rees, rocks and Indians. It was a hard fight but a good fight and he
left a son to carry on the fight. So generation after generation they
fought but somehow they grew a bit weaker as they fought. Now," I
said, "you and I are going to try to recover that lost ground. Let's
think of ourselves as like our great-great-grandfathers. We've just
come over here. So have about a million others. The fight is a
different fight to-day but it's no less a fight and we're going to
win. We have a good many advantages that these newcomers haven't. You
see them making good on every side of you but I'll bet they can't lick
a good American--when he isn't asleep. You and I are going to make
good too."

"You bet we are, Dad," he said, with his eyes grown bright.

"Then," I said, "you must work the way the newcomers work. I don't
want you to think you're any better than they are. You aren't. But
you're just as good and these two hundred years we've lived here ought
to count for something."

The boy lifted his head at this.

"You make me feel as though we'd just landed with the Pilgrims," he
said.

"So we have," I said. "June seventh of this very year we landed on
Plymouth Rock just as our ancestors did two centuries ago. They've
been all this time paving the way for you and me. They've built roads
and schools and factories and it's up to us now to use them. You and I
have just landed from England. Let's see what we can do as pioneers."

I wanted to get at the young American in him. I wanted him to realize
that he was something more than the son of his parents; something more
than just an average English-speaking boy. I wanted him to feel the
impetus of the big history back of him and the big history yet to be
made ahead of him. He had known nothing of that before. The word
American had no meaning to him except when a regiment of soldiers was
marching by. I wanted him to feel all the time as he did when his
throat grew lumpy with the band playing and the stars and stripes
flying on Fourth of July or Decoration Day.

I urged him to study hard as the first essential towards success but I
also told him to get into the school life. I didn't want him to stand
back as his tendency was and watch the other fellows. I didn't want
him to sit in the bleachers--at least not until he had proved that
this was the place for him. Even then I wanted him to lead the
cheering. I wanted him to test himself in the literary societies, the
dramatic clubs,