hmen sang and couldn't play a
note, so Jimmie let the German stay, because Miss Wemyss wanted him to.

Although secretly I think Jimmie and I hated him, we are sometimes
polite enough not to say everything we think, but at any rate there
never was a moment when Jimmie and I wouldn't leave off attacking each
other, hoping for an opportunity for a fight with the German, which thus
far he had escaped by the skin of his teeth.

"Your sister sent me to tell you that there is a house-boat up near the
Island flying the American flag and we are all going up there to see it.
Would you like to go?"

"Thanks so much for your invitation," said Jimmie, "but I've got some
guests coming in half an hour, so I can't go."

"I'll go. Just wait until I get my hat."

One boat contained Bee, Mrs. Jimmie, and two Princeton men, and the
other Miss Wemyss, the German, Miss Wemyss' fiance, Sir George, and me.
Side by side the two skiffs pulled up the river to the Island, where on
a very small house-boat named the _Queen_ a large American flag was
flying and beneath it were crossed a smaller American flag and the Union
Jack.

Sir George, who is one of the nicest Englishmen we ever met, pulled off
his cap and cried out:

"All hats off to the Stars and Stripes!"

In an instant every hat was whipped off, ours included, although there
was some wrestling with hat-pins before we could get them off. All, did
I say? All--all except the German! He folded his arms across his breast
and kept his hat on.

"Didn't you hear Sir George?" I said to him.

He had a nervous twitching of the eye at all times, and when he was
excited the muscles of his face all jerked in unison like Saint Vitus'
dance. At my question every muscle in his face, as the Princeton man in
Bee's boat said, "began working over time."

"Yes, I heard him. Of course I heard him," he said.

"Then take your hat off!" said Miss Wemyss.

"Yes, take your hat off!" came in a roar from all the others, none being
louder and more peremptory than the Englishman's.

"I will not take my hat off to that dirty rag," he said. "It means
nothing to me. The flag of any country means nothing to me. I can go
into a shop and buy that red, white, and blue! That is only a rag--that
flag."

Sir George leaned over with blazing eyes and took him by the collar.

"Don't do that, George," said Miss Wemyss, excitedly. "His linen is not
fit to touch."

"Let's duck him," said the Princeton man.

But Mr