state, that will make a great
country, won't it?"

Rebecca's eyes spoke glad confirmation of the idea. "My star, my
state!" she repeated joyously. "Oh, Mrs. Baxter, I'll make such fine
stitches you'll, think the white grew out of the blue!"

The new minister's wife looked pleased to see her spark kindle a flame
in the young heart. "You can sew so much of yourself into your star,"
she went on in the glad voice that made her so winsome, "that when you
are an old lady you can put on your specs and find it among all the
others. Good-by! Come up to the parsonage Saturday afternoon; Mr.
Baxter wants to see you."

"Judson, help that dear little genius of a Rebecca all you can!" she
said that night. "I don't know what she may, or may not, come to, some
day; I only wish she were ours! If you could have seen her clasp the
flag tight in her arms and put her cheek against it, and watched the
tears of feeling start in her eyes when I told her that her star was
her state! I kept whispering to myself, "'Covet not thy neighbor's
child!

Daily at four o'clock Rebecca scrubbed her hands almost to the bone,
brushed her hair, and otherwise prepared herself in body, mind, and
spirit for the consecrated labor of sewing on her star. All the time
that her needle cautiously, conscientiously formed the tiny stitches
she was making rhymes "in her head," her favorite achievement being
this:--

"Your star, my star, all our stars together,
They make the dear old banner proud
To float in the bright fall weather."

There was much discussion as to which of the girls should impersonate
the State of Maine, for that was felt to be the highest honor in the
gift of the committee.

Alice Robinson was the prettiest child in the village, but she was very
shy and by no means a general favorite.

Minnie Smellie possessed the handsomest dress and a pair of white
slippers and open-work stockings that nearly carried the day, but she
was not at all the person to select for the central figure on the
platform.

Huldah Meserve was next voted upon, and the fact that if she were not
chosen her father might withdraw his subscription to the brass band
fund was a matter for grave consideration.

"I kind of hate to have such a giggler for the State of Maine; let
Huldah be the Goddess of Liberty," proposed Mrs. Burbank, whose
patriotism was more local than national.

"How would Rebecca Randall do for Maine, and let her speak some of her
verses?" suggest