Who was he?

'T was he who e'er will be our pride.
Immortal Washington,
Who always did in truth confide.
We hail our Washington!

[Illustration: TWOSCORE OF MY FELLOW-CITIZENS--PUBLIC SCHOOL,
CHELSEA]

The best of the verses were no better than these, but the children
listened. They had to. Presently I gave them news, declaring that
Washington

Wrote the famous Constitution; sacred's the hand
That this blessed guide to man had given, which says, "One
And all of mankind are alike, excepting none."

This was received in respectful silence, possibly because the other
Fellow Citizens were as hazy about historical facts as I at this
point. "Hurrah for Washington!" they understood, and "Three cheers for
the Red, White, and Blue!" was only to be expected on that occasion.
But there ran a special note through my poem--a thought that only
Israel Rubinstein or Beckie Aronovitch could have fully understood,
besides myself. For I made myself the spokesman of the "luckless sons
of Abraham," saying--

Then we weary Hebrew children at last found rest
In the land where reigned Freedom, and like a nest
To homeless birds your land proved to us, and therefore
Will we gratefully sing your praise evermore.

The boys and girls who had never been turned away from any door
because of their father's religion sat as if fascinated in their
places. But they woke up and applauded heartily when I was done,
following the example of Miss Dwight, who wore the happy face which
meant that one of her pupils had done well.

The recitation was repeated, by request, before several other classes,
and the applause was equally prolonged at each repetition. After the
exercises I was surrounded, praised, questioned, and made much of, by
teachers as well as pupils. Plainly I had not poured my praise of
George Washington into deaf ears. The teachers asked me if anybody had
helped me with the poem. The girls invariably asked, "Mary Antin, how
could you think of all those words?" None of them thought of the
dictionary!

If I had been satisfied with my poem in the first place, the applause
with which it was received by my teachers and schoolmates convinced me
that I had produced a very fine thing indeed. So the person, whoever
it was,--perhaps my father--who suggested that my tribute to
Washington ought to be printed, did not find me difficult to persuade.
When I had achieved an absolutely pe