task, Mrs. Washington regularly devoted much time and attention to these favored recipients of her love and care, and her husband formally adopted one of the three little daughters of Mrs. Custis as his own.

With this general and imperfect description of the peaceful and congenial pleasures and employments of a delightful and fleeting portion of the existence of our heroine,-a period replete with exemplifications of the happy fate we have before ascribed to her, that of being ever surrounded by a glowing halo of affection,-we release our readers from further attention to this portion of our subject.

CHAPTER IX.

Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? Thus leave
Thee, native soil, these happy walks and shades
Fit haunt of gods?

The World is with me, and its many cares,

Its woes-its wants-the anxious hopes and fears
That wait on all terrestrial affairs-

The shades of former and of future years—
Foreboding fancies, and prophetic tears,
Quelling a spirit that was once elate.

MILTON,

HOOD.

THE time too soon arrived when his ever-sacred duty to his country compelled the illustrious Farmer of Mount Vernon to peril his mental and domestic peace, as he had formerly done his "life, his fortune, and his sacred nonor," by leaving the delightful retreat in which he had earnestly hoped to secure future exemption from the burdensome public duties to which he had devoted so large a portion of his past life.

Mrs. Washington's reluctance to leave, for gayer and more ceremonious scenes, the quiet pleasures and congenial pursuits from which she derived so much gratification, as well as her sen

timents in relation to other equally interesting subjects, will be most satisfactorily learned from a Letter addressed by her, soon after her arrival at the Seat of Government, to an old and confidential friend :

MRS. WASHINGTON TO MRS. WARREN.

Your very friendly letter of last month has afforded me much more satisfaction, than all the formal compliments and empty ceremonies of mere etiquette could possibly have done. I am not apt to forget the feelings which have been inspired by my former society with good acquaintances, nor to be insensible to their expressions of gratitude to the President; for you know me well enough to do me the justice to believe, that I am fond only of what comes from the heart. Under a conviction that the demonstrations of respect and affection to him originate in that source, I cannot deny, that I have taken some interest and pleasure in them. The difficulties which presented themselves to view upon his first entering upon the Presidency, seem thus to be in some measure surmounted. It is owing to the kindness of our numerous friends in all quarters, that

my new and unwished-for situation is not indeed a burden to me. When I was much younger, I should probably have enjoyed the innocent gayeties of life as much as most persons of my age; but I had long since placed all the prospects of my future worldly happiness in the still enjoyments of the fireside at Mount Vernon.

"I little thought when the war was finished, that any circumstances could possibly happen, which would call the General into public life again. I had anticipated, that from that moment we should be suffered to grow old together in solitude and tranquillity. That was the first and dearest wish of my heart. I will not, however, contemplate with too much regret, disappointments that were inevitable, though his feelings and my own were in perfect unison with respect to our predilection for private life, yet I cannot blame him for having acted according to his ideas of duty in obeying the voice of his country. The consciousness of having attempted to do all the good in his power, and the pleasure of finding his fellow-citizens so well satisfied with the disinterestedness of his conduct, will doubtless be some compensation for the great sacrifices which I know he has made. Indeed, on his journey

from Mount Vernon to this place, in his late tour through the Eastern States, by every public and every private information which has come to him, I am persuaded he has experienced nothing to make him repent his having acted from what he conceives to be a sense of indispensable duty. On the contrary, all his sensibility has been awakened in receiving such repeated and unequivocal proofs of sincere regard from his countrymen.

'With respect to myself, I sometimes think the arrangement is not quite as it ought to have been, that I, who had much rather be at home, should occupy a place, with which a great many younger and gayer women would be extremely pleased. As my grand-children and domestic connections make up a great portion of the felicity which I looked for in this world, I shall hardly be able to find any substitute, that will indemnify me for the loss of such endearing society. I do not say this because I feel dissatisfied with my present station, for everybody and everything conspire to make me as contented as possible in it; yet I have learned too much of the vanity of human affairs to expect felicity from the scenes of public life. I am still determined to be cheerful and happy in what

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