out,--I could not tell. The next instant there was a puff, a flash,
and then, jungles of my ancestors! such a noise and such screams and
such a smell of burning powder! After that I could see nothing but a
tangled mass of boys, all legs and elbows, crowding around poor little
Phil to see what had happened. If war is like that, then my voice and
vote are henceforth for peace, and peace alone. It's awful!

They carried him up-stairs, and his father was sent for, and the
neighbours came running in as soon as the boys had scampered home with
the news. For awhile it seemed to me that the whole world was
topsy-turvy. Miss Patricia was so frightened she couldn't do a thing.
I really pitied her, for her hands trembled and her voice shook, and
even the little bunches of gray curls bobbed up and down against her
pale cheeks. I have had the shivers so often that I can sympathise
with any one whose nerves are unstrung from fright.

The doctor turned us all out of the room, and I waited with the boys
out by the alley-gate until he came down-stairs and told us how badly
Phil was burned. His front hair and eyebrows and beautiful long curly
lashes were singed off, and his face was so full of powder that it was
as speckled as a turkey egg. The grains would have to be picked out
one by one,--a slow and painful proceeding. The doctor could not tell
how badly his eyes were hurt until next day, but thought he would have
to lie in a dark room for a week at least, with his eyelids covered
with cotton that had been dipped in some soothing kind of medicine.

But that week went by, and many a long tiresome day besides, before
Phil could use his eyes again. They would not let me go into the room
that first day, but after Phil had gone to sleep I hid under a chair
in the upper hall, where Miss Patricia and the doctor were talking.