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THE FLAG

By

HOMER GREENE


Author of
"The Unhallowed Harvest,"
"Pickett's Gap," "The Blind Brother," etc.


[Illustration]


PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO
PUBLISHERS




_Copyright, 1917
George W. Jacobs & Company_

_All rights reserved
Printed in U. S. A._




[Illustration: He Glared Defiantly About Him]




List of Illustrations


    He Glared Defiantly About Him                       _Frontispiece_

    Aleck Turned it Upside Down and Rightside Up,
    But Failed to Find the Place                        _Facing p. 54_

    Into the Face of Death He Led the Remnant of
    His Brave Platoon                                       "      274

    The French Hospital's Greeting to the
    American Colonel                                        "      316




THE FLAG

CHAPTER I


Snow everywhere; freshly fallen, white and beautiful. It lay unsullied
on the village roofs, and, trampled but not yet soiled, in the village
streets. The spruce trees on the lawn at Bannerhall were weighted with
it, and on the lawn itself it rested, like an ermine blanket, soft and
satisfying. Down the steps of the porch that stretched across the
front of the mansion, a boy ran, whistling, to the street.

He was slender and wiry, agile and sure-footed. He had barely reached
the gate when the front door of the square, stately old brick house
was opened and a woman came out on the porch and called to him.

"Pen!"

"Yes, Aunt Millicent." He turned to listen to her.

"Pen, don't forget that your grandfather's going to New York on the
five-ten train, and that you are to be at the station to see him off."

"I won't forget, auntie."

"And then come straight home."

"Straight as a string, Aunt Milly."

"All right! Good-by!"

"Good-by!"

He passed through the gate, and down the street toward the center of
the village. It was the noon recess and he was on his way back to
school where he must report at one-fifteen sharp. He had an abundance
of time, however, and he stopped in front of the post-office to talk
with another boy about the coasting on Drake's Hill. It was while he
was standing there that some one called to him from the street.