6. The Surveyor and the Little Boy

One spring day, a young surveyor, eighteen years of age, was eating his dinner with some companions in a forest in Virginia. Suddenly the sylvan stillness was startled by the piercing shrieks of a woman. The young surveyor sprang to his feet and leaped to the woman’s side. “My boy! My boy! Oh, my darling boy is drowning and they will not let me rescue him,” screamed the frantic mother as she tried to escape from the men who held her from springing into the rapids. “No, we will not let her go,” cried the men, “for she would be instantly killed on the sharp rocks and could not rescue her boy!” “Why does not one of you rescue him then?” said the manly fellow of eighteen. “We are not ready to die yet,” the men replied. “O sir, won’t you do something?” cried the mother to the young surveyor. For an instant he stood measuring the rocks and the whirling rapids with his eye, and then, throwing off his coat, he plunged into the roaring torrent where he had caught sight of the drowning boy. With stout heart and steady hand he struggled against the seething waters which each moment threatened to engulf him or dash him to pieces against the sharp-pointed rocks. Just as they thought both would go over the falls the young engineer clutched the little fellow and swam with him to the shore. Then, amid the praises of those who had witnessed his heroism, mingled with the gratitude of the overjoyed mother, he placed the unconscious but saved little boy in her arms. “God will reward you, young man,” said the mother; “God will reward you some day for your heroism, and many will praise you for what you have done this day!” And so it was; for this young surveyor who saved the little boy was George Washington.