"I can't get burned with the kind of firecrackers and torpedoes I'm
going to use," answered the little boy guinea pig, and he laughed as he
ran out.

Well, pretty soon, along came all his friends, Billie and Johnnie and
Sammie, and all the rest. They were so excited that Bawly, the frog,
didn't think to sing a song, or recite any poetry.

"What shall we do first?" asked Buddy.

"Let's play war," suggested Sammie. "We'll divide up into two armies,
and have a battle. It will be great!"

So they divided into two sides, and Buddy was the general on one side,
and Billie Bushytail on the other. Then the fight began--not real, you
understand--but make-believe.

First the loud cannons shot off; and what do you suppose the cannons
were? Why big stones, that the squirrels and rabbits and the other
animal boys held and clapped together as loud as anything. You know
stones can make a terrible racket when they are hit together real hard.
Well, it sounded like regular cannon, and the birds in the wood got
awfully scared.

"Now fire your guns!" cried General Buddy Pigg, and his soldiers took
sticks, and snapped them in two pieces and broke them, until they
sounded like real guns, or a lot of firecrackers going off.

Oh, it was fine, and the best of it was nobody could get hurt, or
burned, either.