Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-07-13
NO. 2S.

memory Of events in her earlier ycnr,
seem, perfectly clear
"Woul it be- agreeable for me to have
some conversation with her 2" ! inquired
"Pcrfcctly so.' responded Mrs Custis.
"She is a little deaf. but you can easily
make her understand you
Mrs Gusts went to her room and ,oon
returning, said, "Nuu can see her an hour
after break fast %
found the aged woman sitting in an
arm chair knitting stockngs her room in
perfect order. Seated near her it was easy
to converse. Her dialect was that Of the
colored people in general, which shall not
attempt 10 initiate in this record | made
many inquiries Of her touching the daily
life Of her master and mistress, and re
ceived satisfactory answers ] asked her
il she remembered the young Martha Gus
ts-the dark lady-who died before she
was Z years Of age.
"In course do. she answered "l was
a smart gal, almost as old as she was Oh,
she was so purity and So good 1t seemed
as if the Lord wanted her, sure. and
Thought She was too good 10 stay in this
wicked world Her dying made mnstrr
and mistress almost sick aud very sorry a
long time, they loved her 50 aud poor
Master Jack her brother, took it SO hard
lac soon got over it. / 'spects it was cause
he got in love with Miss Nelly Calvert. and
married her soon afterwards. She was
50 purity, too They lived at Abingdon,
not far from Mount Vernon, most Of the
time after the war was begun and lived
with them from the time when their first
baby was born until Master Jack joined
master TO go and fight CORVALLIS Then
he left Young mistress and her four chill
dren at Mount Vernon
Master Jack, as You call him. never
came back alive ! said.
"Oh, he did not ,' she exclaimed. 1t
was dreiIul, drellul He was 50 good, aud
everybody loved him 50. Oh, it was so
dreTul | was building a fire in mistress
room one frosty morning, Just at daylight,
she continued, when there was loud
knock at the west door. | ran and opened
| it, and there stood a soldier holding the
| bride of his very sweaty horse, who hand
| ed me letter, and said Tell your mis-
tress that CORVALLIS is whipped and a pris-
/ oner' ! ran and told her She was very
happy and thanked the good Lord. Then
she sent me to tell the stable-boy to take
care of the soldiers horse and tell the sol
dier to stay to breakfast When / came
back mistress was just dressed. She went
to Master Jack room to tell the good news
to his wife. When she came back she
opened the letter 1t was from master,
and told her that Master Jack was very
sick at the house of his uncle, Col. Bassett,
at Ethan in Kent, and might not get well.
| Oh, how troubled the poor women were
! The coachman was ordered to make the hig
carriage and best horses ready rs quickly
as possible, and as soon as We had break
| tasted the two women, the two younger
! children and me t. take care of them start
ed for Ethan. We travelled all day and
greater part Of the night as fast as we
could, stopping only to feed the horses. We
found Master Jack diving with the camp
fever. 50 DR. Craik told us.
/ Master came at davhreak He rode all
night \ few minutes after hr caiuc Mas
ter Jack died. The master aud mistres,
were alone in a room for while, and young
mstres, and ! and the children were in
another room BY and 10y master and mis-
/ tress came in He took Young mistress
hand and said many kind words to comfort
her She was crying and sobhng rs if her
heart would break Mistress told me af-
forwards that he said to the poor mother
that he would take the two children that
were there, Nelly and George and bring
them up as his own. And he did Nelly,
who was then nearly three years old, and
George, who was a baby. lived at Mount
Vernon until master himself died. George
Mr.. Custis-lived there until Mistress
died, more than two years afterwards
'Were you in the room when your mas
ter died = | asked.
Il was there few minutes before. |
came mp to the room it was an upper cham
her-with something. | remember seeing
Christopher (who had taken the place of
old Billy aS masters body SERVANT and his
wife Charlotte, and Molly the seamstress,
standing at one end Of the room, looking
much troubled. a few minutes afterwards
Molly came down and told me master was
dead 80
"And you were with your mistress when
} she died =
ooh, yes. she answered "all the time,
for was to her what Christopher was to
master She died of fever. That morning
| brought into her roam large bunch of
flowers from the fields, for was a warm day
in May. lremember how sweetly she smiled.
; The fever had left her and she was very
pale and so weak that she could hardly
speak in whisper oh she was So good
She appeared to me like an angel living
there. At dusk that night She was an an
= gel, for she had gone to heaven
\ few weeks after my visit at Arlington
House, in the spring of 1888, Mrs Gusts
l departed from earth, and in the fall ni
e 1851 her husband followed her. The spirit
Of the last relic Of the bondservants of the
e beloved patriot departed in the summer of
I 1853. BENSON J. LOSING, LID.