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diff --git a/old/flgrs10.txt b/old/flgrs10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b888ab --- /dev/null +++ b/old/flgrs10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1997 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext The Flag-Raising, by Kate Douglas Wiggin +#14 in our series by Kate Douglas Wiggin + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Transcribed for Project Gutenberg by Susan L. Farley. +Project Gutenberg/Make A Difference Day Project 1999. + + + + + +Transcriber's Comments: +This one is a strange one for proofing!! Be aware that the beginning +section is spoken in broken dialect and that some of the notes written from +home are by a child, so some of the "mistakes" are deliberate. The book +itself had strange things--such as a space between " ' " words (like should +'nt) in every case. + +This is suppose to be a children's book. If read outloud it is probably +fine, but I think it would be difficult for a child to read on their own!! + + + + + +THE FLAG-RAISING +by KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. A DIFFERENCE IN HEARTS +II. REBECCA'S POINT OF VIEW +III. WISDOM'S WAYS +IV. THE SAVING OF THE COLORS +V. THE STATE O' MAINE + + + + +I + +A DIFFERENCE IN HEARTS + +"I DON'know as I cal'lated to be the makin' of any child," Miranda +had said as she folded Aurelia's letter and laid it in the light- +stand drawer. "I s'posed of course Aurelia would send us the one +we asked for, but it's just like her to palm off that wild young +one on somebody else." +"You remember we said that Rebecca, or even Jenny might come, in +case Hannah could n't," interposed Jane. + +"I know we did, but we hadn't any notion it would turn out that +way," grumbled Miranda. +"She was a mite of a thing when we saw her three years ago," +ventured Jane; "she's had time to improve." +"And time to grow worse!" +"Won't it be kind of a privilege to put her on the right track?" +asked Jane timidly. +"I don' know about the privilege part; it'll be considerable +work, I guess. If her mother hasn't got her on the right track by +now, she won't take to it herself all of a sudden." +This depressed and depressing frame of mind had lasted until th + +eventful day dawned on which Rebecca was to arrive. + +"If she makes as much work after she comes as she has before, we +might as well give up hope of ever gettin' any rest," sighed +Miranda as she hung the dish towels on the barberry bushes at the +side door. +"But we should have had to clean house, Rebecca or no Rebecca," +urged Jane; "and I can't see why you've scrubbed and washed and +baked as you have for that one child, nor why you've about bought +out Watson's stock of dry goods." +"I know Aurelia if you don't," responded Miranda. "I've seen her +house, and I've seen that batch o' children, wearin' one +another's clothes and never carin' whether they had 'em on right +side out or not; I know what they've had to live and dress on, +and so do you. That child will like as not come here with a +bundle o' things borrowed from the rest o' the family. She'll +have Hannah's shoes and John's undershirts and Mark's socks most +likely. I suppose she never had a thimble on her finger in her +life, but she'll know the feelin' o' one before she's been here +many days. I've bought a piece of unbleached muslin and a piece +o' brown gingham for her to make up; that'll keep her busy. Of +course she won't pick up anything after herself; she probably +never saw a duster, and she'll be as hard to train into our ways +as if she was a heathen." +"She'll make a dif'rence," acknowledged Jane, "but she may turn +out more biddable than we think." +"She'll mind when she's spoken to, biddable or not," remarked +Miranda with a shake of the last towel. +Miranda Sawyer had a heart, of course, but she had never used it +for any other purpose than the pumping and circulating of blood. +She was just, conscientious, economical, industrious; a regular +attendant at church and Sunday-school, and a member of the State +Missionary and Bible societies, but in the presence of all these +chilly virtues you longed for one warm little fault, or lacking +that, one likable failing, something to make you sure that she +was thoroughly alive. She had never had any education other than +that of the neighborhood district school, for her desires and +ambitions had all pointed to the management of the house, the +farm, and the dairy. Jane, on the other hand, had gone to an +academy, and also to a boarding-school for young ladies; so had +Aurelia; and after all the years that had elapsed there was still +a slight difference in language and in manner between the elder +and the two younger sisters. +Jane, too, had had the inestimable advantage of a sorrow; not the +natural grief at the loss of her aged father and mother, for she +had been resigned to let them go; but something far deeper. She +was engaged to marry young, Tom Carter, who had nothing to marry +on, it is true, but who was sure to have, some time or other. +Then the war broke out. Tom enlisted at the first call. Up to +that time Jane had loved him with a quiet, friendly sort of +affection, and had given her country a mild emotion of the same +sort. But the strife, the danger, the anxiety of the time, set +new currents of feeling in motion. Life became something other +than the three meals a day, the round of cooking, washing, +sewing, and churchgoing. Personal gossip vanished from the +village conversation. Big things took the place of trifling ones, +--sacred sorrows of wives and mothers, pangs of fathers and +husbands, self-denials, sympathies, new desire to bear one +another's burdens. Men and women grew fast in those days of the +nation's trouble and danger, and Jane awoke from the vague dull +dream she had hitherto called life to new hopes, new fears, new +purposes. Then after a year's anxiety, a year when one never +looked in the newspaper without dread and sickness of suspense, +came the telegram saying that Tom was wounded; and without so +much as asking Miranda's leave, she packed her trunk and started +for the South. She was in time to hold Tom's hand through hours +of pain; to show him for once the heart of a prim New England +girl when it is ablaze with love and grief; to put her arms about +him so that he could have a home to die in, and that was all;-- +all, but it served. +It carried her through weary months of nursing--nursing of other +soldiers for Tom's dear sake; it sent her home a better woman; +and though she had never left Riverboro in all the years that lay +between, and had grown into the counterfeit presentment of her +sister and of all other thin, spare, New England spinsters, it +was something of a counterfeit, and underneath was still the +faint echo of that wild heartbeat of her girlhood. Having learned +the trick of beating and loving and suffering, the poor faithful +heart persisted, although it lived on memories and carried on its +sentimental operations mostly in secret. +"You're soft, Jane," said Miranda once; "you allers was soft, and +you allers will be. If't wa'n't for me keeping you stiffened up, +I b'lieve you'd leak out o' the house into the dooryard." +It was already past the appointed hour for Mr. Cobb and his coach +to be lumbering down the street. +"The stage ought to be here," said Miranda, glancing nervously at +the tall clock for the twentieth time. "I guess everything's +done. I've tacked up two thick towels back of her washstand and +put a mat under her slop-jar; but children are awful hard on +furniture. I expect we sha'n't know this house a year from now." +Jane's frame of mind was naturally depressed and timorous, having +been affected by Miranda's gloomy presages of evil to come. The +only difference between the sisters in this matter was that while +Miranda only wondered how they could endure Rebecca, Jane had +flashes of inspiration in which she wondered how Rebecca would +endure them. It was in one of these flashes that she ran up the +back stairs to put a vase of apple blossoms and a red tomato- +pincushion on Rebecca's bureau. +The stage rumbled to the side door of the brick house, and Mr. +Cobb handed Rebecca out like a real lady passenger. She alighted +with great circumspection, put a bunch of flowers in her aunt +Miranda's hand, and received her salute; it could hardly be +called a kiss without injuring the fair name of that commodity. +"You need n't 'a'bothered to bring flowers," remarked that +gracious and tactful lady; "the garden's always full of 'em here +when it comes time." +Jane then kissed Rebecca, giving a somewhat better imitation of +the real thing than her sister. +"Put the trunk in the entry, Jeremiah, and we'll get it carried +upstairs this afternoon," she said. +"I'll take it up for ye now, if ye say the word, girls." +"No, no; don't leave the horses; somebody'll be comin' past, and +we can call 'em in." +"Well, good-by, Rebecca; good-day, Mirandy'n'Jane. You've got a +lively little girl there. I guess she'll be a first-rate company +keeper." +Miss Sawyer shuddered openly at the adjective "lively" as applied +to a child; her belief being that though children might be seen, +if absolutely necessary, they certainly should never be heard if +she could help it. "We're not much used to noise, Jane and me," +she remarked acidly. +Mr. Cobb saw that he had spoken indiscreetly, but he was too +unused to argument to explain himself readily, so he drove away, +trying to think by what safer word than "lively" he might have +described his interesting little passenger. +"I'll take you up and show you your room, Rebecca," Miss Miranda +said. "Shut the mosquito nettin' door tight behind you, so's to +keep the flies out; it ain't fly time yet, but I want you to +start right; take your parcel along with you and then you won't +have to come down for it; always make your head save your heels. +Rub your feet on that braided rug; hang your hat and cape in the +entry as you go past." +"It's my best hat," said Rebecca. +"Take it upstairs then and put it in the clothes-press; but I +shouldn't 'a' thought you'd 'a' worn your best hat on the stage." +"It's my only hat," explained Rebecca. "My every-day hat was n't +good enough to bring. Sister Fanny's going to finish it." +"Lay your parasol in the entry closet." + +"Do you mind if I keep it in my room, please? It always seems +safer." + +"There ain't any thieves hereabouts, and if there was, I guess +they wouldn't make for your sunshade; but come along. Remember to +always go up the back way; we don't use the front stairs on +account o' the carpet; take care o' the turn and don't ketch your +foot; look to your right and go in. When you've washed your face +and hands and brushed your hair you can come down, and by and by +we'll unpack your trunk and get you settled before supper. Ain't +you got your dress on hind side foremost?" +Rebecca drew her chin down and looked at the row of smoked pearl +buttons running up and down the middle of her flat little chest. +"Hind side foremost? Oh, I see! No, that's all right. If you +have seven children you can't keep buttonin' and unbuttonin' 'em +all the time--they have to do themselves. We're always buttoned +up in front at our house. Mira's only three, but she's buttoned +up in front, too." +Miranda said nothing as she closed the door, but her looks were +more eloquent than words. +Rebecca stood perfectly still