"I think the pupil that has the best record in school should raise it,"
suggested Justice.
"I think," I said slowly, "I'll let Absalom Butts raise it."
"Absalom Butts!" exclaimed Justice incredulously. "The laziest, meanest,
most mischievous boy in school! I wouldn't let him be in the pageant, if
I had my way, let alone raise the flag."
"Exactly," I said calmly. "You're just like the rest of them. That's the
whole trouble with Absalom Butts. He's been used to harsh measures all
his life. His father has cuffed him about ever since he can remember.
Everybody considers him a bad boy and a terror to snakes and all that and
now he acts the part thoroughly. He's so homely that nobody will ever be
attracted to him by his looks, and such a poor scholar that he will never
make a name for himself at his lessons, and the only way he can make
himself prominent is through his pranks. He's too old to be in school
with the rest of the children; he should be with boys of his own age. His
father makes him stay there because he is too obstinate to admit that he
will never get out by the graduation route, and Absalom takes out his
spite on the teacher. I can read him like a book. I've tried fighting him
to a finish on every point and it hasn't worked. He's still ready to
break out at a moment's notice. Now I'm going to change my tactics. I'm
going to appoint him, as the oldest pupil, to be my special aid in the
pageant, and help work out the details. I'm going to honor him by letting
him raise the flag. We'll see how that will change his mind about playing
pranks to spoil the pageant."
"It won't work," said Justice gloomily. "Absalom Butts is Absalom Butts,
the son of Elijah Butts; and a chip off the old block. The old man has a
mean, crafty disposition, and he probably was just like Absalom when he
was young. Absalom is going to do something to spoil that pageant, I see
it in his eye. You watch."
"It's worth trying, anyhow," I said determinedly.
"It won't work," reiterated Justice. "You can't change human nature."
"It worked once," I said, and I told him about the Dalrymple twins, Antha
and Anthony, last summer on Ellen's Isle.
"So you turned little Cry-baby into a lion of bravery and Sir Boastful
into a modest violet!" said Justice, in a tone of incredulity.
"Yes, and if you'd ever seen them at the beginning of the summer you
wouldn't have held any high hopes of changing human nature, either," I
remarked, a little nettled at Justice's tone.
Justice started to reply, but was seized with a violent fit of coughing
that left him leaning weakly against the door. I looked at him in some
alarm. I knew it was throat trouble that had kept him out of the army,
but it hadn't seemed to be anything to worry about--just a dry, hacking
cough from time to time. Now, standing out there in the brilliant
sunshine, he looked very white and haggard.
"You're all tired out, you've been working too hard," I said, remembering
how he had been putting in time after school hours working in Elijah
Butts' cotton storehouse, because it was impossible to get enough men to
handle the cotton. Then, by drilling my boys and girls by the hour in
military marching and running countless errands for me--poor Justice was
in danger of being sacrificed on the altar of my ambition.
"I'm a selfish thing!" I said vehemently.
"Nonsense!" said Justice, holding up his head and beginning to fold up
the flag. "I got choked with dust, that's all." Manlike, he hated to
display any sign of physical weakness before a girl. I decided to say no
more about it, but I knew he needed rest.
"Sit down a minute," I said artfully, sinking down on the doorsill, "and
keep me 'mused. I'm tired to death. Tell me all the news in the
Metropolis of Spencer."
Justice fell into the trap. He sat down beside me and launched into a
lively imitation of Elijah Butts convincing the school board that the old
school books were better than the new ones some venturous soul had
suggested.
"If he only knew how you took him off behind his back, he wouldn't
confide in you so trustingly," said I.
"That's what comes of being a bargain," replied Justice loftily. "Great
ones linger in my presence, anxious to breathe the same air. The Board
coddles me like a rare bit of old china and proudly exhibits me to
visitors.
"Oh, by the way," he added, "I hear there's a stranger in town."