I have quoted freely from his letters wherever it seemed fitting, first, because in them you get his personal authentic statement of what happened as he saw it, and you get also his purpose in making any move; and next, because nothing so well reveals the real George Washington as those letters do.

Whoever will steep himself in them will hardly declare that their writer remains an elusive person beyond finding out or understanding.

In the course of reading them you will come upon many of those "imponderables" which are the secret soul of statecraft.
And so with all humility--for no one can spend much time with Washington, and not feel profound humility--I leave this little sketch to its fate, and hope that some readers will find in it what I strove to put in it.
W.R.T.
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS _June 11, 1922_ CONTENTS I.ORIGINS AND YOUTH II.MARRIAGE.THE LIFE OF A PLANTER III.

THE FIRST GUN IV.

BOSTON FREED V.TRENTON AND VALLEY FORGE VI.