apt to wane when one has to stand, shivering, in rain-soaked clothes,
and wait for something to occur. And enthusiasm did wane. A majority
of the boys wanted to call it a victory and go home. But Pen would not
listen to such a proposal.

"They've run into the school-house," he said, "like whipped dogs, and
locked the door; and now, if we go home, they'll come out and boast
that we were afraid to meet 'em again. They'll say that we slunk away
before the fight was half over. I won't let 'em say that. I'll stay
here all night but what I'll give 'em the final drubbing."

But his comrades were not equally determined. The war spirit seemed to
have died out in their breasts, and, try as he would, Pen was not able
to restore it.

Yet, even as he argued, the school-house door opened and the besieged
army marched forth. They marched forth, indeed, but this time they had
an American flag at the head of their column. It was carried by, and
folded and draped around the body of, Alexander Sands. It was the flag
that Colonel Butler had given to the school. Whose idea it was to use
it thus has never been disclosed. But surely no more effective means
could have been adopted to cover an orderly retreat. The Hilltop
forces stared at the spectacle in amazement and stood silent in their
tracks. Pen was the first to recover his senses. If he had been angry
when the enemy came upon them unawares from the stone-wall, he was
furious now.

"It's another trick!" he cried, "a mean, contemptible trick! They
think the flag'll save 'em but it won't! Come on! We'll show 'em!"

He started toward the advancing column, firing his first snowball as
he went; a snowball that flattened and spattered against the
flag-covered breast of Aleck Sands. But his soldiers did not follow
him. No leader, however magnetic, could have induced them to assault a
body of troops marching under the protecting folds of the American
flag. They revered the colors, and they stood fast in their places.
Pen leaped the ditch, and, finding himself alone, stopped to look
back.

"What's the matter?" he cried. "Are you all afraid?"

"It's the flag," answered Elmer Cuddeback, "and I won't fight anybody
that carries it."

"Nor I," said Jimmie Morrissey.

"Nor I;" "Nor I," echoed one after another.

Then, indeed, Pen's temper went to fever heat. He faced his own troops
and denounced them.

"Traitors!" he yelled. "Cowards! every one of you! To be scared by a
mere piece of bun