Agamemnon, meanwhile, remembered a recipe he had read
somewhere for making a "fulminating paste" of iron-filings and
powder of brimstone. He had written it down on a piece of paper
in his pocket-book. But the iron filings must be finely powdered.
This they began upon a day or two before, and the very afternoon
before laid out some of the paste on the piazza.
Pin-wheels and rockets were contributed by Mr. Peterkin for the
evening.
According to a programme drawn up by Agamemnon and
Solomon John, the reading of the Declaration of Independence
was to take place in the morning, on the piazza, under the flags.
The Bromwicks brought over their flag to hang over the door.
"That is what the lady from Philadelphia meant," explained
Elizabeth Eliza.
"She said the flags of our country," said the little boys. "We
thought she meant 'in the country.'"
Quite a company assembled; but it seemed nobody had a copy of
the Declaration of Independence.
Elizabeth Eliza said she could say one line, if they each could add
as much. But it proved they all knew the same line that she did, as
they began: "When, in the course ofwhen, in the course ofwhen,
in the course of humanwhen in the course of human eventswhen,
in the course of human events, it becomeswhen, in the course of
human events, it becomes necessarywhen, in the course of human
events it becomes necessary for one people" They could not get
any farther.
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