The committee asked her if she thought shecould make a flag from a design, a roughdrawing of which General Washington exhibited. She replied with diffidence and becoming modesty that "she did not know, butwould try."She noticed, however, that the stars, asdrawn, had six points, and informed thecommittee that the correct star should havebut five points. They answered that theyunderstood this, but that a great number ofstars would be required, and the more regular form with six points could be more easilymade than one with five. She responded in apractical way, by deftly folding a scrap ofpaper, and then, with a single clip of her scissors, she displayed a true, symmetrical, five-pointed star. After the design was partially redrawn onthe table in her little back parlor, she was leftto make her sample flag according to her ownideas of the arrangement of the stars, theproportions of the stripes, and the generalform of the whole. Some time after its completion, it was presented to Congress, and the committee soonthereafter had the pleasure of reporting toher that her flag was accepted as the nationalstandard, and she was authorized to proceedat once to the manufacture of a large numberfor disposal by the Continental Congress. |