Do yer 'member how yer bought 'em, weeks and weeks ahead of time,
After savin' all yer pennies till they footed up a dime?
Do yer 'member what they looked like? I can see 'em plain as plain,
With a dragon on the package, grinnin' through a fiery rain.

[Illustration]

Do yer 'member how yer fired 'em, slow and careful, one by one?
Do'n't it seem like each was louder than the grandest sort of gun?
Can't yer see the big, red flashes, if yer only shut yer eyes,
And jest smell the burnin' powder, sweeter'n breaths from paradise?

O you boys, gray-haired and bearded. O you youngsters grown ter men,
We can't buy them kind of crackers now, nor never shall again!
Fer the joys thet used ter glitter through the fizz and puff and crash,
Has, ter most of us, been deadened by the grindin' chink of cash;
But I'd like ter ask yer, fellers, how much of yer hoarded gold
Would yer give if it could buy yer one glad Fourth like them of old?
How much would yer spend ter gain it--that light-hearted, joyous glow
That come with yer fust fire-crackers, when yer bought 'em long ago?

* * * * *

WHEN NATHAN LED THE CHOIR

I s'pose I hain't progressive, but I swan, it seems ter me
Religion isn't nigh so good as what it used ter be!
I go ter meetin' every week and rent my reg'lar pew,
But hain't a mite uplifted when the sarvices are through;