I have been in countries where the laboring man had meat once a year;
sometimes twice--Christmas and Easter. And I have seen women carrying
upon their heads a burden that no man would like to carry, and at the
same time knitting busily with both hands. And those women lived without
meat; and when I thought of the American laborer I said to myself,
"After all, my country is the best in the world." And when I came back
to the sea and saw the old flag flying in the air, it seemed to me as
though the air from pure joy had burst into blossom.