The Little Girl and the Red Coats
When Washington with the Army entered Boston after the British had evacuated the city, he made the best tavern in town his Headquarters. It had been the British Headquarters. The tavern-keeper’s little girl was running about very much interested in all that was going on.
Washington called her to him, and holding her on his knee, asked:—
“Now that you have seen the soldiers on both sides, which do you like best?”
The little girl hesitated, but like the great Washington himself, she could not tell a lie, so she said:—
“I like the Red Coats best.”
Washington laughed at her frankness, and said gently:—
“Yes, my dear, the Red Coats do look the best, but it takes the ragged boys to do the fighting.”
Wayne Whipple (Retold)