MOTHER.­ Perhaps it's as well to omit some, for the ice-cream
has come, and you must all come down.

AMANDA.­ And here are the rest of the girls; and let us all unite
in a song!

[Exeunt omnes, singing. ]

THE PETERKINS CELEBRATE THE FOURTH OF JULY. THE
day began early.

A compact had been made with the little boys the evening before.

They were to be allowed to usher in the glorious day by the
blowing of horns exactly at sunrise. But they were to blow them
for precisely five minutes only, and no sound of the horns should
be heard afterward till the family were downstairs.

It was thought that a peace might thus be bought by a short, though
crowded, period of noise.

The morning came. Even before the morning, at half-past three
o'clock, a terrible blast of the horns aroused the whole family.

Mrs. Peterkin clasped her hands to her head and exclaimed: "I am
thankful the lady from Philadelphia is not here!" For she had been
invited to stay a week, but had declined to come before the Fourth
of July, as she was not well, and her doctor had prescribed quiet.