were of no little concern to "Lady state of defence. The venerable chief Washington." At this time, her grandchildren were at home; and Miss Nelly Custis, who was a sprightly young lady, a great favorite with the general and well calculated to stir up a young man's blood, fell at once across the path of Lewis. The old, old story was repeated again; the young people followed the example of their elders; an engagement took place in due time; and, much to Washington's satisfaction, the nuptials were celebrated at Mount Vernon, on his birth-day, February 22d, 1799. It is supposed that Mrs. Washington favored another suitor, in preference to Mr. Lewis; but if so, she in no wise interfered with the course of true love, and welcomed the husband of her granddaughter to his place in the family, with all the heartiness and sincerity of her nature. Although Washington had left public life, as he thought and purposed, forever, still he could not escape from the call which was again made upon him. It will be remembered that the French government at this date, saw fit to take ground of such a nature, and to behave generally, in its intercourse with the United States, in such wise as rendered it impossible to endure its arrogance and insolence. President Adams, in the discharge of his duty, felt called upon to urge prepar ations for war, if war must needs be, and Washington was immediately looked to for advice, counsel and action in the emergency. He was again ask ed to be commander-in-chief, and to take upon him the oversight of all the steps necessary to put the country in a did not refuse to listen to the call; but, notwithstanding he was compelled to be away from home, and to cause new anxieties to Mrs. Washington, he zealously performed his work. Happily, the French government returned to its senses, and all difficulties were disposed of, without resorting to the last arbitrament of arms, greatly to the relief of Washington and his beloved wife. The winter of 1799 had now fully set in. Washington, actively occupied in various improvements and changes in his favorite estate, was constantly in mo tion, riding about in every direction, overseeing, planning, arranging matters for the future, and, among other things, ordering a new family vault. This, he said, with a sort of melancholy presentiment, as it seemed, must be made first of all; "for," he continued, "I may require it before the rest." On the 12th of December, he was on horseback as usual; but the day turned out to be cold, raw, and snowy, mixed with hail. He became chilled through; was seized with a violent sore throat; in a day or two he grew worse and seemed to be conscious that this was his last sickness. Despite all the efforts of the physicians, his disease, acute laryngitis, made rapid progress, and the end speedily came. Mr. Lear, his secretary and devoted friend, has furnished an interesting narrative of the last days of Washington. "While we were fixed in silent grief,' he says, in speaking of the moment of departure, "Mrs. Washington, who was seated at the foot of the bed, asked, with a firm and collected voice, 'Is aed, he gone?' I could not speak, but held up my hand as a signal that he was no more. "Tis well,' she said, in the same voice. All is now over; I shall soon follow him; I have no more trials to pass through."" Thus, on the night of Saturday, December 14th, between the hours of ten and eleven, the great and good man sank to his rest in the fullness of his well-spent life, in the enjoyment of his mental faculties, surrounded by his family, and sustained by the faith and hope of the Christian, who lies down in the grave in the confidence of a joyful resurrection at the last day. It needs not that we dwell here upon the last sad offices for the dead. The funeral services were conducted with simplicity, dignity and manifest propriety, and Washington's mortal remains were buried at Mount Vernon, the place which he loved above all others in the world. Mrs. Washington received visits of condolence from President Adams and many others; and from every quarter, not only in the United States but in foreign lands, tributes of sympathy and sorrow came to soothe, as far as possible, the heart of the bereaved widow. With the same earnest devotion to duty that had ever marked her course of life, the venerable lady at Mount Vernon continued faithfully to perform her manifold obligations; she received visitors as usual at her home; and gave attention to domestic cares and responsibilities, and to the carrying out the wishes of the illustrious deceased. But it was not for a long period that she was called upon thus to act and bear her lot alone. Some two years later, she was at tacked by a dangerous fever, and was unable to rally. When conscious that the last hour was near at hand, she summoned her grandchildren to her bedside; she uttered words of mingled comfort and warning; she pointed them to that hope which was hers, as well as his who had not long before gone to his rest; and she quietly and peacefully passed away, on the 22d of May, 1802, and in the seventy-first year of her age. All that was mortal of Martha Washington was interred in the same vault where her husband's body was laid at Mount Vernon. J BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. WHE HEN Benjamin Franklin, in the | Franklin, in America, standing with autumn of life sat down, sur- the wife of the parish clergyman rounded by the pleasant family circle among the thick graves of the centuries, of the good Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. as the old tombstones were scoured Shipley, at Twyford, to relate to his son that his son might copy the family inthe events of a career which seemed to scriptions. The last Franklin who him to offer some cheer and guidance to lived in the lady's recollections was the world, he commenced that delight- Thomas, his father's brother. The ful Autobiography with a far back- nephew expresses himself "highly enward glance to the ancestors upon tertained and diverted" with what he whose native soil he was then tread heard of him; for he recognized much ing. "I have ever had a pleasure," in common between this uncle's genius he says, "in obtaining any little an- and his own. "He set on foot" ecdotes of my ancestors." Indeed, Franklin himself is the narrator-" a he once made a special pilgrimage subscription for erecting chimes in for the purpose, when he succeeded in their steeple and completed it, and we tracing his family of the Franklins, heard them play. He found out an through a “long pedigree of toil," in easy method of saving their village the little village of Ecton, in Northamp- meadows from being drowned, as they tonshire, to the middle of the six- used to be sometimes by the river, teenth century. For generation after which method is still in being; but generation, down to Franklin's day, when first proposed, nobody could conthey were the blacksmiths of the town, ceive how it could be; but, however, holding their own on a few acres, and they said, if Franklin says he knows living in an old stone house, which how to do it, it will be done.' His was still called by their name, though advice and opinion were sought for on it had passed out of the family some all occasions, by all sorts of people, years before the visit of its illustrious and he was looked upon, she said, by member in 1758. some, as something of a conjurer." We may see him on that visit, so faithfully recorded in a letter to Mrs. There was another uncle, Benjamin, ' the poetaster, who came to Boston, |