ey were missed chiefly as familiar
figures by the roadside; but Rebecca honestly loved Clara Belle,
notwithstanding her Aunt Miranda's opposition to the intimacy.
Rebecca's curious taste in friends was a source of continual anxiety to
her aunt.

"Anything that's human flesh is good enough for her!" Miranda groaned
to Jane. "She'll ride with the rag-sack-and-bottle peddler just as
quick as she would with the minister; she always sets beside the
barefooted young ones at Sabbath school; and she's forever riggin' and
onriggin' that dirty Simpson baby! She reminds me of a puppy that'll
always go to everybody that'll have him!"

It was thought very creditable to Mrs. Fogg that she sent for Clara
Belle to live with her and go to school part of the year. "She'll be
useful," said Mrs. Fogg, "and she'll be out of her father's way, and so
keep honest; though she's so awful homely I've no fears for her. A girl
with her red hair, freckles, and cross-eyes can't fall into no kind of
sin, I don't believe."

Mrs. Fogg requested that Clara Belle should be started on her journey
from Acreville by train and come the rest of the way by stage, and she
was disturbed to receive word on Sunday that Mr. Simpson had borrowed a
horse from a new acquaintance, and would himself drive the girl from
Acreville to Riverboro, a distance of thirty-five miles. That he would
arrive in their vicinity on the very night before the flag-raising was
thought by Riverboro to be a public misfortune, and several residents
hastily determined to deny themselves a sight of the festivities and
remain watchfully on their own premises.

On Monday afternoon the children were rehearsing their songs at the
meeting-house. As Rebecca came out on the broad wooden steps she
watched Mrs. Peter Meserve's buggy out of sight, for in front, wrapped
in a cotton sheet, lay the precious flag. After a few chattering
good-byes and weather prophecies with the other girls, she started on
her homeward walk, dropping in at the parsonage to read her verses to
the minister.

He welcomed her gladly as she removed her white cotton gloves (hastily
slipped on outside the door, for ceremony) and pushed back the funny
hat with the yellow and black porcupine quills--the hat with which she
made her first appearance in Riverboro society.

"You've heard the beginning, Mr. Baxter; now will you please tell me if
you like the last verse?" she asked, taking out her paper. "I've only
read it to Alice