the corner, smiled and nodded to herself more than ever.

All of a sudden a voice broke in on the absorbed group: "And _I'm_ going
to have a finger in this Fourth-of-July pie; so you needn't think you
can keep me out."

Everybody looked up and stared.

"Yes, I am; so there, now!" repeated Aunt Nancy, decisively. "And the
one that I find knows the most when you all get through in three weeks,
why, there's some stray dollars in my purse that I don't know what to do
with, and they might as well go along with your father's as anywhere
else."

At this there was such excitement over by the table that nobody could
hear anything, till Harper's voice finally got the high key. "And if
anybody sees a bigger Fourth of July than _we'll_ have, I'd like to know
it, that's all."

"Three cheers for Christopher Columbus, and the whole lot!" cried Joe.
"I wish 'twas Fourth twice a year, I do."

"We haven't got ready for _one_ yet," said Lucy, deep in an atlas. "I'm
goin' to make this a good one first."

"Three cheers for Christopher Columbus--and Lucy!" said Harper, taking
the hint, and settling down to work.

"It _can't_ be nine o'clock?" cried Joe, when Mr. Smith gave the word
"To bed."

"Look at the clock, then," said their father; and all the flushed faces
were turned up to the old time-piece in the corner.

"It's dreadfully nice," said Lucy, cuddling up to Aunt Nancy for a
good-night kiss. "Oh, I'd love to sit up all night and study."

"Hold out to the end," said Mr. Smith; "that's what will tell." And off
the three children flew to their nests, to dream of George Washington
dancing a war-dance on Bunker Hill, while Pocahontas read the
Declaration of Independence.

* * * * *

It all went very well for two days. The children got up early in the
morning, and otherwise made the most of their time. Then Harper's great
friend Chuckie Bronson, who had received a wonderful dog from an uncle
in the country, waxed so enthusiastic over the various tricks that the
little spaniel performed that Harper couldn't help catching the fever.
And it came to be quite the natural thing that when the little history
class gathered around the big table, one of their number was missing,
and Harper's book-mark remained stationary for many a long hour. And
then, unfortunately for poor Lucy, who eagerly grasped every second from
play-time to spend among the text-books and atlases, which by this time
had become ex