World War, 1914-1918 -- United States -- Juvenile fiction; Young women -- Societies and clubs -- Juvenile fiction
Guarding the Spirit of Liberty, while holding the streamers that floated
from the banners above, were three more white-robed figures,
representing the three great principles for which the world was
striving. The unbound tresses of each were banded with white, and the
first bore the word, “Democracy,” the girl holding a white dove on her
hand. The second was Humanity,—who cuddled a little Belgian refugee in
her arms; and the third was Justice, who held aloft a pair of scales.
Nathalie’s eyes radiated with gladness as she heard her neighbors voice
their commendations in praises of the snowy chariot, the symbol of
freedom, man’s divine heritage from God. She began to feel that the many
hours that she and Helen had spent in devising and planning the details
of this float and its mates, after all, might be appreciated.
The second picture was a marriage scene, a float marked “Virginia,
1607,” and bore the famous words of its well-known orator, “Give me
liberty, or give me death.” It was decorated with white flowers in honor
of the bride, Pocahontas,—impersonated by a Camp Fire girl in an Indian
deerskin robe wondrously embroidered, and gay with many-colored
beads,—who stood by the flower-decked pulpit amid a bower of green,
being united in the holy bands of matrimony to John Rolfe.
The pose of the Indian maiden, the sweet seriousness of her tawny-dyed
face and melting black eyes, the dignified pose of the Virginia planter,
so vividly portrayed the romantic episode of the first American colony,
that the many onlookers broke forth into shouts of approval. The
quaintly attired figures of the Jamestown settlers in the foreground,
and the group of Indian warriors with their war-plumes and dabs of paint
were backed by a miniature tower. Some one inquired if it was a
monument, much to the young president’s disgust, as she considered it a
noble work of art, which had been laboriously built of old bricks by the
Girl Pioneers to represent the ruined tower of Jamestown.
[Illustration: “My name is Liberty,
My throne is Law.”—Page 75.]
Massachusetts was identified by the words, “The Founders of Liberty,”
and a simulated boulder, which Blue Robin watched with great trepidation
for fear the blithesome Mary Chilton, who stood victorious on this
Forefathers’ Rock, in too zealous jubilation would shake it too much.
But the sprightly Pilgrim maiden, in gray cape and bonnet—it was the
Sport—remembered the perilous foundations, and her scorn was discreetly
tempered with caution as she gazed at the somewhat crestfallen John, who
stood with one foot on the rock, and the other in a miniature shallop,
where the Pilgrim Fathers stood dismally regarding this forerunner of
the progressive American girl.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account