There is in the almanac a rhyme ridiculing physicians and above the March calendar are printed the touching verses: 

     “Thus of all Joy and happiness bereft,
     And with the Charge of Ten poor Children left: 
     A greater Grief no Woman sure can know,
     Who,—­with Ten Children—­who will have me now.”

Also there are some other verses, very broad and “not quite the proper thing,” as Kipling has it.  But it must not be inferred that Washington approved of them.

Washington also kept cash memorandum books, general account books, mill books and a special book in which he recorded his accounts with the estate of the Custis children.  These old books, written in his neat legible hand, are not only one of our chief sources of information concerning his agricultural and financial affairs, but contain many sidelights upon historical events.  It is extremely interesting, for example, to discover in one of the account books that in 1775 at Mount Vernon he lent General Charles Lee—­of Monmouth fame—­L15, and “to Ditto lent him on the Road from Phila to Cambridge at different times” L9.12 more, a total of L24.12.  In later years Lee intrigued against Washington and said many spiteful things about him, but he never returned the loan.  The account stood until 1786, when it was settled by Alexander White, Lee’s executor.

In the Cash Memorandum books we can trace Washington’s military preparations at the beginning of the Revolution.  Thus on June 2, 1775, being then at Philadelphia, he enters:  “By Expences bringing my Horses from Baltimore,” L2.5.  Next day he pays thirty pounds for “Cartouch Boxes &c. for Prince Wm. Comp.”  June 6, “By Covering my Holsters,” L0.7.6; “By a Cersingle,” L0.7.6; “By 5 Books—­Military,” L1.12.0.  He was preparing for Gage and Howe and Cornwallis and whether the knowledge contained in the books was of value or not he somehow managed for eight years to hold his opponents at bay and ultimately to win.  At Cambridge, July tenth, he spends three shillings and four pence for a “Ribbon to distinguish myself,” that is to show his position as commander; also L1.2.6 for “a pair of Breeches for Will,” his colored body servant.

A vast number of papers bear witness to his interest in agriculture and with these we are particularly concerned.  He preserved most of the letters written to him and many of these deal with farming matters.  During part of his career he had a copying press and kept copies of his own important letters, while many of the originals have been preserved, though widely scattered.  When away from home he required his manager to send him elaborate weekly reports containing a meteorological table of each day’s weather, the work done on each farm, what each person did, who was sick, losses and increases in stock, and other matters of interest.  Scores of these reports are still in existence and are invaluable.  He himself wrote—­generally on Sunday—­lengthy weekly letters of inquiry, direction, admonition and reproof, and if the manager failed in the minutest matter to give an account of some phase of the farm work, he would be sure to hear of it in the proprietor’s next letter.