The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flag, by Homer Greene

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Title: The Flag

Author: Homer Greene

Release Date: April 26, 2008 [EBook #25188]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE FLAG

By

HOMER GREENE

Author of
"The Unhallowed Harvest,"
"Pickett's Gap," "The Blind Brother," etc.

[Illustration]

PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO
PUBLISHERS

_Copyright, 1917
George W. Jacobs & Company_

_All rights reserved
Printed in U. S. A._

[Illustration: He Glared Defiantly About Him]

List of Illustrations

He Glared Defiantly About Him _Frontispiece_

Aleck Turned it Upside Down and Rightside Up,
But Failed to Find the Place _Facing p. 54_

Into the Face of Death He Led the Remnant of
His Brave Platoon " 274

The French Hospital's Greeting to the
American Colonel " 316

THE FLAG

CHAPTER I

Snow everywhere; freshly fallen, white and beautiful. It lay unsullied
on the village roofs, and, trampled but not yet soiled, in the village
streets. The spruce trees on the lawn at Bannerhall were weighted with
it, and on the lawn itself it rested, like an ermine blanket, soft and
satisfying. Down the steps of the porch that stretched across the
front of the mansion, a boy ran, whistling, to the street.

He was slender and wiry, agile and sure-footed. He had barely reached
the gate when the front door of the square, stately old brick house
was opened and a woman came out on the porch and called to him.

"Pen!"

"Yes, Aunt Millicent." He turned to listen to her.

"Pen, don't forget that your grandfather's going to New York on the
five-ten train, and that you are to be at the station to see him off."

"I won't forget, auntie."

"And then come straight home."