The next moment he stumbled over a strange distorted, discolored figure. When the Doctor and Mr. Cornwallis came up he stood looking at it in a dazed way. "It can't be Laurens! It can't be possible he could be so changed! Tell me it can't, Doctor," he pleaded. The Doctor shook his head. "Not a trace! Not a feature! It may be some other boy, but how shall we decide?" "God only knows," said Mr. Cornwallis turning away from the unbearable sight. The Doctor drew nearer as he felt it his duty to do, and looked at the frightful figure more closely. "If it's your son, Mr. Cornwallis, perhaps you will know him by some mark. I think the back of the head has not been much burned. I see the remnant of a cap." He paused a moment to gather new courage. Then he raised the head and removed the bit of cap. Underneath it were Laurens' beautiful curls! Ralph fainted and the two men fell upon the ground, clutching each other in agony. "Mien Gott! Mien Gott," exclaimed Dr. Muelenberg at last. "You have one thing to be thankful for. Death was instantaneous. He was not saved to die in the awful toils of _Tetanus_." CHAPTER IV. RISUS SARDONICUS. Before night--yes, even before the cannon on Schwarmer Hill had ceased to boom, everybody in Killsbury knew of the terrible sorrow that had befallen the Cornwallis family. Little Laurens had been brought home dead and disfigured beyond recognition. His father and mother were wild with grief and his sister Ruth was stricken down with brain fever. Neighbors and townspeople came and saw and went away shocked and silent. It was plain to be seen that it was one of those mysterious Fourth of July accidents that will happen now and then, and few indeed were brave enough to ask just how it happened or why such accidents should be made possible. The majority of the people of Killsbury would as soon have thought of questioning the ways of Providence or the rights of the whirlwind as they would of questioning the doings of "the small boy," or denying his right to go whithersoever he listeth on our free and glorious Independence Day. The Reverend Dr. Normander, however, was not exactly of this stamp. He was beginning at least, to think seriously about the matter. Passing strange it seemed to him that the day which should be the most beautifully and joyously free, had become the most fearful to the best and most truly patriotic citizens of the town; and that said citizens should consent to it and encourage it as so many did. Mr. Schwarmer, at least, encouraged it most decidedly by distributing fireworks to the boys. He had been thinking of speaking to him about it for some time. Whether he had given Laurens Cornwallis the fireworks that had caused his death or not, he felt that the time had come to utter his warning against such a practice and ask him as a citizen of influence to make his gifts of a harmless nature. He called on him the next morning for that purpose.