"Hurrah!" shouted Freddie, answering the call from his window, "I'll be right down!"
All the others too were aroused by the first "guns," so that in a very short time there were many boys in the road, firing so many kinds of fire-crackers that Meadow Brook resounded like a real war fort under fire.
"Ouch!" yelled Tom Mason, the first one to bum his fingers. "A sisser caught me right on the thumb."
But such small accidents were not given much attention, and soon Tom was lighting the little red crackers as merrily as before.
"Go on back, girls!" called Bert. "You'll get your dresses burnt if you don't."
The girls were coming too near the battlements then, and Bert did well to warn them off.
Freddie and Flossie were having a great time throwing their little torpedoes at Mr. Bobbsey and Uncle Daniel, who were seated on the piazza watching the sport. Snoop and Fluffy too came in for a scare, for Freddie tossed a couple of torpedoes on the kitchen hearth where the kittens were sleeping.
The boys were having such fun they could hardly be induced to come in for breakfast, but they finally did stop long enough to eat a spare meal.
"It's time to get ready!" whispered Nan to Bert, for the parade had been kept secret from the grown folks.
At the girls' place of meeting, the coach house, Nan found all her company waiting and anxious to dress.