as one would expect, and tells, as well as many volumes could, of the happy relations between husband and wife.  Washington had many love affairs in his youth, but he proved in the end a constant lover.  His wife was a high-bred, intelligent woman, simple and dignified in her manners, efficient in all ways to be the helpmate of her husband in the high places to which he was called.  No shadow ever rested on their married life, and when the end came Mrs. Washington only said, “All is over now.  I shall soon follow him.”  She could not conceive of life without the presence of the unchanging love and noble character which had been by her side so long.

Children were denied to Washington, but although this was a disappointment it did not chill him nor narrow his sympathies, as is so often the case.  He took to his heart his wife’s children as if they were his own.  He watched over them and cared for them, and their deaths caused him the deepest sorrow.  He afterwards adopted his wife’s two grandchildren, and watched over them, too, in the same way.  In the midst of all the cares of the presidency, Washington found time always to write to George Custis, a boy at school or at college; while Nellie Custis was as dear to him as his own daughter, and her marriage a source of the most affectionate interest.  Indeed, it is evident from various little anecdotes that he was much less strict with these children than was Mrs. Washington, and much more disposed to condone faults.  Certain it is that they loved him tenderly, and in a way that only long years of loving-kindness could have made possible.

He showed the same feeling to all his own kindred.  His mother was ever the object of the most loyal affection, and even at the head of the armies he would turn aside to visit her with the same respect and devotion as when he was a mere boy.  He was ever mindful of his brothers and sisters, and their fortunes.  None of them were ever forgotten, and he was especially kind to the children of those who had been least fortunate and most needed his help.  He educated and counseled his favorite nephew Bushrod, and did the same for the sons of George Steptoe Washington.  Nothing is pleasanter than to read in the midst of official papers the long letters in which he gave these boys great store of wise and kindly advice, guided their education, strove to form their characters, and traced for them the honorable careers which he wished them to pursue.  Very few men who had risen to the heights reached by Washington would have found time, in the midst of engrossing cares, to write such letters as he wrote to friends and kinsmen.  A kind heart prompted them, but they were much more than merely kind, for when Washington undertook to do anything he did it thoroughly.  Whether it was a treaty with England, the education of a boy, or the service of a friend, he gave it his best thought and his utmost care.  Where those he loved were concerned, he was never too busy to think of them, and he spared no pains to help them; censuring faults where they existed, and giving praise in generous manner where praise was due.