I know that I ought not to write to you again this week, but my clients are few, and time hangs heavily on my hands, out here in the backwoods. You ask me if there are no handsome Springfield girls to take my attention, and keep me from being lonely. There are some very decent-looking young ladies, whom I see when I attend divine worship in the First Church, but you know very well why I do not care to cultivate their acquaintance. There is only One—no, I will not break my promise which I made, not to propose for your hand again for six months, but you know what I mean. I am going to tell you about the visit which that noble Patriot & Friend of Mankind, President George Washington, has just made to Springfield. He was here yesterday. About four o’clock his coach came up the Main street, horses at a smart trot, and drew up with a flourish in front of Zenas Parson’s Tavern. There was a small crowd, and three cheers were give as the President stepped from his coach, but no great enthusiasm, for I am bound to say that Springfield is an anti-Federalist town, and there is already much grumbling about the government. The general remained in the tavern but a short time, when he came out, and mounting a horse set out with several officers up the Boston road, to visit the Government Stores. I learn that he was well satisfied with the location and the improvements, and predicts that there will be here one day great manufactories and warehouses for the making and storing of Munitions of War. After supper he sat for a couple of hours, until ten o’clock, with a company of gentlemen in the great room of the Tavern, before a roaring fire, for the nights are chill. I was invited, no doubt on my father’s account, for whom the General inquired kindly. There were, among others in the company, Col Worthington, Col Williams, Adjt. General of the State, Gen William Shepard, Mr Lyman, and many other respectable gentlemen of the Town. I shall never forget that evening. His Excellency talked more freely than is his wont. He is loth to speak of his own achievements, but at the urgent solicitation of Col Williams he told of his part in the Trenton campaign. He gave great praise to our Massachusetts men, particularly to the Marblehead fishermen, who ferried the army, men, horses and guns, across the river, amid the floating ice. I can very well see, Dorothy, how some men can worship him and others hate him. He is a gentleman, an aristocrat, if you please, by nature; proud, self-contained, refined in every sense of the word. Added to that he is afflicted—I think that is the right word—with an abnormal shyness and reserve. His nature suddenly draws in upon itself, leaving him silent, diffident, almost glum. He cannot speak at such times. His lips close in a firm line; he looks like a marble statue. This mood is what some men mistake for hauteur, pride, arrogance.