Once, she complained to him of her house in Fredericksburg; he wrote in answer, gently but plainly, that her habits of life were not such as would be acceptable at Mount Vernon.  And to this she replied that she had never expected or intended to go to Mount Vernon, and moreover would not, no matter how much urged—­a declination without an invitation that must have caused the son a grim smile.  In her nature was a goodly trace of savage stoicism that took a satisfaction in concealing the joy she felt in her son’s achievement; for that her life was all bound up in his we have good evidence.

Washington looked after her wants and supplied her with everything she needed, and, as these things often came through third parties, it is pretty certain she did not know the source; at any rate she accepted everything quite as her due, and shows a half-comic ingratitude that is very fine.

When Washington started for New York to be inaugurated President, he stopped to see her.  She donned a new white cap and a clean apron in honor of the visit, remarking to a neighbor woman who dropped in that she supposed “these great folks expected something a little extra.”  It was the last meeting of mother and son.  She was eighty-three at that time and “her boy” fifty-five.  She died not long after.

Samuel Washington, the brother two years younger than George, has been described as “small, sandy-whiskered, shrewd and glib.”  Samuel was married five times.  Some of the wives he deserted and others deserted him, and two of them died, thus leaving him twice a sad, lorn widower, from which condition he quickly extricated himself.  He was always in financial straits and often appealed to his brother George for loans.  In Seventeen Hundred Eighty-one we find George Washington writing to his brother John, “In God’s name! how has Samuel managed to get himself so enormously in debt?” The remark sounds a little like that of Samuel Johnson, who on hearing that Goldsmith was owing four hundred pounds exclaimed, “Was ever poet so trusted before?”

Washington’s ledger shows that he advanced his brother Samuel two thousand dollars, “to be paid back without interest.”  But Samuel’s ship never came in, and in Washington’s will we find the debt graciously and gracefully discharged.

Thornton Washington, a son of Samuel, was given a place in the English army at George Washington’s request; and two other sons of Samuel were sent to school at his expense.  One of the boys once ran away and was followed by his uncle George, who carried a goodly birch with intent to “give him what he deserved”; but after catching the lad the uncle’s heart melted, and he took the runaway back into favor.  An entry in Washington’s journal shows that the children of his brother Samuel cost him fully five thousand dollars.

Harriot, one of the daughters of Samuel, lived in the household at Mount Vernon and evidently was a great cross, for we find Washington pleading as an excuse for her frivolity that “she was not brung up right, she has no disposition, and takes no care of her clothes, which are dabbed about in every corner, and the best are always in use.  She costs me enough!”