"How delightful! and walking out in the dark to see it," cried Harry; "that will be best of all! oh! and a whole holiday! I hardly know whether I am in my right wits, or my wrong wits, for joy! I wish we gained a victory every day!" "What a warrior you would be, Harry! Cæsar was nothing to you," said Frank. "We might be satisfied with one good battle in a year, considering how many are killed and wounded." "Yes, but I hope all the wounded soldiers will recover." "Or get pensions," added uncle David. "It is a grand sight, Frank, to see a whole nation rejoicing at once! In general, when you walk out and meet fifty persons in the street, they are all thinking of fifty different things, and each intent on some business of his own, but on this occasion all are of one mind and one heart." Frank and Harry were allowed to nail a dozen of little candlesticks upon each window in the house, which delighted them exceedingly, and then, before every pane of glass, they placed a tall candle, impatiently longing for the time when these were to be illuminated. Laura was allowed to carry a match, and assist in lighting them, but in the excess of her joy, she very nearly made a bonfire of herself, as her frock took fire, and would soon have been in a blaze, if Frank had not hastily seized a large rug and rolled it round her. In every house within sight, servants and children were to be seen hurrying about with burning matches, while hundreds of lights blazed up in a moment, looking as if all the houses in town had taken fire. "Such a waste of candles!" said Mrs. Crabtree, angrily; "can't people be happy in the dark!" "No, Mrs. Crabtree!" answered Frank, laughing. "They cannot be happy in the dark! People's spirits are always in exact proportion to the number of lights. If you ever feel dull with one candle, light another; and if that does not do, try a third, or a fourth, till you feel merry and cheerful. We must not let you be candle-snuffer to-night, or you will be putting them all out. You would snuff out the sun itself, to save a shilling." "The windows might perhaps be broken," added Laura; "for whatever pane of glass does not exhibit a candle, is to have a stone sent through it. Harry says the mob are all glaziers, who break them on purpose to mend the damage next day, which they will be paid handsomely for doing."