his experiences in America in 1798-1800.  Parkinson had the story from one General Stone, and it was to this effect:[1] A room was plastered at Mount Vernon on one occasion, and was paid for during the owner’s absence.  When Washington returned he examined the work and had it measured, as was his habit.  It then appeared that an error had been made, and that fifteen shillings too much had been paid.  Meantime the plasterer had died.  His widow married again, and her second husband advertised in the newspapers that he was prepared to pay the debts of his predecessor and collect all moneys due him.  Thereupon Washington put in his claim, which was paid as a matter of course.  He did not extort the debt from the family of the poor mason, but collected it from the second husband of the widow, in response to a voluntary advertisement.  It was very careful and even close dealing, but it was neither harsh nor unjust, and the writer who has preserved the story would be not a little surprised at the interpretation that has been put upon it, for he cited it, as he expressly says, merely to illustrate the extraordinary regularity and method to which he attributed much of Washington’s success.

[Footnote 1:  Parkinson’s Tour in America, 1798-1800, 437 and ff.]

Parkinson, in this same connection, tells several other stories, vague in origin, and sounding like mere gossip, but still worthy of consideration.  According to one of them, Washington maintained a public ferry, which was customary among the planters, and the public paid regular tolls for its use.  On one occasion General Stone, the authority for the previous anecdote, crossed the ferry and offered a moidore in payment.  The ferryman objected to receiving it, on the ground that it was short weight, but Stone insisted, and it was finally accepted.  On being given to Washington it was weighed, and being found three half-pence short, the ferryman was ordered to collect the balance due.  On another occasion a tenant could not make the exact change in paying his rent, and Washington would not accept the money until the tenant went to Alexandria and brought back the precise sum.  There is, however, still another anecdote, which completes this series, and which shows a different application of the same rule.  Washington, in traveling, was in the habit of paying at inns the same for his servants as for himself.  An innkeeper once charged him three shillings and ninepence for himself, and three shillings for his servant.  Thereupon Washington sent for his host, said that his servant ate as much as he, and insisted on paying the additional ninepence.