After dinner, and a fine dinner they had of chickens, and goose pie, and custard, Mr. Harrison took the boys (little Edwin too) down into the village, where a band of musicians were playing and parading through the street. Every little while they would stop playing and hurra! The boys always hurraed when the band did, for boys in general are not slow about making a noise. So they made all the noise they possibly could, and came back to tea, each one so hoarse, that Mrs. Harrison asked them if they had bullfrogs in their throats.
At last the evening came, and a still and beautiful evening it was. The stars peeped out, one by one, and the moon staid in—that is, she did not make her appearance until very late. They could not have had a finer night for the grand display.
The family were all assembled on the lawn, and Mr. Harrison fixed the wheels so nicely, that they whizzed round in the most astonishing manner. The Roman candles went up beautifully, and the grasshoppers and snakes sent the little fellows laughing and scampering in all directions.
The hurraing was tremendous, and the shouts of laughter were tremendous too.
Altogether they had a very nice time, and went off to bed tired, it is true, but highly pleased with the day's enjoyment—all except little Edwin. He sighed many times, and could hardly get to sleep; but his carelessness was a good lesson to him, for it afterwards made him the most careful boy in the school.
After the glorious Fourth, the boys settled down into their usual employments. Their gardens were carefully tended, and many a fine cucumber and bunch of radishes were presented with pride and pleasure to Mrs. Harrison. They ate pumpkin pie made with their own pumpkins, and thought them the most delicious pumpkins that ever grew; and their melons were the sweetest melons they ever tasted in all their lives.
They were very attentive in school also, and at the end of the term, when the boys were preparing to go home for the vacation, they all said, it was the pleasantest term they had ever spent together. They parted with their kind teacher with many thanks for his kindness, and hopes that after vacation, all would meet together again, and be happy and glad to come.