called upon Mrs. Elizabeth Ross, of Philadelphia,
and from a pencil-drawing by General Washington engaged her to make a
flag.

This flag, the first of a number she made, was cut out and completed in
the back parlor of her little Arch street home.

It was the first legally established emblem, and was adopted by Congress
June 14, 1777, under the act which provided for stripes alternately red
and white, with a union of thirteen white stars in a field of blue. This
act read as follows: "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be
thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen
stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

=Fourth of July=

This is the greatest secular holiday of our country, its observance
being sanctioned by the laws of every State. The birthday of our liberty
would be a hard one to fix, but by common consent the anniversary of the
signing of the Declaration of Independence is the one observed. The use
of powder to celebrate the day is gradually going out on account of the
large number of lives annually lost through accidents. It is known
officially as Independence Day.

=A STORY OF THE FLAG=

BY VICTOR MAPES

When the Fourth of July came, we had been abroad nearly two months, and
during that time I think we had not seen a single American flag. On the
morning of the Fourth, however, we walked out on the Paris boulevards,
and a number of flags were hanging out from the different American
shops, which are quite frequent there. They looked strange to us; and
the idea occurred to Frank, for the first time, that the United States
was one of a great many nations living next to one another in this
world--that it was his own nation, a kind of big family he belonged to.
The Fourth of July was a sort of big, family birthday, and the flags
were out so as to tell the Frenchmen and everybody else not to forget
the fact.

A feeling of this nature came over Frank that morning, and he called
out, "There's another!" every time a new flag came in view. He stopped
two or three times to count the number of them in sight, and showed in
various ways that he, America, and the American flag had come to a new
understanding with one another.

During the morning, Frank's cousin George, a boy two or three years
older than Frank, who had been in Paris the preceding winter, came to
our hotel; and, as