LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Youth of Washington A Brave Lady An Indian Boy's Training An Indian Boy's Stratagem. He snatched off his coat and beat back the flames He found a dirty old pocket-book He saw the child smiling at the window "Two poorly-clad Strangers" Quicksilver fills his bowl "Ben gave a scientific stroke to the iron-gray nose Chandra in the Maharajah's Gardens . PAGE Frontispiece in Color 22 42 50 58 64. 74 78 82 90 96 BANNER OF AMERICA Banner of America! Oh, banner of the Westland! Banner of a nation great and generous and young! Banner of a land we deem the dearest and the best land, Lights eternal be the stars that shine your folds among! Banner of America! Oh, banner of the mountains! Banner of the prairie-lands outspreading lone and far! Banner of the mighty streams, the lakes, the falls, the fountains Love to you, and greeting, every stripe and every star! Banner of America! Oh, gonfalon of glory! Many a soldier son for you has suffered death's eclipse, Many a sailor lad whose name is lost to song or story, Gladly gave his life to see you shine above the ships! Banner of a freedom that the centuries have sighed for, Banner of a land that gives the soaring spirit scope, Ever-sacred symbol of a dream that men have died for, Wave above a nation where the humblest heart may hope! 16 Denis A. McCarthy. THE HOME AND COUNTRY READERS BOOK I THE RIGHT MORE PRECIOUS THAN PEACE It is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other. A BRAVE LADY It happened in our country long ago, in those old days when only a few white people lived here and everything was rough and new. Strong men were at work among the hills, cutting down the trees and planting corn in the new fields, and towns were springing up all along the streams, but still there were many miles of forests where Indians hunted and bears and wolves had their dens. In one of these forests a clearing had been made by a company of men and women who knew how to work together, and who met all the hard things that came to them without being afraid. In the summer the men built the houses and raised the crops, and in the winter were busy with their axes and guns. The women took care of the houses and spun cloth for the clothes, and the children helped in a thousand ways, or went to school in the little log schoolhouse, and knew that before everything else they must learn their lessons. They were busy and brave and happy together, the people in this new clearing, and for the most part things went well with them. But one summer a young farmer, who had been one of the stoutest workers of them all, fell sick with a fever. There was no doctor there, and though the neighbors did all they could for |