onments
for brief periods, and he found himself wholly out of sympathy with
the wages of sin. Sin itself he did not especially mind, but the wages
thereof were decidedly unpleasant and irksome to him. He also minded
very much the isolated position in the community which had lately become
his; for he was a social being and would ALMOST rather not steal from a
neighbor than have him find it out and cease intercourse! This feeling
was working in him and rendering him unaccountably irritable and
depressed when he took his daughter over to Riverboro at the time of the
great flag-raising.

There are seasons of refreshment, as well as seasons of drought, in the
spiritual, as in the natural world, and in some way or other dews
and rains of grace fell upon Abner Simpson's heart during that brief
journey. Perhaps the giving away of a child that he could not support
had made the soil of his heart a little softer and readier for planting
than usual; but when he stole the new flag off Mrs. Peter Meserve's
doorsteps, under the impression that the cotton-covered bundle
contained freshly washed clothes, he unconsciously set certain forces in
operation.

It will be remembered that Rebecca saw an inch of red bunting peeping
from the back of his wagon, and asked the pleasure of a drive with him.
She was no daughter of the regiment, but she proposed to follow the
flag. When she diplomatically requested the return of the sacred
object which was to be the glory of the "raising" next day, and he thus
discovered his mistake, he was furious with himself for having slipped
into a disagreeable predicament; and later, when he unexpectedly faced
a detachment of Riverboro society at the cross-roads, and met not only
their wrath and scorn, but the reproachful, disappointed glance of
Rebecca's eyes, he felt degraded as never before.

The night at the Centre tavern did not help matters, nor the jolly
patriotic meeting of the three villages at the flag-raising next
morning. He would have enjoyed being at the head and front of the
festive preparations, but as he had cut himself off from all such
friendly gatherings, he intended at any rate to sit in his wagon on the
very outskirts of the assembled crowd and see some of the gayety; for,
heaven knows, he had little enough, he who loved talk, and song, and
story, and laughter, and excitement.

The flag was raised, the crowd cheered, the little girl to whom he had
lied, the girl who was impersonating th