Columbus had first shown the way—­peopled, saved and upbuilt the whole magnificent northern land that Spain missed and lost.  They have found in it more gold than ever Columbus dreamed of in his never-found Cathay; they have filled it with a nobler, braver, mightier, and more numerous people than ever Columbus imagined the whole mysterious land of the Indies contained; they have made it the home of freedom, of peace, of education, of intelligence and of progress, and have protected and bettered it until the whole world respects it for its strength, honors it for its patriotism, admires it for its energy, and marvels at it for its prosperity.

And this is what a flying parrot did:  It turned the tide of lawless adventure, of gold-hunting, of slave-driving, and of selfish strife for gain to the south; it left the north yet unvisited until it was ready for the strong, and sturdy, and determined men and women who, hunting for liberty, came across the seas and founded the colonies that became in time the free and independent republic of the United States of America.

And thus has the story of Columbus really turned out.  Happier than any fairy tale, more marvelous than any wonder book, the story of the United States of America is one that begins, “Once upon a time,” and has come to the point where it depends upon the boys and girls who read it, to say whether or not they shall “live happily ever after.”

The four hundred years of the New World’s life closed its chapter of happiness in the electric lights and brilliant sunshine of the marvelous White City by Lake Michigan.  It is a continued story of daring, devotion and progress, that the boys and girls of America should never tire of reading.  And this story was made possible and turned out so well, because of the briefer, but no less interesting story of the daring, the devotion and the faith of the determined Genoese sailor of four hundred years ago, whom men knew as Don Christopher Columbus, the Admiral of the Ocean Seas.