Simpson, please don't take
our flag away from us!
The apparently astonished Abner pulled his mustaches and
exclaimed: "But I don't know what you're drivin' at! Who's got
yer flag? I hain't!"
Could duplicity, deceit, and infamy go any further, Rebecca
wondered, and her soul filling with righteous wrath, she cast
discretion to the winds and spoke a little more plainly, bending
her great swimming eyes on the now embarrassed Abner, who looked
like an angle-worm wriggling on a pin.
"Mr. Simpson, how can you say that, when I saw the flag in the
back of your wagon myself, when you stopped to water the horse?
It's wicked of you to take it, and I cannot bear it! " (Her voice
broke now, for a doubt of Mr. Simpson's yielding suddenly
darkened her mind. "If you keep it, you'll have to keep me, for I
won't be parted from it! I can't fight like the boys, but I can
pinch and scratch, and I will scratch, just like a panther--I'll
lie right down on my star and not move, if I starve to death!"
"Look here, hold your hosses 'n' don't cry till you git something
to cry for!" grumbled the outraged Abner, to whom a clue had just
come; and leaning over the wagon-back he caught hold of a corner
of white sheet and dragged up the bundle, scooping off Rebecca's
hat in the process, and almost burying her in bunting.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67