Lower coast gazette., 1913-07-19

nanQeO GOWN Dy traOltlOn from n
sixth form to the next; the govern
ment of the school did not impose it.
~Tallentyre did not want to be guilty
of pettiness. From one of the mas
tiers he heard the story Of Henry Mer-
riam, and it touched him. In Mer-
RAMS company there had been a boy,
a member of the sixth form that he
had taught the year before. The
boys knee was shattered by a shell,
or the slope of Little Round Top;
Merriam ran out from the breast
works to bear him to shelter; carry.
ing his former pupil on his back, he
fell, short through the head. There
was, after all, some reason why the
sixth form should decorate Henry
Merriam's grave.
So T%allentyre came at last to see
that in the act there would be moth.
ing derogatory to his W loyalty to
the Southern cause and to the South
ern dead. But he felt, nevertheless,
that he must assert that loyalty all
the more strongly upon this Northern
Memorial day.
That is why, when he was alone in
his room, he often took out a precious
thing from one of his bureau drawers,
spread it on the bed and looked at it
with proud and kindling eyes. There
was only one fellow whom he took
into his confidence-young Fitzgil-
bert, of the fourth, who was also a
Virginian. Fitzgilbert came to his
room n afternoon in response to
his summons, and in a few minutes
went away with the look that should
be on the face of n who has just
received his first communion.
But not to Kendrick, or to Ransom,
or to any other of his close friends
did Tallentyre reveal his defiant pur-
pose. He tingled sometimes when
he thought of it; perhaps it would
mean a fight. Tallentyre was not ex-
c~essively pugnacious, but he looked
forward with some eagerness to the
prospect of doing battle for such a
cause. E,
Kendrick informed him that his
grandfather was coming from New t
York, at Doctor Davenport's request,
to give a talk in the chapel on Memo
rial day. HE fought all through the |
war; said Kendrick, proudly. HE
was wounded five times"
My grandfather was killed." Tai I
replied.
There vas a rebuking haughtiness {
in his manner of saying it that 81
Kendrick. i
"Jim," said Kendrlck, a few min.
later, dropping into Ransom's '
room, did you know that Tally is f
still awfully stuffy about the war;" il
What war;" asked Ransom vague. /
". s
The Civil War, you goat" I
We'll, naturally. All his people c
we're in it. Do you suppose he has
any objection to carrying the sixth G
form wreath on Memorial day?" i
"Why should he have?' It's an hon. .
Dr." :
WELL" said Ransom, slowly, after I
moments silence, IF l was going h
10 school in the South, and found I i
was expected to decorate a Confeder- b
ate soldiers grave, l don't know just \
how l should feel about it."
I'D do it, Of COURSE Kendrick del d
IT'S just the tribute you'd $
pay to any man who dies for what he Il
believes in" g
Il suppose you're right Ransom O
admitted. "Still, l can see how Tally r
might feel more sore than proud l.
marching at the head of a Memorial. v
lay parade" r
Tallentyre awoke early on the morn h
ing Of Memorial day. The sun was =
in at his windows; the birds v
we're singing in the naples along the v
upper school driveway. When he put O
lis head out Of the window, Tallen- s.
,yre saw the big American flag that
,wayed at half-mast in the drowsy S
carly morning breeze above the en-. "
rance of the dormitory. Off above Il
he trees he could see the Stars and e
Stripes fluttering from the top Of Ii
he study building, from the flagpole o
II front Of the library, and from "
lbove the rectory roof. Evidently it e.
vas time for him to act. t;
He took out from under his bed {
he fiagpole and tackle that he had
lad the school carpenter make for 81
i'm and rugged them outside his win I'll
!ow. Then from a bureau drawer he q
ook a stained, faded and tattered re
lag, and reeved its halyards to the tc
ole. W
A moment later the Confederate la
attle-flag-the flag known as the al
Southern Cross"-floated from a top sc
Iindow in the upper school. tn
1t was a square flag, with a pale M
ground and two hlua hars Of