utmost the resources of the country. Dr. Joseph Tuttle1 gives an amusing account of the experiences of some Morristown ladies who called upon Mrs. Washington, and with a natural desire to appear at their best and to do honor to the great lady, donned their bravest attire. Mrs. Troupe, one of the party, thus related her experiences to Mrs. Tuttle:

"Well, what do you think, Mrs. Tuttle, I have been to see Lady Washington!"

"Have you indeed? Then tell me all about her ladyship, how she appeared and what she said."

"Well, I will honestly tell you," answered Mrs. Troupe, "I never was so ashamed in all my life. You see, Madame and Madame -, and Madame Budd, and myself thought we would visit Lady Washington, and as she was said to be so grand a lady, we thought we must put on our best bibbs and bands. So we dressed ourselves in our most elegant ruffles and silks, and were introduced to her ladyship. And don't you think we found her knitting and with a specked (check) apron on! She received us very graciously, and easily, but after the compliments were over, she resumed her knitting. There we were without a stitch of work, and sitting in State, but General Washington's lady with her own hands was knitting stockings for herself and husband!

1 Revolutionary Fragments, by Rev. Joseph F. Tuttle, D. D.

"And that was not all. In the afternoon her ladyship took occasion to say, in a way that we could not be offended at, that at this time it was very important that American ladies should be patterns of industry to their country women, because the separation from the mother country will dry up the sources whence many of our comforts have been derived. We must become independent by our determination to do without what we cannot make ourselves. Whilst our husbands and brothers are examples of patriotism, we must be patterns of industry!"

Another Morristown woman, in giving an account of the same visit, says:

"Yesterday, with several others, I visited Lady Washington at head-quarters. We expected to find the wealthy wife of the great general elegantly dressed, for the time of our visit had been fixed; but, instead, she was neatly attired in a plain brown habit. Her gracious and cheerful manners delighted us all, but we felt rebuked by the plainness of her apparel and her example of persistent industry, while we were extravagantly dressed idlers, a name not very creditable in these perilous times. She seems very wise in experience, kind-hearted and winning in all her ways. She talked much of the sufferings of the poor soldiers, especially of the sick ones. Her heart seemed to be full of compassion for them."

Whether or not this discourse and good example led to the formation of sewing societies for the relief of the soldiers is not recorded. Such organizations certainly existed in and around Morristown, as Mrs. Colles 1 speaks of several sewing and knitting societies presided over by Mrs. Ralph Smith, Mrs. Counsellor Condict, Mrs. Parson Johnes, and Mrs. Anna Kitchell of Whippany, while of this latter good woman it is related that she always kept her meal-bag open and her pot au feu boiling to satisfy the appetites of hungry soldiers. From the recollections of Dr. Tuttle and others, which recall the patriotic devotion of Jersey women during the Revolution, it would appear that Mrs. Washington's remarks and example were not intended to point a moral and adorn a tale; but rather that she was carrying out the habits of thrift and industry that were, with her, cardinal virtues, not to be set aside even when she was entertaining company. Mrs. Cox, the wife of Colonel John Cox of Bloomsbury, often drew for her children and grandchildren pleasant pictures of the visits of this sociable Virginia lady, who, as soon as breakfast was over, would bring out her fathomless mending basket, from which she was content to mend and

1 Historic Morristown, by Julia Keese Colles.

darn "from morn to noon, from noon to dewy eve." Colonel Cox, who was assistant quartermaster to General Greene, and at his forge at Batisto made many of the cannon used in the war, was a warm personal friend of Washington's, while between the ladies of the family there existed a cordial acquaintance.

Mrs. Washington spent the summer of '77 at Mount Vernon, where, in the absence of her husband, she was cheered by the companionship of her children and her little granddaughter, Elizabeth. In December of this year a second grandchild was born, to whom was given the name of the much loved grandmother.

A fanciful story is told of Mrs. Washington having joined her husband the following autumn at his headquarters in the Emlen house, near Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania, whence she rode to Valley Forge upon a pillion behind him. This is a picturesque enough legend, whose interest has been enhanced by a sketch of the worthy pair floundering through the snowdrifts upon an unhappy nag; but it is entirely without foundation, as Mrs. Washington was undoubtedly in Virginia when the army went into winter quarters at Valley Forge. In a letter written to John Custis, on the first of February, Washington says: "Your

mamma is not yet arrived, but if she left Mount Vernon on the 26th ultimo, as intended, may, I think, be expected every hour." Mrs. Washington did not reach Valley Forge until the tenth of February. Soon after her arrival she wrote to Mrs. Warren: —

"The general is in camp, in what is called the great valley on the Banks of the Schuylkill. Officers and men are chiefly in Hutts, which they say is tolerable comfortable; the army are as healthy as can well be expected in general.

The General's apartment is very small; he has had a log Cabin built to dine in, which has made our quarters much more tolerable than they were at first."

This description does not convey the idea of much comfort at headquarters, nor does the old stone house of Isaac Potts as it stands to-day. The log cabin has long since disappeared; but in one of the two rooms on the ground floor, used by Washington, is still to be seen in the sill of the east window the box, which appears as a part of the casement, which Mrs. Washington speaks of as the receptacle of her husband's valuable papers. In her letters, however, she dwells little upon the inconveniences of her surroundings. Like a true soldier's wife, her thoughts turn to the troops and their comfort.