Four Great Americans: Washington, Franklin, Webster, Lincoln | Page 3

them a few lessons now and then; and if they learned
good manners and could write letters to their friends, what more could
they need?
George Washington's first teacher was a poor sexton, whose name was
Mr. Hobby. There is a story that he had been too poor to pay his
passage from England, and that he had, therefore, been sold to Mr.

Washington as a slave for a short time; but how true this is, I cannot
say.
From Mr. Hobby, George learned to spell easy words, and perhaps to
write a little; but, although he afterward became a very careful and
good penman, he was a poor speller as long as he lived.
When George was about eleven years old his father died. We do not
know what his father's intentions had been regarding him. But possibly,
if he had lived, he would have given George the best education that his
means would afford.
But now everything was changed. The plantation at Hunting Creek, and,
indeed, almost all the rest of Mr. Washington's great estate, became the
property of the eldest son, Lawrence.
George was sent to Bridge's Creek to live for a while with his brother
Augustine, who now owned the old home plantation there. The mother
and the younger children remained on the Rappahannock farm.
While at Bridge's Creek, George was sent to school to a Mr. Williams,
who had lately come from England.
There are still to be seen some exercises which the lad wrote at that
time. There is also a little book, called _The Young Man's Companion_,
from which he copied, with great care, a set of rules for good behavior
and right living.
Not many boys twelve years old would care for such a book nowadays.
But you must know that in those days there were no books for children,
and, indeed, very few for older people.
The maxims and wise sayings which George copied were, no doubt,
very interesting to him--so interesting that many of them were never
forgotten.
There are many other things also in this _Young Man's Companion_,
and we have reason to believe that George studied them all.
There are short chapters on arithmetic and surveying, rules for the
measuring of land and lumber, and a set of forms for notes, deeds, and
other legal documents. A knowledge of these things was, doubtless, of
greater importance to him than the reading of many books would have
been.
Just what else George may have studied in Mr. Williams's school I
cannot say. But all this time he was growing to be a stout, manly boy,
tall and strong, and well-behaved. And both his brothers and himself

were beginning to think of what he should do when he should become a
man.
* * * * *
IV.--GOING TO SEA.
Once every summer a ship came up the river to the plantation, and was
moored near the shore.
It had come across the sea from far-away England, and it brought many
things for those who were rich enough to pay for them.
It brought bonnets and pretty dresses for George's mother and sisters; it
brought perhaps a hat and a tailor-made suit for himself; it brought
tools and furniture, and once a yellow coach that had been made in
London, for his brother.
When all these things had been taken ashore, the ship would hoist her
sails and go on, farther up the river, to leave goods at other plantations.
In a few weeks it would come back and be moored again at the same
place.
Then there was a busy time on shore. The tobacco that had been raised
during the last year must be carried on shipboard to be taken to the
great tobacco markets in England.
The slaves on the plantation were running back and forth, rolling
barrels and carrying bales of tobacco down to the landing.
Letters were written to friends in England, and orders were made out
for the goods that were to be brought back next year.
But in a day or two, all this stir was over. The sails were again spread,
and the ship glided away on its long voyage across the sea.
George had seen this ship coming and going every year since he could
remember. He must have thought how pleasant it would be to sail away
to foreign lands and see the many wonderful things that are there.
And then, like many another active boy, he began to grow tired of the
quiet life on the farm, and wish that he might be a sailor.
He was now about fourteen years old. Since the death of his father, his
mother had found it hard work, with her five children, to manage her
farm on the Rappahannock and make everything come out