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 piece with you and hear all about clara belle? i'm going part way 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 ye! the folks talk bout ye from sun-up to sun-down, and clara belle can't hardly wait for a sight of ye!”
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, “all of a sudden”: “please take the flag out of the back of the wagon, mr. robinson. we have brought it here for you to keep overnight.” 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. she well remembered how emma jane perkins had failed to convert jacob moody, simply because she failed to “lead up” to the delicate question of his manner of life. clearing her throat nervously, she began: “is it likely to be fair tomorrow?”
“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!” (this was not altogether to the point, but a piece of information impossible to conceal.)
mr. simpson flourished the whipstock and gave a loud, hearty laugh. then he turned in his seat and regarded rebecca curiously. “you're kind of small, hain'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 tomorrow 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! o 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 swan 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 your 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 anyone 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 twas 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, twould 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 she has heart trouble.”
“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 high-pitched and 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 frequent appeals to his extremely rusty higher feelings.
“i don' know's i've got any partic'lar 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 of us!”
“land! i wish't i did! or even a quarter section!” 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 meserve, 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, at the 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 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, passimonious, cheese-parin', hair-splittin', back-bitin', 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 twas your garden, but it was so chock full o' weeks i thought twas 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 bended 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 go to thunder—n' stay there, 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 dorcases to take care of it and so it fell to me! you wouldn't have had me let it out of my sight, would you, and we going to raise it tomorrow 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!'”
