“At Mount Vernon, Washington was as dignified as ever but not so grave.  He almost joked when he spoke of the sculptors and portrait painters who have been a great bother to him since the war ended.

“’Now no dray horse moves more readily to the thill than I to the painter’s chair,” he said.

“When I arrived the family was going in to dinner and they waited until I could make myself ready to join them.  The jocular Light Horse Harry Lee was there.  His anecdotes delighted the great man.  I had never seen G. W. in better humor.  A singularly pleasant smile lighted his whole countenance.  I can never forget the gentle note in his voice and his dignified bearing.  It was the same whether he were addressing his guests or his family.  The servants watched him closely.  A look seemed to be enough to indicate his wishes.  The faithful Billy was always at his side.  I have never seen a sweeter atmosphere in any home.  We sat an hour at the table after the family had retired from it.  In speaking of his daily life he said: 

“’I ride around my farms until it is time to dress for dinner, when I rarely miss seeing strange faces, come, as they say, out of respect for me.  Perhaps the word curiosity would better describe the cause of it.  The usual time of sitting at table brings me to candle-light when I try to answer my letters.’

“He had much to say on his favorite theme, viz.:  the settling of the immense interior and bringing its trade to the Atlantic cities.

“I was coughing with a severe cold.  He urged me to take some remedies which he had in the house, but I refused them.

“He went to his office while Lee and I sat down together.  The latter told me of a movement in the army led by Colonel Nichola to make Washington king of America.  He had seen Washington’s answer to the letter of the Colonel.  It was as follows: 

“’Be assured, sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me sensations more painful than your information of there being such ideas in the army as those you have imparted to me and I must view them with abhorrence and reprehend them with severity.  I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs which could befall my country.’

“Is it not a sublime and wonderful thing, dear Margaret, that all our leaders, save one, have been men as incorruptible as Stephen and Peter and Paul?

“When I went to bed my cough became more troublesome.  After it had gone on for half an hour or so my door was gently opened and I observed the glow of a candle.  On drawing my bed curtains I saw, to my utter astonishment, Washington standing at my side with a bowl of hot tea in his hand.  It embarrassed me to be thus waited on by a man of his greatness.

“We set out next morning for Philadelphia to attend the Convention, Washington riding in his coach drawn by six horses, I riding the blaze-faced mare of destiny, still as sweet and strong as ever.  A slow journey it was over the old road by Calvert’s to Annapolis, Chestertown, and so on to the north.