at it. But they seemed to be interested in the _box_
most of the time, and Mr. Man's little boy kept asking every minute if
it wasn't dark enough now, and by and by Mr. Man said he thought it was,
and came over to the box and took out something and carried it over
where the others were, and seemed to be striking a match, and then, all
at once, there was a great swishing sound, and a long tail of fire that
went climbing to the sky, and when it got there suddenly seemed to blow
up and send out six or seven of the most beautiful stars, while Mr.
Man's little boy jumped about and shouted, 'Hurrah for the Fourth of
July!' Being pretty badly scared, I didn't see just what became of those
stars, but I suppose some of them are among those we see up there now,
though perhaps some of them didn't stick, but turned into falling stars,
then, or later on.

"Well, Mr. Man and his little boy kept right at work making the stars,
as hard as they could, and I had a very good time, while it lasted. I
came out of the gooseberry-bushes where I could see well, and every time
they sent up a batch of stars on that tail of fire and Mr. Man's boy
shouted and danced, I danced about, too, and felt like shouting for the
Fourth of July, which I decided must be star-making day every year.

[Illustration: BUT MOST OF ALL I WAS ANXIOUS TO SEE IN THAT BOX]

"But most of all I was anxious to see in that box. It seemed quite dark
inside, and I couldn't understand where all the fire that they made the
stars out of could come from, and I don't understand that part of it
yet. I only know what happened next, which was this:

"Mr. Man and his little boy seemed to get through with the first part of
the star-making performance, for I heard Mr. Man say, 'That's all of
those. Now we'll have the Roman candles,' which I judged must be some
different stars, perhaps little ones, because Mr. Man's boy said, 'Oh, I
can do those--I can do the Roman candles.' Then Mr. Man came over and
got something out of the box again, and I couldn't stand it any longer,
I was so curious; so when he had gone back I slipped over and peeked in.

[Illustration: A BIG YELLOW ONE JUST GRAZED MY LEFT EAR]

"It was light enough for my eyes, and I could make out a number of
curious-shaped little packages still in the box--some round and long,
some round and short, and some flat like wheels or six-cornered, and
some coiled around and around like little snails, and nothing among them
like any