A Virginia cavalier

The sun shines not upon a lovelier land than midland Virginia. Great rivers roll seaward through rich woodlands and laughing corn-fields and fair meadow lands. Afar off, the mis...

The full flood of the sun, now low in the heavens, poured through the western windows upon the figure of the boy standing in the doorway. The room was beginning to darken, and t...

Next morning, as usual, George was up and on horseback by sunrise. Until this year he had ridden five miles a day each way to Mr. Hobby’s school; but now he was so far ahead of...

Before daybreak the next morning George came down-stairs, Billy following with his portmanteau. Madam Washington, little Betty, and all the house-servants were up and dressed, b...

“You are asking me more, sir,” said Lance, with something like a grim smile on his countenance, “than I could tell you in a month, or two months. But I can tell you how the Duke...

The two days’ journey that followed were very much like the first day--an early start, two hours’ rest in the middle of the day, and the night spent at a road-side tavern. On th...

Inside, Greenway Court was not devoid of comfort, and even of luxury. The main hall was open to the roof, and, like all the rooms in the house, the rafters were left bare, and t...

Indians were not an entirely new sight to George, but the few who occasionally came to Greenway were quite different from the thriftless, lazy, peaceable individuals and remnant...

Black Bear had remained at Greenway until his wound was well on the way to recovery, but, as Lance said, “An Injun can walk on a broken leg and climb a tree with a broken arm,”...

“Chris’mus. Marse George. Chris’mus! an’ jes listen to dem niggers singin’ under de winder!” Although a sound sleeper, George always waked quickly, and in an instant he recogniz...

One night, some days after this, George was awakened in the middle of the night by hearing persons stirring in the house. He rose, and, slipping on his clothes, softly opened hi...

“I don’t know, mother, whether I deserve a reward or not,” he answered, in the same strange voice in which he had first spoken. “I am not sure whether I am doing right or not, b...

Some weeks were spent at Greenway Court, and George slipped back into the same life he had led for so long in the autumn. Instead, however, of reading in the evenings, Lord Fair...

The next few weeks worked a great and serious change in George. It was the first time he had seen death since he was ten years old, when his father died. That had made a great i...

George’s second summer’s work was less like a pleasure expedition than his first had been. He spent only a few days at Greenway Court, and then started off, not with a boy compa...

Christmas at Mount Vernon, although it could never again be the gay season it had been, was yet cheerful. The presence of Lord Fairfax and George, of Madam Washington and Betty,...

Very splendid was the ball at the palace that night, and very splendid to George’s provincial eyes were the assemblies in the great Apollo Room at the Raleigh, where the wits an...

The next day, the 31st of October, 1753, George set forth on his arduous mission. He had before him nearly six hundred miles of travelling, much of it through an unbroken wilder...

The news brought by George confirmed all the fears of the war which was presently to begin and to last for seven years. The governor immediately called together his council, lai...

George returned to Alexandria, where his regiment awaited him. He was mad with rage and chagrin. He could have taken censure with humility, feeling sure that whatever mistakes h...