This month, we are exploring the June holidays that are included in Stories of Our Holidays (1913) by Isabel M. Horsford. The first will be June 14th (Flag Day) and the second will be June 17th (Bunker Hill Day).
Flag Day’s reading words are
June fourteenth forts breeze glory
The Birthday of Our Flag
I am going to tell you about a birthday that comes in the summer.
My birthday comes in —–. When does yours come?
This birthday comes in June.
It is the birthday of our flag, and it comes on the fourteenth of June.
Do you know how old our flag is? Yes, more than a hundred years old.
Do you remember who made the first flag? Who told her what to do?
You remember that Mrs. Ross made many more flags.
All the soldiers loved that flag. The boys and girls loved it too.
They did not have many flags then.
One soldier had the flag on his ship at sea. His name was John Paul Jones.
When he was fighting he could see his flag.
He would say, “I will fight for my country and my flag.”
It helped him to be very brave.
Now we have many, many flags. Every schoolhouse had a flag. One all our forts you will see our flag and on many of our big buildings too.
Do you know who carried our flag to the North Pole?
Are you glad that it is your flag? Do you like to see it waving in the breeze?
Let us give three cheers for our flag. Three cheers for the “Stars and Stripes.” Three cheers for “Old Glory.”
Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!
“‘Tis the star-spangled banner,
O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free,
And the home of the brave!”
—-Francis Scott Key
*****
Our second holiday is Bunker Hill Day. This is celebrated on June 17th. There are lots of reading words for this one!
The reading words are
Bunker Hill rebels monument Charlestown Fourth granite surprised seventeenth hoisted
The Battle of Bunker Hill
The minutemen were busy men. They loved their country very much.
They were always ready to fight for their country. They were ready to die for their country.
It was April when the Redcoats marched to Concord and Lexington.
In June the Redcoats were still in Boston. The minutemen were watching them.
Any day there might be a big battle. So our men were always ready.
One night the minutemen got ready in a hurry. They marched very, very softly. Nobody heard them.
They went to Bunker Hill in Charlestown.
They began to dig a ditch. They piled the earth up high.
What do you think they made? It was a big fort.
All night they worked hard.
In the morning the British saw the fort. They were much surprised.
“What is that?” they said. “See what the rebels have done. We shall have to fight to-day.”
The Redcoats called our men rebels.
Our men were ready for battle. They were very brave. They were going to fight for their country.
The Redcoats marched to Bunker Hill. The battle began.
Oh, what a noise the guns made! How many men were killed!
The British had more soldiers than we had. At last our soldiers had to give up. The battle was over.
But it was not the end of the war. Oh, no, there were many more battles.
We call this the battle of Bunker Hill. It was fought on the seventeenth of June, 1775. So we call that day “Bunker Hill Day.”
To-day on Bunker Hill there stands a tall monument of granite. It is two hundred and twenty feet high.
The people of our country began to build this monument fifty years after the battle. Some of the soldiers who fought in the battle were there to see the laying of the cornerstone.
It took nearly twenty years to build the monument.
As the last stone was hoisted into place, a workman rode up on it waving the “Stars and Stripes.”
If you should ever climb to the top of this monument, do not forget the men who did so much for our country so many years ago.
