This story appeared in the June 14, 1917 issue of The Youth’s Companion, which happened to be Flag Day.
This is the tale of nine-year-old Marnie Evans, who was upset because two of her classmates were giggling during the daily salute of the flag.
After school, she confronted one of the offending boys, John Grover, who was a neighbor.
She accused him of being a traitor.
The problem was that there was no flag in the classroom, and John thought it was funny to be saluting the blackboard and pretending it was the flag.
Marnie was astonished.
“Why, John Grover,” cried Marnie, “do you mean – why, it is there! I mean it’s just the same as there. Don’t you see?” She stopped helplessly. “Why, when I salute or when I sing The Star-Spangled Banner, I do see it – not a real one, of course, but something up in the air, bigger and lovelier than any flag I ever saw – almost. And that’s what I salute. O John, don’t you understand?”
Predictably, John did not understand.
Marnie had to come to grips with the reality caused by the lack of a flag to salute, and she figured out a way to get one for her schoolroom.
Read the story to find out what she did. “Marnie and the Flag,” by Winifred Arnold
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