Chapter 22　A Handsome Present

Have you ever been inside a statue?Most big bronze statues are hollow, and often there is room inside for a person-if there were only a way of getting in. But there is one statue in the world that hundreds of thousands of people have been inside.Thousands of people couldn't all get in at one time, but forty people could get into the head at one time.You've probably already guessed what I'm talking about.It is the Statue of Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty stands on a pedestal, or stone base. The pedestal stands on a little island at the entrance of New York Harbor.Every ship that goes in or out of New York passes near the statue.Even in the dark, the passengers on a ship can see it, for at night it is lit up with strong searchlights.American travelers coming back from abroad know they are home when they see the Statue of Liberty.

What would you think if you saw a woman as tall as a ten-story building?A woman whose hand is sixteen feet long, whose eyes are each two and one-half feet wide, whose uplifted right arm is forty-two feet long, and whose finger is as long as an elephant is high！If you wanted that woman to wear a ring, the ring would have to be as big as a hoop. If you wanted the woman to wear gloves, the material for the gloves would spread over more space than a tennis court！

Such a woman is Liberty. She is officially called Liberty Enlightening the World.This is because Liberty holds a lighted torch in her raised right hand.The torch is so big that a