Page:What to do for Uncle Sam; a first book of citizenship (IA whattodoforuncle00bail).pdf/20

16 though, because we have to play that they are real. And there is one real thing about each. They stand for something, so they are alive, are they not, after all?

If you have an uncle who travels about a good deal, but sometimes comes to your house for a visit, you think a great deal of him. He brings you stories of what he has seen and done, and you feel like doing something important, too, to be like him. He is just as good to all the cousins as he is to you, and he has a particular place in your heart.

No one knows exactly when our Uncle Sam came first. Probably it was on a Fourth of July long ago, when the Declaration of Independence was signed. No one has ever shaken hands with Uncle Sam, but we know him from the crown of his beaver hat to his old fashioned shoes. We have seen only his picture, but he speaks to us in the greatest word of our land:

For a good many years we thought that Uncle Sam was so busy at Washington with the President, the Senate, and Congress, and the Army and the Navy that he had little time to come to visit us in our town. There seemed to be nothing for boys and girls to do when he did visit