She did not think it was safe. They
might go off any time, in the midst of a crowd of people, too!
Mr. Peterkin thought there actually was no danger, and he should
be sorry to give up the pea-nut. He thought it an American
institution, something really belonging to the Fourth of July. He
even confessed to a quiet pleasure in crushing the empty shells
with his feet on the sidewalks as he went along the streets.
Agamemnon thought it a simple joy.
In consideration, however, of the fact that they had had no real
celebration of the Fourth the last year, Mrs. Peterkin had
consented to give over the day, this year, to the amusement of the
family as a Centennial celebration. She would prepare herself for
a terrible noise,only she did not want any gunpowder brought into
the house.
The little boys had begun by firing some torpedoes a few days
beforehand, that their mother might be used to the sound, and had
selected their horns some weeks before.
Solomon John had been very busy in inventing some fireworks. As
Mrs. Peterkin objected to the use of gunpowder, he found out
from the dictionary what the different parts of gunpowder
are,saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur. Charcoal, he discovered, they
had in the wood-house; saltpetre they would find in the cellar, in
the beef barrel; and sulphur they could buy at the apothecary's. He
explained to his mother that these materials had never yet
exploded in the house, and she was quieted.
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