day with a grand salute; and that it might produce the greatest
effect, I crept softly down in my stocking feet, by my parents'
bed-room into the front hall, before daylight, and having loaded my
little gun to the muzzle the evening before, I touched it off. It made
a great noise, I assure you--all the louder, of course, because it was
in the house; then, slipping on my shoes, I went into the streets,
leaving the old folks to go to sleep again if they could. My first use
of the powder, you see, did no harm to me, unless it made me careless.
When I got into the street, I found crowds of boys and men were there
before me, making all the noise they could, firing off crackers,
pistols, and guns, and making the foggy morning air resound with the
music of tin horns and drums. Meeting a boy with a large horse-pistol,
I bought it of him at a foolishly high price, and banged away with
that till breakfast time. At the eastern extremity of the city, where
I then lived, was a high hill, called Munjoy, on which the soldiers
were to encamp that day; and after eating a hurried meal, I went
there. Scores of white tents were pitched, occupied by men who sold
all sorts of tempting eatables, while thousands of men, women, and
children walked about. It was an exciting scene to me. The hill,
indeed, was a glorious spot, for it overlooked the city on the one
side, with its thousands of buildings and shaded streets, and on the
other the harbor, with its shipping and wharves, and lovely islands,
while the ocean stretched away as far as the eye could reach."

"I never saw the ocean," interrupted Tom.

"Well, I will tell you what it resembles. You have looked for miles
and miles over the prairie--I mean a _rolling_ prairie, that in gentle
swells of land extends till the sky shuts down upon it?"

"O, yes," answered Tom.

"Well, imagine that prairie turned to water, so deep that you could
not touch bottom with the longest line you ever saw,--the ocean would
look so; only remember that it is always in motion--ebbing, and
flowing, and roaring, and dashing against the land and the rocks, its
waves sometimes running very high, topped off with a white foam."

"O," said Tom, earnestly, "if I could only once see it!"

The minister studied Tom's expressive face a moment, and then said,--

"Perhaps you may, some day. But I was going to tell you how I got
hurt. I had exploded all the powder, and was about tired of the
pistol,--for you know such thing