“She didn’t! Martha Custis didn’t stay at home! She followed the general when he camped in the winters, and did lots of fine things for the soldiers in the army. I’m going to play the same thing, and if you won’t let me I won’t marry you at all. I’ll get Jack to play husband instead, and I’ll marry him, so there!” “But, Martha, you can’t! Don’t you see no one but Washington would do for Martha Custis?—and besides, Jack must act another part, so he couldn’t marry you even if I’d let him!” argued George, anxious over a possible refusal of his suit to Martha. “Ah don’ see dat dat’s any fun—jes’ gettin’ dressed up in dat finery in de attic an’ gettin’ married. It’s heaps moh fun playin’ war and bein’ Injuns!” sneered Jim, who always was the Indian in these wars. “Oh, Jim! It will be lots of fun! You’ll be the cook to fix the fine party dinner, and Jack can play minister. John and Anne will be my children and Washington’s step-children, you know,” explained Martha. “Kin we-all git some cookies an’ watermelyon fer de party?” asked Jim with sudden interest. “Sure! I’ll get mother to ask mammy for some, and besides I’ll find some more good things to eat. John can bring some, too, and we can have a make-believe stove and cook lots of fine things that they had at that wedding supper,” replied George. “Den Ah’ll play cook!” agreed Jim. “S-sh! I know I heard a horn that time!” cried Martha. “So’d I! And see—down by the road that runs over the bridge of the creek—there comes the car!” shouted George, forgetting his wedding arrangements and wars in the imminent joy of seeing his cousins who were coming to have a long visit at the Parkes’ home. As you remember, George and Martha Parke were the two children who played the youthful life of George Washington, in the first book called “Little Washingtons.” Their home was situated in the beautiful country suburbs of Washington, D. C., and being descended in one line of the illustrious Parke family of Washington fame, naturally these children loved to hear all about the great American general’s life. In September of that year Mrs. Parke began reading the history of George Washington’s life—beginning with his introduction when he chopped down the cherry tree. In the first book George and Martha Parke had heard read, and then applied to their play, the destruction of the homestead where George was born, the boy’s education, his surveying trips and camp, and finally the battle under General Braddock, when the latter was killed at Fort Duquesne. Then, just as the two children found the old-fashioned costumes (while being shut in the attic for punishment for ruining the hedge at that momentous battle) and Jim crept out of the attic window and found himself on the ground, the story ended. But it starts again in this book with the Parke children watching for their cousins’ arrival.