It would be foolish to deny that Mrs. Washington did not take pleasure in the honors heaped upon her husband or that she did not enjoy the consideration that accrued to her as First Lady of the Land.  Yet public life at times palled upon her and she often spoke of the years of the presidency as her “lost days.”  New York and Philadelphia, she said, were “not home, only a sojourning.  The General and I feel like children just released from school or from a hard taskmaster....  How many dear friends I have left behind!  They fill my memory with sweet thoughts.  Shall I ever see them again?  Not likely unless they come to me, for the twilight is gathering around our lives.  I am again fairly settled down to the pleasant duties of an old-fashioned Virginia-housekeeper, steady as a clock, busy as a bee, and cheerful as a cricket.”

That she did not overdraw her account of her industry is borne out by a Mrs. Carrington, who, with her husband, one of the General’s old officers, visited Mount Vernon about this time.  She wrote: 

“Let us repair to the Old Lady’s room, which is precisely in the style of our good old Aunt’s—­that is to say, nicely fixed for all sorts of work—­On one side sits the chambermaid, with her knitting—­on the other, a little colored pet learning to sew, an old decent woman, with her table and shears, cutting out the negroes’ winter clothes, while the good old lady directs them all, incessantly knitting herself and pointing out to me several pair of nice colored stockings and gloves she had just finished, and presenting me with a pair half done, which she begs I will finish and wear for her.  Her netting too is a great source of amusement and is so neatly done that all the family are proud of trimming their dresses with it.”

This domestic life was dear to the heart of our Farmer’s wife, yet the home-coming did not fail to awaken some melancholy memories.  To Mrs. George Fairfax in England she wrote, or rather her husband wrote for her:  “The changes which have taken place in this country since you left it (and it is pretty much the case in all other parts of this State) are, in one word, total.  In Alexandria, I do not believe there lives at this day a single family with whom you had the smallest acquaintance.  In our neighborhood Colo.  Mason, Colo.  McCarty and wife, Mr. Chickester, Mr. Lund Washington and all the Wageners, have left the stage of human life; and our visitors on the Maryland side are gone and going likewise.”

How many people have had like thoughts!  One of the many sad things about being the “last leaf upon the tree” is having to watch the other leaves shrivel and drop off and to be left at last in utter loneliness.

Like her husband, Mrs. Washington was an early riser, and it was a habit she seems to have kept up until the end.  She rose with the sun and after breakfast invariably retired to her room for an hour of prayer and reading the Scriptures.  Her devotions over she proceeded with the ordinary duties of the day.