Several times since his aunt had come to keep house after his mother's death three years before, Horace had disputed this highly inaccurate historical reference, but always uselessly. He let the point pass by.
"They may respect the flag," he said, "but suppose they don't?"
The old maid faced him.
"There's been a power of soldiers gone by this morning, hasn't there?" she retorted. "Well, if the whole lot of them were drawn up in front of my house and they all shouted together 'Open the door!' I wouldn't open it. So there!"
Horace laughed admiringly. Decidedly his aunt had grit. The passage of the German Army had not shaken her nerve a scrap.
"Well, Aunt," he said, "if that's the way you feel about it, there's no need for me to stay. I've got to go to school."
"If you take care of yourself as well as I can take care of myself, there'll be no trouble," quoth she, and went back to wash her breakfast dishes as nonchalantly as though a detachment of men were not searching cottage after cottage.
When, a little later, there came a knock at the door, she went and looked out. The officer spoke to her in French.
Aunt Abigail, who, in the three years that she had been in the country, had only learned enough French to do her marketing, answered,
"Talk English!"