But the days of his youth and his father had both passed away. Ye who still linger on the threshold of life, doubting which path to choose, remember that when years are passed, and your feet stumble on the dark mountain, you will cry bitterly, but cry in vain: "O youth return! O, give me back my early days!" -Adapted 25 HONESTY Thou must be true thyself, Think truly, and thy thoughts Speak truly, and each word of thine Live truly, and thy life shall be A great and noble creed. -Horatius Bonar Read: "The Honest Woodman," from Boston Collection of Kindergarten Stories; Bible, Prov. 22:1; Eccl. 7:1. Sing: "Home, Sweet Home," from Uncle Sam's School Songs. Birthdays: Geoffrey Chaucer, a famous English poet, born in London, England, about 1328; died in London, October 25, 1400. Author of the Canterbury Tales. Thomas Babington Macaulay, a famous English historian, born in Leicestershire, England, October 25, 1800; died at Holly Lodge, Campden Hill, England, December 28, 1859. 26 THE RED CROSS God be thanked that the dead have left still -Owen Meredith 2 THE STORY OF THE RED CROSS FLAG ON Christmas Day, 1822, Clara Barton was born. As a child Miss Barton was painfully shy in the presence of strangers, so her parents finally decided to send her to boarding school, thus hoping to overcome this sensitiveness. Here her suffering was so acute that she was finally brought back home. What was to be done with her? The question solved itself. Her beloved brother David fell ill; the baby sister became his nurse, taking all the responsibility of his care upon herself; for two years she devoted herself to him. She thus forgot herself, and in a great measure conquered the shyness, which had made life a burden. Next Miss Barton was a teacher, and then she became a clerk in the Patent Office in Washington. Soon began to be heard the rumblings of war, and then the rumbling became a mighty thundering and the Civil War was on. A regiment from Clara Barton's old home in Massachusetts was passing through Washington. Without consulting anyone, Clara Barton joined it, and so began her labor of love as an army nurse. Her clear insight, strong will, ability to do and direct work made her invaluable to the regiment. She became the natural leader in the work of relief. For four years Miss Barton followed the vicissitudes of a terrible warfare. The Civil War closed, the army was disbanded, the soldiers went home. Not so Clara Barton; her work was not yet ended. Four additional years were given to organizing and carrying on a work of identifying the dead and delivering the messages of the dead and dying. Many a mother had cause to bless the name of Clara Barton, who sought her out to deliver the dying message of a beloved son. Then came the Franco-Prussian war. All Europe was stirred. Clara Barton was visited by a band of people who were going to the center of the battle to help care for the sufferers. These people were organized for the work and had an organization behind them-it was the International Red Cross of Geneva. The object in having such an organization was that it should be recognized and respected on any battlefield anywhere. It was called the Red Crosstheir emblem or flag was a Greek Cross in red on a white field. Thirty-one governments had signed this treaty; the United States had not. Clara Barton went to Europe, she nursed the soldiers through the Franco-Prussian war. She returned home. She realized that wherever there was war in the future that there the Red Cross must be found; she knew that the Red Cross was a benefit to humanity. She felt that the United States must sign this convention. She determined to work to bring this about. She sought the officials at Washington, and told them the benefits to be derived from the Red Cross; she told them its history on these European battlefields; she was so earnest in her desire to aid her country that she won her cause. In the year 1882 the United States ratified this convention, and so we secured the protection of the Red Cross. Clara Barton was made the first president of the American National Red Cross Society. She made an able commander. She went, or sent relief corps and provisions to the Johnstown Flood, Russian Famine, South Carolina Tidal Wave, Armenian Massacre, and the Spanish-American war. Miss Barton died in 1912, at the age of ninety years. Read: "The Red Cross," from Baldwin's American Book of Golden Deeds; "St. Elizabeth and the Sick Child," from Wiltse's Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks; Bible, Matt. 5: 6; Matt. 20:26-27. Sing: "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton,' Sweet Afton," from New Common-School Song Book. Special Day: Anniversary of the origin of the Red Cross Society; emblem: red cross. Clara Barton was the founder of the Red Cross Society in America. 27 PERSEVERANCE It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.Theodore Roosevelt ROBERT BRUCE AND THE SPIDER IT WAS the perseverance of the spider that taught King Robert Bruce of Scotland the lesson that gained the victory at Bannockburn, the battle that made Scotland free. The King was out in a barn one day reconnoitering the army. While there reclining on the straw he saw a spider climbing up one of the rafters. The insect fell, but immediately made a second attempt. Again it fell, and so on for twelve times, but on the thirteenth attempt succeeded. The King, taking new courage from the example of the spider, rose up and exclaimed: "Have I not been twelve times defeated by the superior force of the enemy? On one fight more hangs the independence of my country." It was only a few days more until he gained the great victory over Edward the third in the battle of Bannockburn. Read: "The Crow and the Pitcher," from Wiltse's Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks. Sing: : "Try, Try Again," from Songs Every One Should Know. Birthdays: James Cook, an English navigator, born at Marton, Yorkshire, England, October 27, 1728; died February 14, 1779. Joseph Emerson Worcester, an American author, born in Bedford, N. H., August 24, 1784; died in Cambridge, Mass., October 27, 1865. Chiefly famous for his A Dictionary of the English Language. Whitelaw Reid, an American journalist and diplomatist, born near Xenia, Ohio, October 27, 1837. Theodore Roosevelt, twenty-sixth president of the United States, born in New York, October 27, 1858; lives in Oyster Bay, Long Island, N. Y. 28 BUILDERS Little builders, build away! Where the heart the truth shall keep; For the temple resteth there. If you want an honored name, Read: Bible, Mark 10: 43-44. -Selected Sing: "The Fountain," from Songs Every One Should Know. Birthday: Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, an American lecturer and author, born in Philadelphia, Pa., October 28, 1842; lives in New York. Special Day: Arbor Day in Indiana (last Friday in October). (See Arbor Day, April 19 and 20, this book.) 29 HAPPINESS Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone; For this brave old earth must borrow its mirth; It has trouble enough of its own. -Ella Wheeler Wilcox Birthday: John Keats, a noted English poet, born in London, England, October 29, 1795; died at Rome, Italy, February 27, 1821. |