Next morning, as usual, George was up and on horseback by sunrise. Until this year he had ridden five miles a day each way to Mr. Hobby’s school; but now he was so far ahead of the school-master’s classes that he only went a few times a week, to study surveying and the higher mathematics, and to have the week’s study at home marked out for him. Every morning, however, it was his duty to ride over the whole plantation before breakfast, and to report the condition of everything in it to his mother. Madam Washington was one of the best farmers in the colony, and it was her custom, after hearing George’s account at breakfast, to mount her horse and ride over the place also, and give her orders for the day.