untry. The authorities were just a bit alarmed. To
insult a flag and a country was a serious matter. "What shall we do to
make amends?" they queried. "Let the officer who proffered the insult
come on board of my vessel and say in the presence of the ship's
company that he was in fault," replied the captain. This was done, and
the sky cleared.

But the troubles of the colonists were by no means over. The mate of
another vessel declared with considerable emphasis that these people
were all rebels and traitors to the King. Surely the thought of such a
report as this going back to England from a tiny colony clinging to
the edge of the continent was enough to alarm the boldest. Discussions
were held, and Dr. John Cotton was appealed to.

A canny man was this Dr. John Cotton, and he decided that inasmuch as
the fort belonged to the King, it was proper that it should display
the King's Flag, whatever it might be,--"while vessels are passing,"
he added shrewdly; but that, as for the militia, each company might
have its own colors, and not one of them need bear a cross. So the
great tempest passed by.

CHAPTER II

THE PINE-TREE FLAG AND OTHERS

In some of the colonies at least, the people must have led a rather
somber life, with little pleasure, much hard work, and much
discomfort; but they fairly reveled in flags. The Indians in their
warfare preferred to hide behind trees rather than to flourish
banners, and the white men soon learned to follow their example.
Nevertheless, it always seemed to the minds of the colonists a little
irregular and out of place not to carry a flag of some sort when they
were setting out on an expedition.

Probably we do not know one in twenty of all the designs for banners
that entered the fertile minds of these colonists, but they were so
numerous that if they had all been displayed at the same time, they
would have almost hidden the settlements. Not all colonists were as
afraid of a cross as were the good folk of Salem. In Newbury,
Massachusetts, a certain company of foot rejoiced in a flag of vivid
green. In the upper corner next the staff was a square of white
containing a red cross. The kindly councilor, who had ordered the flag
to be made in England "with all convenient speed," evidently had some
sense of humor, for he wrote at the end of his letter to the company,
"The number of bullets to be put into your colors for distinction may
be left out at present without damage in the