IX[ToC]
ANECDOTES AND STORIES
ANECDOTES OF WASHINGTON[ToC]
Washington's relations with children are most interesting. He always wrote of them as the "little ones."
Through his life he adopted or assumed the expenses of nine of the children of his "kith and kin."
Dumas says that he arrived at Providence with Washington at night. "The whole population had assembled from the suburbs; we were surrounded by a crowd of children carrying torches, all were eager to approach the person of him whom they called their father, and pressed so closely around us that they hindered us from proceeding. General Washington was much affected, stopped a few moments, and, pressing my hand, said, 'We may be beaten by the English, it is the chance of war; but behold an army which they can never conquer.'"