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Our town and civic duty

Chapter 152: THE DEBT
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About This Book

A school reader for elementary pupils offers short stories, adapted tales, and practical lessons that introduce civic virtues such as courage, self-control, thrift, perseverance, kindness to animals, and patriotism. It then profiles public servants—police, mail carriers, firemen, street cleaners, and sanitation workers—to illustrate dependence, interdependence, and community cooperation. Subsequent sections address personal and public safety, sanitation, and insect control, and conclude with guidance on Junior Red Cross activities and patriotic service. Teacher notes recommend dramatization, discussion, and hands-on projects to connect classroom learning with daily civic habits and to encourage respect for public institutions and duties.

THE DEBT

Here are my lands!
They are my country’s, too.
For her fields were won by valiant men,
And all they yield is hers to take again.
Here are my hands!
They are my country’s, too.
Ungrudged, unweighed, their works and gains belong
To her who lent them skill, who made them strong.
Here is my life!
It is my country’s, too—
A life to live for her who made me free,
A life to give for her, if need shall be.
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