From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:

Tomorrow is Columbus Day, but it is a Saturday. We had to hear all about him today. He was a very bright man. He knew that the world was round and in those days everyone thought it was flat. He discovered America.

It was a long time ago, it was before they had big ships like they have now and so he had a hard time finding it. They almost didn’t get here at all and they weren’t quite sure where they were and there were lots of fights between him and all the sailors. Everyone was hungry and all the sailors had to eat were biscuits, something like dog biscuits and they had no fresh water. They were all sick, homesick, and scared. But Columbus wouldn’t let them go home and he sailed on and then one morning the man who sat in a basket high up on a sail saw land. Then a sea gull came. Then Columbus and all the sailors got down on their knees and thanked God for bringing them to the New World. Columbus said that it would belong to Spain because that is where they came from even though he was born in Italy. It was Queen Isabella of Spain who paid for their tickets and even bought the ships for them. I forgot to say that Columbus sailed in three ships. He was just in one of the ships of course. The other two followed him. His was called the Santa Maria. At first Queen Isabella was so happy about Columbus discovering America, she honored him but later she put him in prison…I forgot why.