In the last years of her life a cancer developed, which she refused to have “dressed,” and over which, as her doctor wrote Washington, the “Old Lady” and he had “a small battle every day.” Once Washington was summoned by an express to her bedside “to bid, as I was prepared to expect, the last adieu to an honored parent,” but it was a false alarm. Her health was so bad, however, that just before he started to New York to be inaugurated he rode to Fredericksburg, “and took a final leave of my mother, never expecting to see her more,” a surmise that proved correct. Only Elizabeth—or “Betty”—of Washington’s sisters grew to womanhood, and it is said that she was so strikingly like her brother that, disguised with a long cloak and a military hat, the difference between them was scarcely detectable. She married Fielding Lewis, and lived at “Kenmore House” on the Rappahannock, where Washington spent many a night, as did the Lewises at Mount Vernon. During the Revolution, while visiting there, she wrote her brother, “Oh, when will that day arrive when we shall meet again. Trust in the lord it will be soon,—till when, you have the prayers and kind wishes for your health and happiness of your loving and sincerely affectionate sister.” Her husband died “much indebted,” and from that time her brother gave her occasional sums of money, and helped her in other ways. Her eldest son followed in his father’s footsteps, and displeased Washington with requests for loans. He angered him still more by conduct concerning which Washington wrote to him as follows: “Sir, Your letter of the 11th of Octor. never came to my hands ’till yesterday. Altho’ your disrespectful conduct towards me, in coming into this country and spending weeks therein without ever coming near me, entitled you to very little notice or favor from me; yet I consent that you may get timber from off my Land in Fauquier County to build a house on your Lott in Rectertown. Having granted this, now let me ask you what your views were in purchasing a Lott in a place which, I presume, originated with and will end in two or three Gin shops, which probably will exist no longer than they serve to ruin the proprietors, and those who make the most frequent applications to them. I am, &c.” [Illustration: MRS FIELDING LEWIS (BETTY WASHINGTON)]