The schoolhouse was a mere shed in the center of a wornout tobacco field. George did not learn much there, but he did have a great time playing soldier. Small as he was, he was captain of the “white men.” The other “men” were Spaniards, French, or Indians, for England was at war with all these people most of the time. So, just then, there were three “captains” in the Washington family--Augustine, the father, Lawrence, the soldier son, and George, the school leader. When George was eleven his father died, leaving the best part of his wealth to Lawrence. By English law the most of the property went to the eldest son; so the people of Virginia felt that this was the right thing to do. But George’s mother thought it was all wrong, when the oldest son of her husband’s first wife was made a rich man and her oldest son was left a poor boy by their father’s will. As for George, he believed it must be right because his father had willed it so. Instead of being jealous or grudging his half-brother such good fortune, George began to plan how to earn his own living. In this way the boy George Washington was preparing for the great War for Independence. To keep his little brother from going to work, Lawrence persuaded his stepmother to let him find George a good place where he might become an officer in the English navy. He could do so through Admiral Vernon, for whom Lawrence had named the mansion he had built where his father’s house had burned down. But when the time came for parting with her oldest son and stand-by, stern, dignified Mary Washington broke down and cried, pleading with George not to leave his mother alone in her widowhood and poverty. It was so hard for George to give up what he thought was his only chance in life, that his face turned white. But for his mother’s sake, he gave it all up. Taking [Illustration: WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL TO HIS MOTHER.] off his bright “middy” uniform, he folded it away in his new sailor chest, never to be worn again. When he saw the warship, which had been anchored below Mount Vernon, sailing away in the morning sunshine, young George Washington’s future looked as dark as ever it could to a heartbroken lad of fifteen. But who would have led the colonists in their rebellion against England if George Washington had entered the English navy then, and had later become a British admiral instead of commanding general of the American army? By the time George was twenty-one his brother Lawrence was dead and, as his father had willed it, most of the property, including “Mount Vernon,” belonged to the oldest son of the second wife. George at once provided for his mother against worry or want in future. But he had to tell her that he was a man now and that his devotion to country must come first--even before his duty to his mother.