Patchwork | Page 9

she thought. "Now you get cooled off a little and I'll make some lemonade. It'll taste good to me and Phoebe, too."
"All right, Ma," Aaron sighed in relaxation. "You know how to touch the spot. Did you tell Phoebe about the flag?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I think it's fine!" cried the child. "I can't wait till all the flowers bloom. I want to see it."
"You'll see it," promised the man. "And you bring all the boys and girls in too."
"And then will you tell us about the war and the Battle of Gettysburg? David Eby says he heard you once tell about it. I think it was at some school celebration. And he says it was grand, just like being there yourself."
"A little safer," laughed the old soldier. "But, yes, when the poppies bloom you bring the children in and I'll tell you about the war and the flag."
"I'll remember. I love to hear about the war. Old Johnny Schlegelmilch from way up the country comes to our place still to sell brooms, and once last summer he came and it began to thunder and storm and pop said he shall stay till it's over and then he told me all about the war. He said our flag's the prettiest in the whole world."
"So it is," solemnly affirmed Old Aaron.
"I wonder if anybody it belongs to could help liking it," said the child, remembering Granny's words.
"Well," the veteran answered slowly, "I knew a young fellow once, a nice fellow he seemed, too, and his father a soldier who fought for the flag. Well, the father was always talking about the flag and what it means and how every man should be ready to fight for it. And one day the boy said that he would never fight for it and be shot to pieces, that the old flag made him sick, and one soldier in the family was enough."
"Oh!" Phoebe opened her eyes wide in surprise and horror.
"And the father told the boy," the old man went on in a fixed voice as though the veriest details of the story were vividly before him, "that if he would not take back those words he never wanted to see him again. It was better to have no son, than such a son, a coward who hated the flag."
Here Granny appeared with the lemonade and the story was abruptly ended. Phoebe refrained from questioning the man about the story but as she sat under the arbor and afterwards, as she started up the street of the little town, she wondered over and over how a boy could be the son of a soldier and hate the flag, and whether the story Old Aaron told her was the story of himself and Nason.
CHAPTER III
LITTLE DUTCHIE
"AUNT MARIA said I dare look around a little," thought Phoebe as she neared the big store on the Square. Her heart beat more quickly as she turned the knob of the heavy door--little things still thrilled her, going to the store in Greenwald was an event!
The clerk's courteous, "What can I do for you?" bewildered her for an instant but she swallowed hard and said, "Why, we want twenty pounds of granulated sugar; ourn is almost all and Aunt Maria wants to make some strawberry jelly to-morrow. She said for Jonas to fetch it along on his home road."
"All right. Out to Jacob Metz?"
"Yes, he's my pop."
"I see. Anything else?"
"Three spools white thread, number fifty."
"Anything else?"
She shook her head as she handed him the money. "No, that's all for to-day. But Aunt Maria said I dare look around a little if I don't touch things."
"Look all you want," said the clerk and turned away, smiling.
Phoebe began a slow tramp about the big store. There was the same glass case filled with jewelry. The rings and pins rested on satin that had faded long since, the jewelry itself was tarnished but it held Phoebe's interest with its meagre glistening. One little ring with a tiny turquoise aroused her desire but she realized that she was longing for the impossible, so she moved away from the coveted treasures and paused before the ribbons. Some of those same ribbons had been in the tall revolving case ever since she could remember going to that store. The pale sea-green and the crushed-strawberry were faded horribly, yet she looked at them with longing. "Suppose," she thought, "I dared pick out any ribbon I want for a sash--guess I'd take that funny pink one, or mebbe that nice blue one. But I kinda think I'd rather have a set of dishes or a doll. But then I got that rag doll at home and that pretty one that pop got for me in Lancaster and that Aunt Maria won't leave me play with. That's funny now, that