“’Twould be a fine sight,” she sighed. “Do you think me a madwoman to bring you here?” she went on, as if she had read my thought. “Perhaps I am that. Perhaps I’m not. For you’ll remember this night when you’ve forgotten many another time, just as I remember the day when my mother took me to the shrine at Knock. For this is the shrine of your country, Shauneen, this old Castle Garden, where your people set foot in the land that’s given them liberty. Here it was that I told my brothers and my sisters of the future before them. Here it is that I’m telling you that your country will be the greatest nation of all the world if only you lads stay true to her. That’s why I’ve brought you here to-night, Shauneen. I’m an old, old woman. I’ve not long for this earth. But I’ve this message for you; it’s yours; this duty that your father shirks when he plots with black traitors who’d drag us into wars that are not of our choosing. Raise your hand, Shauneen. Say after me: ‘_As long as I live, God helping me, I shall keep my country first in my heart and, after God, first in my soul!_’” Through the misty moonlight there came to me the memory of my mother’s plea at the door of the church, my mother’s cry: “Promise me that you’ll set no cause but God’s before your wife!” Some battle of spirit struggled within me. For an instant I was silent. Then, suddenly, as if the moon had ridden above the cloud, I saw the right. “Since all true causes come from God,” I said to myself, “it is right to set my own country above anything else that may ever come.” And I said the words after my grandmother. She took my face between her hands and kissed me. “God keep you, Shauneen,” she said, “for the woman who’ll love you, and the children you’ll teach, and the land you’ll serve!” Then through a sleeping city my grandmother and I went home. * * * * * Our country’s part is to keep the flame of freedom burning above the darkness of the world. Our part is to feed that flame with the oil of our love of our country. No matter what our duty may be, whether it be great or small, let us do it as our country asks; that we may keep our land the place where men may live in freedom, in justice, in peace.