It was not like Old Put to give up the fight so long as life held out,
and by the exercise of his iron will he kept up and about for years.
Within less than a twelvemonth from having been disqualified from
service on account of his affliction, he paid a visit to his former
command on the lower Hudson, where one of his old friends, General
Greene, complains, in a letter, that he is "talking as usual, and
telling his old stories."
It can not be denied that he was somewhat loquacious, especially in his
later years, and those "old stories" were not alone his solace, but the
delight of numerous audiences of admiring friends and neighbors. At
Major Humphreys's request he retold them, two or three years before he
died (1788) and they form the basis of his first biographical memoir.
But they were doubtless very stale to those of his hearers who had
listened to them again and again, as plainly intimated by General
Greene.
As they were mainly about himself and his exploits, and as many of them
were of events that happened in the distant past, it is not unlikely
that some of them were slightly exaggerated, to say the least.
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