out!"
shrieked Charlie at the open kitchen window.

"What under the sun--" And, without a word more, Aunt Stanshy left the
clothes she was washing and rushed into the yard.

"Come here, mister, and bring your saw," she said to the man at the
wood-pile, "and, Charlie, bring a hammer from the nail-box on the
entry-shelf!"

The man at the wood-pile rushed after Aunt Stanshy, saw in hand, while
Charlie hurriedly brought the hammer.

"Now saw into that box and knock away with the hammer, mister. You see,
Silas Trefethen wanted to hire my barn last winter, and thought he would
put in what he called a fodder-box running down from the closet above to
this floor, and then intended to knock the closet away when he had carried
the box down here, thinking he might save some steps that way, but he was
taken sick and the closet was left there; and that closet floor, I
suppose, wasn't left just right."

Aunt Stanshy was talking while the man was sawing and hammering away. He
plied his tools vigorously, and soon let Wort out into the full light of
day once more. The boys shouted and laughed also as Wort wriggled forward
into liberty. He looked up, but seeing that his liberator was the man he
had seeded, he dropped his head, and, refusing to look again, slunk away
with an air that indicated a strong desire to find another box where he
could shut himself up for the present.

The man concluded who his enemy was, and he said, "I guess we are even
now."

CHAPTER V.

THE NATION'S BIRTHDAY.

"The great thing on the Fourth is to have a good time," said the
president.

"No, the great thing," said the practical governor, "is to be sure and
wake up in season."

"That's so," chimed several voices in chorus.

"How shall we fix it?" asked Pip.

"Tie your toe to the bed-post," said some one.

"Put a lot of stones in your bed," said Sid, "and then you can't sleep
easy."

"Two sleep together and tie their toes to one another," said the governor.

Objections were found against all these plans, as they had been
ineffectually tried by various members of the club.

"Go and holler under every boy's window," said Billy Grimes, with the air
of one who had made an important discovery. "I will holler under your's,
Pip," was his magnificent offer.

"But who will be the feller to go to your window?" asked Sid.

"Why--why--_you_."

"Well, who will holler under my window?" said Sid.

"I," said Wort.

"And under yours?" contin