in the centre of the floor and +looked about her. There was a square of oilcloth in front of each +article of furniture and a drawn-in rug beside the single four +poster, which was covered with a fringed white dimity +counterpane. +Everything was as neat as wax, but the ceilings were much higher +than Rebecca was accustomed to. It was a north room, and the +window, which was long and narrow, looked out on the back +buildings and the barn. +It was not the room, which was far more comfortable than +Rebecca's own at Sunnybrook Farm, nor the lack of view, nor yet +the long journey, for she was not conscious of weariness; it was +not the fear of a strange place, for she adored new places and +new sensations; it was because of some curious blending of +uncomprehended emotions that Rebecca stood her beloved pink +sunshade in the corner, tore off her best hat, flung it on the +bureau with the porcupine quills on the under side, and stripping +down the dimity spread, precipitated herself into the middle of +the bed and pulled the counterpane over her head. +In a moment the door opened with a clatter of the latch. +Knocking was a refinement quite unknown in Riverboro, and if it +had been heard of, it would never have been wasted on a child. +Miss Miranda entered, and as her eye wandered about the vacant +room, it fell upon a white and tempestuous ocean of counterpane, +an ocean breaking into strange movements of wave and crest and +billow. +"Rebecca!" +The tone in which the word was voiced gave it all the effect of +having been shouted from the housetops. +A dark ruffled head and two frightened eyes appeared above the +dimity spread. +"What are you layin' on your good bed in the daytime for, messin' +up the feathers, and dirtyin' the comforter with your dusty +boots?" +Rebecca rose guiltily. There seemed no excuse to make. Her +offense was beyond explanation or apology. +"I'm sorry, Aunt Mirandy-something came over me; I don't know +what." +"Well, if it comes over you very soon again we'll have to find +out what 't is. Spread your bed up smooth this minute, for 'Bijah +Flagg's bringin' your trunk upstairs, and I wouldn't let him see +such a cluttered-up room for anything; he'd tell it all over +town." +When Mr. Cobb had put up his horses that night he carried a +kitchen chair to the side of his wife, who was sitting on the +back porch. + +"I brought a little Randall girl down on the stage from Maplewood +to-day, mother. She's related to the Sawyer girls an' is goin' to +live with 'em," he said, as he sat down and began to whittle. +"She's Aurelia's child, the sister that ran away with Susan +Randall's son just before we come here to live." + +"How old a child?" + +"Bout ten, or somewhere along there, an' small for her age; but +land! she might be a hundred to hear her talk! She kept me +jumpin' tryin' to answer her! Of all the queer children I ever +come across she's the queerest. She ain't no beauty--her face is +all eyes; but if she ever grows up to them eyes an' fills out a +little she'll make folks stare. Land, mother! I wish 't you could +'a' heard her talk." +"I don't see what she had to talk about, a child like that, to a +stranger," replied Mrs. Cobb. +"Stranger or no stranger, 't would n't make no difference to her. +She'd talk to a pump or a grindstone; she'd talk to herself +ruther 'n keep still." +"What did she talk about? +"Blamed if I can repeat any of it. She kept me so surprised I +didn't have my wits about me. She had a little pink sunshade--it +kind o' looked like a doll's umberella, 'n' she clung to it like +a burr to a woolen stockin'. I advised her to open it up--the sun +was so hot; but she said no, 't would fade, an' she tucked it +under her dress. 'It's the dearest thing in life to me,' says +she, 'but it's a dreadful care.' Them's the very words, an' it's +all the words I remember. 'It's the dearest thing in life to me, +but it's an awful care!'"--here Mr.Cobb laughed aloud as he +tipped his chair back against the side of the house. "There was +another thing, but I can't get it right exactly. She was talkin' +'bout the circus parade an' the snake charmer in a gold chariot, +an' says she, 'She was so beautiful beyond compare, Mr. Cobb, +that it made you have lumps in your throat to look at her.' +She'll be comin' over to see you, mother, an' you can size her up +for yourself, I don' know how she'll git on with Mirandy Sawyer-- +poor little soul!" +This doubt was more or less openly expressed in Riverboro, which, +however, had two opinions on the subject; one that it was a most +generous thing in the Sawyer girls to take one of Aurelia's +children to educate, the other that the education would be bought +at a price wholly out of proportion to its real value. +Rebecca's first letters to her mother would seem to indicate that +she cordially coincided with the latter view of the situation, + +II + +REBECCA'S POINT OF VIEW + +DEAR MOTHER,--I am safely here. My dress was not much tumbled and +Aunt Jane helped me press it out. I like Mr. Cobb very much. He +chews tobacco but throws newspapers straight up to the doors of +the houses. I rode outside with him a little while, but got +inside before I got to Aunt Miranda's house. I did not want to, +but thought you would like it better. Miranda is such a long word +that I think I will say Aunt M. and Aunt J. in my Sunday letters. +Aunt J. has given me a dictionary to look up all the hard words +in. It takes a good deal of time and I am glad people can talk +without stoping to spell. It is much eesier to talk than write +and much more fun. The brick house looks just the same as you +have told us. The parler is splendid and gives YOU creeps and +chills when you look in the door. The furnature is ellergant too, +and all the rooms but there are no good sitting-down places +exsept in the kitchen. The same cat is here but they never save +the kittens and the cat is too old to play with. Hannah told me +once you ran away to be married to father and I can see it would +be nice. If Aunt M. would run away I think I should like to live +with Aunt J. She does not hate me as bad as +Aunt M. does. Tell Mark he can have my paint +box, but I should like him to keep the red cake in case I come +home again. I hope Hannah and John do mot get tired doing my +work. + +Your afectionate friend + +REBECCA. + +P. S. Please give the piece of poetry to John because he likes my +poetry even when it is not very good. This piece is not very good +but it is true but I hope you won't mind what is in it as you ran +away. + +This house is dark and dull and dreer +No light doth shine from far or near +Its like the tomb. + +And those of us who live herein +Are almost as dead as serrafim +Though not as good. + +My guardian angel is asleep +At leest he doth not virgil keep +Ah! Woe is me! + +Then give me back my lonely farm +Where none alive did wish me harm +Dear home of youth! + +P.S. again. I made the poetry like a piece in a book but could +not get it right at first. You see "tomb" and "good" do not sound +well together but I wanted to say "tomb" dreadfully and as +serrafim are always good I could n't take that out. I have made +it over now. It does not say my thoughts as well but think it is +more right. Give the best one to John as he keeps them in a box +with his bird's eggs. This is the best one. + +SUNDAY THOUGHTS + +BY + +REBECCA ROWENA RANDALL + +This house is dark and dull and drear +No light doth shine from far or near +Nor ever could. + +And those of us who live herein +Are most as dead as seraphim +Though not as good. + +My guardian angel is asleep +At least he doth no vigil keep +But far doth roam. + +Then give me back my lonely farm +Where none alive did wish me harm, +Dear childhood home! + +DEAR MOTHER,--I am thrilling with unhappyness this morning. I got +that out of a book called Cora The Doctor's Wife. Cora's +husband's mother was very cross and unfeeling to her like Aunt M. +to me. I wish Hannah had come instead of me for it was Hannah +that Aunt M. wanted and she is better than I am and does not +answer back so quick. Are there any peaces of my buff calico. +Aunt J. wants enough to make a new waste, button behind, so I +wont look so outlandish. The stiles are quite pretty in Riverboro +and those at Meeting quite ellergant, more so than in Temperance. + +This town is stilish, gay and fair, +And full of wellthy riches rare, +But I would pillow on my arm +The thought of my sweet Brookside Farm. + +School is pretty good. The Teacher can answer more questions than +the Temperance one but not so many as I can ask. I am smarter +than all the girls but one but not so smart as two boys. Emma +Jane can add and subtract in her head like a streek of lightning +and knows the speling book right through but has no thoughts of +any kind. She is in the Third Reader but does not like stories in +books. I am in the Sixth Reader but just because I cannot say the +seven multiplication Table Miss Dearborn threttens to put me in +the baby primer class with Elijah and Elisha Simpson little +twins. +Sore is my heart and bent my stubborn pride, +With Lijah and with Lisha am I tied, +My soul recoyles like Cora Doctor's Wife, +Like her I feer I cannot bare this life. + +I am going to try for the speling prize but fear I cannot get it. +I would not care but wrong speling looks dreadful in poetry. +Last Sunday when I found seraphim in the dictionary I was ashamed +I had made it serrafim but seraphim is not a word you can guess +at like another long one, outlandish, in this letter which spells +itself. Miss Dearborn says use the words you can spell and if you +cant spell seraphim make angel do but angels are not just the +same as seraphims. Seraphims are brighter whiter and have bigger +wings and I think are older and longer dead than angels which are +just freshly dead and after a long time in heaven around the +great white throne grow to be seraphims. +I sew on brown gingham dresses every afternoon when Emma Jane and +the Simpsons are playing house or running on the Logs when their +mothers do not know it. Their mothers are afraid they will drown +and aunt M. is afraid I will wet my clothes so will not let me +either. I can play from half past four to supper and after supper +a little bit and Saturday afternoons. I am glad our cow has a +calf and it is spotted. It is going to be a good year for apples +and hay so you and John will be glad and we can pay a little more +morgage. Miss Dearborn asked us what is the object of edducation +and I said the object of mine was to help pay off the morgage. +She told Aunt M. and I had to sew extra for punishment because +she says a morgage is disgrace like stealing or smallpox and it +will be all over town that we have one on our farm. Emma Jane is +not morgaged nor Richard Carter nor Dr. Winship but the Simpsons +are. + +Rise my soul, strain every nerve, +Thy morgage to remove, +Gain thy mother's heartfelt thanks +Thy family's grateful love. + +Pronounce family quick or it won't sound right. +Your loving little friend +REBECCA. + +DEAR JOHN,--YOU remember when we tide the new dog in the barn how +he bit the rope and howled. I am just like him only the brick +house is the barn and I can not bite Aunt M. because I must be +grateful and edducation is going to be the making of me and help +you pay off the mortgage when we grow up. +Your loving +BECKY. + +III. +WISDOM'S WAYS +THE day of Rebecca's arrival had been Friday, and on the Monday +following she began her education at the school which was in +Riverboro Centre, about a mile distant. Miss Sawyer borrowed a +neighbor's horse and wagon and drove her to the schoolhouse, +interviewing the teacher, Miss Dearborn, arranging for books, and +generally starting the child on the path that was to lead to +boundless knowledge. +Rebecca walked to school after the first morning. She loved this +part of the day's programme. When the dew was not too heavy and +the weather was fair there was a short cut through the woods. +She turned off the main road, crept through Joshua Woodman's +bars, waved away Mrs. Carter's cows, trod the short grass of the +pasture, with its well-worn path running through gardens of +buttercups and whiteweed, and groves of boxberry leaves and sweet +fern. She descended a little hill, jumped from stone to stone +across a woodland brook, startling the drowsy frogs, who were +always winking and blinking in the morning sun. Then came the +"woodsy bit," with her feet pressing the slippery carpet of brown +pine needles; the woodsy bit so full of dewy morning surprises,-- +fungous growths of brilliant orange and crimson springing up +around the stumps of dead trees, beautiful things born in a +single night; and now and then the miracle of a little clump of +waxen Indian pipes, seen just quickly enough to be saved from her +careless tread. Then she climbed a stile, went through a grassy +meadow, slid under another pair of bars, and came out into the +road again, having gained nearly half a mile. +How delicious it all was! Rebecca clasped her Quackenbos's +Grammar and Greenleaf's Arithmetic with a joyful sense of knowing +her lessons. Her dinner pail swung from her right hand, and she +had a blissful consciousness of the two soda biscuits spread with +butter and syrup, the baked cup-custard, the doughnut, and the +square of hard gingerbread. Sometimes she said whatever "piece" +she was going to speak on the next Friday afternoon. +"A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers, +There was lack of woman's nursing, there was dearth of woman's +tears." + +How she loved the swing and the sentiment of it! How her young +voice quivered whenever she came to the refrain:-- +"But we'll meet no more at Bingen, dear Bingen on the Rhine." +It always sounded beautiful in her ears, as she sent her tearful +little treble into the clear morning air. +Another early favorite (for we must remember that Rebecca's only +knowledge of the great world of poetry consisted of the +selections in vogue in the old school Readers)was:-- +"Woodman, spare that tree! +Touch not a single bough! +In youth it sheltered me, +And I'll protect it now." + +When Emma Jane Perkins walked through the "short cut" with her, +the two children used to render this with appropriate dramatic +action. Emma Jane always chose to be the woodman because she had +nothing to do but raise on high an imaginary axe. On the one +occasion when she essayed the part of the tree's romantic +protector, she represented herself as feeling "so awful foolish" +that she refused to undertake it again, much to the secret +delight of Rebecca, who found the woodman's role much too tame +for her vaulting ambition. She reveled in the impassioned appeal +of the poet, and implored the ruthless woodman to be as brutal as +possible with the axe, so that she might properly put greater +spirit into her lines. One morning, feeling more frisky than +usual, she fell upon her knees and wept in the woodman's +petticoat. Curiously enough, her sense of proportion rejected +this as soon as it was done. +"That wasn't right, it was silly, Emma Jane; but I'll tell you +where it might come in--in 'Give me Three Grains of Corn.' You be +the mother, and I'll be the famishing Irish child. For pity's +sake put the axe down; you are not the woodman any longer!" +"What'll I do with my hands, then?" asked Emma Jane. +"Whatever you like," Rebecca answered wearily; "you're just a +mother--that's all. What does your mother do with her hands? +Nowhere goes! +"'Give me three grains of corn, mother, +Only three grains of corn, +It will keep the little life I have +Till the coming of the morn.'" + +This sort of thing made Emma Jane nervous and fidgety, but she +was Rebecca's slave and obeyed her lightest commands. +At the last pair of bars the two girls were sometimes met by a +detachment of the Simpson children, who lived in a black house +with a red door and a red barn behind, on the Blueberry Plains +road. Rebecca felt an interest in the Simpsons from the first, +because there were so many of them and they were so patched and +darned, just like her own brood at the home farm. +The little schoolhouse with its flagpole on top and its two doors +in front, one for boys and the other for girls, stood on the +crest of a hill, with rolling fields and meadows on one side, a +stretch of pine woods on the other, and the river glinting and +sparkling in the distance. It boasted no attractions within. All +was as bare and ugly and uncomfortable as it well could be, for +the villages along the river expended so much money in repairing +and rebuilding bridges that they were obliged to be very +economical in school privileges. The teacher's desk and chair +stood on a platform in one corner; there was an uncouth stove, +never blackened oftener than once a year, a map of the United +States, two blackboards, a ten-quart tin pail of water and long- +handled dipper on a corner shelf, and wooden desks and benches +for the scholars, who only numbered twenty in Rebecca's time. +The seats were higher in the back of the room, and the more +advanced and longer-legged pupils sat there, the position being +greatly to be envied, as they were at once nearer to the windows +and farther from the teacher. +There were classes of a sort, although nobody, broadly speaking, +studied the same book with anybody else, or had arrived at the +same degree of proficiency in any one branch of learning. +Rebecca in particular was so difficult to classify that Miss +Dearborn at the end of a fortnight gave up the attempt +altogether. She read with Dick Carter and Living Perkins, who +were fitting for the academy; recited arithmetic with lisping +little "Thuthan Thimpthon;" geography with Emma Jane Perkins, and +grammar after school hours to Miss Dearborn alone. Full to the +brim as she was of clever thoughts and quaint fancies, she made +at first but a poor hand at composition. The labor of writing and +spelling, with the added difficulties of punctuation and +capitals, interfered sadly with the free expression of ideas. +She took history with Alice Robinson's class, which was attacking +the subject of the Revolution, while Rebecca was bidden to begin +with the discovery of America. In a week she had mastered the +course of events up to the Revolution, and in ten days had +arrived at Yorktown, where the class had apparently established +summer quarters. Then finding that extra effort would only result +in her reciting with the oldest Simpson boy, she deliberately +held herself back, for wisdom's ways were not those of +pleasantness nor her paths those of peace if one were compelled +to tread them in the company of Seesaw Simpson. Samuel Simpson +was generally called Seesaw, because of his difficulty in making +up his mind. Whether it were a question of fact, of spelling, or +of date, of going swimming or fishing, of choosing a book in the +Sunday-school library or a stick of candy at the village store, +he had no sooner determined on one plan of action than his wish +fondly reverted to the opposite one. Seesaw was pale, flaxen +haired, blue eyed, round shouldered, and given to stammering when +nervous. Perhaps because of his very weakness, Rebecca's decision +of character had a fascination for him, and although she snubbed +him to the verge of madness, he could never keep his eyes away +from her. The force with which she tied her shoe when the lacing +came undone, the flirt over shoulder she gave her black braid +when she was excited or warm, her manner of studying,--book on +desk, arms folded, eyes fixed on the opposite wall,--all had an +abiding charm for Seesaw Simpson. When, having obtained +permission, she walked to the water pail in the corner and drank +from the dipper, unseen forces dragged Seesaw from his seat to go +and drink after her. It was not only that there was something +akin to association and intimacy in drinking next, but there was +the fearful joy of meeting her in transit and receiving a cold +and disdainful look from her wonderful eyes. +On a certain warm day in summer Rebecca's thirst exceeded the +bounds of propriety. When she asked a third time for permission +to quench it at the common fountain Miss Dearborn nodded "yes," +but lifted her eyebrows unpleasantly as Rebecca neared the desk. +As she replaced the dipper Seesaw promptly raised his hand, and +Miss Dearborn indicated a weary affirmative. +"What is the matter with you, Rebecca?" she asked. +"It is a very thirsty morning," answered Rebecca. +There seemed nothing humorous about this reply, which was merely +the statement of a fact, but an irrepressible titter ran through +the school. Miss Dearborn did not enjoy jokes neither made nor +understood by herself, and her face flushed. +"I think you had better stand by the pail for five minutes, +Rebecca; it may help you to control your thirst." +Rebecca's heart fluttered. She to stand in the corner by the +water pail and be stared at by all the scholars! She +unconsciously made a gesture of angry dissent and moved a step +nearer her seat, but was arrested by Miss Dearborn's command in a +still firmer voice. +"Stand by the pail, Rebecca!--Samuel Simpson how many times have +you asked for water already?" +"This is the f-f-fourth." +"Don't touch the dipper, please. The school has done nothing but +drink all day; it has had no time whatever to study. What is the +matter with you, Samuel?" +"It is a v-very thirsty m-morning," remarked Samuel, looking at +Rebecca while the school tittered. +"I judged so. Stand by the other side of the pail, with Rebecca." +Rebecca's head was bowed with shame and wrath. Life looked too +black a thing to be endured. The punishment was bad enough, but +to be coupled in correction with Seesaw Simpson was beyond human +endurance. +Singing was the last exercise in the afternoon, and Minnie +Smellie chose "Shall we Gather at the River?" It was a curious +choice and seemed to hold some secret association with the +situation and general progress of events; or at any rate there +was apparently some obscure reason for the energy and vim with +which the scholars looked at the empty water pail as they shouted +the choral invitation again and again:-- +"Shall we gather at the river, +The beautiful, the beautiful river?" + +Miss Dearborn stole a look at Rebecca's bent head, and was +frightened. The cbild's face was pale save for two red spots +glowing on her checks. Tears hung on her lashes; her breath came +and went quickly, and the hand that held her pocket handkerchief +trembled like a leaf. +"You may go to your seat, Rebecca," said Miss Dearborn at the end +of the first song. "Samuel, stay where you are till the close of +school. And let me tell you, scholars, that I asked Rebecca to +stand by the pail only to break up this habit of incessant +drinking, which is nothing but empty-mindedness and desire to +walk to and fro over the floor. Every time Rebecca has