with and will end in two or three Gin shops, which probably will exist no
longer than they serve to ruin the proprietors, and those who make the
most frequent applications to them. I am, &c."

[Illustration: MRS FIELDING LEWIS (BETTY WASHINGTON)]

Other of the Lewis boys pleased him better, and he appointed one an
officer in his own "Life Guard." Of another he wrote, when President, to
his sister, "If your son Howell is living with you, and not usefully
employed in your own affairs, and should incline to spend a few months
with me, as a writer in my office (if he is fit for it) I will allow him
at the rate of three hundred dollars a year, provided he is diligent in
discharging the duties of it from breakfast until dinner--Sundays
excepted. This sum will be punctually paid him, and I am particular in
declaring beforehand what I require, and what he may expect, that there
may be no disappointment, or false expectations on either side. He will
live in the family in the same manner his brother Robert did." This Robert
had been for some time one of his secretaries, and at another time was
employed as a rent-collector.

Still another son, Lawrence, also served him in these dual capacities, and
Washington, on his retirement from the Presidency, offered him a home at
Mount Vernon. This led to a marriage with Mrs. Washington's grandchild,
Eleanor Custis, a match which so pleased Washington that he made
arrangements for Lawrence to build on the Mount Vernon estate, in his will
named him an executor, and left the couple a part of this property, as
well as a portion of the residuary estate.

As already noted, much of Washington's early life was passed at the homes
of his elder (half-) brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, who lived