Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1898-07-01

probably the most astonishing supply of fire.
crackers ever possessed by two boys of their
size and degree of understanding. There
were package upon package of the small or
binary Chinese tirecrackeis, and there were
q dozen or two of the big cannon" fire
crackers which have come into vogue of late
years, and the first manufacturer of whom
should be taken out somewhere and hanged
with all earnestness. They We're now con-
sulting regarding the morrow. Would the
flag fly over Honolulu and could they cele-
degree of faith. Then they wandered off
somewhere with Julius Caesar and had
good time all day, but ever the morrow was
in their mind.
1t was early the next morning when the
two boys and Julius Caesar were again on
the point of hill overlooking Honolulu. 1t
was so early that the flags had not yet been
hoisted over the public buildings. Each
boy carried package, and these they un-
rolled and laid out together. The display
was something worth looking at. Any boy
who could see that layout of tirccrackers and
not feel kind of tingling run over him
resembling that which comes when he takes
bold of the two handles of an electrical
machine wouldn't be a boy worth speaking
OF. He wouldn't be the sort OF boy who
had it in him to ever become president of the
United States, or captain of baseball nine,
or anything OF that sort. But these two
boys quivered. Cocoanut quivcred more
than Billy did.
Silently the two boys and julius Caesar
awaited the raising of the flags over Homo
lulu. Could they or could they not let of
said Cocoanut, be getting ready, anyhow,
ba fxyiup cfr n
together, adjusting cannon crackers at inter
walls between the smaller ones and adding
Billy's string Of crackers to his own. When
completed there were just 37a feet of fire,
crackers of variegated quality. Billy looked
on listlessy, and Cocoanut himself hardly
knew why he was making this arrangement.
The sun bounced up out of the ocean, great
red ball behind the thin fog, and bunting
climbed the hagstaffs of Honolulu. With
eager eyes the boys gazed cityward until the
moment when the breeze had Strengthened
out the flags and the device upon them could
be seen. Then they looked upon each other
| blansly. 1t was not the Stars and Stripes,
but the Hawaiian flag which foated there
| below them!
They didn't know what to do, these poor
| boys who wanted to be patriots that morn
ing and couldn't. They sat down discon-
solately near to the heels of Julius Caesar,
who was whisking his stubby tail about occa-
| sionally in vcngeful search of an occasional
| fly. 1t CHANGED that in the midst of this he
slapped Cocoanut across the face, and that
Cocoanut incontinently grabbed the tail, to
keep it from further demonstration of the
sort. Julius Caesar did not kick at this, be-
cause it was too triAing matter. Far bet
| ter would it have been for Julius Caesar had
he kicked then and there, but the relation
| of why comes later on. Lost in their sor.
rows, Cocoanut and Billy came home to-
gether, and Cocoanut, in the forgetfulness
Of deep reflection, began plating together
the end Of the string Of frecrackers and the
J hairs in the tail of Julius Caesar, He was q