asked for +a drink to-day the whole school has gone to the pail like a +regiment. She is really thirsty, and I dare say I ought to have +punished you for following her example, not her for setting it. +What shall we sing now, Alice?" +"'The Old Oaken Bucket,' please." +"Think of something dry, Alice, and change the subject. Yes, 'The +Star Spangled Banner' if you like, or anything else." +Rebecca sank into her seat and pulled the singing book from her +desk. Miss Dearborn's public explanation had shifted some of the +weight from her heart, and she felt a trifle raised in her self- +esteem. +Under cover of the general relaxation of singing, offerings of +respectful sympathy began to make their appearance at her shrine. +Living Perkins, who could not sing, dropped a piece of maple +sugar in her lap as he passed her on his way to the blackboard to +draw the map of Maine, while Alice Robinson rolled a perfectly +new slate pencil over the floor with her foot until it reached +Rebecca's place. +Altogether existence grew brighter, and when she was left alone +with the teacher for her grammar lesson she had nearly recovered +her equanimity, which was more than Miss Dearborn had. The last +clattering foot had echoed through the hall, Seesaw's backward +glance of penitence had been met and answered defiantly by one of +cold disdain. +"Rebecca, I am afraid I punished you more than I meant," said +Miss Dearborn, who was only eighteen herself, and in her year of +teaching country schools had never encountered a child like +Rebecca. +"I had n't missed a question this whole day, nor whispered +either," quavered the culprit; and I don't think I ought to be +shamed just for drinking." +"You started all the others, or it seemed as if you did. Whatever +you do they all do, whether you laugh, or write notes, or ask to +leave the room, or drink; and it must be stopped." +"Sam Simpson is a copycoat!" stormed Rebecca. "I would n't have +minded standing in the corner alone--that is, not so very much; +but I couldn't bear standing with him." +"I saw that you could n't, and that's the reason I told you to +take your seat, and left him in the corner. Remember that you are +a stranger in the place, and they take more notice of what you +do, so you must be careful. Now let's have our conjugations. +Give me the verb 'to be,' potential mood, past perfect tense." +"I might have been +Thou mightst have been +He might have been +We might have been +You might have been +They might have been" + +"Give me an example, please." + +"I might have been glad +Thou mightst have been glad +He, she, or it might have been glad" + +"'He' or 'she' might have been glad because they are masculine +and feminine, but could 'it' have been glad?" asked Miss +Dearborn, who was very fond of splitting hairs. +"Why not?" asked Rebecca. + +"Because 'it' is neuter gender." + +"Could n't we say, 'The kitten might have been glad if it had +known it was not going to be drowned'?" + +"Ye-es," Miss Dearborn answered hesitatingly, never very sure of +herself under Rebecca's fire; "but though we often speak of a +baby, a chicken, or a kitten as 'it,' they are really masculine +or feminine gender, not neuter." + +Rebecca reflected a long moment and then asked, "Is a hollyhock +neuter?" + +"Oh yes, of course it is, Rebecca." + +"Well, could n't we say, 'The hollyhock might have been glad to +see it rain, but there was a weak little baby bud growing out of +its stalk and it was afraid it might be hurt by the storm; so the +big hollyhock was kind of afraid, instead of being real glad'?" + +Miss Dearborn looked puzzled as she answered, "Of course, +Rebecca, hollyhocks could not be sorry, or glad, or afraid, +really." + +"We can't tell, I s'pose," replied the child; "but I think they +are, anyway. Now what shall I say?" + +"The subjunctive mood, past perfect tense of the verb 'to know.'" + +"If I had known +If thou hadst known +If he had known +If we had known +If you had known +If they had known" + +"Oh, it is the saddest tense," sighed Rebecca with a little +a little break in her voice; "nothing but ifs-, ifs, ifs! And it +makes you feel that if they only had known, things might have +been better!" + +Miss Dearborn had not thought of it before, but on reflection she +believed the subjective mood was a "sad" one and "if" rather a +sorry "part of speech." + +"Give me some examples of the subjective, Rebecca, and that will +do for this afternoon," she said. + +"If I had not eaten salt mackerel for breakfast I should not have +been thirsty," said Rebecca with an April smile, as she closed +her grammar. "If thou hadst love me truly thou wouldst not have +stood me up in the corner. If Samuel had not loved wickedness he +would not have followed me to the water pail." + +"And if Rebecca had loved the rules of the school she would have +controlled her thirst," finished Miss Dearborn with a kiss, and +the two parted friends. + +IV +THE SAVING OF THE COLORS + +EVEN when Rebecca had left school, having attained the great age +of seventeen and therefore able to look back over a past +incredibly long and full, she still reckoned time not by years, +but by certain important occurrences. Between these epoch-making +events certain other happenings stood out in bold relief against +the gray of dull daily life. There was the coming of the new +minister, for though many were tried only one was chosen; and +finally there was the flag-raising, a festivity that thrilled +Riverboro and Edgewood society from centre to circumference, a +festivity that took place just before she entered the Female +Seminary at Wareham and said good-by to kind Miss Dearborn and +the village school. +There must have been other flag-raisings in history,--even the +persons most interested in this particular one would grudgingly +have allowed that much,--but it would have seemed to them improb- +able that any such flag-raising, as theirs could twice glorify +the same century. Of some pageants it is tacitly admitted that +there can be no duplicates, and the flag-raising at Riverboro +Centre was one of these; so that it is small wonder if Rebecca +chose it as one of the important dates in her personal almanac. +Mrs. Baxter, the new minister's wife, was the being, under +Providence, who had conceived the first idea of the flag. +Mrs. Baxter communicated her patriotic idea of a new flag to the +Dorcas Society, proposing that the women should cut and make it +themselves. +"It may not be quite as good as those manufactured in the large +cities," she said, " but we shall be proud to see our home-made +flag flying in the breeze, and it will mean all the more to the +young voters growing up, to remember that their mothers made it +with their own hands." +"How would it do to let some of the girls help?" modestly asked +Miss Dearborn, the Riverboro teacher. "We might chose the best +sewers and let them put in at least a few stitches, so that they +can feel they have a share in it." +"Just the thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Baxter. "We can cut the stripes +and sew them together, and after we have basted on the white +stars the girls can apply them to the blue ground. We must have +it ready for the campaign rally, and we could n't christen it at +a better time than in this presidential year." +In this way the great enterprise was started, and day by day the +preparations went forward in the two villages. +The boys, as future voters and soldiers, demanded an active share +in the proceedings, and were organized by Squire Bean into a fife +and drum corps, so that by day and night martial but most +inharmonious music woke the echoes, and deafened mothers felt +their patriotism oozing out at the soles of their shoes. +Dick Carter was made captain, for his grandfather had a gold +medal given him by Queen Victoria for rescuing three hundred and +twenty-six passengers from a sinking British vessel. Riverboro +thought it high time to pay some graceful tribute to Great +Britain in return for her handsome, conduct to Captain Nahum +Carter, and human imagination could contrive nothing more +impressive than a vicarious share in the flag-raising. +Miss Dearborn was to be Columbia and the older girls of the two +schools were to be the States. Such trade in muslins and red, +white, and blue ribbons had never been known since "Watson kep' +store," and the number of brief white petticoats hanging out to +bleach would leave caused the passing stranger to imagine +Riverboro a continual dancing-school. +Juvenile virtue, both male and female, reached an almost +impossible height, for parents had only to lift a finger and say, +"You shan't go to the flag-raising!" and the refractory spirit at +once armed itself for new struggles toward the perfect life. +Mr. Jeremiah Cobb had consented to impersonate Uncle Sam, and was +to drive Columbia and the States to the "raising" on the top of +his own stage. Meantime the boys were drilling, the ladies were +cutting and basting and stitching, and the girls were sewing on +stars; for the starry part of the spangled banner was to remain +with each of them in turn until she had performed her share of +the work. +It was felt by one and all a fine and splendid service indeed to +help in the making of the flag, and if Rebecca was proud to be of +the chosen ones, so was her Aunt Jane Sawyer, who had taught her +all her delicate stitches. +On a long-looked-for afternoon in August the minister's wife +drove up to the brick-house door, and handed out the great piece +of bunting to Rebecca, who received it in her arms with as much +solemnity as if it had been a child awaiting baptismal rites. +"I'm so glad!" she sighed happily. "I thought it would never come +my turn!" +"You should have had it a week ago, but Huldah Meserve upset the +ink bottle over her star, and we had to baste on another one. +You are the last, though, and then we shall sew the stars and +stripes together, and Seth Strout will get the top ready for +hanging. Just think, it won't be many days before you children +will be pulling the rope with all your strength, the band will be +playing, the men will be cheering, and the new flag will go +higher and higher, till the red, white, and blue shows against +the sky!" +Rebecca's eyes fairly blazed. "Shall I 'hem on' my star, or +buttonhole it?" she asked. +"Look at all the others and make the most beautiful stitches you +can, that's all. It is your star, you know, and you can even +imagine it is your state, and try and have it the best of all. +If everybody else is trying to do the same thing with her state, +that will make a great country, won't it?" +Rebecca's eyes spoke glad confirmation of the idea. "My star, my +state! " she repeated joyously. "Oh, Mrs. Baxter, I'll make such +fine stitches you'll, think the white grew out of the blue!" +The new minister's wife looked pleased to see her spark kindle a +flame in the young heart. "You can sew so much of yourself into +your star," she went on in the glad voice that made her so win- +some, "that when you are an old lady you can put on your specs +and find it among all the others. Good-by! Come up to the +parsonage Saturday afternoon; Mr. Baxter wants to see you." +"Judson, help that dear little genius of a Rebecca all you can!" +she said that night. "I don't know what she may, or may not, come +to, some day; I only wish she were ours! If you could have seen +her clasp the flag tight in her arms and put her cheek against +it, and watched the tears of feeling start in her eyes when I +told her that her star was her state! I kept whispering to +myself, "'Covet not thy neighbor's child! +Daily at four o'clock Rebecca scrubbed her hands almost to the +bone, brushed her hair, and otherwise prepared herself in body, +mind, and spirit for the consecrated labor of sewing on her star. +All the time that her needle cautiously, conscientiously formed +the tiny stitches she was making rhymes "in her head," her +favorite achievement being this:-- +"Your star, my star, all our stars together, +They make the dear old banner proud +To float in the bright fall weather." + +There was much discussion as to which of the girls should +impersonate the State of Maine, for that was felt to be the +highest honor in the gift of the committee. +Alice Robinson was the prettiest child in the village, but she +was very shy and by no means a general favorite. +Minnie Smellie possessed the handsomest dress and a pair of white +slippers and open-work stockings that nearly carried the day, but +she was not at all the person to select for the central figure on +the platform. +Huldah Meserve was next voted upon, and the fact that if she were +not chosen her father might withdraw his subscription to the +brass band fund was a matter for grave consideration. +"I kind of hate to have such a giggler for the State of Maine; +let Huldah be the Goddess of Liberty," proposed Mrs. Burbank, +whose patriotism was more local than national. +"How would Rebecca Randall do for Maine, and let her speak some +of her verses?" suggested the new minister's wife, who, could she +have had her way, would have given all the prominent parts to +Rebecca, from Uncle Sam down. +So, beauty, fashion, and wealth having been tried and found +wanting, the committee discussed the claims of talent, and it +transpired that to the awestricken Rebecca fell the chief plum in +the pudding. It was a tribute to her gifts that there was no +jealousy or envy among the other girls; they readily conceded her +special fitness for the role. +Her life had not been pressed down full to the brim of pleasures, +and she had a sort of distrust of joy in the bud. Not until she +saw it in full radiance of bloom did she dare embrace it. She had +never read any verse but Byron, Felicia Hemans, bits of "Paradise +Lost," and the selections in the school readers, but she would +have agreed heartily with the poet who said:-- +"Not by appointment do we meet delight +And joy; they heed not our expectancy; +But round some corner in the streets of life +They on a sudden clasp us with a smile." + +For many nights before the raising, when she went to her bed, she +said to herself after she had finished her prayers: "It can't be +true that I'm chosen for the State of Maine! It just can't be +true! Nobody could be good enough, but oh, I'll try to be as good +as I can! To be going to Wareham Seminary next week and to be the +State of Maine too! Oh! I must pray hard to God to keep me meek +and humble!" +The flag was to be raised on a Tuesday, and on the previous +Sunday it became known to the children that Clara Belle Simpson +was coming back from Acreville, coming to live with Mrs. Fogg and +take care of the baby. Clara Belle was one of Miss Dearborn's +original flock, and if she were left wholly out of the +festivities she would be the only girl of suitable age to be thus +slighted; it seemed clear to the juvenile mind, therefore, that +neither she nor her descendants would ever recover from such a +blow. But, under all the circumstances, would she be allowed to +join in the procession? Even Rebecca, the optimistic, feared not, +and the committee confirmed her fears by saying that Abner +Simpson's daughter certainly could not take any prominent part in +the ceremony, but that they hoped Mrs. Fogg would allow her to +witness it. +When Abner Simpson, urged by the town authorities, took his wife +and seven children away from Riverboro to Acreville, just over +the border in the next county, Riverboro went to bed leaving its +barn and shed doors unfastened, and drew long breaths of +gratitude to Providence. +Of most winning disposition and genial manners, Mr. Simpson had +not that instinctive comprehension of property rights which +renders a man a valuable citizen. +Abner was a most unusual thief, and conducted his operations with +a tact and neighborly consideration none too common in the +profession. He would never steal a man's scythe in haying-time, +nor his fur lap-robe in the coldest of the winter. The picking of +a lock offered no attractions to him; "he wa'n't no burglar," he +would have scornfully asserted. A strange horse and wagon hitched +by the roadside was the most flagrant of his thefts; but it was +the small things--the hatchet or axe on the chopping-block, the +tin pans sunning at the side door, a stray garment bleaching on +the grass, a hoe, rake, shovel, or a bag of early potatoes--that +tempted him most sorely; and these appealed to him not so much +for their intrinsic value as because they were so excellently +adapted to "swapping." The swapping was really the enjoyable part +of the procedure, the theft was only a sad but necessary +preliminary; for if Abner himself had been a man of sufficient +property to carry on his business operations independently, it is +doubtful if he would have helped himself so freely to his +neighbor's goods. +Riverboro regretted the loss of Mrs. Simpson, who was useful in +scrubbing, cleaning, and washing, and was thought to exercise +some influence over her predatory spouse. There was a story of +their early life together, when they had a farm; a story to the +effect that Mrs. Simpson always rode on every load of hay that +her husband took to Milltown, with the view of keeping him sober +through the day. After he turned out of the country road and +approached the metropolis, it was said that he used to bury the +docile lady in the load. He would then drive on to the scales, +have the weight of hay entered in the buyer's book, take his +horses to the stable for feed and water, and when a favorable +opportunity offered he would assist the hot and panting Mrs. +Simpson out of the side or back of the rack, and gallantly brush +the straw from her person. For this reason it was always +asserted that Abner Simpson sold his wife every time he went to +Milltown, but the story was never fully substantiated, and at all +events it was the only suspected blot on meek Mrs. Simpson's +personal reputation. +As for the Simpson children, they were missed chiefly as familiar +fiures by the roadside; but Rebecca honestly loved Clara Belle, +notwithstanding her Aunt Miranda's opposition to the intimacy. +Rebecca's curious taste in friends was a source of continual +anxiety to her aunt. +"Anything that's human flesh is good enough for her!" Miranda +groaned to Jane. "She'll ride with the rag-sack-and-bottle +peddler just as quick as she would with the minister; she always +sets beside the barefooted young ones at Sabbath school; and +she's forever riggin' and onriggin' that dirty Simpson baby! She +reminds me of a puppy that'll always go to everybody that'll have +him!" +It was thought very creditable to Mrs. Fogg that she sent for +Clara Belle to live with her and go to school part of the year. +"She'll be useful," said Mrs. Fogg, "and she'll be out of her +father's way, and so keep honest; though she's so awful homely +I've no fears for her. A girl with her red hair, freckles, and +cross-eyes can't fall into no kind of sin, I don't believe." +Mrs. Fogg requested that Clara Belle should be started on her +journey from Acreville by train and come the rest of the way by +stage, and she was disturbed to receive word on Sunday that Mr. +Simpson had borrowed a horse from a new acquaintance, and would +himself drive the girl from Acreville to Riverboro, a distance of +thirty-five miles. That he would arrive in their vicinity on the +very night before the flag-raising was thought by Riverboro to be +a public misfortune, and several residents hastily determined to +deny themselves a sight of the festivities and remain watchfully +on their own premises. +On Monday afternoon the children were rehearsing their songs at +the meeting-house. As Rebecca came out on the broad wooden steps +she watched Mrs. Peter Meserve's buggy out of sight, for in +front, wrapped in a cotton sheet, lay the precious flag. After a +few chattering good-byes and weather prophecies with the other +girls, she started on her homeward walk, dropping in at the +parsonage to read her verses to the minister. +He welcomed her gladly as she removed her white cotton gloves +(hastily slipped on outside the door, for ceremony) and pushed +back the funny hat with the yellow and black porcupine quills-- +the hat with which she made her first appearance in Riverboro +society. +"You've heard the beginning, Mr. Baxter; now will you please tell +me if you like the last verse?" she asked, taking out her paper. +"I've only read it to Alice Robinson, and I think perhaps she can +never be a poet, though she's a splendid writer. Last year when +she was twelve she wrote a birthday poem to herself, and she made +'natal' rhyme with 'Milton,' which, of course, it wouldn't. I +remember every verse ended:-- +'This is my day so natal +And I will follow Milton.' + +Another one of hers was written just because she couldn't help it +she said. This was it:-- +'Let me to the hills away, +Give me pen and paper; +I'll write until the earth will sway +The story of my Maker.'" + +The minister could scarcely refrain from smiling, but he +controlled himself that he might lose none of Rebecca's quaint +observations. When she was perfectly at ease, unwatched and +uncriticised, she was a marvelous companion. +"The name of the poem is going to be 'My Star,'" she continued, +"and Mrs. Baxter gave me all the ideas, but somehow there's a +kind of magicness when they get into poetry, don't you think so?" +(Rebecca always talked to grown people as if she were their age, +or, a more subtle and truer distinction, as if they were hers.) +"It has often been so remarked, in different words," agreed the +minister. +"Mrs. Baxter said that each star was a state, and if each state +did its best we should have a splendid country. Then once she +said that we ought to be glad the war is over and the States are +all at peace together; and I thought Columbia must be glad, too, +for Miss Dearborn says she's the mother of all the States. So I'm +going to have it end like this: I did n't write it, I just sewed +it while I was working on my star:-- +"For it's your star, my star, all the stars together, +That make our country's flag so proud +To float in the bright fall weather. +Northern stars, Southern stars, stars of the East and West, +Side by side they lie at peace +On the dear flag's mother-breast." + +"'Oh! many are the poets that are sown by Nature,'" thought the +minister, quoting Wordsworth to himself. "And I wonder what +becomes of them! That's a pretty idea, little Rebecca, and I +don't know whether you or my wife ought to have the more praise. +What made you think of the stars lying on the flag's 'mother- +breast'? Were did you get that word?" +"Why" (and the young poet looked rather puzzled),"that's the way +it is; the flag is the whole country--the mother--and the stars +are the states. The stars had to lie somewhere: 'lap' nor 'arms' +wouldn't sound well with 