h my grandfather Walker at Cobb's Corners. They say that,
don't they?"

"Something of that kind, I believe."

"Well, that's true too. But they don't say that it all happened half a
dozen years ago, when I was a mere boy, that I did it in a fit of
anger at another boy, and had nothing whatever against the flag, and
that I was sorry for it the next minute and have suffered and repented
ever since. They don't say that that flag is just as dear to me as it
is to any man in America, that I love the sight of it; that I'd follow
it anywhere, and die for it on any battlefield,--they don't say that,
do they?"

His cheeks were blazing, his eyes were flashing, every muscle of his
body was tense under the storm of passionate indignation that swept
over him. Captain Perry, amazed and thrilled by the boy's
earnestness, straightened up in his chair and looked him squarely in
the face.

"No," he replied, "they don't say that. But I believe it's true. And
so far as I'm concerned--"

Pen again interrupted him.

"Oh, I'm not blaming you, Captain Perry; you couldn't do anything else
but turn me down. But some day, some way--I don't know how
to-night--but some way I'm going to prove to these people that have
been hounding me that I'm as good a patriot and can be as good a
soldier as the best man in your company!"

"Good! That's splendid!" Captain Perry rose to his feet and grasped
the boy's hand. "And I'll tell you what I'll do, Butler; if you're
willing to face the ordeal I'll enlist you. I believe in you."

But Pen would not listen to it.

"No," he said, "I can't do that. It wouldn't be fair to you, nor to
your men, nor to me. I'll meet the thing some other way. I'm grateful
to you all the same though."

"Very well; just as you choose. But when you need me in your fight
I'm at your service. Remember that!"

On his way home from the armory it was necessary that Pen should pass
through the main street of the town. Many of the shops were still open
and were brilliantly lighted, and people were strolling carelessly
along the walk, laughing and chatting as though the agony and horror
and brutality of the mighty conflict just across the sea were all in
some other planet, billions of miles away; as though the war cloud
itself were not pushing its ominous black rim farther and farther
above the horizon of our own beloved land. Now and then Pen met,
singly or in pairs, khaki clad young men on their way to the armory
for the weekly