the Fourth of July. They were about equally ardent,
but if there were any difference it was in favor of Cocoanut, who,
within the year, had become probably the most earnest American citizen
upon the face of the civilized globe. His information regarding the
United States and American citizenship had, of course, been derived from
Billy, who had derived it from his father; and Billy's father had told
Billy, who in turn had told Cocoanut, that by the next Fourth of July
the Stars and Stripes would be flying from the flagstaffs of Hawaii,
and that then, on the Fourth, small boys could celebrate just as small
boys did in the United States. Thenceforth Billy and Cocoanut observed
the flags above Honolulu closely, but neither of them had ever seen the
Stars and Stripes lying flattened out aloft by the sea breeze. They had
faith, though, and their faith had been justified by their works. They
had between them, as the result of much begging from parents and doing a
little work occasionally, gathered together probably the most
astonishing supply of firecrackers ever possessed by two boys of their
size and degree of understanding. There were package upon package of the
small, ordinary Chinese firecrackers, and there were a dozen or two of
the big "cannon" firecrackers which have come into vogue of late years,
and the first manufacturer of whom should be taken out somewhere and
hanged with all earnestness. They were now consulting regarding the
morrow. Would the flag fly over Honolulu and could they celebrate? They
didn't know, but they had a degree of faith. Then they wandered off
somewhere with Julius Caesar and had a good time all day, but ever the
morrow was in their mind.

It was early the next morning when the two boys and Julius Caesar were
again on the point of hill overlooking Honolulu. It was so early that
the flags had not yet been hoisted over the public buildings. Each boy
carried a package, and these they unrolled and laid out together. The
display was something worth looking at. Any boy who could see that
layout of firecrackers and not feel a kind of a tingling run over him
resembling that which comes when he takes hold of the two handles of an
electrical machine wouldn't be a boy worth speaking of. He wouldn't be
the sort of a boy who had it in him to ever become President of the
United States, or captain of a baseball nine, or anything of that sort.
But these two boys quivered. Cocoanut quivered more than Billy did.