SECTION VIII 
WHAT A GIRL SCOUT SHOULD KNOW 
ABOUT THE FLAG 
We take the star from Heaven, the red from our mother 
country, separating it by white stripes, thus shozving we have 
separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to pos- 
terity representing liberty. — - George Washington. 
The American flag is the symbol of the one-ness of 
the nation: when a Girl Scout salutes the flog, there- 
fore, she salutes the whole country. The American 
Flag is known as “Old Glory, ” “Stars and Stripes,” 
“Star-Spangled Banner,” and “The Red, White and 
Blue.” 
The flag today consists of the field of red and blue 
stripes, with the blue field, sometimes known as the 
Union in the upper left-hand corner, with forty-eight 
white stars. The thirteen stripes stand for the thir- 
teen original States — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The stars stand 
for the States now in the Union. 
The colors of the flag are red, representing valor; 
white, representing hope, purity and truth; blue, rep- 
resenting loyalty, sincerity and justice. The five-pointed 
star, which is used, tradition says, at Betsy Ross’ sug- 
gestion, is the sign of infinity. 
History of the American Flag 
We think of ourselves as a young country, but we 
have one of the oldest written Constitutions under 
which a Nation operates, and our flag is one of the oldest 
in existence. 
When our forefathers came from Europe to settle 
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