thing sacred about them. They
gave me a glimpse of a groping young soul reaching up toward the
light.

"We have a Flag," I read, "to thrill our bones and be prod of and no
man boy woman or girl" (and the not altogether artless _diminuendo_
did not escape me!) "should never let it drag in the dust. It flotes
at the bow of our ships and waves from the top of most post offices
etc. And now we have a flag and a flag staf in front of our school and
on holdays and when every grate man dies we put said flag up at haf
mast.... It is the flag of the rich and the poor, the flag of our
country which all of whose citizens have a right to fly, the hig"
(obviously meant for _high_) "and the low, the rich and the poor. And
we must not only keep our flag but blazen it still further with deeds
nobely done. If ever you have to shed your blood for your country
remeber its for the nobelest flag that flies the same being an emblen
of our native land to which it represens and stands in high esteem by
the whole people of a country." ... God bless his patriotic little
bones! My bairn knew what he was trying to get at, but it's plain he
didn't quite know how to get there.

But the drama of the Capture of Quebec plainly put him on easier
ground. For here was a story worth the telling. And what could be more
glorious than the death of Wolfe as I see it through my little
Dinkie's eyes?

For I read: "The french said Wolfe" (_can_ has first been written and
then scratched out and _would_ substituted) "never get up that rivver
but Wolfe fooled them with a trick by running the french flag up on
his shipps so the french pilots without fear padled out and come abord
when Wolfe took them prissoners and made them pilot the english ships
safe to the iland of Orlens. He wanted to capsture the city of Quebec
without distroiting it. But the clifs were to high and the brave
Montcalm dified Wolfe who lost 400 men and got word Amherst could not
come and so himself took sick and went to bed. But a desserter from
the french gave Wolfe the pass word and when his ships crept further
up the rivver in the dark a french senntry called out qui vive and one
of Wolfe's men who spoke french well ansered la france and the senntry
said to himself they was french ships and let them go on. Next day
Wolfe was better and saw a goat clime up the clifs near the plains of
Abraham and said where a goat could go he could go to. So he forgot
being sick and desided to clime up Wolf