The small boy got his flag. The patriotism taught at home and the patriotism taught at school, diverse at other points, met and mingled at that one most fundamental point.
In former days children did not quote their teachers much at home, nor their parents much at school. They do both in these days; occasionally with comic results. A little girl of my acquaintance whose first year at school began less than a month ago has, I observed only yesterday, seemed to learn as her introductory lesson to pronounce the words "either" and "neither" quite unmistakably "[=a]ther" and "n[=a]ther."
"This is an amazing innovation," I said to her mother. "How did she ever happen to think of it?"
"Ask her," said her mother plaintively.
I did inquire of the little girl. "Whom have you heard say '[=a]ther' and 'n[=a]ther'?"
"Nobody," she unexpectedly answered.
"Then how did you learn to say it?"
"Uncle Billy told me to—"
This uncle is an instructor of English in one of our most famous colleges. "My dear child," I protested, "you must have misunderstood him!"
"Oh, no," she affirmed earnestly. "You see, papa and mamma say 'eether' and 'neether,' and my school-teacher says 'eyether' and 'nyether.' I told papa and mamma, and they said to say them the way my teacher did; and I told my teacher, and she said to say them the way papa and mamma did! I couldn't say them two ways at once; and I didn't know which one way to say them. So Uncle Billy told me, if he were doing it, he wouldn't worry about it; he would say them '[=a]ther' and 'n[=a]ther'!"