Or droop o'er the sod where the long grasses nod,—
My name is as old as the glory of God.

So I came by the name of Old Glory.

qu'-di-ble-loud enough to be heard.

sym'-bol—a sign; anything which suggests an idea or thing.

THE LAND OF LIBERTY

(AUTHOR UNKNOWN)

1

I LOVE my country's pine-clad hills,
Her thousand bright and gushing rills,
Her sunshine and her storms;

Her rough and rugged rocks, that rear
Their hoary heads high in the air
In wild, fantastic forms.

2

I love her rivers, deep and wide,

Those mighty streams that seaward glide

To seek the ocean's breast;

Her smiling fields, her pleasant vales,
Her shady dells, her flow'ry dales,
The haunts of peaceful rest.

3

I love her forests, dark and lone,
For there the wild bird's merry tone,
I hear from morn till night;

And there are lovelier flowers, I ween,
Than e'er in Eastern lands were seen,
In varied colors bright.

4

Her forests and her valleys fair,

Her flowers that scent the morning air,
All have their charms for me;
But more I love my country's name,
Those words that echo deathless fame,

"The Land of Liberty."

Rufus Choate (1799-1859), an American orator, was a native of Essex, Massachusetts. He graduated from Dartmouth College. He and Daniel Webster were the greatest orators of their time.

THE birthday of the "Father of his Country!" May it ever be freshly remembered by American hearts!

His memory is first and most sacred in our love; and ever

*From one of Choate's orations.

hereafter, till the last drop of blood shall freeze in the last American heart, his name shall be a spell of power and of might.

It was the daily beauty and towering and matchless glory 5 of his life which enabled him to create his country, and at the same time secure an undying love and regard from the whole American people. "The first in the hearts of his countrymen !" Undoubtedly there were brave and wise and good men, before his day, in every colony. But the American nation, as a nation, I do not reckon to have begun before 1774. And the first love of that. Young America was Washington.

HELPS TO STUDY

Historical: The words, "First in the hearts of his countrymen," were first used by Colonel Henry Lee in the Resolutions which were presented in the House of Representatives on the death of Washington, December, 1799, "to the memory of the Man, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.' The date 1774, mentioned in this oration, was the year in which the First Continental Congress met.

Notes and Questions

Read the line that tells the place which the memory of Washington holds in the love of the American people.

What enabled Washington to "create his country''?

What secured for him the love

of the American people? When was the expression "The first in the hearts of his countrymen' first used? Who said it?

INDEPENDENCE BELL
(AUTHOR UNKNOWN)

1

THERE was a tumult in the city,
In the quaint old Quaker town,
And the streets were rife with people
Pacing restless up and down-
People gathering at corners,

Where they whispered each to each,
And the sweat stood on their temples
With the earnestness of speech.

2

As the bleak Atlantic currents

Lash the wild Newfoundland shore,
So they beat against the State House,
So they surged against the door;
And the mingling of their voices
Made a harmony profound,
Till the quiet street of Chestnut
Was all turbulent with sound.

3

"Will they do it?" "Dare they do it?"

"Who is speaking?" "What's the news?"

"What of Adams ?"

"What of Sherman ?"

"Oh, God grant they won't refuse !"

"Make some way, there!" "Let me nearer !" "I am stifling!" "Stifle, then!

When a nation's life's at hazard,

We've no time to think of men!"

4

So they beat against the portal,
Man and woman, maid and child;
And the July sun in heaven

On the scene looked down and smiled.