Artie was rather absent-minded and he had been known to give away a secret without knowing it.
"Oh, yes, yours burned up, didn't they?" said Carrie. "That was too bad. I don't suppose you could get very much; all the good things were bought. We have some dandy fireworks. We are going to set them off on my lawn. You'll be able to see them, and that will be almost as much fun as though you had some."
"Oh, we have some," Margy hastened to explain. "We each had a dollar, and if you put everything together, you have more, or at least it always seems that way."
"Well, anyway, you can see ours," repeated Carrie. "We have two dozen Roman candles."
Stella Dorman stared coolly at Ward.
"You burned up the fireworks, didn't you?" she asked, with apparent interest.
The unexpectedness of this left Ward gasping for breath. Jess spoke for him.
"Ward had nothing to do with it," she cried indignantly. "It's a wonder he wasn't burned up—every one says so. Joe Anderson threw a lighted firecracker and it exploded all the stuff."
"But he didn't mean to," Carrie put in hastily. "Joe wasn't looking. He just threw the firecracker over his shoulder and he jumped a mile when he heard the explosion."