"Guess he's John Smith," spoke up Francis, "'cause I know he had his life saved by Pocahontas—that's the Indian girl. But I don't know what else he did."
"Oh, he was the leader of the first colony to be settled by the English in this country. What colony was it, Alfred? You can tell, surely."
"Of course, Jamestown, in Virginia. That was why the Indians got mad at him, because the white men were taking their lands away."
A burst of specially enthusiastic cheering arose from the street. The reason for it was the approach of a kindly-faced gentleman in dark gray coat and knee-breeches, with silver shoe-buckles and broad-brimmed Quaker hat. It was William Penn, of course, looking for all the world like the statue on the high City Hall tower. There was no need for Aunt Eleanor to give any information about him, for these were Philadelphia children, who knew and loved the founder of the "green country town" that had grown to be so large a city. Nor was there any need to explain about the next figure to arrive, a stately general on horseback, in white wig, cocked hat, and Revolutionary uniform of blue and buff. Behind him, in an old-fashioned carriage, rode Betsy Ross, holding the newly adopted Stars and Stripes, at which the men in the crowd doffed their hats.
But the next figure puzzled our little group of children. It was a very short man, stockily built, yet full of dignity. He, too, wore a cocked hat, and a plain uniform. He walked with head bent forward and hands clasped behind him, and his piercing black eyes looked at the ground. The children could not guess who he was, so Aunt Eleanor had to tell them.
"That is the great French conquerer Napoleon Bonaparte. He began life as an ordinary citizen, and won his way to the very top by his wonderful military genius. He won so many battles in command of the French armies, after the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century, that the people chose him to be consul, a position something like that of the president of a republic. Then he loved power so that he got control of the government and had himself made emperor, so that France wasn't a republic any more. After that he set out to conquer all of Europe, and he nearly succeeded. But one winter he went to Russia, and the cold and snow almost entirely destroyed his army; and he never could succeed in beating England. It was the great English general, the Duke of Wellington, who finally crushed Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo—you've heard of that? Well, after that the fallen Emperor was sent away to a little island, St. Helena, that belonged to England, and there he was kept a prisoner till the end of his life."
"He was something like the German Kaiser in the World's War, wasn't he?" said Alfred. "He wanted to conquer all Europe—and the United States, too."
"Yes, you'll learn that every once in so often history repeats itself. But we'll hope that the Kaiser's effort to conquer the world will be the last of such things, and that such a war may never be repeated."