“Mother, I have changed my mind,” he said.  “I will not be a sailor.  I will not leave you.”

Then he turned to the black boy who was waiting by the door, and said, “Run down to the landing and tell them not to put the chest on board.  Tell them that I have thought differently of the matter and that I am going to stay at home.”

If George had not changed his mind, but had really gone to sea, how very different the history of this country would have been!

He now went to his studies with a better will than before; and although he read but few books he learned much that was useful to him in life.  He studied surveying with especial care, and made himself as thorough in that branch of knowledge as it was possible to do with so few advantages.

* * * * *

V.—­The young surveyor.

Lawrence Washington was about fourteen years older than his brother
George.

As I have already said, he had been to England and had spent sometime at Appleby school.  He had served in the king’s army for a little while, and had been with Admiral Vernon’s squadron in the West Indies.

He had formed so great a liking for the admiral that when he came home he changed the name of his plantation at Hunting Creek, and called it Mount Vernon—­a name by which it is still known.

Not far from Mount Vernon there was another fine plantation called Belvoir, that was owned by William Fairfax, an English gentleman of much wealth and influence.

Now this Mr. Fairfax had a young daughter, as wise as she was beautiful; and so, what should Lawrence Washington do but ask her to be his wife?  He built a large house at Mount Vernon with a great porch fronting on the Potomac; and when Miss Fairfax became Mrs. Washington and went into this home as its mistress, people said that there was not a handsomer or happier young couple in all Virginia.

After young George Washington had changed his mind about going to sea, he went up to Mount Vernon to live with his elder brother.  For Lawrence had great love for the boy, and treated him as his father would have done.

At Mount Vernon George kept on with his studies in surveying.  He had a compass and surveyor’s chain, and hardly a day passed that he was not out on the plantation, running lines and measuring his brother’s fields.

Sometimes when he was busy at this kind of work, a tall, white-haired gentleman would come over from Belvoir to see what he was doing and to talk with him.  This gentleman was Sir Thomas Fairfax, a cousin of the owner of Belvoir.  He was sixty years old, and had lately come from England to look after his lands in Virginia; for he was the owner of many thousands of acres among the mountains and in the wild woods.

Sir Thomas was a courtly old gentleman, and he had seen much of the world.  He was a fine scholar; he had been a soldier, and then a man of letters; and he belonged to a rich and noble family.