"If you mean my improvements on 'The Sacred Mandarin,'" laughed Fons, "I have enough yet to hold up the town, although I left a good sprinkling of them at every station and sowed them about six deep among the employees while you were hunting up Dan. I'm going to advertise in earnest this time." "Well, I've got half a dozen. That will be enough. We won't be apt to meet more than one or two boys after we branch off if we do any. They didn't expect me on this train. Most assuredly they didn't; but they'll flock up to the gates in due time--by the time Dan gets there I reckon." They went on, distributing fire-crackers and blank cartridges to every boy they met and every poor looking fellow also. When they got to the Cornwallis lot Fons espied little Laurens in the distance flying his kite. "Heigho! what gay little patriotic bird is that?" exclaimed Fons. "He's worth the ammunition." Schwarmer stopped and put on his gold-rimmed magnifiers. "That's little Laurens Cornwallis--the handsomest boy in Killsbury or the world, they say. You've heard me speak of the Cornwallis's, most assuredly you have. They are not eminently patriotic, I suspect, though they display the colors. We'll see how the eaglet stands affected toward his country this morning." Schwarmer went to the fence and beckoned the boy to come to him. Laurens came on a little distance but stopped when he recognized Schwarmer. "Come on, my pretty" said Schwarmer, "I will give you a nice new box of powdered crackers to help you celebrate. You can make them go off without the aid of the fickle wind." Laurens shook his curly head vigorously. "I don't want any. I told mamma I would not touch Mr. Schwarmer's fire-things." Then he turned and ran away from them as fast as his little legs could carry him. "How's that for frankness?" sneered Fons as they moved on. "It beats you who are a professional, 'all the way to Buzzard's Bay,' as the boys say." "Yes, and it looks rather dull for your trade, Fons," laughed Schwarmer rather derisively. "Perhaps you had better put your inventive genius into some other business. It's pretty poor encouragement when you can't even give away your productions. Most assuredly it is." "It's doubtful policy to begin at the church door," said Fons. "More stars and stripes and fewer fireworks is the church idea. I never see such a boy as that--with a regular Sunday School look and eyes rolled up--without wanting to call him down. The most beautiful Laurens needs a giant firecracker and a dynamite cap and cane to bring him down to the proper altitude. They don't teach fire and brimstone in the churches now, so it's necessary for the youngsters to get a smell of it from the outside."