So in two or three minutes three happy and excited children sat around the table, while their father showed them how to begin, explained the hard parts, and pointed out places on the map, while Aunt Nancy, over in the corner, smiled and nodded to herself more than ever.
All of a sudden a voice broke in on the absorbed group: "And I'm going to have a finger in this Fourth-of-July pie; so you needn't think you can keep me out."
Everybody looked up and stared.
"Yes, I am; so there, now!" repeated Aunt Nancy, decisively. "And the one that I find knows the most when you all get through in three weeks, why, there's some stray dollars in my purse that I don't know what to do with, and they might as well go along with your father's as anywhere else."
At this there was such excitement over by the table that nobody could hear anything, till Harper's voice finally got the high key. "And if anybody sees a bigger Fourth of July than we'll have, I'd like to know it, that's all."
"Three cheers for Christopher Columbus, and the whole lot!" cried Joe. "I wish 'twas Fourth twice a year, I do."
"We haven't got ready for one yet," said Lucy, deep in an atlas. "I'm goin' to make this a good one first."
"Three cheers for Christopher Columbus—and Lucy!" said Harper, taking the hint, and settling down to work.
"It can't be nine o'clock?" cried Joe, when Mr. Smith gave the word "To bed."
"Look at the clock, then," said their father; and all the flushed faces were turned up to the old time-piece in the corner.