"You are not the first young man who has done that. When I was a youth I was a very ungovernable one, and I remember chasing a fencing-master, who was giving me a lesson, through the streets of London until I came to myself, and was glad to call a hackney-coach and hide. A skilful adversary will very often test your temper in the beginning, and make some exasperating remark, which, in effect, renders your sword-arm powerless; for an angry man may be a fierce swordsman, but he can never be a skilful one."
George's eyes opened very wide indeed. He glanced at Lance, but the old soldier wore a perfectly impenetrable front. So that was why Lance made so free in his remarks! George reflected some moments, and came to the private conclusion that one could learn a great deal more in fencing than the art of attack and defence.
In the afternoon saddle-horses were brought, and Lord Fairfax and George started for a long ride over the mountains. Although the Earl was not, and never had been, so familiar with the woods and fields, and the beasts and birds, and every living thing which inhabited them, as his young companion, he displayed stores of information which astonished and delighted the boy. He explained to him that the French and the English were engaged in a fierce contest for a great empire, of which the country around them was the battle-field; that the lines of demarcation, north and south, were very well defined; but that neither nation would commit itself to any boundaries on the east and west, and consequently the best part of the continent was in dispute. He gave George the geography of the country as it was then understood, and showed him what vast interests were involved in the planting of a single outpost of the French. For himself, the King had granted him all the land between the Potomac and the Rappahannock, and as far west as his Majesty's dominions went, which, as Lord Fairfax said, with a smile, were claimed to extend to the Pacific Ocean. Only a small part of these lands had been surveyed. He felt anxious to have the tract across the Alleghany Mountains surveyed, as it was of importance to guard against the advance of the French in that direction. He asked George if he had ever studied surveying, and on George's saying that he had given considerable time to it, and was fond of it, the Earl told him that there were fine opportunities for a surveyor in this new country, and it would be a good profession for George, provided he did not succeed in his ambition to join the army or the navy.
"I will join either one, if I can, sir, in preference to any other profession," was George's reply.
They reached home at dark, and found the cheerful welcome of a roaring fire in the great hall awaiting them. At supper Lance, with a great flourish, handed a dish to Lord Fairfax which George thought the most uninviting he had ever seen—huge lumps of something burned black; but the aroma was delicious. Seeing Lord Fairfax take one of the black lumps, George courageously followed his example, and, attacking it, found it perfectly delicious.
"Bears' paws generally taste better than they look," remarked Lord Fairfax; and George remembered that Lance had told him there would be bear meat for supper.
The evening was spent in the library, the Earl reading and writing. He pointed out a smaller table than his own, in a corner, saying, "That is for you to read and write at, and to keep your books and papers on." George found writing materials on it, and, seating himself, wrote a long letter to little Betty, and then wrote in his journal for his mother, describing Billy's expedition, and that the boy was safe with him. He then took a volume of the Spectator, and soon became absorbed in it. Presently Lord Fairfax, who was watching him with pleased eyes, asked,
"What paper interests you so much, George?"
"I will read it to you, sir, if you care to hear it," George replied.
Lord Fairfax liked to be read to, and listened very gravely to the reading. George laid down the book when the paper was finished, saying: "There is no name at the end of it, sir. Most of them have Mr. Addison's or Captain Steele's or Mr. Arbuthnot's or Mr. Pickell's or some other name at the bottom, but this has none."