y called, as they
drove away, and Ned promptly accepted the invitation.

"It has certainly been a great Fourth of July!" Uncle Daniel exclaimed,
later in the evening when the children fired off their Roman candles
and sky rockets and burned the red fire. The little children had
beautiful pinwheels and "nigger chasers" that they put off on the
porch. Then Nan had a big fire balloon that she sent up, and they
watched it until it was out of sight, away over the pond and clear out
of Meadow Brook.

It was a very tired lot of children that rolled off to sleep that
night, for indeed it had been a great day for them all.

For a few days after the Fourth it rained, as it always does, on
account of all the noise that goes up in the air to shake the clouds.

"You can play in the coach house," Aunt Sarah told the children, "but
be careful not to run in and out and get wet." The children promised
to remember, and soon they were all out in the big wagon house playing
merrily. Freddie climbed in the wagon and made believe it was a "big
fire engine." Bert attached a bell on the side for him, and when he
pulled a rope this bell would clang like a chemical apparatus. Nan and
Flossie had all their dolls in the pretty new carriage with the soft
gray cushions, and in this the little girls made believe driving to New
York and doing some wonderful shopping.

"Freddie, you be coachman," coaxed Flossie, "because we are inside and
have to have someone drive us."

"But who will put out all the fires?" Freddie asked, as he clanged the
bell vigorously.

"Make b'lieve they are all out," Flossie told him.

"But you can't make b'lieve about fires," argued the little fellow,
"'cause they're really."

"I tell you," Nan suggested. "We will suppose this is a great big high
tally-ho party, and the ladies always drive them. I'll be away up high
on the box, but we ought to have someone blow a horn!"

"I'll blow the horn," Freddie finally gave in, "cause I got that big
fire out now."

So Freddie climbed up on the high coach with his sisters, and blew the
horn until Nan told them they had reached New York and were going to
stop for dinner.

There were so many splendid things to play with in the coach house,
tables, chairs, and everything, that the Bobbseys hardly knew it before
it was lunch time, the morning passed so quickly.

It cleared up in the afternoon and John asked the children if they
wanted to help him do some transplanting.

"Oh