of candles, which once belonged to Cornwallis's supplies,
was found in good order in the cellar. They were lighted and arranged
in the middle of the camp, where the ladies and the soldiers danced.

The next day, Lafayette received his callers in the large Washington
tent, which had been brought from Mount Vernon for this purpose.
Branches cut from a fine laurel in front of the Nelson house were
woven into a crown, and placed on the head of the honored guest.

{208} Lafayette at once took it off, and, putting it on the head of
his old comrade, Colonel Nicholas Fish, who helped him carry the
redoubt at Yorktown, said, "Take it; this wreath belongs to you also;
keep it as a deposit for which we must account to our comrades."

"Nick," said Lafayette at another time to this aged man, as the two
old friends sailed up the Hudson, "do you remember when we used to
slide down that hill with the Newburgh girls, on an ox sled?"

On the trip through the Southwest, one of the grandest ovations took
place at Nashville, Tennessee. General Jackson, the hero of New
Orleans, with forty veterans of the Revolution, and thousands of
people from far and near, gave their guest a rousing welcome.

One old German veteran, who came over with Lafayette in 1777, and who
served with him during the whole war, traveled a hundred and fifty
miles over the mountains to reach Nashville.

As he threw himself into his general's arms, he exclaimed, "I have
seen you once again; I have nothing more to wish for; I have lived
long enough."

In the grand procession at New Orleans, one hundred Choctaw Indians
marched in single file. They had been in camp near the city for a
month, that they might be on hand to see "the great warrior," "the
brother of their great father Washington."

It would fill a good-sized book to tell you all the incidents and the
courtesies that marked this triumphal tour.

{209} At Hartford, Connecticut, eight hundred school children, who
had saved their pennies, gave Lafayette a gold medal, and a hundred
veterans of the Revolution escorted him through the city to the boat.

When the grand cavalcade reached Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the rain
came down in torrents, but a thousand school children, crowned with
flowers, lined the road to greet the far-famed man, and not one left
the ranks.

In New York City, there was a firemen's parade with nearly fifty hand
engines, each drawn by thirty red-shirted men. A sham house was built
a