  Thelma was a little Fourth-of-July girl,—at least that was what her father always called her, for her birthday came on the glorious Fourth, the day to which all the children in the United States look forward, just as they do to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thelma did not have any brothers or sisters, but she had ever so many friends and playmates; and besides, there was Rover,—the best playmate of all,—good, kind, loving Rover, who followed his little mistress like a shadow all day long. The Fourth of July was Rover's birthday, too; but he never looked forward to it with the least bit of pleasure. When the horns were tooting, the bells were ringing, and the fire-crackers were snapping, Of course no one had ever told Rover about the Fourth of July, and he didn't understand at all why bells were rung and cannon were fired, and why everyone was eager to celebrate the day. But Thelma knew all about it. She was eleven years old, and she had often read the story in her reading-books at school. When her father took her on his knee, and helped her a little now and then with questions, she told just how it happened. "You see," she said, "when the white men first came to this country they formed thirteen colonies; but they were ruled by the King of England, who often treated them unjustly. "They bore their troubles patiently for "Thomas Jefferson wrote a paper declaring their independence, and men from each of the thirteen colonies signed it. This paper was called the 'Declaration of Independence,' and it was read from the balcony of the State House in Philadelphia, before a great crowd of people, on July 4, 1776. "Bells were rung to spread the good news, and ever since that time the Fourth of July has been celebrated as the birthday of the United States of America." "And what shall we do this year to celebrate all these birthdays?" her father asked, when Thelma finished her story. "Let's give a party," replied the little girl, and she jumped up to make out the list of friends she wished to invite. The Flying Squadron "Bang, bang! Crack, crack! Toot, toot! Ding, dong!" he heard from every direction. "Oh dear!" thought Rover, "I wonder if this is the Fourth of July! It can't be a year since I heard that noise before." But he did not have to wonder long. A crowd of boys were coming down the street, blowing horns, drumming on tin pans and firing off torpedoes. They threw a fire-cracker into Rover's yard, and it exploded in front of his kennel. "That's it," he said to himself, as the smoke drifted away in a little cloud; "it is the Fourth of July, after all." The minute the cook opened the kitchen It was a beautiful evening, and after supper the children played games on the lawn. It seemed to them that it would never be dark enough for the fireworks. "I wish the Fourth of July came in December," said one of the boys. "It is always dark by five o'clock when we want to go skating after school." At last it began to grow dark, and Mr. Ward lighted the Japanese lanterns around the broad piazza, and brought out two big boxes of fireworks. "You children may sit on the steps where you can't get into any mischief," he said. "I will set off the fireworks on the lawn, and then we will have a feast in the But even ice-cream was not so tempting as the fireworks, and for an hour the children sat on the steps, watching the pinwheels and Roman candles and red lights that Mr. Ward set off, with two of the older boys to help him. "O-o-o-oh!" they cried, every time a sky-rocket went whizzing up over the trees to burst into a hundred shining stars; and "A-a-a-ah!" they shouted, when tiny lights like fireflies went flitting across the lawn. The last thing of all was a fire-balloon, and Mr. Ward called the children down to the lawn to watch it fill with hot air from the burning candle in its base. It filled very slowly, and the children were so quiet that Rover came creeping down the stairs to see if the noise were all over for another year. A puff of wind blew it lightly toward the house. Then another breeze caught it and carried it over the roof of the barn. "Look, look!" the children shouted. "It is going higher. Now it will sail away over the trees." But suddenly a gust of wind turned the balloon completely over. The tissue paper caught fire from the burning candle, and the blazing mass dropped down behind the barn. "It will set fire to the summer-house!" shouted Mr. Ward. "And melt the ice-cream," cried the children, as they followed him across the lawn. There had been very little rain for a month, and the roof of the summer-house When the fire was out and the children had gone home without their ice-cream, Mr. Ward said to his wife, "That is the very last time I shall ever send up a fire-balloon. Fireworks are dangerous enough, but a fire-balloon is worse. I believe the sale of them should be forbidden by law, if men haven't sense enough not to buy them." But Rover, who was sleeping comfortably on the rug outside Thelma's door, cocked up his ears at the mention of fire-balloons. "They don't make any noise," he said to himself, "and I like this bed much better than the straw in my kennel."
Every year the celebration of the Fourth of July costs thousands of dollars in the destruction of property by fire, to say nothing of the loss of life from the accidental or careless discharge of fireworks. One of the causes of fires on this day is the fire-balloons. They are easily swayed by currents of air, and the lighted candles set fire to the tissue paper of which the balloon is made. The blazing paper falls upon the roofs of buildings, frequently causing serious fires. |
|
