=200. His Faithful Work as a Surveyor in the Virginia Wilderness.=--It seems strange now, as we look back on his early life, to see how Washington unconsciously prepared himself for his great future. He employed a trainer and took a severe course of lessons in skillful fencing and sword drill, and, besides, he made a careful study of military science and tactics. [Illustration: GEORGE WASHINGTON.] He became prominent as a young man of superb vigor, fond of study and work, and full of promise of great achievements. So Lord Fairfax, an eccentric nobleman, who was a great fox hunter and who much admired his young friend's bold riding, selected him to survey the thousands of acres of forest land that the king had granted to him beyond the Blue Ridge. This was a pretty large undertaking for a boy of sixteen! But the youngster was enough of a man to do it. He and his assistant took each a horse, a gun, an axe, surveyor's tools, and camp outfit. They spent months in the vast forests and among the mountains; cutting their paths through woods, fording rivers, facing the drenching storms, surveying and measuring by day, and writing out the notes in the light of camp-fires by night; living on the game they shot,--wild turkeys, squirrels, rabbits, and deer; often meeting Indians. All this was just the school to prepare him for coming duties and for the great career he never then dreamed of. Here he gained in a high degree the hardy virtues of courage, self-reliance, promptness in danger, quick and prudent foresight, and unflinching endurance under difficulties. On his return, young Washington had done his work so well that the Governor appointed him public surveyor. It was a prominent office, and he filled it honorably. His surveys were so correct that it is said they are used even to this day. Lord Fairfax lived many years after this. He was bitterly opposed to the war of the Revolution. One day he heard the people shouting and cheering near his home. He asked his old negro servant what it all meant, and he was told that Lord Cornwallis had surrendered to General Washington. At this the old man groaned, "Take me to bed, Joe; it is high time for me to die!" =201. His Work as an Army Officer.=--Washington was twenty-three years old when he was appointed on the staff of General Braddock. We have read in Chapter VIII the story of this disastrous campaign. The choice proved the Governor's insight into Washington's remarkable character. His surprising bravery, his insensibility to fear amid the whistling of bullets, his coolness in danger, and his maturity of judgment, really saved the whole campaign and rescued Braddock's shattered forces from total ruin. [Illustration: WASHINGTON CROSSING A RIVER ON A RAFT IN THE WILDERNESS DURING MID-WINTER.]