'West,' so, of course, I said +'breast,'" Rebecca answered, with some surprise at the question; +and the minister put his hand under her chin and kissed her +softly on the forehead when he said good-by at the door. +Rebecca walked rapidly along in the gathering twilight, thinking +of the eventful morrow. +As she approached the turning on the left, called the old +Milltown road, she saw a white horse and wagon, driven by a man +with a rakish, flapping, Panama hat, come rapidly around the turn +and disappear over the long hills leading down to the falls. +There was no mistaking him; there never was another Abner +Simpson, with his lean height, his bushy reddish hair, the gay +cock of his hat, and the long, piratical, upturned mustaches, +which the boys used to say were used as hat-racks by the Simpson +children at night. The old Milltown road ran past Mrs. Fogg's +house, so he must have left Clara Belle there, and Rebecca's +heart glowed to think that her poor little friend need not miss +the raising. +She began to run now, fearful of being late for supper, and +covered the ground to the falls in a brief time. As she crossed +the bridge she again saw Abner Simpson's team, drawn up at the +watering-trough. +Coming a little nearer with the view of inquiring for the family, +her quick eye caught sight of something unexpected. A gust of +wind blew up a corner of a linen lap-robe in the back of the +wagon, and underneath it she distinctly saw the white-sheeted +bundle that held the flag; the bundle with a tiny, tiny spot of +red bunting peeping out at one corner. It is true she had eaten, +slept, dreamed red, white, and blue for weeks, but there was no +mistaking the evidence of her senses; the idolized flag, longed +for, worked for, sewed for, that flag was in the back of Abner +Simpson's wagon, and if so, what would become of the raising? +Acting on blind impulse, she ran toward the watering-trough, +calling out in her clear treble Mr.Simpson! Oh, Mr. Simpson, will +you let me ride a little way with you and hear all about Clara +Belle? I'm going over to the Centre on an errand." (So she was; a +most important errand,--to recover the flag of her country at +present in the hands of the foe !) +Mr. Simpson turned round in his seat and cried heartily, "Certain +sure I will! "for he liked the fair sex, young and old, and +Rebecca had always been a prime favorite with him. "Climb right +in! How's everybody? Glad to see you! The folks talk 'bout you +from sun-up to sun-down, and Clara Belle can't hardly wait for a +sight of you!" +Rebecca scrambled up, trembling and pale with excitement. She did +not in the least know what was going to happen, but she was sure +that the flag, when in the enemy's country, must be at least a +little safer with the State of Maine sitting on top of it! +Mr. Simpson began a long monologue about Acreville, the house he +lived in, the pond in front of it, Mrs. Simpson's health and +various items of news about the children, varied by reports of +his personal misfortunes. He put no questions, and asked no +replies, so this gave the inexperienced soldier a few seconds to +plan a campaign. There were three houses to pass; the Browns' at +the corner, the Millikens', and the Robinsons' on the brow of the +hill. If Mr. Robinson were in the front yard she might tell Mr. +Simpson she wanted to call there and ask Mr. Robinson to hold the +horse's head while she got out of the wagon. Then she might fly +to the back before Mr. Simpson could realize the situation, and +dragging out the precious bundle, sit on it hard, while Mr. +Robinson settled the matter of ownership with Mr. Simpson. +This was feasible, but it meant a quarrel between the two men, +who held an ancient grudge against each other, and Mr. Simpson +was a valiant fighter, as the various sheriffs who had attempted +to arrest him could cordially testify. It also meant that +everybody in the village would hear of the incident and poor +Clara Belle be branded again as the child of a thief. +Another idea danced into her excited brain; such a clever one she +could hardly believe it hers. She might call Mr. Robinson to the +wagon, and when he came close to the wheels she might say, +suddenly: "Please take the flag out of the back of the wagon, Mr. +Robinson. We have brought it here for you to keep overnight." +Then Mr. Simpson might be so surprised that he would give up his +prize rather than be suspected of stealing. +But as they neared the Robinsons' house there was not a sign of +life to be seen; so the last plan, ingenious though it was, was +perforce abandoned. +The road now lay between thick pine woods with no dwelling in +sight. It was growing dusk and Rebecca was driving along the +lonely way with a person who was generally called Slippery +Simpson. +Not a thought of fear crossed her mind, save the fear of bungling +in her diplomacy, and so losing the flag. She knew Mr. Simpson +well, and a pleasanter man was seldom to be met. She recalled an +afternoon when he came home and surprised the whole school +playing the Revolutionary War in his helter-skelter dooryard, and +the way in which he had joined the British forces and +impersonated General Burgoyne had greatly endeared him to her. +The only difficulty was to find proper words for her delicate +mission, for, of course, if Mr. Simpson's anger were aroused, he +would politely push her out of the wagon and drive away with the +flag. Perhaps if she led the conversation in the right direction +an opportunity would present itself. Clearing her throat +nervously, she began:-- +"Is it likely to be fair to-morrow?" + +"Guess so; clear as a bell. What's on foot; a picnic?" + +"No; we're to have a grand flag-raising!" ("That is," she +thought, "if we have any flag to raise!") + +"That so? Where?" + +"The three villages are to club together and have a rally, and +raise the flag at the Centre. There'll be a brass band, and +speakers, and the Mayor of Portland, and the man that will be +governor if he's elected, and a dinner in the Grange Hall, and we +girls are chosen to raise the flag." +"I want to know! That'll be grand, won't it?" (Still not a sign +of consciousness on the part of Abner.) +"I hope Mrs. Fogg will take Clara Belle, for it will be splendid +to look at! Mr. Cobb is going to be Uncle Sam and drive us on the +stage. Miss Dearborn--Clara Belle's old teacher, you know is +going to be Columbia; the girls will be the States of the Union, +and oh, Mr. Simpson, I am the one to be the State of Maine!" +Mr. Simpson flourished the whipstock and gave a loud, hearty +laugh. Then he turned in his seat and regarded Rebecca curiously. +"You're kind o' small, ain't ye, for so big a state as this one?" +he asked. +"Any of us would be too small," replied Rebecca with dignity, +"but the committee asked me, and I am going to try hard to do +well." +The tragic thought that there might be no occasion for anybody to +do anything, well or ill, suddenly overcame her here, and putting +her hand on Mr. Simpson's sleeve, she attacked the subject +practically and courageously. +"Oh, Mr. Simpson, dear Mr. Simpson, it's such a mortifying +subject I can't bear to say anything about it, but please give us +back our flag! Don't, don't take it over to Acreville, Mr. +Simpson! We've worked so long to make it, and it was so hard +getting the money for the bunting! Wait a minute, please; don't +be angry, and don't say no just yet, till I explain more. It'll +be so dreadful for everybody to get there to-morrow morning and +find no flag to raise, and the band and the mayor all +disappointed, and the children crying, with their muslin dresses +all bought for nothing! Oh, dear Mr. Simpson, please don't take +our flag away from us! +The apparently astonished Abner pulled his mustaches and +exclaimed: "But I don't know what you're drivin' at! Who's got +yer flag? I hain't!" +Could duplicity, deceit, and infamy go any further, Rebecca +wondered, and her soul filling with righteous wrath, she cast +discretion to the winds and spoke a little more plainly, bending +her great swimming eyes on the now embarrassed Abner, who looked +like an angle-worm wriggling on a pin. +"Mr. Simpson, how can you say that, when I saw the flag in the +back of your wagon myself, when you stopped to water the horse? +It's wicked of you to take it, and I cannot bear it! " (Her voice +broke now, for a doubt of Mr. Simpson's yielding suddenly +darkened her mind. "If you keep it, you'll have to keep me, for I +won't be parted from it! I can't fight like the boys, but I can +pinch and scratch, and I will scratch, just like a panther--I'll +lie right down on my star and not move, if I starve to death!" +"Look here, hold your hosses 'n' don't cry till you git something +to cry for!" grumbled the outraged Abner, to whom a clue had just +come; and leaning over the wagon-back he caught hold of a corner +of white sheet and dragged up the bundle, scooping off Rebecca's +hat in the process, and almost burying her in bunting. +She caught the treasure passionately to her heart and stifled her +sobs in it, while Abner exclaimed "I declare to man, if that +hain't a flag! Well, in that case you're good 'n' welcome to it! +Land! I seen that bundle lyin' in the middle o' the road and I +says to myself, that's somebody's washin' and I'd better pick it +up and leave it at the post-office to be claimed; 'n' all the +time it was a flag!" +This was a Simpsonian version of the matter, the fact being that +a white-covered bundle lying on the Meserves' front steps had +attracted his practiced eye, and slipping in at the open gate he +had swiftly and deftly removed it to his wagon on general +principles; thinking if it were clean clothes it would be +extremely useful, and in any event there was no good in passing +by something flung into one's very arms, so to speak. He had had +no leisure to examine the bundle, and indeed took little interest +in it. Probably he stole it simply from force of habit, and +because there was nothing else in sight to steal, everybody's +premises being preternaturally tidy and empty, almost as if his +visit had been expected! Rebecca was a practical child, and it +seemed to her almost impossible that so heavy a bundle should +fall out of Mrs. Meserve's buggy and not be noticed; but she +hoped that Mr. Simpson was telling the truth, and she was too +glad and grateful to doubt any one at the moment. +"Thank you, thank you ever so much, Mr. Simpson. You're the +nicest, kindest, politest man I ever knew, and the girls will be +so pleased you gave us back the flag, and so will the Dorcas +Society; they'll be sure to write you a letter of thanks;they +always do." +"Tell 'em not to bother 'bout any thanks," said Simpson, beaming +virtuously. "But land! I'm glad 't was me that happened to see +that bundle in the road and take the trouble to pick it up." (" +Jest to think of it's bein' a flag!" he thought; "if ever there +was a pesky, wuthless thing to trade off, 't would be a great, +gormin' flag like that!") +"Can I get out now, please?" asked Rebecca. "I want to go back, +for Mrs. Meserve will be dreadfully nervous when she finds out +she dropped the flag, and it hurts her health to be nervous." +"No, you don't," objected Mr. Simpson gallantly,turning the +horse. "Do you think I'd let a little creeter like you lug that +great heavy bundle? I hain't got time to go back to Meserve's, +but I'll take you to the corner and dump you there, flag'n' all, +and