The Story of Our Country Every Child Can Read

VERY likely many of my young readers live in the city of Philadelphia, which was founded by William Penn more than two hundred years ago on the banks of the broad Delaware River...

WHAT do you think of Captain John Smith, the hero of Virginia? Was he not a man to dream of, a true hero? Why, I feel half ashamed to say anything about him, for every one of yo...

IF any of my young readers live in Chicago they will remember a wonderful display in that city in 1893. Dozens of great white buildings rose on the shore of the lake, as beautif...

I SHOULD be glad to have some of you take a steamboat ride up the broad Hudson River, past the city of New York, and onward in the track of the "Half Moon," Henry Hudson's ship....

I WONDER how many of my readers have ever seen the great city of New York. I wonder still more how many of them knew that it is the largest city in the world except London. But...

DO you not think there are a great many interesting stories in American history? I have told you some, and I could tell you many more. I am going to tell you one now, about a br...

NOW that you have been told about the settlement of the colonies, it is well to recall how many of them there were. Let us see. There were the Pilgrim and Puritan settlements of...

VIRGINIA has often been called the Cavalier colony. Do any of you know why, or who the Cavaliers were? Perhaps I had better tell you. They were the lords and the proud people of...

DO any of my young readers know what is meant by a Charter? "Yes," I hear some of you say. "No," say others. Well, I must speak to the "No," party; the party that doesn't know,...

IT is not a pleasant thing to go hungry for twenty-four hours and to go many days without half enough to eat. I think all my readers will agree with me in this. I fancy none of...

WHAT a wonderful change has come over this great country of ours since the days of our grandfathers! Look at our great cities, with their grand buildings, and their miles of str...

WE are justly proud of our great war-ships, with their strong steel sides and their mighty guns, each of which can hurl a cannon-ball miles and miles away. And such balls! Why,...

I HAVE no doubt that some of the young folks who read this book will want to hear the story of the great war that was spoken of in the last chapter. Some of the boys will, at an...

ANY of my readers who are true, sound-hearted Americans, and I am sure all of them are that, would have been glad to see how the New England farmers swarmed around Boston in Apr...

FAR away back in old English history there was a famous archer named Robin Hood, who lived in the deep woods with a bold band of outlaws like himself. He and his band were foes...

HAVE any of my young readers read the beautiful poem of "Evangeline," written by the poet Longfellow? Very likely it is too old for you, though the time will come when you will...

FOR years before and after the year 1800 all Europe was filled with war and bloodshed. Most of my readers must have heard of Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest generals tha...

I HAVE told you part of the story of how our people fought on land. Now suppose we take a look at the water, and see how they fought there. Have any of you heard of the wonderfu...

LET us suppose that the history of the whole world is spread out before us like a picture, and that we are looking down on it. What will we see? Well, we will see places where a...

I THINK you must now have learned a great deal about the history of your country from the time Columbus crossed the ocean till the year 1800, the beginning of the Nineteenth cen...

I THINK it very likely that all, or nearly all, who read this book were born before the new century--the one we call the twentieth--began. It is a young century still. Yet there...

HAVE any of my young readers ever been to Europe? Likely enough some of you may have been, for even young folks cross the ocean now-a-days. It has come to be an easy journey, wi...

I HAVE told you the story of more than one war. I shall have to tell you now about still another in which the Americans fought the Mexicans in Texas.

I SHOULD like to tell you all about one of the greatest and noblest men who ever lived in our country, and give you his story from the time he was born until the time he died. B...

EVERY four years a great question arises in this country, and all the states and their people are disturbed until this question is settled. Even business nearly stops still, for...

ALL of my young readers must know what a wonderful age this is that we live in, and what marvelous things have been done. Some of you, no doubt, have read the stories of magic i...

IF any of the readers of this book should have the chance to take a railroad ride over the vast region of the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, from the Gre...

rugged mountains of the isthmus, until, like Balboa, you got to the top of the highest peak. And, like him, you would have been filled with joy when you saw in the far distance...

VERY likely some of the readers of this book have asked their fathers or mothers how Spain came to own the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, whose people they treated so badly tha...

There had been fighting in Kansas, one of the territories that was to be made into a state, and among the fighters was an old man named John Brown, who thought that God had call...

What is Seen on the Picture of History--A Reign of Peace in America--The Ocean Cable and the Railroad--Alaska and its Treasures--The Burning of Chicago and other Disasters--Edis...

Black and White Slaves--First Slaves Brought to America in 1619--Why the Slaves were Used in the South--Why the North did not Believe in Slavery--What the word Abolitionist Mean...

Fight Between the "Cheesebox" and the Ram--How the Monitor Won the Fight--The Battle "Above the Clouds"--Battle of the Wilderness--Sherman's March to the Sea--Richmond Surrender...

What Civil War is--Where the War was Fought--Battle of Bull Run--"Stonewall" Jackson--General Ulysses S. Grant and How He Came to Command the Army--His "Unconditional Surrender"...

HOW THE DUTCH AND QUAKERS CAME TO AMERICA Captain Hudson and His Ship, the _Half Moon_--The Trip up the Hudson--Adventures with the Indians--William Penn and the Quakers--How Th...