From Farm House to the White House - 912 Freedom Library

Farm House to the White House, by William M. Thayer 29
"Better than playing soldier?" said George inquiringly, and in a tone of pleasantry. He had already organized
the boys in Mr. William's school into two armies, and more than one mimic battle had been fought.
"Yes, better than any sham thing," answered Mr. Williams. "It will be study and diversion together--work and
play--improving mind and body at the same time."
"I see, I see," responded George. "I can abandon soldiering for that." But he never did. There was too great
fascination about military tactics to allow of that. He devoted himself to surveying with commendable
application and rapid progress; but he continued, to some extent, the chief sport of his school-days--mimic
war.
George was not more than thirteen or fourteen years of age when he surveyed the land about the school-house.
He was the first pupil in Mr. Williams' school who had performed such a practical piece of work, and his
school-mates were deeply interested in his exploit. He ranked high as a scholar, and his manly bearing made
him appear several years older than he was. He led Mr. Williams' school, as he did that of Mr. Hobby, in
scholarship, behavior and physical prowess. He seemed born to lead, and his associates were content to have it
so.
One of his biographers speaks as follows of his first efforts at surveying:
"When he had advanced so far in his study as to give him some idea of the proper use and handling of the
chain and compass, the two principal instruments employed in this art, he began to put his knowledge into
practice by taking surveys of the farms lying in the immediate neighborhood of his school-house.
"Assisted by his school-mates, he would follow up and measure off, with the help of his long steel chain, the
boundary lines between the farms, such as fences, roads, and water-courses; then those dividing the different
parts of the same farm; determining at the same time, with the help of his compass, their various courses, their
crooks and windings, and the angles formed at their points of meeting or intersection. This would enable him
to get at the shape and size not only of each farm, but of every meadow, field and wood composing it. This
done, he would make a map or drawing on paper of the land surveyed, whereon would be clearly traced the
lines dividing the different parts with the name and number of acres of each attached, while on the opposite
page he would write down the long and difficult tables of figures by which these results had been reached. All
this he would execute with as much neatness and accuracy as if it had been left with him to decide thereby
some gravely disputed land-claim."
Irving says of him as a surveyor: "In this he schooled himself thoroughly; making surveys about the
neighborhood, and keeping regular field-books, in which the boundaries and measurements of the fields
surveyed were carefully entered, and diagrams made with a neatness and exactness, as if the whole related to
important land transactions instead of being mere school exercises. Thus, in his earliest days, there was
perseverance and completeness in all his undertakings. Nothing was left half done, or done in a hurried and
slovenly manner. The habit of mind thus cultivated continued through life; so that however complicated his
tasks and overwhelming his cares, in the arduous and hazardous situations in which he was often placed, he
found time to do everything, and to do it well. He had acquired the magic of method, which of itself works
wonders."
One day a dispute arose between two pupils respecting a chapter of Virginia's early history--Captain Smith
and Pocahontas.
"She saved his life," exclaimed one.
"Very true; but she was not the daughter of King Opechancanough, as you say," replied the other.