vernon is now in a good state of preservation. A national association of women have charge of the
place, that it may be kept in repair, and the relics--furniture, pictures, account books, library, etc.--be
preserved for coming generations to see.
XVI.
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.