A small float with the Red Cross insignia, bearing the words, “The Cross of Liberty,” with a few nurses seated around a table making bandages, now appeared. A white cot, with a soldier boy in it, suddenly silenced the cheers,—it was so suggestive of what every heart held in silent dread and fear, ever since the United States had buckled to the fray. But the sudden quiet was broken as the next, and last, float hove in sight. It was so artistically gotten up as a Liberty Garden, and represented so much freshness and beauty with its Liberty Girls, each one dressed to represent either a fruit or a vegetable, that it was wildly cheered. Masses of fruit piled up here and there peeped from bowers of green leaves, or hung in festoons across the float. Potatoes, green and red peppers, onions, cucumbers, and many other products of the garden were lavishly in evidence. Carol, the Tike, was arrayed as a pumpkin, a row of yellow leaves standing above a bunch of green ones. Carrots, cucumbers, turnips, even beans, beets, and strawberries were ingeniously represented by crêpe paper. But the love of every heart were the Morrow twins, standing in the front of the float in blue overalls, wide-brimmed hats, and blue shirts, with rakes and hoes in their hands, as farmerettes, each one vigorously waving a flag. This float completed the series of pictures that Nathalie now felt had been duly admired, and she smiled happily at the many plaudits that again burst forth. But when the farmerettes and these living representations of fruits and vegetables broke into[4] “Yes, we’ll rally round the farm, boys, We’ll rally once again, Shouting the battle cry of ‘Feed ’em.’ We’ve got the ships and money And the best of fighting men, Shouting the battle cry of ‘Feed ’em.’ “The Onion forever, the beans and the corn, Down with the tater—it’s up the next morn— While we rally round the plow, boys, And take the hoe again, Shouting the battle cry of ‘Feed ’em!’” it captured every heart present, and such prolonged applause rent the air that Nathalie was duly satisfied. As she turned to leave the grand-stand it seemed to the tired girl as if every one in town stopped to shake hands, and to congratulate her on the huge success of the Liberty Pageant. When she finally arrived home, it was some hours before she reached her couch, for she found the family unduly excited, all eagerly talking; no, not about the pageant, but about a rather strange letter that had been received by Mrs. Page that afternoon. ----- Footnote 1: “Liberty Enlightening the World,” E. C. Stedman. Footnote 2: “Rodney’s Ride.” Poems of American History. B. C. Stevenson. Footnote 3: “The Mecklenburg Declaration,” Wm. C. Elam. Footnote 4: “Patriotic Toasts,” Emerson Brooks. CHAPTER VI