This allured Ramsey somewhat, but terrified
him more. He didn't know how such matters were managed.
Usually the quartet had no destination; they just went "out walking"
until ten o'clock, when both girls had to be home--and the boys did,
too, but never admitted it. On Friday evenings there was a "public
open-air concert" by a brass band in a small park, and the four were
always there. A political speechmaker occupied the bandstand one night,
and they stood for an hour in the midst of the crowd, listening vaguely.
The orator saddled his politics upon patriotism. "Do you intend to let
this glorious country go to wrack and ruin, oh, my good friends," he
demanded, "or do you intend to save her? Look forth upon this country of
ours, I bid you, oh, my countrymen, and tell me what you see. You see
a fair domain of forest, mountain, plain, and fertile valleys, sweeping
from ocean to ocean. Look from the sturdy rocks of old New England,
pledged to posterity by the stern religious hardihood of the Pilgrim
Fathers, across the corn-bearing midland country, that land of milk
and honey, won for us by the pluck and endurance of the indomitable
pioneers, to where in sunshine roll the smiling Sierras of golden
California, given to our heritage by the unconquerable energy of those
brave men and women who braved the tomahawk on the Great Plains, the
tempest, of Cape Horn, and the fevers of Panama, to make American soil
of El Dorado! America! Oh, my America, how glorious you stand! Country
of Washington and Valley Forge, out of what martyrdoms hast thou arisen!
Country of Lincoln in his box at Ford's theatre, his lifeblood staining
to a brighter, holier red the red, white, and blue of the Old Flag!
Always and always I see the Old Flag fluttering the more sacredly
encrimsoned in the breeze for the martyrs who have upheld it! Always I
see that Old Flag--"
Milla gave Ramsey's arm, within her own, a little tug.
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