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.
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