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.