After many days of sailing, and after he had touched at many points of unknown land, Leif came in sight of a country more beautiful than any he had yet seen. This land was our own continent.
Soon the viking ship was sailing in the waters of the Narragansett Bay. The Northmen landed on what is now the Massachusetts shore, built huts, and stayed in this sunny land for one year.
What we know now as Massachusetts was at that time called Vinland by the request of Leif’s foster-father, because of the quantities of grapes found there.
Although Leif made many more voyages to this land, the news of his discovery never went farther than Norway, and Columbus has the glory of being the first discoverer of our land.
“A Beaver House.” By Everett Street, age 8.
PLEASURES.
By Grace Leslie Johnson (age 11).
It ’s a pleasure to see the green grass;
It ’s a pleasure to feel the cool breezes,
And see the big ships as they pass.
And the birds, and the flowers, and stream,
We can fancy we see the cold autumn,
And November is there in our dream,
It looks chilly, and winter draws near;
But when it comes—skating and sledding!
I ’m glad that November is here.
MY FAVORITE EPISODE IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
Elsie F. Welt (age 15).
Before the surrender of Lee, the Confederate army was on the verge of starvation, because of the exhausted condition of the Southern States, and, owing to the blockade formed by the Federal fleet, little food could be smuggled into the South.
But no sooner had Lee surrendered than the stalwart soldiers of the Union showed their generosity and good will. They laid aside all their previous animosities, and shared their rations with their tattered and half-starved brethren, against whom they were fighting in a life-and-death struggle a few short days before.
“Yankee” and “Johnny boy” sat down by the same camp-fire, and drank coffee out of one tin cup, friends again after four long, bitter years.
This may not he in itself an important event in our history, but it makes me proud of the fact that I am an American, that I can claim descent from one of those brave soldiers who took the initiative step m welcoming back the South into the Union.
“A Nature Study.” By Margery Bradshaw, Honor Member. (See Note, page 91
PLEASURE.
By Elizabeth Burrage (age 10).
I love to dig in the sand,
And I love to hear the big waves roar,
As they dash in on the land,
And see the waves and the spray,
And when 1 hear the wind blow,
Then my heart is happy and gay.
MY FAVORITE EPISODE IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
Donald Gibson (age 15).
It was in 1804 that France sold to the United States the region vaguely known as Louisiana, and as President Jefferson was determined to learn something of this vast territory, he asked Congress for an appropriation to explore the Northwest by way of the Missouri River The result wan the Lewis and Clarke Expedition, which was commenced in May, 1804.
Captain Meriwether Lewis (Jefferson’s secretary) and his friend Captain William Clarke, with their escort, launched their boats in Wood River, opposite St. Louis. They reached the Mandan Indian village,