“Perhaps the minister and the teacher might give some good suggestions, too,” Max said.
“Very likely,” replied his father. “We will consult them also.”
The proposed consultations were held early the next morning, and the necessary orders dispatched to the nearest points where they could be filled.
Max and Lulu were very full of the subject, and talked of it at the table not a little, exciting a good deal of interest and curiosity in the mind of Marian, as she overheard a remark now and again while attending to their wants.
There was a fine natural grove of forest trees on the outskirts of the village, and there it had been decided the town’s people were to be invited to assemble on the morning of the Fourth to listen to an oration by the foremost lawyer of the place, and the reading of the Declaration of Independence by Captain Raymond; also to join in the singing of patriotic songs.
The children of the mission-school would be taken to the grove in a body, marching in procession, carrying flags and banners. After the exercises were over they would be marched back to the schoolroom and treated to cakes, candies, fruits and ices.
There were to be fire-works in the evening, set off in front of Mrs. McAlpine’s boarding-house, which, cornering on two very wide streets, was quite a good place for the display.
“Mr. Short seemed really pleased with the idea of having a celebration, didn’t he, papa?” Lulu said, at the dinner table.
“I thought so,” returned her father. “And it was fortunate that he knew some one capable of delivering an oration on the subject at so short notice, and that arrangements could be made in season for a little advertisement of our plans for the Fourth, in this week’s issue of the county paper.”
“I daresay it will be the first celebration of the Fourth of July ever seen by Albert or his father,” remarked Max. “I hope every thing will go off nicely, so that they may be favorably impressed.”