Ralph was furious again and threatened dire things. After he was sufficiently molified Ruth continued seriously: "O Ralph! Ralph! How can a man of mature years--a man like Mr. Schwarmer--put such dangerous things into a boy's hands? If he were young and thoughtless and dazed by custom; but a man of his age and experience! How is it that this Independence Day saturnalia has been let to grow into such enormous proportions? If all the fiends of the lower regions had been employed to make a plan for the destruction of the youth of our land, they could not have done worse. Only think of it, Ralph, taking powder and dynamite, the most dangerous of all substances and making them into attractive forms for children to play with--play with as freely as though they were carts or doll babies! O! O! what are we coming to? What idiocy--worse than idiocy--how Satanic!" "Yes, Ruth, and it does seem to be growing worse and worse every year--as though we were sinking down to the level of the brute. As though Satan had gotten a lease of a thousand years and was trying to see how many children he can destroy--yes, and young men, too; for there are the deadly games for the finish. Another century of such brutal sports and celebrations and there would not be a sound man left in the community. We would be as hideous as the brutal, battle-scarred Saracens. But I cannot think we shall have another century of it. The climax will come before that and there will be a turn in the right direction." "What makes you think so, Ralph? As I see it we shall have no homes--sweet homes with happy healthy families. We shall have hospitals instead--hospitals and hospitals, full of the crazed, crippled, idiotic and beastly. If anything can be done to prevent this dire calamity, why don't we begin at once." There was silence for a few moments. The full moon sent its searching rays through the veranda vines. The stars twinkled brightly and a pair of eyes brighter than stars were looking into Ralph's face appealingly. "Let us begin now, Ralph--this very Fourth and see if we can't do something to save our boys from this terrible King Schwarmer. He's a worse king for us than old King Herod was for Israel. Let's dethrone him." "We will," said Ralph in a voice of quiet determination. "You have given me an inspiration. The time is ripe for action. Our new President is a Golden Rule man. A professed follower of the original Golden Rule Mayor. He comes of the same good old Quaker stock. He sings the same songs. He has the Golden Rule in a frame of silver, ornamented with apples of gold, hung up in his office, and he practices that rule as nearly as any man can." "Let us go and see him, Ralph; he will help us if he believes in that rule." "Yes, Ruth, and if we can manage to steer our own Fourth of July craft so no one is hurt this year, we shall have done something that will make you happier than you have ever been since Lauren's death; shall we not?"