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Revolutionary descendants, and they have made splendid American citizens.

English people have never ceased to strive for liberty, and although they did not make a revolution like the Americans, they gradually got their liberty through small changes in government. They still have a king and they still have people who are called lords and dukes. But England has to-day a largely representative popular government.

Italy also fought many battles for freedom and often lost. But Italy also to-day has a representative government, although she, too, still has a king.

The word "democracy" means a government by the people, and a republic is the most thorough democracy there is. But we also call a country a democracy if its people are truly represented in the Government, and really manage their own business, even if the country is not a republic. England and Italy feel that they are democracies just as France and America do. They have the spirit of democracy.

Sometime, we believe, all people will gain liberty and the whole world will be a brotherhood of free nations.

But we Americans are the most fortunate of all, because America gained it first, and has kept it.

America is the "land of the free and the home of the brave." Let us work and pray to keep her that.

We owe this great blessing of liberty to the courage and sacrifice of Americans of all races. It is for us all, whether we are of English, Irish, French, German, Italian, or any other blood. And all of us, of every blood, must fight for it when it is threatened, just as it was fought for in the Revolution and in the Civil War. Washington and Lincoln belong to us all, and we must be true to them.

As a loyal American child, I will not listen to any evil spoken of my country. And I will be kind to every other loyal American child, no matter what his blood may be.

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races in the Civil War was already large and important. It quickly became more so. People from all over the whole world came in ever greater numbers to become American citizens. And our oldest citizens were busy making the country more easily reached in every part. From then until now the United States has grown steadily in people, power, and opportunity. Our inheritance has been increasing for us.

That inheritance is a wonderful one. We have seen how wonderful it is in patriotic wisdom, sacrifice, and courage. It is equally wonderful in the gifts of the land itself.

The American flag is sometimes called the "StarSpangled Banner," because Francis Keyes called it that in the song which we all sing. Every flag means something, the pattern tells some story. The stars on our Star-Spangled Banner tell the story of our States. Every star stands for a State, and on the Fourth of July each year a new star is added to the flag if a new State has been added to the Union.

There are forty-eight stars on the flag. That means there are forty-eight States in the United States. Forty-eight States make a very, very big country. The United States of America stretches from one ocean to the other. Its western shore is washed by the Pacific Ocean, and its eastern shore meets the Atlantic. It is a long journey from its northern to its southern border.

Some of the forty-eight States are so warm that cotton and oranges grow there. Some are so cold that the ice is many feet thick all winter. Every kind of useful food grows in our country, and all the things we need to build with are found here.

Some countries have to send away for things that grow in hot lands, or things that grow in cold lands. Some countries are so small that they have to send away for grain, or lumber, or wool. But America is so big and has so many different climates that all the things we need grow in her States.

This makes the United States of America a very rich country. It is now called the richest country in the world.

It is a privilege to belong to the richest country in the world. It means that every citizen has a chance to get honestly all that he needs to make him happy and successful.

But we must remember that the richest country can be made poor if the citizens do not learn how to take care of its riches, just as a family can become poor if its children waste money.

Let us keep America rich. Let us learn how to use things without wasting them. As loyal American children, let us learn how to use wise economy, so that the Star-Spangled Banner may always float over the richest country in the world.

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