you can get some o' the men-folks to carry it the rest o' the +way. You'll wear it out, huggin' it so!" +"I helped make it and I adore it!" said Rebecca, who was in a +grandiloquent mood. "Why don't you like it? It's your country's +flag." +Simpson smiled an indulgent smile and looked a trifle bored at +these appeals to his extremely rusty better feelings. +"I don' know's I've got any particular int'rest in the country," +he remarked languidly. "I know I don't owe nothin' to it, nor own +nothin' in it!" +"You own a star on the flag, same as everybody," argued Rebecca, +who had been feeding on patriotism for a month; "and you own a +state, too, like all the rest of us!" +"Land! I wish't I did! or even a quarter section of one!" sighed +Mr. Simpson, feeling somehow a little more poverty-stricken and +discouraged than usual. +As they approached the corner and the watering-trough where four +cross-roads met, the whole neighborhood seemed to be in evidence, +and Mr. Simpson suddenly regretted his chivalrous escort of +Rebecca; especially when, as he neared the group, an excited +lady, wringing her hands, turned out to be Mrs. Peter Mescrve, +accompanied by Huldah, the Browns, Mrs. Milliken, Abijah Flagg, +and Miss Dearborn. "Do you know anything about the new flag, +Rebecca?" shrieked Mrs. Meserve, too agitated, for a moment, to +notice the child's companion. +"It's right here in my lap, all safe," responded Rebecca +joyously. +"You careless, meddlesome young one, to take it off my steps +where I left it just long enough to go round to the back and hunt +up my door-key! You've given me a fit of sickness with my weak +heart, and what business was it of yours? I believe you think you +own the flag! Hand it over to me this minute!" +Rebecca was climbing down during this torrent of language, but as +she turned she flashed one look of knowledge at the false +Simpson, a look that went through him from head to foot, as if it +were carried by electricity. +He saw that he had not deceived her after all, owing to the angry +chatter of Mrs. Meserve. He had been handcuffed twice in his +life, but no sheriff had ever discomfited him so thoroughly as +this child. Fury mounted to his brain, and as soon as she was +safely out from between the wheels he stood up in the wagon and +flung the flag out in the road in the midst of the excited group. +"Take it, you pious, stingy, scandal-talkin', flag-raisin' crew!" +he roared. "Rebecca never took the flag; I found it in the road, +I say!" +"You never, no such a thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Meserve. "You found +it on the doorsteps in my garden!" +"Mebbe 't was your garden, but it was so chock full o' weeds I +thought 't was the road," retorted Abner. "I vow I wouldn't 'a' +given the old rag back to one o' you, not if you begged me on +your knees! But Rebecca's a friend o'my folks and can do with her +flag's she's a mind to, and the rest o' ye can do what ye like +an' go where ye like, for all I care! " +So saying, he made a sharp turn, gave the gaunt white horse a +lash and disappeared in a cloud of dust, before the astonished +Mr. Brown, the only man in the party, had a thought of detaining +him. +"I'm sorry I spoke so quick, Rebecca," said Mrs. Meserve, greatly +mortified at the situation. "But don't you believe a word that +lyin' critter said! He did steal it off my doorstep, and how did +you come to be ridin' and consortin' with him? I believe it would +kill your Aunt Miranda if she should hear about it!" +The little school-teacher put a sheltering arm round Rebecca as +Mr. Brown picked up the flag and dusted and folded it. +"I'm willing she should hear about it," Rebecca answered. "I +didn't do anything to be ashamed of! I saw the flag in the back +of Mr. Simpson's wagon and I just followed it. There weren't any +men or any Dorcas ladies to take care of it so it fell to me! +You would n't have had me let it out of my sight, would you, and +we going to raise it to-morrow morning?" +"Rebecca's perfectly right, Mrs. Meserve!" said Miss Dearborn +proudly. "And it's lucky there was somebody quick-witted enough +to 'ride and consort' with Mr. Simpson! I don't know what the +village will think, but seems to me the town clerk might write +down in his book, 'This day the State of Maine saved the flag!'" +V. +THE STATE O' MAINE GIRL +THE foregoing episode, if narrated in a romance, would +undoubtedly have been called "The Saving of the Colors," but at +the nightly chats in Watson's store it was alluded to as the way +little Becky Randall got the flag away from Slippery Simpson. +Dramatic as it was, it passed into the crowd of half-forgotten +things in Rebecca's mind, its brief importance submerged in the +glories of the next day. +There was a painful prelude to these glories. Alice Robinson came +to spend the night with Rebecca, and when the bedroom door closed +upon the two girls, Alice announced her intention of "doing up" +Rebecca's front hair in leads and rags, and braiding the back in +six tight, wetted braids. +Rebecca demurred. Alice persisted. +"Your hair is so long and thick and dark and straight," she said, +"that you'll look like an Injun!" +"I am the State of Maine; it all belonged to the Indians once," +Rebecca remarked gloomily, for she was curiously shy about +discussing her personal appearance. +"And your wreath of little pine-cones won't set decent without +crimps," continued Alice. +Rebecca glanced in the cracked looking-glass and met what she +considered an accusing lack of beauty, a sight that always either +saddened or enraged her according to circumstances; then she sat +down resignedly and began to help Alice in the philanthropic work +of making the State of Maine fit to be seen at the raising. +Neither of the girls was an expert hairdresser, and at the end of +an hour, when the sixth braid was tied, and Rebecca had given one +last shuddering look in the mirror, both were ready to weep with +fatigue. +The candle was blown out and Alice soon went to sleep, but +Rebecca tossed on her pillow, its goose-feathered softness all +dented by the cruel lead knobs and the knots of twisted rags. +She slipped out of bed and walked to and fro, holding her aching +head with both hands. Finally she leaned on the window-sill, +watching the still weather-vane on Alice's barn and breathing in +the fragrance of the ripening apples, until her restlessness +subsided under the clear starry beauty of the night. +At six in the morning the girls were out of bed, for Alice could +hardly wait until Rebecca's hair was taken down, she was so eager +to see the result of her labors. +The leads and rags were painfully removed, together with much +hair, the operation being punctuated by a series of squeaks, +squeals, and shrieks on the part of Rebecca and a series of +warnings from Alice, who wished the preliminaries to be kept +secret from the aunts, that they might the more fully appreciate +the radiant result. +Then came the unbraiding, and then--dramatic moment--the "comb- +ing out;" a difficult, not to say impossible process, in which +the hairs that had resisted the earlier stages almost gave up the +ghost. +The long front strands had been wound up from various angles and +by various methods, so that, when released, they assumed the +strangest, most obstinate, most unexpected attitudes. When the +comb was dragged through the last braid, the wild, tortured, +electric hairs following, and then rebounding from it in a +bristling, snarling tangle, Massachusetts gave one encompassing +glance at the State o' Maine's head, and announced her intention +of going home to breakfast! Alice was deeply grieved at the +result of her attempted beautifying, but she felt that meeting +Miss Miranda Sawyer at the morning meal would not mend matters in +the least, so slipping out of the side door, she ran up Guide- +Board hill as fast as her feet could carry her. +The State o' Maine, deserted and somewhat unnerved, sat down +before the glass and attacked her hair doggedly and with set +lips, working over it until Miss Jane called her to breakfast; +then, with a boldness born of despair, she entered the dining- +room, where her aunts were already seated at table. There was a +moment of silence after the grotesque figure was fully taken in; +then came a moan from Jane and a groan from Miranda. +"What have you done to yourself?" asked Miranda sternly. +"Made an effort to be beautiful and failed!" jauntily replied +Rebecca, but she was too miserable to keep up the fiction. "Oh, +Aunt Miranda, don't scold, I'm so unhappy! Alice and I rolled up +my hair to curl it for the raising. She said it was so straight I +looked like an Indian!" +"Mebbe you did," vigorously agreed Miranda, "but 't any rate you +looked like a Christian Injun, 'n' now you look like a heathen +Injun; that's all the difference I can see. What can we do with +her, Jane, between this and nine o'clock?" +"We'll all go out to the pump just as soon as we're through +breakfast," answered Jane soothingly. "We can accomplish +considerable with water and force." +Rebecca nibbled her corn-cake, her tearful eyes cast on her plate +and her chin quivering. +"Don't you cry and red your eyes up," chided Miranda quite +kindly; "the minute you've eaten enough run up and get your brush +and meet us at the back door." +"I would n't care myself how bad I looked," said Rebecca, "but I +can't bear to be so homely that I shame the State of Maine!" +Oh, what an hour followed this plaint! Did any aspirant for +literary or dramatic honors ever pass to fame through such an +antechamber of horrors? Did poet of the day ever have his head so +maltreated? To be dipped in the rain-water tub, soused again and +again; to be held under the spout and pumped on; to be rubbed +furiously with rough roller towels; to be dried with hot +flannels! And is it not well-nigh incredible that at the close +of such an hour the ends of the long hair should still stand out +straight, the braids having been turned up two inches by Alice, +and tied hard in that position with linen thread ? +"Get out the skirt-board, Jane," cried Miranda, to whom +opposition served as a tonic, "and move that flat-iron on to the +front o' the stove. Rebecca, set down in that low chair beside +the board, and, Jane, you spread out her hair on it and cover it +up with brown paper. Don't cringe, Rebecca; the worst's over, and +you've borne up real good! I'll be careful not to pull your hair +nor scorch you, and oh, how I'd like to have Alice Robinson +acrost my knee and a good slipper in my right hand! There, you're +all ironed out and your Aunt Jane can put on your white dress and +braid your hair up again good and tight. Perhaps you won't be the +homeliest of the States, after all; but when I see you comin' in +to breakfast I said to myself: 'I guess if Maine looked like +that, it would n't never 'a' been admitted into the Union!'" +When Uncle Sam and the stagecoach drew up to the brick house with +a grand swing and a flourish, the Goddess of Liberty and most of +the States were already in their places on the "harricane deck." +Words fail to describe the gallant bearing of the horses, their +headstalls gayly trimmed and their harnesses dotted with little +flags. The stage windows were hung in bunting, and from within +beamed Columbia, looking out from the bright frame as if proud of +her freight of loyal children. Patriotic streamers floated from +whip, from dash-board