Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1901-06-29

dollar apiece, and most always more,
and she'll give us that, anyway, and
papa says maybe he'll chip in, too.''
''Do you mean you're going to give
up your frecrackers and torpedoes
for the Fourth?" asked a big boy,
incredulously. Huh, you would be a
fool"
Dottie turned on him.
Eyes, 1 am," she snapped. Guess
I'd rather never, never see a frecrack-
er again than to have my dear Miss
Swinton d-i-e-e," and the blazing blue
eyes filled with tears at the, mere
thought.
"Or poor little Sallie Manson,
either" snapped Tottie.
Don't mind him, DEAR" cried Aggie
Davis, the prettiest of the big girls.
BOYS are mean things anyway. They
couldn't be self-sacrificing if they
tried. We girls will all help you, Dot
tie. We can give up things that we
like better than boys like firecrack-
ers, and I'm going to ask mamma to
take backthat lovely blue sunshade she
bought me yesterday guess Mr..
Black will give her back the money
when he knows what 1 want it for"
ooh, how lovely of you!"
isn't that beautiful of her?" the
girls chorused admiringly, and Tom
my Trott got red in the face and
walked off over to the other corner
of the yard winking to the boys to
follow him-and they did, even though
there wasn't bit of shade there and
the big thermometer stood at 90 de-
grees,
Tommy whispered to his cronies,
and they grinned and chucllled and
nudged each other, and hunted in their
pockets, and Tommy lugged out big
leather pouch, and Jim Brastow got
out pencil and paper and wrote down
the names of every boy who put in
some thing in one column, and the
names of every boy who promised
some thing in another column-that
was a pretty short column because
every boy had his Fourth of July mon
ey, for the Fourth was only two days
off, and they'd been saving ever since
Christmas. After awhile jim Bra st ow
got all the ma nes written down, then
he put his pencil in his pocket and
Tommy pulled the strings OF his pouch
up as tight as he possibly could Git was
so full he couldn't get it very close to-
gether), and they all marched over in
body, keeping step like soldiers, and
stopped in front of the Thompson
twins.
(You had to stop in front of both
of them, because they were always
just as close together as they could
possibly get)
"Miss Dottie Thompson and-and-
young ladies'" began Tommy Trott,
with a defiant and yet bashful glance
at Aggie Davis. you have slandered
and insulted us boys by saying we
couldn't be generous and self-sacrific-
ing, and us boys want you to know
that there's all our Fourth of July
money-in a bunch-and us boys want
to know where's yours-and you can
have it all and welcome. And as my
father says: Now put up or shut up!'
And we wish it was more-and we
don't want anybody to die and now
Miss-s-s-Swinton can go on her
vacation--and-and ALL" And
with a very red face Tommy turned
and tried to bolt.
But Aggie Davis was too quick for
him. She caught him by the front of
his jacket with one hand, and with
her eyes full of tears and her pretty
face all flushed with surprise and Joy,
she held out the other hand to him.
crying:
"Shake hands, Tommy. I'll take it
all back. Boys can be generous and
selfsacrifcing and smart too, Tom
my" Then she laughed little and
Tommy twisted away, and with shout
of: "Come on, fellers!" ran down to
the fence and jumped over it-three
Understanding jump, and it was
most as high as Tommy's head, too.
Nobody stopped to play on the way
home that noon. Everybody ran just
as fast is their legs could carry them
that Everybody but the Thomp-
son twins. They walked very slowly
indeed, weighed down by the respon-
sibility of taking care of all that
money.
| Miss Swinton, when she went to the
| window at five minutes past -, won
dering at the unusual silence, opened
| her eyes in establishments Not a boy
or girl was in sight except the Thomp-
son twins, and they were slowly and
carefully turning the corner
That afternoon when school opened
}Hottie and Tottie walked up to Miss
owinton's desk and carefully laid on it
| two open boxes. One was nearly full
of pennies, five-cent bits, dimes, quar-
tiers and halves, and one big silver
| "cart-wheel." In the other reposed a
leathern pouch from whose open
mouth issued perfect stream of
varied coins.