“Just imagine now that he has hold of you,” Max said, throwing his arms round her and squeezing her so hard that she screamed out, “Oh, let me go! you’re bear enough for me!”
“Bears must be allowed to hug, for ’tis their nature to,” he said, with a laugh, giving her another squeeze and a resounding kiss. “Good-by, I must be off now, to catch up with papa.”
Lulu hurried out to the porch to watch them mount and ride away, her father throwing her a kiss from the saddle, then went back, rather disconsolately, to her work of sorting over the clean clothes and giving them the needed repairs.
She had finished that and begun upon her badges, when Marian came in with some sewing, and asked if she might sit with her and hear the promised story of the signing of the Declaration.
“Yes, indeed! I’ll be glad of your company and glad to tell the story; for it’s one I like very much,” said Lulu.
“Thank you,” Marian said, “but before you begin, may I ask what those pretty badges are for? You forgot to tell me what you were going to do with the ribbons.”
“Oh, so I did! These are our national colors, and I’m making badges of them for the mission-school children to wear on the Fourth. I’m glad you think them pretty. Now for my story:
“It was in Philadelphia it all happened, on the 4th of July, 1776. But I must go back and tell of something that happened before that.
“Of course you know about the Pilgrims coming over from England and settling in the wilderness that America was then, so that they might be free to worship God as they thought right; and about the settling of all the others of the thirteen colonies; and how King George the Third and the British Parliament oppressed them, taxing them without representation, passing that hateful Stamp Act, and so on, till the people couldn’t stand it any longer.
“They just wanted to make all they could off the American people and give them nothing in return. But the Americans wouldn’t stand it; they weren’t the sort of stuff to be made slaves of; so when a tax was put on tea they said they wouldn’t buy any; they would sooner go without drinking tea than pay that tax.