About the same time the _Empire_ newspaper, to help on the movement and to advertise it, offered a flag (12 feet by 6 feet in size), the Canadian red ensign with the arms of Canada in the fly, to that school in each county which could produce the finest essay on the patriotic influence of raising the flag over the school houses. Each school was to compete within itself, and the best essay was to be chosen by the headmaster and sent to the _Empire_ office. These essays from each county were carefully compared, and the finest essay secured the flag for the school from which it came. I read the essays and awarded the prizes for about thirty counties, and it was a pleasing and inspiring task. I was astonished at the depth of patriotic feeling shown, and was much impressed with the great influence the contest must have had in stirring up the latent patriotism of the people, spreading as it did into so many houses through the children. I was so much interested in what I read, and often found so much difficulty in deciding which was the best essay, that I felt that they all deserved prizes. I therefore decided to prepare a little volume of patriotic songs and poems, and to publish a large number and send a copy to the child in each school who had written the best essay, and a copy was also sent to the master of every school that had sent in an essay. I wrote to my friend Mr. E. G. Nelson, Secretary of the Branch of our League at St. John, New Brunswick, and told him what I was doing. I soon received from him a copy of a song, which he said my letter had inspired him to write. It was called "Raise the Flag." I give the first verse: Raise the flag, our glorious banner, O'er this fair Canadian land, From the stern Atlantic ocean To the far Pacific strand. _Chorus._ Raise the flag with shouts of gladness, 'Tis the banner of the free! Brightly beaming, proudly streaming, 'Tis the flag of liberty. I decided to use this as the first song and I called the little book: "RAISE THE FLAG, And other Patriotic Canadian Songs and Poems." On the front of the stiff cardboard cover a well-executed, brightly-coloured lithograph of a school-house with a fine maple tree beside it was seen, with a large number of children, boys and girls, waving their hats and handkerchiefs and acclaiming the flag which was being run up to the top of the flag-pole, the master apparently giving the signal for cheering. On the back of the cover was a pretty view of Queenston Heights, with Brock's monument the prominent object, and over this scene a trophy of crossed flags with a medallion containing Queen Victoria's portrait imposed on one, and a shield with the arms of Canada on the other. Over both was the motto "For Queen and Country."