CHILDREN’S BOOK OF PATRIOTIC STORIES _In the Same Series_ [Illustration] CHILDREN’S BOOK OF CHRISTMAS STORIES Edited by ASA DON DICKINSON and ADA M. SKINNER CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THANKSGIVING STORIES Edited by ASA DON DICKINSON [Illustration: THE SPIRIT OF ’76] CHILDREN’S BOOK OF PATRIOTIC STORIES _The Spirit of ’76_ EDITED BY ASA DON DICKINSON AND HELEN WINSLOW DICKINSON [Illustration] _Frontispiece_ GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1918 _Copyright, 1917, by_ DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY _All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian_ ACKNOWLEDGMENT The Publishers desire to acknowledge the kindness of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, the Houghton Mifflin Company, Harper & Brothers, the Perry Mason Company, the Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, Little, Brown & Company, George W. Jacobs & Company, Silver, Burdett & Company, and others, who have granted permission to reproduce herein selections from works bearing their copyright. PREFACE Here is a book of Patriotic Stories for children, to stand beside the similar collections of Christmas Stories and Thanksgiving Stories, which have already been welcomed by many parents, librarians, and teachers. Those seeking material appropriate to Washington’s Birthday and the Fourth of July will find here a goodly store, ready to their hands. The brief descriptive note at the head of each story will help the reader to choose one well suited to his audience. And the Table of Contents, as in the previous collections, indicates which tales will best please older, and which younger children. The Editors hope that a book of stirring tales like these--not history, but stories such as children love, that yet ring true in spirit--will serve to help, though ever so little, the Cause of Liberty and will aid in keeping aglow in the hearts of our young people the ardent spark which inspired our forefathers--the Spirit of ’76. _Napoleon was great, I know, And Julius Cæsar, and all the rest, But they didn’t belong to us, and so I like George Washington the best._ --ANONYMOUS. CONTENTS (_Note._--The stories marked with a star (*) will be most enjoyed by younger children; those marked with a dagger(†) are better suited to older children.) PAGE Jabez Rockwell’s Powder-horn. _By Ralph D. Paine_ 3 The Little Lord of the Manor. _By Elbridge S. Brooks_ 19 †Old Esther Dudley. _By Nathaniel Hawthorne_ 40 *Betty’s Ride. _By Henry S. Canby_ 55 The First Blow for American Liberty. _By Emma W. Demeritt_ 64 †The Battle of Bunker’s Hill. _By Washington Irving_ 79 *Her Punishment. _By Elizabeth Gibson_ 91