INAUGURATION DAY 139 HOW A PRESIDENT IS INAUGURATED _Clifford Howard_ 141 EASTER DAY 153 A SONG OF EASTER _Celia Thaxter_ 155 THE GENERAL'S EASTER BOX _Temple Bailey_ 159 ARBOR DAY 175 THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE TREE _William Cullen Bryant_ 177 APRIL FOOL'S DAY 181 FOURTH-MONTH DUNCE _H.M.M._ 183 MEMORIAL DAY 185 THE BOY IN GRAY _Mary Bradley_ 187 FLAG DAY 193 THE STARS AND STRIPES _Henry Russell Wray_ 195 FOURTH OF JULY 199 A STORY OF THE FLAG _Victor Mapes_ 201 =PREFACE= To most young people, holidays mean simply freedom from lessons and a good time. All this they should mean--and something more. It is well to remember, for example, that we owe the pleasure of Thanksgiving to those grateful Pilgrims who gave a feast of thanks for the long-delayed rain that saved their withering crops--a feast of wild turkeys and pumpkin pies, which has been celebrated now for nearly three centuries. It is most fitting that the same honor paid to Washington's Birthday is now given to that of Lincoln, who is as closely associated with the Civil War as our first President is with the Revolution. Although the birthdays of the three American poets, Whittier, Lowell, and Longfellow, are not holidays, stories relating to these days are included in this collection as signalizing days to be remembered. In this book are contained stories bearing on our holidays and annual celebrations, from Hallowe'en to the Fourth of July. =Our Holidays= If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work. SHAKSPERE. _King Henry IV_, Part I. =ST. SATURDAY= [Illustration] BY HENRY JOHNSTONE Oh, Friday night's the queen of nights, because it ushers in The Feast of good St. Saturday, when studying is a sin, When studying is a sin, boys, and we may go to play Not only in the afternoon, but all the livelong day. St. Saturday--so legends say--lived in the ages when The use of leisure still was known and current among men; Full seldom and full slow he toiled, and even as he wrought He'd sit him down and rest awhile, immersed in pious thought.