They do not make a noise worth hearing,
But fire-crackers, the ladies are fearing."


If Charlie should write this again, he would change the above, but it is
too late to alter now, and we give it as preserved in our note-book.
Furious applause followed this ebullition of poetic genius.

The collation was followed by the raft-race. The ditch that ran beside the
railroad embankment widened in one place to forty feet. Half a dozen logs
were here floating. The keeper of the great seal had brought with him a
hammer and a handful of nails, and seeing on his way several strips of
board, he had picked them up and now nailed the six logs together in
pairs, making three rafts.

"There will now be a race between our first treasurer, our sentinel, and
the keeper of the great seal," pompously announced Sid. "This will be the
first race. I expected Tony and the governor would compete, but they have
gone home. The Fourth was too much for them."

They both began to be sick after the collation. Rick, with his usual
pertinacity, wanted to "stick it out," but his feelings overcame him, and
he adjourned. He and Tony had eaten too much green-tinted candy. The
participants in the raft-race were preparing for the contest, Charlie
having already boarded his craft and pushed off into position, when a cry
from Pip arrested the attention of all and made them think of something
besides rafting.

"Down-townieth!" he shrieked, and pointed up the railroad embankment.
There stood a stout boy whom Charlie recognized immediately as one of the