ly 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 any one
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 't was 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, 't would 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 it hurts her health to be nervous."

"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
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
appeals to his extremely rusty better feelings. "I don' know's I've got
any particular 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 the rest of us!"

"Land! I wish't I did! or even a quarter section of one!" 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