"I greet you again, Mr. Flag Maker," replied the gay voice; "I know you well. You are the man who worked in the swelter of yesterday straightening out the tangle of that farmer's homestead in Idaho, or perhaps you found the mistake in that Indian contract in Oklahoma, or helped to clear that patent for the hopeful inventor in New York, or pushed the opening of that new ditch in Colorado, or made that mine in Illinois more safe, or brought relief to the old soldier in Wyoming. No matter; whichever one of these beneficient individuals you may happen to be, I give you greeting, Mr. Flag Maker."
I was about to pass on, when The Flag stopped me with these words:--
"Yesterday the President spoke a word that made happier the future of ten million peons in Mexico; but that act looms no larger on the flag than the struggle which the boy in Georgia is making to win the Corn Club prize this summer.
"Yesterday the Congress spoke a word which will open the door of Alaska; but a mother in Michigan worked from sunrise until far into the night, to give her boy an education. She, too, is making the flag.
"Yesterday we made a new law to prevent financial panics, and yesterday, maybe, a school teacher in Ohio taught his first letters to a boy who will one day write a song that will give cheer to the millions of our race. We are all making the flag."
"But," I said impatiently, "these people were only working!"
"The work that we do is the making of the flag.
"I am not the flag; not at all. I am nothing more than its shadow.
"I am whatever you make me, nothing more.
"I am your belief in yourself, your dream of what a People may become.
"I live a changing life, a life of moods and passions, of heart breaks and tired muscles.
"Sometimes I am strong with pride, when workmen do an honest piece of work, fitting the rails together truly.
"Sometimes I droop, for then purpose has gone from me, and cynically I play the coward.
"Sometimes I am loud, garish, and full of that ego that blasts judgment.
"But always, I am all that you hope to be, and have the courage to try for.
"I am song and fear, struggle and panic, and ennobling hope.
"I am the day's work of the weakest man, and the largest dream of the most daring.