THE WIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. 257 lady of the house had to think and contrive. At that broad table sat a skillful, nice looking negro woman, somewhat advanced in years, with a pair of shears in her hand, cutting, cutting, cutting, almost all day and every day, the countless trowsers, dresses, jackets, and shirts, needed by a family of, perhaps, a hundred persons. Every- thing worn by the General or by herself, except their best outside garments, which were imported from London, was made in that room, under the eye of the lady of the house. All the commoner fabrics, too, were home-made. On one side of the room sat a young colored woman, spinning yarn ; 'on another, her mother knitting ; elsewhere, a woman doing some of the finer ironing ; here a woman winding ; there a little colored girl learning to sew. In the midst of all this industry sat Mrs. Washington, ready to solve difficulties as they arose, and prompt to set right any operation that might be going wrong. She was always knitting. From morning till dinner time — which was two o'clock — her knitting was seldom out of her hands. In this work-room she usually received the ladies of her familiar acquaintance when they called in the morning, but she never laid aside her knitting. ' The click of her needles was always heard in the pauses of conversation. Her friends were surprised to see her, after her eight years' residence at the seat of Government, instantly resume her former way of life. They found her as of old, in her work-room, with her servants about her, knit- ting and giving directions. One lady, who visited her after the General's retirement from the presidency, gives an instance of her prudent generosity : " She points out to me several pairs of nice colored stockings and gloves she had just finished, and presents me with a pair half done, which she begs I will finish and wear for her sake."
