th Eliza's kettles and pans had come down through the windows
with a crash, that had only added to the festivities, the little boys
thought.

[Illustration]

Mr. Peterkin had been roaming about all this time in search of a copy
of the Declaration of Independence. The public library was shut, and
he had to go from house to house; but now, as the sunset bells and
cannon began, he returned with a copy, and read it, to the pealing of
the bells and sounding of the cannon. Torpedoes and crackers were
fired at every pause. Some sweet-marjoram pots, tin cans filled with
crackers which were lighted, went off with great explosions.

At the most exciting moment, near the close of the reading, Agamemnon,
with an expression of terror, pulled Solomon John aside.

"I have suddenly remembered where I read about the 'fulminating paste'
we made. It was in the preface to 'Woodstock,' and I have been round
to borrow the book, to read the directions over again, because I was
afraid about the 'paste' going off. READ THIS QUICKLY! and tell me,
_Where is the fulminating paste?_"

Solomon John was busy winding some covers of paper over a little
parcel. It contained chlorate of potash and sulphur mixed. A friend
had told him of the composition. The more thicknesses of paper you put
round it the louder it would go off. You must pound it with a hammer.
Solomon John felt it must be perfectly safe, as his mother had taken
potash for a medicine.

He still held the parcel as he read from Agamemnon's book: "This
paste, when it has lain together about twenty-six hours, will _of
itself_ take fire, and burn all the sulphur away with a blue flame and
a bad smell."

"Where is the paste?" repeated Solomon John, in terror.

"We made it just twenty-six hours ago," said Agamemnon.

"We put it on the piazza," exclaimed Solomon John, rapidly recalling
the facts, "and it is in front of our mother's feet!"

He hastened to snatch the paste away before it should take fire,
flinging aside the packet in his hurry. Agamemnon, jumping upon the
piazza at the same moment, trod upon the paper parcel, which exploded
at once with the shock, and he fell to the ground, while at the same
moment the paste "fulminated" into a blue flame directly in front of
Mrs. Peterkin!

[Illustration]

It was a moment of great confusion. There were cries and screams. The
bells were still ringing, the cannon firing, and Mr. Peterkin had just
reached the closing words: "Our lives,