¹     Everyone was coming into town today. It was the Fourth of July.
 
²     That morning at breakfast, Dad had read the Declaration of Independence aloud. He talked about freedom. He told her that freedom was not free.
 
³     Jess saw tears in his eyes as he read. She knew that those words were important to him.
 
⁴     "Why is freedom important?" Jess asked him.
 
⁵     "Freedom allows us to make choices," said Dad.
 
⁶     "What kinds of choices?" asked Jess. "Do you mean what clothes we wear? What food to eat?"
 
⁷     "That is part of it," said Dad. "We have freedom to make our country's laws. The people of another country cannot tell us how to live. Our leaders are elected by our people. We can choose what religion to follow."
 
⁸     "Do we have the freedom to fight, too?" asked Jess.
 
⁹     "Do you mean like Rachel?" asked Dad.

Paragraphs 10 to 21:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable