“‘Oh! dear!’ cried I, ‘this is always the way. Now, I do think you might just this afternoon come and help me, for there’s no fun in playing alone. Come, you shall have half the powder for your own.’
“‘Let me see it,’ said Henry.
“I opened the brown paper, and showed him the quantity I had bought.
“‘Oh! this is capital!’ cried he; ‘yes, I’ll come just this once.’
“We met in the afternoon, and began to make squibs and crackers. We had made a few, when Henry proposed that we should get some fire and amuse ourselves by throwing powder into it, a few grains at a time. Henry went for the fire, while I went on with my work. I did not perceive that in the paper which held the powder, there was a large hole, and that I was losing my treasure, as it run through to the ground. Irritated by this accident, I threw away the paper, and sat down to wait for Henry’s return. He came to me in a few moments.
“‘We must make haste, John,’ said he, ‘for here comes a great troop of girls, and your sister Mary and our Lucy are among them. If they see us, they’ll run home as fast as they can, to tell tales of us.’
“‘Well, then,’ I answered, ‘come, help me scrape up this powder, which is all on the grass here, and we’ll hide away the whole of it, till they are gone.’ We knelt down, and began to take the powder in our hands.
“‘John,’ said Henry, ‘I’ll get up the powder, and you go hide away those squibs among the bushes; and make haste; do, for I hear the girls, and they’ll be here in a minute.’