"You are an American," his father said to him the day before school
opened; "not a foreigner, like almost every child you will find at
school. Remember that."
"He doesn't understand what you mean when you talk to him about being an
American," the boy's mother said the next morning as we all watched the
child run across the street to the school. "How could he, living among
foreigners?"
One day, about two months later, the small boy's birthday being near at
hand, his father said to him, "If some one were planning to give you
something, what should you choose to have it?"
"A flag," the boy said instantly; "an American flag! _Our_ flag!"
"Why?" the father asked, almost involuntarily.
"To salute," the child replied. "I've learned how in school--what to say
and what to do. Americans do it when they love their country--like you
told me to," he added, eagerly. "Our teacher says so. She's taught us
all how to salute the flag. I told her I was an American, not a
foreigner like the other children.
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