Dying at ninety, Clara Barton, retiring and bashful, had given fifty years of service to suffering humanity, working always on the firing line. David’s born nurse became head nurse to all the nation. The angel of the battle-field, as the soldiers loved to call her, became the country’s angel of mercy. And in the Red Cross Society, building perhaps better than she knew, Clara Barton gave the opportunity for every American citizen, man or woman or little child, to share in her work of love and mercy. EPILOGUE Thus ends the story of these women who helped to make the history of our country. It is a record of courage and of service, of splendid achievement. And these fifteen women by no means tell the whole story. The contribution of each could be duplicated, in less degree, many times. They are but typical of countless women who have been true American patriots. The exploring and settling of our country lasted for three centuries, the building of the nation is not yet finished. There is work for the women of to-day, if they would be worthy inheritors of these fifteen, to shape the present true, for the generations to come after. Making history offers a wide range of service, for heroism wears many forms, as these brief stories show. But it is of the greatest importance to the nation that its ideals of heroism shall be high and true. Every woman can be a soldier faithful, brave and loyal. We of to-day and of to-morrow must stand shoulder to shoulder with the inspired women of the past, to express the best in womanhood, to work for the highest ideals. BIBLIOGRAPHY CHAPTER I Eggleston--_A First Book in American History_, 23-41. Holland--_Historic Girlhoods_, 92-106. Jenks--_Captain John Smith_. Seelye and Eggleston--_Pocahontas_. Smith--_The Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith_. Sweetser--_Ten American Girls from History_, 1-35. CHAPTER II Bouvé--_American Heroes and Heroines_, 13-31. Brooks--_Dames and Daughters of Colonial Days_, 1-29. Eggleston--_The Beginners of a Nation_, 326-341. Foster, ed.--_Heroines of Modern Religion_, 1-22. Hart--_American History Told by Contemporaries_, I, 382-387. CHAPTER III Harrison--_The Stars and Stripes_, 60-64. Horner--_The American Flag_. Schauffler--_Flag Day_, 50-58 and 61-66. Tappan--_The Little Book of the Flag_. CHAPTER IV Brooks--_Century Book of the American Revolution_, 87-89. Hemstreet--_The Story of Manhattan_. Ullmann--_Landmark History of New York_. Wilson--_New York Old and New_. CHAPTER V Bouvé--_American Heroes and Heroines_, 120-128. Brooks--_Century Book of the American Revolution_, 130-135. _Journal of American History_, 5:84 (1911). Stockton--_Stories of New Jersey_. Sweetser--_Ten American Girls from History_, 71-85. CHAPTER VI Brooks--_Dames and Daughters of Colonial Days_, 133-167. Herbert--_The First American--His Homes and His Households_.