id Mr. Smith, bringing his hand down on the arm of his
chair with convincing emphasis. "And I don't mind paying money for such
an object--it's well spent, I can tell you. Now, boys, see here--and
Lucy too;" and he leaned forward and began to talk in a way that made
the children see that this was no funning, but sober earnest, every word
of it. "If you all go to work for three weeks, beginning to-morrow
morning--all the time you get out of school, I mean--and study up
everything you can get hold of that concerns the history of our country:
what Fourth-of-July's for, and all that; who made the country what it
is, so that we can celebrate and bang away, and play with powder and
guns-- Stop! I haven't got through," as he saw both boys' mouths fly
open to launch numberless questions at him. "Begin at the very
foundation; get all the information you possibly can; find out all the
names of the Presidents, for one thing, and all about the establishing
of Congress; most of the principal battles, and all that--why, then,
three weeks from to-morrow night, the one who knows the most, and can
tell it in a sensible way that shows he knows what he's learned, and not
like a parrot, _he_ shall have the most money. And it _shall_ be a large
sum, I promise you, compared to what you had last year. That's all. Now
you may speak." And Mr. Smith leaned back in his chair, and burst into a
hearty laugh at the tumult he had raised around his ears.

At last Harper, in a lull of questions and answers that were flying back
and forth, turned and fixed a reproachful glance over in the direction
of the big mending basket. "'Twas all Aunt Nancy," he cried. "Oh dear!
And she wasn't never a boy. And she don't know how we want things, she
don't."

"We never can do it," cried Joe, in despair.

"Never's a long word," cried Mr. Smith, briskly. "Begin to-night. Come,
boys, get out the maps, and we'll start right off, now, this very
minute;" and he jumped up, and began to roll the big table up closer to
the window.

"And I'm goin' to get that awful old history," cried Harper, rushing
out, full of enthusiasm; "that'll tell lots."

"Do," cried his father, approvingly. "Go along too, Joe and Lucy, and
get all the books you can; _then_ we'll see."

So in two or three minutes three happy and excited children sat around
the table, while their father showed them how to begin, explained the
hard parts, and pointed out places on the map, while Aunt Nancy, over in