During his days as President, Thomas Jefferson and a group of his companions were traveling across the country on horseback and they came upon this flooded river which had washed the bridge away. Each rider was forced to ford the river on horseback, fighting against deadly currents.

One traveler, not part of the group, was watching from a distance. After seeing several people cross the river safely, the stranger wandered up to the President, tapped his boot, and said, “Can I have a ride across the river?” President Jefferson agreed with hesitation and the man climbed onto Jefferson’s horse and the two of them made it safely to the other side.

As the stranger slid off the back of the horse to dry ground, a man in the group looked at him with incredulity, and said, “Why on earth would you ask the President of the United States for a ride across the river? Why didn’t you ask one of us?” And the man was shocked, and said, “I had no idea that he was the President of the United States. All I knew is that written upon some of your faces was the word ‘no’, but written upon his face was the word ‘yes’ – and I needed a ‘yes’ face today.”