g a hole?"

"To put fire-crackers in," answered Laddie. "And when they shoot
off--'Bang!'--they'll make the sand go up in the air."

"Like a sky-rocket?" asked Vi.

"Yes, I guess maybe like a sky-rocket," answered Laddie.

So down to the sand pile he and his sister went. Mun Bun and Margy played
in the grass in the side yard, Russ whittled away at his wooden cannon,
whistling the while, and Rose, after she had done a little dusting, made a
new dress for her doll.

"'Cause I want her to look nice for Grandma Bell," said the little girl.

And thus they played at these and other things, and had a good time.

A few mornings after this Russ was suddenly awakened by hearing a loud
noise under his window.

"What's that?" he cried. "Thunder?"

"It's Fourth of July!" answered his father. "Some boy must have shot off a
big early fire-cracker! Get up, children! It's Fourth of July, and we are
going to have some fun! Get up!"

"Hurray!" cried Russ. "Hurray for the Fourth of July!"

CHAPTER V

THE TRAMP

Such fun as the six little Bunkers had! Daddy Bunker was up before any of
them, to see that little fingers were not burned by pieces of punk or
stray ends of fire-crackers, and before breakfast Russ and Laddie had made
enough noise, their mother said, to last all day.

"It's a good thing we decided not to go to Grandma Bell's until after the
Fourth;" she said. "Dear mother never could have stood this racket."

"We like it," said Russ.

He and Laddie did, and Mun Bun did not mind it very much, though he did
shut his eyes and jump when a big cracker went off.

Rose, Margy and Vi didn't like the fire-crackers at all, though they
didn't mind tossing torpedoes down on the sidewalk, to hear them go off
with a little bang.

Mrs. Bunker was afraid some of the children might get burned or hurt with
the fireworks, and she wished they hadn't had any; but Daddy Bunker
promised to stay with the little folk all day, and see that they got into
no danger. And he did, firing off the big fire-crackers himself.

The wooden cannon Russ made didn't work very well. The first fire-cracker
that was shot off in it burst the wooden affair all to pieces.

"But I don't care," said Russ with a jolly whistle. "It made _one_ awfully
good noise, anyhow."

"To-night we'll go down to the Square and see the big fireworks," said
Daddy Bunker, for the town of Pineville was old-fashioned enough to have a
Fourth-of-July celebration.

"