Show THE BAXTERS FOURTH OF JULY By Louis Koester Atwell Four little Baxters sat under a dilapidated dilap-idated old shed talking In mournful voices of how they were going to celebrate cele-brate the Fourth of July Who ever heard said Leslie of n glorious Fourth and no fireworks no i7y no bang no smoke no nothing but I just what folks do any other day l J cant loutinspit in Slssle why papa should be so positive about it we cant have none of those beautiful skyrockets or even shoot the cannon uncle gave us last Christmas Oh how could he she concluded after we have been saving up our money for 1t ceks t It Is too dreadful walled Joe slraping his toes buck and forth In the soft grovel making ditches and crossroads Its all because last year somebody got careless and a whole boxful box-ful of fireworks went off at once and Jots of people were hurt and one boy brut killed Ye and another reason corrected Dud la I that Mrs Mason is sick In the house on the corner and the noise hurts her nerves Course I am sorry she is sick but Id Just as soon there wasnt any Foui1 o July Oh 1 hadnt said Leslie with emphasis em-phasis you know mother Is goIng to give us a party and she said we could be just as patriotic as we wanted to except the fireworks But it will be pretty hard to he patriotic5 without something exciting unless we think of something The 1 children remained silent I si-lent for a few minute1 ns if pondering the question Suddenly Leslie lImh dup d-up a post that supported the old wheel Oh say he called is he hung up his feet from the rafters Ive got a tremendous t Idea in my head 1 Old lumping up your feet send il there sisdced Joe looking up But If it is I any good Ipt 1 us have It Leslie made no answer but continued I his gymnastic performance which I seemed to Increase hIs own ideay Finally Final-ly I he seated himself on a crossbeam and spoke with much deliberation It I will take a good deal of planning lots of things and some trouble hut It Is just the thing for a celebration Please tell us said Sissy 10m awfully anxious to know Well continued the elevated speaker speak-er IL Just occurred to me that we i might nave a patriotic party build i forts march with guns and swords have shim battles and capture prisoners prison-ers just like the real soldiers do At this the chlldicns faces lighted up How are you going to manage it said Hud I am going to haul sand and rocks on the playgiound build forts dig trenches around different countries stretch ropes and Hags around different stretch ropes and lings around each and have battles like they did at Manila Ma-nila Ladysmlth and Santill oOh o-Oh that will he splendid cried the children clapping thoir hands Will tomorrow ever come 7 Can I be commanderinchlellor sen tinel9 1 asked Sissy who did not know the difference of honor Of course you can said the older brother we are all going Ic be something some-thing big Then I shall bo Ccrvcra and i his fleet put In llud only I am not going to bo 1 submerged this time What are you going to he Leslie II First I am going to be Gen Miles and l later 1 shall IK down In South Africa tending to things generally Now then you hud better get the battleground bat-tleground ready Off they hurrkd and soon their plans were all arranged with military precision I I sion sionAt At different posts were stationed the army and navy Toy guns were placed for defense while ships I with national I lags were proudly sailing at different harbors As tho little guests arrived the next day they were Immediately enlisted i en-listed into the I service Their caps bore the name of the country coun-try they were defending and as they panted with weapons of warfare they challenged attack However neither force seemed In a hurry for an encounter hut the Inevitable finally came Charge shouted Leslie livery man to the front Fight as you never fought before Your country your honor hon-or your flag This tired the youthful forces with desperate zeal Boats were sunk forts were torn down and flags trampled under un-der foot with shouts of victory Hour after hour the battle Increased till the command was given to halt Then the flag of truce was raised and the ccmllctlng forces sat down to the good things which Leslies mother had provided |