**Pause!!** {please pause and read this poem, it is essential to the story!}
Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,
The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.
Round about them orchards sweep,
Apple-and peach-tree fruited deep,
Fair as a garden of the Lord
To the eyes of the famished rebel horde,
On that pleasant morn of the early fall
When Lee marched over the mountain wall,-
Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town.
Forty flags with their silver stars,
Forty flags with their crimson bars,
Flapped in the morning wind: the sun
Of noon looked down, and saw not one.
Up rose old Barbara Fritchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;
Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;
In her attic window the staff she set,
To show that one heart was loyal yet.
Up the street came the rebel tread,
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.
Under his slouched hat left and right
He glanced: the old flag met his sight.
"Halt!"-the dust brown ranks stood fast.
"Fire!"-out blazed the rifle-blast.
It shivered the window, pane and sash;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.
Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf;
She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.
"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.
A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;
The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word:
"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.
All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet:
All day long that free flag tost
Over the heads of the rebel host.
Ever its torn folds rose and fell
On the loyal winds that loved it well;
And through the hill-gaps sunset light
Shone over it with a warm good-night.
Barbara Fritchie's work is o'er,
And the rebel rides on his raids no more.
Honor to her! And let a tear
Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier.
Over Barbara Fritchie's grave
Flag of freedom and Union, wave!
Peace and order and beauty draw
Round thy symbol of light and law;
And ever the stars above look down
On they stars below in Frederick town!
-John Greenleaf Whittier
Barbara Fritchie My heartbeat quickened when we turned a corner, and-gasp!- there it was!
That night we had a traumatic time trying to find a hotel. There was no vacancy anywhere! And my mother was firm that we were not going to stay in a dive with the dust and bedbugs. But chances of finding a decent one looked bleak as we called each number on a long list of hotels trying to find a room. We prayed that God would help us find one, and lo and behold! We were driving along some back roads {not wanting to admit that we were sort of lost} when what should we see but some cheery lights and a vacancy sign to welcome our weary spirits! Thank you, Lord! The room was a little outdated, but otherwise perfect. It even had HGTV and the Food Network channel! Hooray! God is good. ~