Makers of the world's history and their grand achievements . now the abode(f wealth and great pop-ulations ; then sparsely in-habited by a few solitaryliunters or wondering sav-ages. Often for hundreds ofmiles he had to blaze a pathfor himself if he wished toreturn the same way. Some-times for hours, or maybe forwhole da3-s, he would be as-cending mountains, or almostGEORGE WASHING!OM. sliding down declivities, or swimming rivers where ford there was none, living on the plainestand scantiest fare. Occasiouallv the hard climbing would be varied by wadingthrough morasses, or breaking a
Makers of the world's history and their grand achievements . now the abode(f wealth and great pop-ulations ; then sparsely in-habited by a few solitaryliunters or wondering sav-ages. Often for hundreds ofmiles he had to blaze a pathfor himself if he wished toreturn the same way. Some-times for hours, or maybe forwhole da3-s, he would be as-cending mountains, or almostGEORGE WASHING!OM. sliding down declivities, or swimming rivers where ford there was none, living on the plainestand scantiest fare. Occasiouallv the hard climbing would be varied by wadingthrough morasses, or breaking a way through tangled briers and night came his fitful slumbers would be rudely broken by thescreech of the wild cat, or the blood-curdling cry of the panther, or theweird and mournful shriek of the great owl. Often it would be impossibleto get even the semblance of repose ; for at times darkness and stormswould t)vertake the undaunted young surveyor where the wet soil woitldrender it impossible to get dry branches to nuike even a pretence for a. GEORGE WASHINGTON. 297 bed. Then, when to advance was dangerous, and to retrace his stepsimpossible, he would fall into restless slumbers, leaning on the shouldersof his tractable and faithful borse, until the first streak of dawn wouldsufficiently lighten the gloomy hemlocks to enable him to continue onhis pathless course. Not one man in ten thousand would have perse-vered in such a career. Scarcely ever did twent}^-four hours pass inwhich he was not face to face with death. But even then, in his almost boysh days, he had oue talismanicword, Duty, and to that he conformed. Little he thought, in theselong, solitary marches, of the high destinies that awaited him in the byno means distant future. But that Providence which shapes our endsrough-hew them as we may, was doubtless even then toughening thesinews and hardening the muscles that were to stand the strain of thebattles of Long Island and Monmouth. He was about this time
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbiography, bookyear19
