us, resourceful--a strategist
who made the ablest generals that England could send over against him,
suffer by comparison.

And when the great fight was won, and the last of their proud generals,
Cornwallis, had grudgingly yielded up his sword--it is pleasant to
think of Washington writing about it to--whom do you think?--a
white-haired old man now ninety years of age, who had given the young
surveyor his first start in life. Lord Fairfax was an old Tory, an
unreconstructed English gentleman of the old school, who drank the
King's health religiously every day at dinner. It must have been with
mixed feelings, therefore, that he heard of Cornwallis's surrender.
But pride in his protege must have conquered. We can imagine him as
lifting his glass with trembling fingers to another toast:

"Here's to George Washington!"

And to that toast grateful America will ever respond.

IMPORTANT DATES IN WASHINGTON'S LIFE

1732. February 22. George Washington born.
1747. Left school.
1748. Became a surveyor.
1753. Sent by Governor Dinwiddie on a mission to the French.
1754. Appointed lieutenant-colonel and sent against the
French and Indians.
1755. Joined General Braddock's staff with rank of colonel.
1757. Resigned his army commission.
1759. Married Martha Dandridge Custis.
1775. Appointed commander-in-chief of American forces,
in Revolution.
1781. Receives surrender of Cornwallis.
1788. Became first President of the United States.
1797. Ended second term as President.
1799. December 14. Died at Mt. Vernon.

GRANT

THE MAN WHO "CAME BACK"

"Can a man 'come back'?"

This is a question one frequently hears nowadays; and the answer is,
more often than not, a shrug of the shoulders. For the man who has
once failed--or even passed his first chance of success--is not
considered seriously in this busy day and time. He is a
"down-and-outer"; he cannot "come back."

But there are exceptions to every rule, and one of the most striking
ones in all history, to the above adage, is furnished by the man who
led the Union forces to victory in the American Civil War, and later
achieved the presidency.

Here was a man who, at forty, was generally regarded as a failure, a
ne'er-do-well. But for the accident of war he would in all likelihood
have ended his days "unwept, unhonored, and unsung." We have a picture
of this middle-aged man, clerking for his young