and from rumble, and the effect of the +whole was something to stimulate the most phlegmatic voter. +Rebecca came out on the steps and Aunt Jane brought a chair to +assist in the ascent. Miss Dearborn peeeped from the window, and +gave a despairing look at her favorite. +What had happened to her? Who had dressed her? Had her head been +put through a wringing-machine? Why were her eyes red and +swollen? Miss Dearborn determined to take her behind the trees +in the pine grove and give her some finishing touches; touches +that her skillful fingers fairly itched to bestow. +The stage started, and as the roadside pageant grew gayer and +gayer, Rebecca began to brighten and look prettier, for most of +her beautifying came from within. The people, walking, driving, +or standing on their doorsteps, cheered Uncle Sam's coach with +its freight of gossamer-muslined, fluttering-ribboned girls, and +just behind, the gorgeously decorated haycart, driven by Abijah +Flagg, bearing the jolly but inharmonious fife and drum corps. +Was ever such a golden day; such crystal air; such mellow +sunshine; such a merry Uncle Sam! +The stage drew up at an appointed spot near a pine grove, and +while the crowd was gathering, the children waited for the hour +to arrive when they should march to the platform; the hour toward +which they seemed to have been moving since the dawn of creation. +As soon as possible Miss Dearborn whispered to Rebecca: "Come +behind the trees with me; I want to make you prettier!" +Rebecca thought she had suffered enough from that process already +during the last twelve hours, but she put out an obedient hand +and the two withdrew. +Now Miss Dearborn was, I fear, a very indifferent teacher. Her +stock in trade was small, her principal virtues being devotion to +children and ability to gain their love, and a power of evolving +a schoolroom order so natural, cheery, serene, and peaceful that +it gave the beholder a certain sense of being in a district +heaven. She was poor in arithmetic and weak in geometry, but if +you gave her a rose, a bit of ribbon, and a seven-by-nine +looking-glass she could make herself as pretty as a pink in two +minutes. +Safely sheltered behind the pines, Miss Dearborn began to +practice mysterious feminine arts. She flew at Rebecca's tight +braids, opened the strands and rebraided them loosely; bit and +tore the red, white, and blue ribbon in two and tied the braids +separately. Then with nimble fingers she pulled out little +tendrils of hair behind the ears and around the nape of the neck. +After a glance of acute disapproval directed at the stiff balloon +skirt she knelt on the ground and gave a strenuous embrace to +Rebecca's knees, murmuring, between her hugs, "Starch must be +cheap at the brick house!" +This particular line of beauty attained, there ensued great +pinchings of ruffles; the fingers that could never hold a ferule +nor snap children's ears being incomparable fluting-irons. +Next the sash was scornfully untied, and tightened to suggest +something resembling a waist. The chastened bows that had been +squat, dowdy, spiritless, were given tweaks, flirts, bracing +little pokes and dabs, till, acknowledging a master hand, they +stood up, piquant, pert, smart, alert! +Pride of bearing was now infused into the flattened lace at the +neck, and a pin (removed at some sacrifice from her own toilette) +was darned in at the back to prevent any cowardly lapsing. The +short white cotton gloves that called attention to the tanned +wrists and arms were stripped off and put in her own pocket. +Then the wreath of pine-cones was adjusted at a heretofore +unimagined angle, the hair was pulled softly into a fluffy frame, +and finally, as she met Rebecca's grateful eyes, she gave her two +approving, triumphant kisses. In a second the sensitive face +lighted into happiness; pleased dimples appeared in the cheeks, +the kissed mouth was as red as a rose, and the little fright that +had walked behind the pine-tree stepped out on the other side +Rebecca, the lovely. +As to the relative value of Miss Dearborn's accomplishments, the +decision must be left to the gentle reader; but though it is +certain that children should be properly grounded in mathematics, +no heart of flesh could bear to hear Miss Dearborn's methods +vilified who had seen her patting, pulling, squeezing Rebecca +from ugliness into beauty. +Now all was ready; the moment of fate was absolutely at hand; the +fife and drum corps led the way and the States followed; but what +actually happened Rebecca never knew; she lived through the hours +in a waking dream. Every little detail was a facet of light that +reflected sparkles, and among them all she was fairly dazzled. +The brass band played inspiring strains; the mayor spoke +eloquently on great themes; the people cheered; then the rope on +which so much depended was put into the children's hands, they +applied superhuman strength to their task, and the flag mounted, +mounted, smoothly and slowly, and slowly unwound and stretched +itself until its splendid size and beauty were revealed against +the maples and pines and blue New England sky. +Then after cheers upon cheers and after a patriotic chorus by the +church choirs, the State of Maine mounted the platform, vaguely +conscious that she was to recite a poem, though for the life of +her she could not remember a single word. +"Speak up loud and clear, Rebecky," whispered Uncle Sam in the +front row, but she could scarcely hear her own voice when, +tremblingly, she began her first line. After that she gathered +strength, and the poem "said itself," while the dream went on. +She saw her friend Adam Ladd leaning against a tree; Aunt Jane +and Aunt Miranda palpitating with nervousness; Clara Belle +Simpson gazing cross-eyed but adoring from a seat on the side; +and in the far, far distance, on the very outskirts of the crowd, +a tall man standing in a wagon--a tall, loose-jointed man with +red upturned mustaches, and a gaunt white horse whose head was +turned toward the Acreville road. +Loud applause greeted the State of Maine, the slender littl + +white-clad figure standing on the mossy boulder that had been +used as the centre of the platform. The sun came up from behind a +great maple and shone full on the star-spangled banner, making it +more dazzling than ever, so that its beauty drew all eyes upward. + +Abner Simpson lifted his vagrant shifting gaze to its softly +fluttering folds and its splendid massing of colors, thinking:-- +"I don't know's anybody'd ought to steal a flag, the thunderin' +idjuts seem to set such store by it, and what is it, anyway? +Nothin' but a sheet O buntin'! '" +Nothing but a sheet of bunting? He looked curiously at the rapt +faces of the mothers, their babies asleep in their arms; the +parted lips and shining eyes of the white-clad girls; at Cap'n +Lord, who had been in Libby Prison, and Nat Strout, who had left +an arm at Bull Run; at the friendly, jostling crowd of farmers, +happy, eager, absorbed, their throats ready to burst with cheers. +Then the breeze served, and he heard Rebecca's clear voice +saying:-- +"For it's your star, my star, all the stars together, +That make our country's flag so proud +To float in the bright fall weather!" + +"Talk about stars! She's got a couple of 'em right in her head," +thought Simpson. "If I ever seen a young one like that layin' on +anybody's doorstep I'd hook her quicker'n a wink, though I've got +plenty to home, the Lord knows! And I wouldn't swap her off +neither.--Spunky little creeter, too; settin'up in the wagon +lookin' 'bout's big as a pint o' cider, but keepin' right after +the flag!--I vow I'm 'bout sick o' my job! Never with the crowd, +allers jest on the outside, 's if I wa'n't as good's they be! If +it paid well, mebbe would n't mind, but they're so thunderin' +stingy round here, they don't leave out anything decent for you +to take from 'em, yet you're reskin' your liberty 'n' reputation +jest the same!--Countin' the poor pickin's 'n' the time I lose in +jail I might most's well be done with it 'n' work out by the day, +as the folks want me to; I'd make 'bout's much, n' I don' know's +it would be any harder!" +He could see Rebecca stepping down from the platform, while his +own red-headed little girl stood up on her bench, waving her hat +with one hand, her handkerchief with the other, and stamping with +both feet. +Now a man sitting beside the mayor rose from his chair and Abner +heard him call:-- +"Three cheers for the women who made the flag!" + +"Hip, hip, hurrah!" + +"Three cheers for the State of Maine!" + +"Hip, hip, hurrah!" + +"Three cheers for the girl who saved the flag from the hands of +the enemy!" + +"Hip, hip, hurrah!" + +It was the Edgewood minister, whose full, vibrant voice was of +the sort to move a crowd. His words rang out into the clear air +and were carried from lip to lip. Hands clapped, feet stamped, +hats swung, while the loud huzzahs might almost have wakened the +echoes on old Mount Ossipee. +The tall, loose-jointed man sat down in the wagon suddenly and +took up the reins. +"They're gettin' a little mite personal, and I guess it's 'bout +time for you to be goin', Simpson!" +The tone was jocular, but the red mustaches drooped, and the +half-hearted cut he gave to start the white mare on her homeward +journey showed that he was not in his usual reckless mood. +"It's a lie!" he burst out in a vindictive undertone, as the mare +swung into her long gait. "It's a lie! I thought 't was +somebody's wash! I ain't an enemy!" +While the crowd at the raising dispersed in happy family groups +to their picnics in the woods; while the Goddess of Liberty, +Uncle Sam, Columbia, and the proud States lunched grandly in the +Grange Hall with distinguished guests and scarred veterans of two +wars, the lonely man drove, and drove, and drove through silent +woods and dull, sleepy villages, never alighting to replenish his +wardrobe or his stock of swapping material. +At dusk he reached a miserable tumble-down house on the edge of a +pond. +The faithful wife with the sad mouth and the habitual look of +anxiety in her faded eyes came to the door at the sound of wheels +and went doggedly to the horse-shed to help him unharness. +"You did n't expect to see me back to-night, did you?" he asked +satirically; "leastwise not with this same horse? Well, I'm here! +You need n't be scairt to look under the wagon-seat, there ain't +nothin' there, not even my supper, so I hope you're suited for +once! No, I guess I ain't goin' to be an angel right away, +neither. There wa'n't nothin' but flags layin' roun' loose down +Riverboro way, 'n' whatever they say, I ain't sech a hound as to +steal a flag!" +It was natural that young Riverboro should have red, white, and +blue dreams on the night after the new flag was raised. A +stranger thing, perhaps, is the fact that Abner Simpson should +lie down on his hard bed with the flutter of bunting before his +eyes, and a whirl of unaccustomed words in his mind. +"For it is your star, my star, all our stars together." +"I'm sick of goin' it alone," he thought; "I guess I'll try the +other road for a spell;" and with that he fell asleep. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Flag-Raising, by Kate Douglas Wiggin + diff --git a/old/flgrs10.zip b/old/flgrs10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf8d0d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/flgrs10.zip |