A first book in American history, with special reference to the lives and deeds of great Americans . ith he stayed at school until he was sixteen years old. A great deal of the northern part of Virginia at thistime belonged to Lord Fairfax, an eccentric nobleman,whose estates included many whole counties. GeorgeWashington must have studied his books of surveyingvery carefully, for he was only a large boy when he wasemployed to go over beyond the Blue Ridge Mountainsand survey some of the wild lands of Lord Fairfax. So, when he was just sixteen years old, young Wash-ington accepted the o
A first book in American history, with special reference to the lives and deeds of great Americans . ith he stayed at school until he was sixteen years old. A great deal of the northern part of Virginia at thistime belonged to Lord Fairfax, an eccentric nobleman,whose estates included many whole counties. GeorgeWashington must have studied his books of surveyingvery carefully, for he was only a large boy when he wasemployed to go over beyond the Blue Ridge Mountainsand survey some of the wild lands of Lord Fairfax. So, when he was just sixteen years old, young Wash-ington accepted the offer of Lord Fairfax, and set out forthe wilderness. He crossed rough mountains and rode hishorse through swollen streams. The settlers beds wereonly masses of straw, with, perhaps, a ragged George slept most of the time out under the sky bya camp fire, with a little hay, straw, or fodder for a men and women and children slept around thesefires, like cats and dogs, as Washington wrote, andhappy is he who gets nearest the fire. Once the straw YOUNG GEORGE WASHINGTON. 105. on which the young surveyor was asleep blazed up, and he might have been consumed if one of the party had not waked him in time. Washington must have been a pretty good surveyor, for he re- y ceived large pay for his work, earn- >.^^ ing from seven to twenty-one dol- ,^ lars a day, at a time when things were much cheaper than they are now. The food of people in the woodswas the fiesh of wild turkey andother game. Every man was hisown cook, toasting his meat on aforked stick, and eating it off achip instead of a plate. Washing-ton led this rough life for three years. It was a goodschool for a soldier. Here, too, he made his first acquaint-ance with the Indians. He saw a party of them dance tothe music of a drum made by stretching deerskin verytight over the top of a pot half full of also had a rattle, made by puttingshot into a gourd. They took pains to \ a piece of a
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Keywords: ., bookauthoregglesto, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1915
