The standard-bearer dipped his flag as he passed Dorothy’s house, for there was a great flag draped over the doorway, and red, white and blue streamers running up to the windows, and Dorothy waved a little flag as she stood on the top doorstep. “Three cheers for the red, white and blue!” sang the soldiers as they marched by.
“Sank you!” said Dorothy, spreading out her frock and patting her sash. “_I’se_ the red, white and blue! See mine sash!”
Then came a soldier who looked straight up at Dorothy, and held out his arms, though without stopping. And it was Dorothy’s own Papa!
In less than half a minute Dorothy was in his arms, and he had caught her up, and put her on his shoulder.
Dorothy waved her flag, and jumped up and down on Papa’s shoulder, and cried, “Three cheers for the red, white and blue! three cheers for me!” and all the soldiers shouted and cheered and laughed, and so Dorothy and the procession went on their way all through the village.
THEY call me Totty, because I am small. I had a funny Christmas, and Mamma said I might tell about it.
I have the scarlet fever, and I live all alone with my Mamma in her room. Nobody comes in ’cept the doctor, and he says he sha’n’t come any more to see a girl who feels as well as I do.
Mamma wears a cap and an apron, and we have our own dishes, just like play, and she washes them in a bright tin pan, and then I have the pan for a drum, and beat on it till she says she shall fly.
I always stop then, for I do think I should be frightened to see Mamma fly. Besides, she might fly away.
Well, yesterday was Christmas, and I could get out of bed and sit up in a chair; it was the first time.
So I sat up to dinner, and it was a partridge, but we played it was a turkey. There was jelly and macaroni, and for desert we had grapes and oranges. Mamma made it all look pretty, and Papa gave her roses through the door, and she put them all over the table.
When she had washed the dishes, she turned the big chair round so that I could look out of the window, and Hal and John came out on the lawn and made a snow-man for me to look at.
It was a fine man, with two legs and two arms, and they kept playing he was the British, and knocking his head off.