When mother was making plans for a "safe and sane Fourth," Uncle Henry
said, "Why not take the children to the park and have a kite party?
I'll help them make the kites."
The next morning Harry and Anna were busy out on the piazza with Uncle
Henry. By ten o'clock three handsome white kites were drying in a row.
Anna called them the "Big Bear, the Middle-Sized Bear, and the Baby
Bear."
When the kites were dry, the whole family started for the park--Uncle
Henry with the Big Bear and a box of luncheon, Harry with the
Middle-Sized Bear, and Anna, of course, with the Baby Bear. Mother
carried some sewing and grandmother carried the surprise, something
that Uncle Henry had brought home in a flat box. When they reached the
park, they found a French society holding a picnic. A tent was up, the
band was playing, the older boys were shooting at a target, and the
little boys and girls were flying red and blue balloons.
Uncle Henry said, "Ladies first, always," and he soon had the Baby
Bear in the air, and the string in Anna's hands. He drove the bobbin
into the ground, to make sure that the kite would not get away. Harry
insisted upon putting his kite up alone. Then Uncle Henry put up the
Big Bear, and when it was up some distance, he asked grandmother to
open the box. Then he shook out a red-white-and-blue silk American
flag, and the crowd cheered.
Uncle Henry tied the flag to a loop of string, and fastened it to the
Big Bear's string. Then he let it out, hand over hand. Up, up, went
Old Glory, and snapped in the breeze. The higher it went, the farther
out the kite soared, until it hung over the harbor. They were all so
busy watching it that they had not seen that the picnic people below
were pointing up to the flag; but when the band struck up the
Star-Spangled Banner, and the foreign people began to sing, Uncle
Henry noticed one dark-skinned boy who sang with a strange accent and
great energy, and who kept his big, solemn eyes on the flag that
glowed against the sky. But when the boy, whose name was Caspar, saw
the others looking at him, he ran down the hill and hid behind the
children.
"Any one who can sing the Star-Spangled Banner like that is a good
American," said Uncle Henry, as he drove his bobbin into the ground,
and prepared to open the box of luncheon.
When the foreigners went in to dinner, Caspar did not follow. He took
his sandwiches, frosted cake, and ice-cream, and sat down on the
grass, where he could look at the flag.
There was not a child in the whole park who loved the Stars and
Stripes as little Caspar did, not even the two American children; for
in his own country Caspar had lived in a mission house, where they had
told him all about America, and how the Stars and Stripes protected
the people, even the poorest of little children. They told him that he
must never harm the flag, or allow it to be trampled on. After he came
to America, his teacher had taught him to salute the flag.
He had heard the flag song on the big ship, and he felt that it was
Old Glory that had brought him safe to one of his own country-women in
America, with whom he lived.
Caspar was thinking of all this as he lay on the grass, and saw the
flag fluttering in the light wind. He had watched it for some time,
when he saw it give a quick little shiver, then begin to sink slowly,
and then faster. He looked to the end of the line, and saw that the
great white kite was dipping about in a strange manner; then he looked
up to the hill and saw the kite man leaping down the slope as fast as
he could. The American children were running behind him.
Caspar trembled with excitement. What would happen to the flag? Would
it get trampled upon, or would it go out to sea and get wet and
spoiled? Oh, he must help them get Old Glory! He ran until he was
directly beneath the flag; then he stretched his arms high to catch it
if it fell. But a strong breeze came up, and carried the Big Bear over
the water, and pulled the flag with it. Caspar ran on to the water's
edge.
Caspar did not know what to do next. There were no people on the
shore, and no boats were near. The flag had not been trampled on, but
it might fall in the water any minute. Where were the people? Did they
know that a great calamity was about to happen, to everybody in the
park, to everybody in America, perhaps to the mission ladies who had
been so good to him? How could the people sit about, eating and
drinking, when there was such trouble in the world? He cried out to
Uncle Henry and the children, who were now quite near, strange and
broken words, and he tried to tell them that he could not swim.
"Good boy, swim for it! You'll get it!" shouted Uncle Henry.
Caspar understood the word "swim," but not the rest. He thought the
kite man must be telling him that he could not swim, either. He looked
out to the flag; it was surely going into the water; it flapped and
dipped, then dipped deeper still, right into the water. Caspar did not
wait another minute. Off went his jacket, and with a wild look toward
the shore, he ran into the water. His feet slipped on the sandy
bottom, and the kite jerked up, then down, then up--but it was always
just out of reach.
They watched the boy, who was trying hard to keep the flag in sight.
"Hurry, hurry, Uncle Henry, he can't swim a stroke!" shouted Harry.
Uncle Henry was just in time; Caspar had a firm hold on Old Glory, and
came up tangled in its folds.
After Uncle Henry had shaken the water out of the boy, he sat him on
his shoulder, where everybody could see him. "Now, one, two, three!"
he said, as he waved his free arm. "All cheer for the boy who would
not let the flag be lost even if he couldn't swim! Hoo-ray!"
"Hoo-ray! hoo-ray! hoo-ray!" they said; and then they cheered all over
again, and crowded round Uncle Henry and Caspar until the pair started
home to put on dry clothes.
When little Caspar went home that night, he carried the flag that he
had saved. Grandmother had washed and dried it, and it looked as good
as new.