Little by little the small country grew into a great nation, the greatest on earth, because it is the freest, and each citizen in it has his rights respected. But for the courage and determination and self-sacrifice of Columbus this great new world might have remained for hundreds of years unknown to men. Four hundred years afterwards the children of the children's children of these early settlers, had a grand celebration in honor of the brave old man, Christopher Columbus, whom the people of his day called crazy, and all the nations of the earth were invited to bring their most beautiful, their richest and rarest products to this celebration, in order that not we of America alone, but _the whole world might celebrate the wisdom and the courage of the great Columbus_, "_the finder of America_." In the rejoicing and in the celebration the nations did not forget the good Queen Isabella, who was willing to give up her most precious jewels in order that she might help Columbus in his voyage of discovery. _A STORY OF DECORATION DAY FOR THE LITTLE CHILDREN OF TO-DAY._ I want you to listen to a sad, sweet story to-day, and yet one that ought to make you glad,--glad that such men have lived as those of whom I am going to tell you. It all happened a good many years ago, in fact so long ago that your fathers and mothers were little boys and girls in kilts and pinafores, some of them mere babies in long clothes. One bright Sunday morning in April the telegraph wires could be heard repeating the same things all over the land, "Tic, tic; tictic; t-i-c; tic, tictic;--tic, t-i-c, tic; t-i-c; tic, t-i-c; t-i-c, t-i-c, tic," they called out, and the drowsy telegraph operators sat up in their chairs as if startled by the words the wires were saying. "Tic, t-i-c, tic; tictic; tic, tictic; tic; t-i-c, tictic;--tic, tic; t-i-c, tic," continued the wires and the faces of the telegraph operators grew pale. Any looker-on could have seen that something dreadful was being told by the wires. "Tic, t-i-c, tic; tictic; tic, tictic; tic; t-i-c, tictic;--tic, tic; t-i-c, tic," again repeated the wires. There was no mistaking the message this time. Alas, alas, it was true! The terrible news was true! Even the bravest among the operators trembled.