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