e of the paste
on the piazza.

[Illustration]

Pin-wheels and rockets were contributed by Mr. Peterkin for the
evening. According to a programme drawn up by Agamemnon and Solomon
John, the reading of the Declaration of Independence was to take place
in the morning, on the piazza, under the flags.

The Bromwicks brought over their flag to hang over the door.

"That is what the lady from Philadelphia meant," explained Elizabeth
Eliza.

[Illustration]

"She said the flags of our country," said the little boys. "We thought
she meant 'in the country.'"

Quite a company assembled; but it seemed nobody had a copy of the
Declaration of Independence.

Elizabeth Eliza said she could say one line, if they each could add as
much. But it proved they all knew the same line that she did, as they
began:--

"When, in the course of--when, in the course of--when, in the course
of human--when in the course of human events--when, in the course of
human events, it becomes--when, in the course of human events, it
becomes necessary--when, in the course of human events, it becomes
necessary for one people"--

They could not get any farther. Some of the party decided that "one
people" was a good place to stop, and the little boys sent off some
fresh torpedoes in honor of the people. But Mr. Peterkin was not
satisfied. He invited the assembled party to stay until sunset, and
meanwhile he would find a copy, and torpedoes were to be saved to be
fired off at the close of every sentence.

And now the noon bells rang and the noon bells ceased.

[Illustration]

Mrs. Peterkin wanted to ask everybody to dinner. She should have some
cold beef. She had let Amanda go, because it was the Fourth, and
everybody ought to be free that one day; so she could not have much of
a dinner. But when she went to cut her beef she found Solomon had
taken it to soak, on account of the saltpetre, for the fireworks!

Well, they had a pig; so she took a ham, and the boys had bought
tamarinds and buns and a cocoa-nut. So the company stayed on, and when
the Antiques and Horribles passed again they were treated to pea-nuts
and lemonade.

They sung patriotic songs, they told stories, they fired torpedoes,
they frightened the cats with them. It was a warm afternoon; the red
poppies were out wide, and the hot sun poured down on the alley-ways
in the garden. There was a seething sound of a hot day in the buzzing
of insects, in the steaming heat that came up from