Her aunt would want her to go somewhere with her, or other cousins were expected whom the girl must entertain; and she knew the boy did not like other guests to be there when he was, so she never asked him to come over at such times.
On such occasions she did sometimes run up to the tower at eight o'clock and wave three times, and that meant, 'Dead Day.' So the boy, after all, never drew a real breath of relief until he made sure that no dreaded third wave was to follow the one or the two." "Seems to me," observed David, "that all this was sort of one-sided.
Didn't the boy say anything ?" "Oh, yes," smiled Mr.Jack.

"But the boy did not have any tower to wave from, you must remember.

He had only the little piazza on his tiny bit of a house.

But he rigged up a pole, and he asked his mother to make him two little flags, a red and a blue one.

The red meant 'All right'; and the blue meant 'Got to work'; and these he used to run up on his pole in answer to her waving 'I'm coming over,' or 'You are to come over here.' So, you see, occasionally it was the boy who had to bring the 'Dead Day,' as there were times when he had to work.