She says I may ride my pony Hero if Uncle Ben will go with me and
lead Hero. I have a little piece of poetry about the picture book
you gave me, but I mustn't tell you who wrote the poetry.

"'G.W.'s compliments to R.H.L.,
And likes his book full well,
Henceforth will count him his friend,
And hopes many happy days he may spend.'

"Your good friend,
"GEORGE WASHINGTON.

"I am going to get a whip top soon, and you may see it and whip
it."[1]

It looks very much as if Richard Henry sent his letter off just as it
was written. I suspect that his correspondent's letter was looked over,
corrected, and copied before it was sent. Very possibly Augustine
Washington was absent at the time on one of his journeys; but at any
rate the boy owed most of his training to his mother, for only two years
after this, his father died, and he was left to his mother's care.

[Illustration: MONUMENT ON THE SITE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE]

She was a woman born to command, and since she was left alone with a
family and an estate to care for, she took the reins into her own hands,
and never gave them up to any one else. She used to drive about
in an old-fashioned open chaise, visiting the various parts of her farm,
just as a planter would do on horseback. The story is told that she had
given an agent directions how to do a piece of work, and he had seen fit