I hope that you will one day become a teacher." Gretchen went home that afternoon with a glad heart.

Benjamin did not return to the school again for several days, and when he came back it seemed to be with a sense of humiliation.

He seemed to feel somehow that he ought not to have fallen from the tree.
The fourth of July came, and Master Mann had invited the school to come together on the holiday for patriotic exercises.

He had one of the pupils read the Declaration of Independence on the occasion, and Gretchen played the President's March on the violin.

He himself made an historical address, and then joined in some games out of doors under the trees.
He brought to the school-house that day an American flag, which he hung over the desk during the exercises.