My native country, thee— Land of the noble free, Thy name I love. I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills. My heart with rapture thrills Like that above. Let music swell the breeze And ring from all the trees Sweet Freedom’s song! Let mortal tongues awake, Let all that breathe partake, Let rocks their silence break, The sound prolong. Our fathers’ God, to thee, Author of Liberty! To Thee we sing: Long may our land be bright With freedom’s holy light, Protect us by Thy might, Great God, our king! Peace follows where it finds the Old Thirteen, the nucleus around which the other stars have gathered in their glory. —_Letitia Green Stevenson_, _Honorary Vice President General National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution._ [Illustration: _The_ OLD Thirteen A PATRIOTIC SONG DEDICATED TO THE SONS, DAUGHTERS and CHILDREN OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION] 1. Flag of the free, we hail thee with pride. Float thou in freedom o’er all the land wide; Emblem of pow’r where’er thou art seen. Yet still we are true to The Old Thirteen. Our fathers who fought a free country to make. Who suffered and died for sweet liberty’s sake. What joy had been theirs had they only foreseen How vast we should grow from The Old Thirteen— Forty-five stars now shine in thy blue, Forty-five states to thee will be true— As heroes of old keep their memory green. Who marched with the flag of The Old Thirteen. 2. We’ll work for thy glory forever and aye. We’ll celebrate ever that dearly bought day; Thy folds floating o’er us in triumph were seen, So valiantly won by The Old Thirteen. We’ll rally around thee from near and from far, Our standard forever in peace or in war, All nations salute thee, thy stars’ mighty sheen, Full splendor thou art of The Old Thirteen. Then hail we our emblem, each daughter and son, Honor the vict’ry thy fair folds have won; Tho’ multiplied stars float in freedom serene, Enshrined in our hearts is The Old Thirteen. [Illustration: WORDS BY Corrilla Copeland Lewis MUSIC BY Harriet Hayden Hayes.] STARS ON THE FLAG. The Home Magazine contains the following beautiful suggestion regarding the placing of the stars on the flag: Number 1 is the field of our first stars and stripes made by Betsy Ross. Number 2 represents that field of flag of 1814 which inspired the “Star Spangled Banner.” Number 3 the field of 1818 designed by Capt. S. C. Reid. Number 4, field of our present flag. Although there is no law saying who shall arrange the stars on our flag, or how they shall be arranged, it is customary for the changes to be made in the war department when new states have been admitted to the Union.