t there were about a thousand rails in that pile, and they were pretty
heavy ones--oak and hickory and walnut--and you had to be careful how you
handled them, or you would get your hands stuck full of splinters. He
wondered what Jake Milrace was thinking, and whether it was the kind of
Fourth he had expected to have; but Jake did not say anything, and he
hated to ask him. Sometimes it appeared to Frank that sawing wood was
nothing to it; but they kept on loading rails, and unloading them in piles
about ten feet apart, where they were wanted; and then going back to the
big pile for more. They worked away in the blazing sun till the sweat
poured off their faces, and Frank kept thinking what a splendid time the
fellows were having with pistols and shooting-crackers up in the Boy's
Town; but still he did not say anything, and pretty soon he had his
reward. When they got half down through the rail-pile they came to a
bumblebees' nest, which the dogs thought was a rat-hole at first. One of
them poked his nose into it, but he pulled it out quicker than wink and
ran off howling and pawing his face and rubbing his head in the ground or
against the boys' legs. Even when the dogs found out that it was not rats
they did not show any sense. As soon as they rubbed a bee off they would
come yelping and howling back for more; and hopping round and barking; and
then when they got another bee, or maybe a half-dozen (for the bees did
not always fight fair), they would streak off again and jump into the air,
and roll on the ground till the boys almost killed themselves laughing.

The boys went into the woods, and got pawpaw branches, and came back and
fought the bumblebees till they drove them off. It was just like the
battle of Bunker Hill; but Frank did not say so, because Dave's father was
British, till Dave said it himself, and then they all pretended the bees
were Mexicans; it was just a little while after the Mexican War. When they
drove the bees off, they dug their nest out; it was beautifully built in
regular cells of gray paper, and there was a little honey in it; about a
spoonful for each boy.

Frank was glad that he had not let out his disappointment with the kind of
Fourth they were having; and just then the horn sounded from the house for
dinner, and the boys all got into the wagon, and rattled off to the barn.
They put out the horses and fed them, and as soon as they could wash
themselves at the rain-barrel behind the house, t