FOOTNOTES:
[H] To use an eye-cup, fill it about three-quarters full; hold it over the eye while bending the head forward. Throw head back, holding cup over eye, and open and shut eye several times.
[I] An easy way to crack ice is to place a piece about the size of your fist in a strong piece of cloth, and hammer it into bits.
To keep ice chips, lay a piece of wool flannel over a small sieve, and place the chipped ice on this, allowing it to drain into a bowl. Wrap the flannel over the ice. This keeps the warm air out from the ice and the cold air in.
CHAPTER XII
Plans
“NO firecrackers, and no toy pistols!” exclaimed Ibee Brave to his Sister Soami, when she told him about the lesson given the girls’ class the day before. “That’s all right for girls, but I can’t imagine boys on the glorious Fourth without firecrackers and pistols!”
“No Fire Crackers and no Toy Pistols!”
“You wait until you hear what Miss Helpem told us. Your lesson comes this afternoon, doesn’t it? You may change your mind,” prophesied Soami.
“Pooh!” exclaimed Ibee. “I bet I don’t! What kind of a fellow would I be, with a brother off with the troops in Mexico, if I were afraid of a toy pistol!”
“Oh, dear me,” laughed Soami, “you don’t understand. It’s not the pistol you ought to be afraid of; it’s——”
“Oh, say, talk sense, can’t you?” exclaimed Ibee. “What are you driving at, anyhow?”
“That’s all for the present, class,” replied Soami, tantalizingly, as she ran off with Angie, who had just appeared.
Ibee decided to hunt up Tom Holden before going to class, to find out what he knew. But Tom hadn’t heard anything about the question.
“I don’t see any harm in a few proper celebrations,” said Tom. “What’s Miss Helpem’s idea, I wonder?”
By the time the class assembled all the boys had heard something about “Miss Helpem’s Fourth of July idea,” and there was an unusual air of expectancy as the assistant nurse came into the class room carrying—what do you think?—a toy pistol, a bunch of tiny firecrackers, a bunch of medium-sized firecrackers, and some “giant cannon” crackers. Of course, they were very tiny, just the right size for Mary Frances’ dolls. The “cannon” crackers were like the tiniest real ones you ever saw.
Miss Helpem had just laid them all on the little glass table near the little glass medicine closet, when Shesa Brave came in carrying a little cannon—which would really “go off, if loaded.”
The boys certainly were surprised, for they thought they were to hear these very toys condemned.
“Good afternoon, boys,” smiled Miss Helpem, straightening her cap. “This is to be a very interesting lesson. It’s our Fourth of July lesson, even though the Fourth doesn’t come until next Tuesday. I hope we are all going to have a grand time on the Fourth. The girls’ class have planned their part in the town event. Doctor Surecure is in charge, you know. He is planning a civic and patriotic celebration. I shall ask Miss Shesa to read you the program. You will notice that your space is left blank. That is, left open so that we may fill it in to-day. Now, Shesa, read if you please.”
Shesa read the—