in this way the great enterprise was started, and day by day the preparations went forward in the two villages.
the boys, as future voters and fighters, demanded an active share in the proceedings, and were organized by squire bean into a fife and drum corps, so that by day and night martial but most inharmonious music woke the echoes, and deafened mothers felt their patriotism oozing out at the soles of their shoes.
dick carter was made captain, for his grandfather had a gold medal given him by queen victoria for rescuing three hundred and twenty-six passengers from a sinking british vessel. riverboro thought it high time to pay some graceful tribute to great britain in return for her handsome conduct to captain nahum carter, and human imagination could contrive nothing more impressive than a vicarious share in the flag raising.
living perkins tried to be happy in the ranks, for he was offered no official position, principally, mrs. smellie observed, because “his father's war record wa'nt clean.” “oh, yes! jim perkins went to the war,” she continued. “he hid out behind the hencoop when they was draftin', but they found him and took him along. he got into one battle, too, somehow or nother, but he run away from it. he was allers cautious, jim was; if he ever see trouble of any kind comin' towards him, he was out o' sight fore it got a chance to light. he said eight dollars a month, without bounty, wouldn't pay him to stop bullets for. he wouldn't fight a skeeter, jim wouldn't, but land! we ain't to war all the time, and he's a good neighbor and a good blacksmith.”
miss dearborn was to be columbia and the older girls of the two schools were to be the states. such trade in muslins and red, white, and blue ribbons had never been known since “watson kep' store,” and the number of brief white petticoats hanging out to bleach would have caused the passing stranger to imagine riverboro a continual dancing school.
juvenile virtue, both male and female, reached an almost impossible height, for parents had only to lift a finger and say, “you shan't go to the flag raising!” and the refractory spirit at once armed itself for new struggles toward the perfect life.
mr. jeremiah cobb had consented to impersonate uncle sam, and was to drive columbia and the states to the “raising” on the top of his own stage. meantime the boys were drilling, the ladies were cutting and basting and stitching, and the girls were sewing on stars; for the starry part of the spangled banner was to remain with each of them in turn until she had performed her share of the work.
it was felt by one and all a fine and splendid service indeed to help in the making of the flag, and if rebecca was proud to be of the chosen ones, so was her aunt jane sawyer, who had taught her all her delicate stitches.
on a long-looked-for afternoon in august the minister's wife drove up to the brick house door, and handed out the great piece of bunting to rebecca, who received it in her arms with as much solemnity as if it had been a child awaiting baptismal rites.
“i'm so glad!” she sighed happily. “i thought it would never come my turn!”
“you should have had it a week ago, but huldah meserve upset the ink bottle over her star, and we had to baste on another one. you are the last, though, and then we shall sew the stars and stripes together, and seth strout will get the top ready for hanging. just think, it won't be many days before you children will be pulling the rope with all your strength, the band will be playing, the men will be cheering, and the new flag will go higher and higher, till the red, white, and blue shows against the sky!”
rebecca's eyes fairly blazed. “shall i fell on' my star, or buttonhole it?” she asked.
“look at all the others and make the most beautiful stitches you can, that's all. it is your star, you know, and you can even imagine it is your state, and try and have it the best of all. if everybody else is trying to do the same thing with her state, that will make a great country, won't it?”
rebecca's eyes spoke glad confirmation of the idea. “my star, my state!” she repeated joyously. “oh, mrs. baxter, i'll make such fine stitches you'll think the white grew out of the blue!”
the new minister's wife looked pleased to see her spark kindle a flame in the young heart. “you can sew so much of yourself into your star,” she went on in the glad voice that made her so winsome, “that when you are an old lady you can put on your specs and find it among all the others. good-by! come up to the parsonage saturday afternoon; mr. baxter wants to see you.”
“judson, help that dear little genius of a rebecca all you can!” she said that night, when they were cosily talking in their parlor and living “all over” the parish carpet. “i don't know what she may, or may not, come to, some day; i only wish she were ours! if you could have seen her clasp the flag tight in her arms and put her cheek against it, and watched the tears of feeling start in her eyes when i told her that her star was her state! i kept whispering to myself, covet not thy neighbor's child!'”
daily at four o'clock rebecca scrubbed her hands almost to the bone, brushed her hair, and otherwise prepared herself in body, mind, and spirit for the consecrated labor of sewing on her star. all the time that her needle cautiously, conscientiously formed the tiny stitches she was making rhymes “in her head,” her favorite achievement being this:
“your star, my star, all our stars together, they make the dear old banner proud to float in the bright fall weather.”
there was much discussion as to which of the girls should impersonate the state of maine, for that was felt to be the highest honor in the gift of the committee.
alice robinson was the prettiest child in the village, but she was very shy and by no means a general favorite.
minnie smellie possessed the handsomest dress and a pair of white slippers and open-work stockings that nearly carried the day. still, as miss delia weeks well said, she was so stupid that if she should suck her thumb in the very middle of the exercises nobody'd be a dite surprised!
huldah meserve was next voted upon, and the fact that if she were not chosen her father might withdraw his subscription to the brass band fund was a matter for grave consideration.
“i kind o' hate to have such a giggler for the state of maine; let her be the goddess of liberty,” proposed mrs. burbank, whose patriotism was more local than national.
“how would rebecca randall do for maine, and let her speak some of her verses?” suggested the new minister's wife, who, could she have had her way, would have given all the prominent parts to rebecca, from uncle sam down.
so, beauty, fashion, and wealth having been tried and found wanting, the committee discussed the claims of talent, and it transpired that to the awe-stricken rebecca fell the chief plum in the pudding. it was a tribute to her gifts that there was no jealousy or envy among the other girls; they readily conceded her special fitness for the role.
her life had not been pressed down full to the brim of pleasures, and she had a sort of distrust of joy in the bud. not until she saw it in full radiance of bloom did she dare embrace it. she had never read any verse but byron, felicia hemans, bits of “paradise lost,” and the selections in the school readers, but she would have agreed heartily with the poet who said:
“not by appointment do we meet delight and joy; they heed not our expectancy; but round some corner in the streets of life they on a sudden clasp us with a smile.”
for many nights before the raising, when she went to her bed she said to herself, after she had finished her prayers: “it can't be true that i'm chosen for the state of maine! it just can't be true! nobody could be good enough, but oh, i'll try to be as good as i can! to be going to wareham seminary next week and to be the state of maine too! oh! i must pray hard to god to keep me meek and humble!”
