I immediately in a fright consented." One might suppose that so ingenious a request, picturing the deadly danger in which a young man stood from the shade of his progenitor, especially a young man who was thereby forced to keep a young lady waiting, would have aroused Washington's most generous impulses and caused him to send perhaps double the amount desired.

Possibly he was hard up at the time.

At all events he indorsed the letter thus: "Without date and without success." Many times, however, our Farmer was open-handed to persons who had no personal claim on him.

For example, he loaned three hundred and two pounds to his old comrade of the French War--Robert Stewart--the purpose being to buy a commission in the British army.

So far as I can discover it was never repaid; in fact, I am not sure but that he intended it as a gift.