“As soon as I can. Things are a little irregular today, you know.”
“Certainly! certainly Dan! Independence Day is every dog’s day, most assuredly it is; and business concerns are apt to move rather circuitously. Fons,” he added, turning to a youthful looking lad at his side, “suppose we take ‘The Round About,’ since there’s no carriage and we have to walk. We might as well make it worth while, you know. I haven’t walked around that way for years, most assuredly I haven’t.”
Fons assented and they walked on at a brisk pace.
“How many of those patriotic packages have you, Fons?”
“If you mean my improvements on ‘The Sacred Mandarin,’” laughed Fons, “I have enough yet to hold up the town, although I left a good sprinkling of them at every station and sowed them about six deep among the employees while you were hunting up Dan. I’m going to advertise in earnest this time.”
“Well, I’ve got half a dozen. That will be enough. We won’t be apt to meet more than one or two boys after we branch off if we do any. They didn’t expect me on this train. Most assuredly they didn’t; but they’ll flock up to the gates in due time—by the time Dan gets there I reckon.”
They went on, distributing fire-crackers and blank cartridges to every boy they met and every poor looking fellow also.
When they got to the Cornwallis lot Fons espied little Laurens in the distance flying his kite.
“Heigho! what gay little patriotic bird is that?” exclaimed Fons. “He’s worth the ammunition.”
Schwarmer stopped and put on his gold-rimmed magnifiers.