“Because you’ve taught us to be so—to love our dear native land and the beautiful old flag, the emblem of our nation’s glory!” she responded, her cheeks flushing and her eyes sparkling.
Max sitting directly in front of them, had caught the last two sentences of their colloquy.
“Yes, papa,” he said, “every one of us is that; even Baby Ned laughs and crows and claps his hands when he looks up at the flag waving in the breeze. I noticed it at Ion, on Grandma Elsie’s semi-centennial, where they had so many floating from the veranda and tree-tops.”
“Ah!” laughed the captain, “that was doubtless an evidence of good taste, but hardly of patriotism in so young a child.”
Mr. Austin was beginning to share his son’s interest in the Raymonds, and the two had been furtively watching the little scene, attracted by the animated expression of the faces of the captain, Max, and Lulu, as they talked.
“They seem a happy and affectionate trio,” Mr. Austin remarked to Albert.
“Yes, sir; and you were right about their being Americans. I asked the little girl if she wasn’t English, and to my astonishment she seemed almost indignant at the bare idea.”
“Ah, indeed! then I fancy she has never seen England.”
“No, sir, she said she never had; but if you had seen the look in her eyes when she told me she was every inch an American, you would hardly expect even a sight of old England to make her change her mind.”
“It’s a great country, certainly; immensely larger than our favored isle; and had it been our birthplace, it is quite possible we might have shared her feeling; but as it is, we assuredly looked upon Great Britain as the most favored land the sun shines on.”