260 THE WIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. Joseph Ball, a London lawyer in large practice, remon- strated against her sacrificing her son in that way, and advised her to bring him up a planter. " I understand," he wrote, " that you are advised, and have since thought of putting your son George to sea. I think he had better be put apprentice to a tinker, for a common sailor before the mast has by no means the com- mon liberty of the subject; for they will press him from a ship where he has fifty shillings a month, and make liim take twenty-three, and cut and slash, and use him like a dog. And as to any considerate preferment in the navy, it is not to be expected, as there are always so many gaping for it here, who have interest ; and he lias noneT He proceeds to tell her that a Virginia-planter, with three or four hundred acres of land and three or four slaves, has a great deal better chance of winning a com- fortable and independent position, than even the captain of a merchant ship — and it was far from easy to get to be captain. " George," he concluded, " must not be in too great haste to be rich, nor aim at being a fine gentle- man before his time;" but "go on gently and with patience." The mother accepted this view of the situa- tion, and the boy was not cut and slashed on board ship. He learned, as we all know, the business of a surveyor, and practiced that vocation until the death of his brother save him a competent estate. = He was Colonel commanding the Virginia troops, twenty-seven years of age, and shining with the lustre of the fame recently won on Braddock's field, when first the rich young widow Custis cast upon him admiring eyes. He was riding, booted and spurred, in hot haste, from headquarters to the capital of the province, where he was to confer with the Governor concerning the defence of the frontiers. Within a few miles of his destination, he
