From the monument through the trees, can be seen the gleaming river,
rippling its way silently to the bay, and over all rests the same
brooding sense of peace and quietness which one feels at Mt. Vernon or
at Arlington, the city of our nation's dead.

* * * * *

SOMETHING OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S
BOYHOOD

ANONYMOUS

From _The Evangelist_

George Washington was born at a time when savagery had just departed
from the country, leaving freshness and vigor behind. The Indian had
scarcely left the woods, and the pirate the shore near his home. His
grandfather had seen his neighbor lying tomahawked at his door-sill, and
his father had helped to chase beyond the mountains the whooping savages
that carried the scalps of his friends at their girdle. The year his
brother was born, John Maynard's ship had sailed up the James River with
the bloody head of Blackbeard hanging to the bowsprit.

He had only one uncle, a brother Lawrence, and a cousin Augustine, all
older than he, but the youngest of his older brothers was twelve years
of age when George was born, while his cousin Augustine was only four
years older, and his cousin Lawrence six years older than himself. When
he was seven years old his sister Betty was a little lass of six. Two
brothers, Samuel and John, were nearing their fourth and fifth
birthdays. Charles, his baby brother, was still in his nurse's arms.