instruct him, and with him he lived, except for some home visits, for
three years. Unfortunately, the lad, like the true Virginian planter of
his day, had no taste for study, and had "a propensity for the [fair]
sex." After two or three flirtations, he engaged himself, without the
knowledge of his mother or guardian, to Nellie Calvert, a match to which
no objection could be made, except that, owing to his "youth and
fickleness," "he may either change and therefore injure the young lady; or
that it may precipitate him into a marriage before, I am certain, he has
ever bestowed a serious thought of the consequences; by which means his
education is interrupted." To avoid this danger, Washington took his ward
to New York and entered him in King's College, but the death of Patsy
Custis put a termination to study, for Mrs. Washington could not bear to
have the lad at such a distance, and Washington "did not care, as he is
the last of the family, to push my opposition too far." Accordingly, Jack
returned to Virginia and promptly married.

The young couple were much at Mount Vernon from this time on, and
Washington wrote to "Dear Jack," "I am always pleased with yours and
Nelly's abidance at Mount Vernon." When the winter snows made the siege of
Boston purely passive, the couple journeyed with Mrs. Washington to
Cambridge, and visited at head-quarters for some months. The arrival of
children prevented the repetition of such visits, but frequent letters,
which rarely failed to send love to "Nelly and the little girls," were
exchanged. The acceptance of command compelled Washington to resign the
care of Custis's estate, for which service "I have never charged him or
his sister, from the day of my connexion with them to this hour, one
farthing for all the trouble I have had in managing their estates, nor for
any expense they have been to me, notwithstanding some hundreds of pounds
would not reimburse the moneys I have actually paid in attending the
public meetings in Williamsburg to collect their debts, and transact these