on it, till the great white vase
shone like snow, and all the flowers it held were frosted over with a
beautiful light.

Then another wheel--another and another--kindled and burst out, sending
torrents of fire every which way, changing, flashing, shooting out
gorgeous flames of color, till the grass was all aglow with light, and
flashed under the vivid rain of sparks like a meadow full of
lightning-bugs.

Now the whole front of the hotel was blazing with wheels, and the air
was alive with fiery serpents that spit forth a storm of great jewels
before they died. Between the wheels, tall thickets of fire started up,
and rose into quivering trees, and shot golden fruit of many colors into
the air, lighting up the crowd like ten thousand gorgeous lamps tossed
upward and broken as they fell.

All this time the music was swelling through the fiery display, and the
crowd clapped hands, as if enough honor could not be done to the
occasion. My heart swelled--I felt this homage intended by this display,
and the wild sympathy of the crowd filled me with a tumult of grateful
feelings.

I arose, and, with one hand on my heart, bowed profoundly every time the
crowd clapped its multitudinous hands. It was a glorious moment. I
longed to meet the publisher face to face, and tell him how profoundly
his generosity had touched my soul; but, with that modesty which ever
accompanies true merit, he kept in the background, and hid away from the
thanks my soul was panting to give.

Oh, Sisters, I wish you had been here in a body to see how this great
white house--a half a mile or so long--was turned into a snow-white
palace by the flood of fire in front of it. Then the sea--the great,
heaving sea--on the other side of the road, was red as blood, and bright
as gold, when the flames shot highest. I tell you, the golden gates of
the New Jerusalem could not have been more beautifully luminous.

Earth, sea, and air were kindled with light, and full of shooting-stars
for a whole hour. Then, as the fires began to wane, and the jewels to
melt, two great, tall balloons, striped red, white, and blue, were
illuminated, and sent sailing up and up in the air, each with a trail of
shooting-stars dropping along its path. Up and up, higher and higher,
the balloons rose, with a slow, graceful movement, and drifted away to
sea--away, away, away--till they shone like little stars, and went out
in the distance.

Then a great shout went up from the pleased