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Updated: May 29, 2025
By noon the heat was oppressive, and Alf and Ned were rolling on the grass under a tree, quite satiated for a time with two elements of a boy's elysium, fire-crackers and cherries. The family gathered in the wide hall, through the open doors of which was a slight draught of air.
As the rifle was raised, he heard up at the big house the cries of children; the popping of fire-crackers; tooting of horns and whistles and loud shouts of "Christmas Gif', Christmas Gif'!" His little heart beat furiously.
On Christmas and New Years day we would go up to the house and they would give us candy and fruit and fire-crackers. We were given some of all the food that the white folks had, even turkey. Would have heaps of corn-shuckings, the neighbors would come in and then we'd have big dances and old Marse would always have a "jug of licker". If a cat crossed our path we would turn backwards for a while.
I threw two of the torpedoes against the wall of the hall through which the guests were passing, and the immediate results were as follows: two loud reports astonished guests irate landlord discovery of the culprit, and summary punishment for the landlord immediately floored me with a single blow with his open hand, and said: " 'There, you little greenhorn, see if that will teach you better than to explode your infernal fire-crackers in my house again.
If he couldn’t get along any other way, he could fill his pockets with brimstone matches, and his boots full of blue vitriol. Or he could carry a bunch of Chinese fire-crackers in his hat, and touch them off on the sly whenever he felt himself in need of a healthy smell. Then he could wash himself all over in lime-water, and drink a quart or so of some liquid disinfectant every time he came away.
Russ sat down on the porch and began whittling some bits of wood with his knife. "What are you making now, Russ?" asked his father, while Mrs. Bunker went in to see that Rose was setting the table right, and that Norah had started to get the meal. "I'm making a wooden cannon to shoot fire-crackers," the boy answered. "You can put a fire-cracker in it and light it, and then it can't hurt anybody."
"Not many nurse-maids in the Kyber Pass," his son observed. "Frontiers yes, I dare say," snorted Sir Peter. "A few black rag dolls behind trees popping at you to keep your circulation going, and you with Maxims and all, going picnics in the hills and burning down villages as easy as pulling fire-crackers and half the time you want help from us! Look at South Africa!"
Yet the novice-master was well pleased with both, though we shall see that his journey with Brother Hecker was for some time in the dark. When the Fourth of July came around he learned that it was the great American holiday, and he called the three Americans to him and asked, "How do you celebrate your national holiday at home?" "By shooting off fire-crackers," they answered with a twinkle.
I returned with a light heart and a large piece of punk to my friends in the stable-yard, where we celebrated the termination of our trouble by setting off two packs of fire-crackers in an empty wine-cask. They made a prodigious racket, but failed somehow to fully express my feelings. The little brass pistol in my bedroom suddenly occurred to me.
"No, mamma." "Why won't you get up?" His mother at least was entitled to an explanation. "I won't get up," said he, "because I'm an American." "But, my dear, it's the glorious Fourth. All good Americans are up." "All good Americans," said Fitzhugh, "are at home letting off fire-crackers." "Still," said his mother, "I think I'd get up if I were you. It's lovely out. Not hot."
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