GEORGE WASHINGTON CALLED THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY TOLD FOR YOUNGEST READERS BY ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS Author of "The True Story of Christopher Columbus," "The Century Book for ILLUSTRATED BOSTON LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY PREFACE. As the second in the series of "Children's Lives of Great Men,' following the life of Columbus, the discoverer, comes the true story of George Washington, the founder of the country which to-day calls him its father. America has had no greater, no nobler, no truer man. Every land has honored him, every race has sung his praise. As the years go by, his real worth becomes more apparent and needs none of the overwrought little stories that have so long been told to boys and girls, to strengthen his character or give point to his record. The true story of his life is fine enough and full enough to interest, to inspire and to help, without adding the things that would make a prig of the boy and a god of the man who was always a truth-teller, truth-liver, and truth-doer, both as boy and man. One of the best of modern Americans, James Russell Lowell, who was born on the same day of the month as Washington, February twenty-second, wrote, shortly before his death, to a schoolgirl whose class proposed noticing his own birthday: "Whatever else you do on the twenty-second of February, recollect, first of all, that on that day a really great man was born, and do not fail to warm your hearts with the memory of his service, and to brace your minds with the contemplation of his character. The rest of us must wait uncovered till he be served." girls who may be led to The name of Washing Which is a good text for those boys and read this true story of George Washington. ton is one which America will ever reverence, and one, before which, American boys and girls may well stand, hats off, "uncovered" in memory, respect and love. E. S. B. |