But he was mistaken, for when evening was almost at hand, his son came rushing out of the State House and called up eagerly and excitedly:
“They've done it, father! They've adopted and signed the Declaration of Independence! Ring the bell! Ring it, father! Ring the bell! Ring it—quick!”
With a glad cry, the old man leaped up, forgetting his rheumatism in his excitement and delight, and seizing the great iron clapper, swung it back and forth against the sides of the great brass bell, thus causing it to do what by a strange coincidence the inscription on its side said it was to do, viz.: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
Chapter II
Waylaid on the Road
As the deep tones of the old bell died away on the evening air a great shout of delight went up from the people on the streets. They leaped and danced for joy. They tossed their hats in the air. They shouted and sang. Many wept for joy. It was an exciting, a thrilling manifestation.
Dick and Tom Dare were not a whit behind any in their expressions of delight. They shouted for joy, and then in the excess of their happiness they threw their arms around each other in a bearlike hug.
“Oh, Dick, I'm so glad!” cried Tom. “I never was so happy in my life.”
“Nor I, Tom. This is the most joyous hour of my life! How delighted father will be when we go home and tell him that it is settled, that the Declaration of Independence is a real and determined fact!”
“It will please him more than anything else in the world, Dick.”