It seemed mean and selfish in me to be taking a vacation while others were at work, and while there was so much that needed to be done.

From the time I could remember, I had always been at work, and I did not see how I could spend three or four months in doing nothing.

The fact was that I did not know how to take a vacation.
Mrs.Washington had much the same difficulty in getting away, but she was anxious to go because she thought that I needed the rest.

There were many important National questions bearing upon the life of the race which were being agitated at that time, and this made it all the harder for us to decide to go.

We finally gave our Boston friends our promise that we would go, and then they insisted that the date of our departure be set as soon as possible.