Before the boys could sufficiently recover to consider how they should extricate themselves from the scrape, they were called to breakfast; and the mistress of the house, knowing that they had been in the fields, began to ask after her stock.

“Pray, young gentlemen,” said she, “have you seen my blooded colts in your rambles?  I hope they are well taken care of.  My favorite, I am told, is as large as his sire.”

The boys looked at one another, and no one liked to speak.  Of course the mother repeated her question.

“The sorrel is dead, madam,” said her son.  “I killed him!”

And then he told the whole story.  They say that his mother flushed with anger, as her son often used to, and then, like him, controlled herself, and presently said, quietly: 

“It is well; but while I regret the loss of my favorite, I rejoice in my son who always speaks the truth.”

The story of Washington’s killing the blooded colt is of a piece with other stories less particular, which show that he was a very athletic fellow.  Of course, when a boy becomes famous, every one likes to remember the wonderful things he did before he was famous, and Washington’s playmates, when they grew up, used to show the spot by the Rappahannock near Fredericksburg where he stood and threw a stone to the opposite bank; and at the celebrated Natural Bridge, the arch of which is two hundred feet above the ground, they always tell the visitor that George Washington threw a stone in the air the whole height.  He undoubtedly took part in all the sports which were the favorites of his country at that time—­he pitched heavy bars, tossed quoits, ran, leaped, and wrestled; for he was a powerful, large-limbed young fellow, and he had a very large and strong hand.

(From “Life of George Washington” by Horace E. Scudder, published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.)

(The illustrations in this story are copied from the original pictures in Mr. B.J.  Lossing’s “Mt.  Vernon and its Associations,” by permission of Messrs. J.C.  Yorston & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.)

[Footnote 1:  From B.J.  Lossing’s “The Home of Washington.”]

=Longfellow’s Birthday=

February 27

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Born February 27, 1807 Died March 24, 1882

Longfellow graduated at Bowdoin College in 1825; traveled in Europe in 1826; was professor at Bowdoin in 1829-35; again visited Europe 1835-36; and was professor at Harvard College 1836-54.  He continued to reside at Cambridge.  He is best known and loved for his poems, though he wrote three novels.

=LONGFELLOW AND THE CHILDREN=

BY LUCY LARCOM

The poets who love children are the poets whom children love.  It is natural that they should care much for each other, because both children and poets look into things in the same way,—­simply, with open eyes and hearts, seeing Nature as it is, and finding whatever is lovable and pure in the people who surround them, as flowers may receive back from flowers sweet odors for those which they have given.  The little child is born with a poet’s heart in him, and the poet has been fitly called “the eternal child.”