"
"Not too many, old man," Tracy Dixon suggested hurriedly, "or it may
prove a one-sided pleasure."
The green lay in the center of the town,--a wide, open space, with
flagstaff in the middle; fine old elms bordered it on all four sides.
The Vermont House faced it, on the north, and on the opposite side
stood the general store, belonging to Mr. Ward, with one or two smaller
places of business.
"The business section" of the town, Tom called it, and quite failed to
notice Tracy's lament that he had not brought his opera glasses with
him. "Really, you know," Tracy explained to his companions, "I should
have liked awfully to see it. I'm mighty interested in business
sections."
"Cut that out," his brother Bob commanded, "the chap up in front is
getting ready to hold forth again."
They were simple enough, those anecdotes, that "the chap up in front"
told them; but in the telling, the boy's voice lost again all touch of
mock gravity. His listeners, sitting there in the June sunshine,
looking out across the old green, flecked with the waving tree shadows,
and bright with the buttercups nodding here and there, seemed to see
those men and boys drilling there in the far-off summer twilights; to
hear the sharp words of command; the sound of fife and drum.
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