d had always brought alone before.

The other children, too, all tried to do unusual things to win
themselves the place of flag-bearer. They played their drums in the
street and made soldier caps and wooden swords and drilled. The little
girls dressed up and played army nurse with their dolls. The boys
bought toy soldiers and horns at the toy shop. There was a great deal
of noise everywhere.

Then it was the holiday, and everyone was greatly excited over what
was going to happen. Whoever had a red ribbon, or a blue necktie, or a
red-white-and-blue badge felt very proud indeed to wear it. Every child
sat as still as a mouse as the teacher spoke to them.

"Marjory showed me five rows that she had knitted for a soldier when I
went to her house a few days ago," she said. "I wonder how many rows
she has finished now?"

"Only five," Marjory said softly.

Hubert touched the buttons on his reefer and sat up very straight in
his place.

"I am wearing my great-grandfather's soldier buttons," he said.

"That ought to make you feel as brave as he was, when he earned the
right to wear them in battle," the teacher said; and Hubert suddenly
thought that gilt buttons had not made him into a soldier at all.

The other children began to think, too, as they looked up at the Stars
and Stripes at the end of the room. Edward remembered how the harness
had hurt Trusty, and the boy with the drum remembered how he had
awakened the baby from her nap. Roger thought of his torn flag, flapping
in the wind on the top of the flagpole. No one said anything until the
teacher looked at the end of the class and smiled, and said:

"Well, Peter!"

Peter smiled back, and tried to cover up the holes in his jacket
sleeves, and tucked his old shoes under the seat. Peter's father had
gone to be a soldier, and there were his mother, and the two babies,
and his grandfather who was blind, at home.

"What have you been doing all the week, Peter?" the teacher asked.

"Tending the babies so that mother could go to the factory and sew the
soldiers' uniforms," Peter said. "And leading grandfather out for a
walk when it was a sunny day."

"Peter's got a little flag hanging out of the window," one of the
children said, "and he's so careful of it. He takes it in every night
and puts it out again in the morning."

"He saluted the flag and took off his hat to it when the parade went by
the other day," said another child. Everyone loved merry, ragged Peter,