Before Martine could decide whether it would be wise to recall the Fourth when Lucian almost put his eye out by blowing into a fire-cracker to see if it was still burning, Angelina appeared on the scene with a number of packages. These she deposited on the slope in front of the house with consequential air.
"Angelina," cried Mrs. Stratford.
"Yes'm," responded Angelina.
"Angelina," called Martine, and without waiting for a reply walked down to where the girl was undoing her packages.
"Then you really have fire-crackers here?"
"Yes, Miss Martine, and rockets, and Roman candles, and fire balloons, at least only one balloon. It didn't seem homelike not to have something doing on the Fourth, and now that I can spend my own money, there's no reason why I shouldn't celebrate."
Martine had no reply for this unanswerable argument, and in a second she, too, was busy helping.
"I might have bought some myself, if I had thought of it in time."
"That's it, if you'd thought of it in time. My, that's fine," and Angelina clapped her hands, as a rocket shot into the air falling in a shower of golden stars.
"I didn't know I could find pleasure in anything so simple," said Martine, returning to her mother's side.