Little Folks of North America / Stories about children living in the different parts of North America

by Mary Hazelton Blanchard Wade

The Copper Mines.

On the eastern coast of Newfoundland there is a beautiful bay to which the French gave the name of Notre Dame or, Our Lady. It has many arms which reach far into the land; some of these are so deep that they make good places for ships to anchor. Others are very small and the water is so smooth that little children can paddle about in it without fear.

This bay of Notre Dame is now famous for something besides its beauty, as copper mines have been discovered on its shores. One of the richest of these is at Bett’s Cove and many men are now at work getting the precious ore and shipping it to other lands.

CHAPTER VII
Little Folks of the United States

Canada is partly separated from the country south of it by a chain of beautiful lakes called the “Five Great Lakes.” They are so large that a person can sail many days on them, passing from one to another and sometimes losing sight of land. At times the water is so rough that the traveler becomes ill from the rolling of the big steamer and says, “I am seasick,” although he is far from the ocean. The northern waters of these lakes wash the shores of Canada, while on the south the children of the United States play on the beaches and swim in the waves.

These children are proud of the fact that they live in the United States, and call their country “The land of the free and the home of the brave.” Their people have come from many lands. French, German, Irish, Polish and Jewish boys and girls, besides those of many other countries, sit side by side in the schoolrooms and play happily together with their tops and dolls.

The United States of America, for that is the full name of this country, reaches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Canada on the north to Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico on the south. It is a country of high mountains, fertile valleys, broad plains and mighty rivers. Its children know neither the terrible cold of the far north nor the burning heat of the equator, for they live in the temperate belt of the earth. No season of the year is long enough to tire them, for spring follows close upon the winter, and is soon followed by the pleasant warmth of summer. Then comes the autumn when the leaves change their color and Mother Nature makes ready for her winter’s rest. At last the snow falls and covers the earth with her white mantle.