“Six weeks!” answered Mrs. Crabtree; “six years, or sixty, would be too short. You are no more like Mr. Frank than a shilling is to a guinea, or a wax light to a dip. If the news were told that you had been a good boy for a single day, the very statutes in the streets would come running along to see the wonder. No! no! I have observed many surprising things in my day, but them great pyramuses in Egypt will turn upside down before you turn like Mr. Frank.”

Some days after this adventure of Harry and Laura’s, there arrived newspapers from London containing accounts of a great battle which had been fought abroad. On that occasion the British troops of course performed prodigies of valour, and completely conquered the enemy, in consequence of which, it was ordered by government, that, in every town, and every village, and every house throughout the whole kingdom, there should be a grand illumination.

Neither Harry nor Laura had ever heard of such a thing as an illumination before, and they were full of curiosity to know what it was like; but their very faces became lighted up with joy, when Major Graham described that they would see crowds of candles flaming in every window, tar-barrels blazing on every hill, flambeaux glaring at the doors, and transparencies, fire-works, and coloured lamps shining in all the streets.

“How delightful! and walking out in the dark to see it,” cried Harry; “that will be best of all! oh! and a whole holiday! I hardly know whether I am in my right wits, or my wrong wits, for joy! I wish we gained a victory every day!”

“What a warrior you would be, Harry! Cæsar was nothing to you,” said Frank. “We might be satisfied with one [149] ]good battle in a year, considering how many are killed and wounded.”

“Yes, but I hope all the wounded soldiers will recover.”

“Or get pensions,” added uncle David. “It is a grand sight, Frank, to see a whole nation rejoicing at once! In general, when you walk out and meet fifty persons in the street, they are all thinking of fifty different things, and each intent on some business of his own, but on this occasion all are of one mind and one heart.”

Frank and Harry were allowed to nail a dozen of little candlesticks upon each window in the house, which delighted them exceedingly, and then, before every pane of glass, they placed a tall candle, impatiently longing for the time when these were to be illuminated. Laura was allowed to carry a match, and assist in lighting them, but in the excess of her joy, she very nearly made a bonfire of herself, as her frock took fire, and would soon have been in a blaze, if Frank had not hastily seized a large rug and rolled it round her.

In every house within sight, servants and children were to be seen hurrying about with burning matches, while hundreds of lights blazed up in a moment, looking as if all the houses in town had taken fire.

“Such a waste of candles!” said Mrs. Crabtree, angrily; “can’t people be happy in the dark!”