[…] Sally was in good health and spirits […] and earnestly desirous of “doing her best for the child she had nursed when pap and dillwater was its daily bread.”

So they have trooped forth to organize village down-and-outs and ne'er-do-wells into would-be combat units.

How did she react to the news?

A flat tax means scrapping all income tax bands and the various exemptions and loopholes and replacing them with a single low rate.