Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1902-07-02
A Fourth Of July Confession
BY CHARLDs EUGENE BANKS.

BY CHARLES EUGENE BANKS.
copyright, 1902, by Daily Story Pub Coz
mir. Arnold, | don't think you be-
lieve what you say"
Indeed do, Miss Darlington"
fourth of July is farce? Then
you really think that?"
81 mean to say that all the money
spent in firing off crackers and burn
ing rockets has no useful purpose"
at expresses our feelings. 1 think,
and that is all anything can do for us
in this world" i4t 81
Il do not agree with you, There are
many simpler and more sensible ways
of giving expressions to our emotions
than by filling the air with noise and
smoke. 1t is childish. Grown people
ought to be able to show their patriot
ism in more sensible way"
Fudge. You are getting as dry and
uninteresting as those old books you
bury yourself in most of the time. l
believe in life. Books are all well
enough in their way. but that is gener-
ally very tiresome way"
The hot blood surged into the face
of the young man at the retort. He
turned his gaze full on the girl at his
side, but she was already turning
away, calling softly to robin hopping
in the shade of an old apple tree that
grew beside the gate leading into the
farmhouse grounds.
"Milly!" he called, responsibility.
"Wait till George Lounsbery comes
home from New York tomorrow and
you'll see what the Fourth of July
means to a man with real red blood in
his veins He was up last year and
brought more than a hundred dollars
worth of fireworks. don't believe
any one went to bed that night at all.
The sky was filled with red fire and l
realized for the first time what it
meant to be an American
you mean the son of Farmer
Lounsbery, I .suppose?"
Eyes. He's a great man now, al
though he was born and grew up in
this illiterate neighborhood."
"Mally--"
Miss Darlington, IL you please, Mr..
Shakespeare. Does your dingy old
ledLQ6T-CONtItu DOOho tCll yOu bhht q
young man has the right to address a
young lady that he met only four
weeks ago with as much familiarity as
though she was his sister?"
The girl tossed her pretty head with
an air that might have been learned
in the court of queen, although she
had little knowledge of the ways OF
& the world outside of Mohawk Valley
But was she not woman, young
pretty, proud, whimsical-as most
pretty young women are? And what
need had she for instructions in the
art,of coquetry? To the serious young
student who had come into the neigh
borhood with no other idea than that
of earning modest living by teaching
in the public school she had knowledge
q enough and to spare. He loved her
of course There was no escape from
that She knew it, too, as well as
= though he had told her so with all the
impassioned fervor of Romeo. Blu
he had not told her So. How could he
when she met every attempt of his t
utter what filed his heart with good
natured railery.
3 lis .he-is Mr.. Lounsbery FRIEND
: of yours?" s,,+s
"a friend of mine? Indeed he is.
have known him ever since | was
child He is a great man now. Cash
Ter in "a bank in the city and trustee
with tons of money. Wait till you Sc,
how things will move when he al
rives."
He did wait, although with no pleas
ant anticipations. And that night h
saw the rockets streaking across tn
sky and heard the honest country foil
cheer the neatly dressed, smooth-spoB
en- young man who set off whole pack
ages of fire-crackers with far les
thought that one of the wealthies
among them would have struck
match, And when 1t was all over, whei
the last red flame had faded out of tn
sky, the last pin-wheel had spit out it
spiteful little life, the last bunch c
fire-crackers popped and danced owe
the singed and trampled lawn, Arnol
walked home alone through the woods
carrying the burnt end Of singl
cracker tightly clutched in his hand.
After all had he not been righ
5 when he told Milly that all this cell
bration was "nolse and fury, signif,
ing nothing?" She had boasted to hill