Read A Buss from Lafayette for Free Online

a worthy Revolutionary soldier and deserved three cheers. The crowd cheered me, I stood up and saluted them, and we drove on.”
    “Bravo, sir!” said Mr. Towne. “You must have really enjoyed that!”
    The stranger agreed, but said he did not enjoy disappointing everyone, especially the small girls clutching posies of flowers at each place, waiting to present them to the real General Lafayette.
    “Their little faces would look at me with such nervous excitement,” he said, “until Mr. Parker explained who I was. Then they would look away with big sighs. It was very hot, after all, and the poor things had been waiting a long time.”
    I suddenly wished that I could be one of the girls to present flowers to Lafayette. I suppose I am too old , I thought. But I would not be surprised if Hetty wangles a way to do it, though she is even older than I. It would be just like her!
    The old veteran went on with his tale. “By the time we arrived at the New Hampshire border, Mr. Parker had spoken and I had saluted the waiting crowds more than twenty times! At each place he had to explain that I was not the man they had waited hours in the hot sun to honor.”
    Mr. Towne handed a glass of Medford rum to the old veteran. “To wet your whistle,” he said with a nod.
    The man bowed his thanks, took a few swallows, wiped his mouth on his sleeve, and continued his story. “Well, meanwhile, Mr. Parker and I discovered for ourselves that the barouche was just the right height for leaning over to shake hands and kiss children. Though we did not shake many hands or kiss many children, once Mr. Parker had cleared things up,” he added with a rueful grin.
    I would have shaken his hand , I thought. After all, he did fight in the Revolution, even though he was not the Nation’s Guest!
    When Lafayette did finally arrive,” the stranger continued, “I was happy to see a little girl waiting there excitedly hand him her little bouquet of roses. She was so thrilled when the Nation’s Guest—the real Nation’s Guest—bussed her on the cheek.
    It turned out that after Mr. Parker had introduced the “false” Lafayette to the real one, he had recounted how he had made speeches all the way from Boston explaining that his passenger was not Lafayette. The Nation’s Guest had roared with laughter, then said that perhaps Mr. Parker could alternate with him in speech-making the remainder of the route to Concord. “This was said in such a comical way that we all guffawed, for we all knew that no one could be a substitute for the famous man himself.”
    This Lafayette fellow sounds as if he has an excellent sense of humor , I thought, and is not puffed up with his own importance. He actually sounds like someone I would like.
    Mr. Towne spoke up. “Yes, that does sounds like Lafayette, who was as good-humored as he was courageous. Or so I understand. A New Hampshire man who fought at the Battle of Brandywine told me how Lafayette rushed to help our General Sullivan’s troops when they were outflanked by the Lobsterbacks.”
    “What are Lobsterbacks?” I asked.
    Mr. Towne explained that this term referred to British soldiers, whom we Americans had called “Redcoats” or “Lobsterbacks” because of their scarlet uniforms.
    Another question spilled out of me. “So Lafayette tried to help?”
    The old veteran nodded and told us how Lafayette had rallied on the soldiers, even after he was wounded, and then helped keep the retreat orderly.
    “It could easily have turned into a rout, with men just running wildly away. That saved many American lives,” he said.
    Mr. Towne jumped back into the conversation, telling us how, after Lafayette had been wounded in the leg, he had shouted “Bone for America!” This had puzzled everyone, as the musket ball had not hit Lafayette’s bone, but had passed clean through his leg. “Lafayette then explained that the word he had used was bon , which means good in French,” said Mr. Towne. “He had been