The Independence Day Horror at Killsbury

It was Independence Day. The sun rose gorgeously. The air was electric and inspiring. Blossoming plants were exhaling rare fragrance. The forests and rivers were palpitating wit...

There were two roads leading up to the Schwarmer Mansion from the town of Killsbury. One of them was called "The Straight Way" and the other "The Round About Road." The latter f...

"It's ten o'clock already!" exclaimed Mrs. Cornwallis as she finished her bath. "But everything is in perfect order now except ourselves. There's that dreadful cannon again! It...

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. Littl...

For weeks and weeks after the terrible death of Laurens Cornwallis, the life of his sister Ruth hung on a thread. She was delirious. She cried out incessantly. "O Laurens! Laure...

Ruth hoped that her talk, painful though it had been to herself, would have a good influence with the Bearingtons. She would have been quickly undeceived, had she heard a conver...

Ruth and Ralph were alone on the cosy little veranda of the Cornwallis cottage. It was a beautiful evening in June--full of moonlight, star-light and rose-fragrance and so heave...

"Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Cornwallis, "and she has always felt so grateful and wanted to do something to repay you, Ralph. She thinks now if she had been here instead of in Canad...

"That's the President," whispered Ralph, crushing Ruth's arm to his side. "It's his morning matin. I think he composes it as he goes along. Sometimes he sings the Golden Rule ma...

Early in the afternoon there was a big poster on the Town Hall, with a proclamation, or rather, invitation from the President, asking "the citizens one and all, without distinct...

The matter of responsibility for the increase or rather surplus of Independence Day accidents in the town of Killsbury, being settled the question was, what should be done about...

Ralph learned that the Schwarmer Pyrotechnics and the agent employed to show them off had come as usual on the midnight train. His wife and daughter had also come, so as a matte...

Mr. Bombs had brought with him some of the most elaborate and artistic works known to the trade. He had in mind works of a much grander and more instructive nature--works that w...

Mr. Schwarmer was a man who talked very bluntly, so he admitted, but he expected to give his hearers the impression that his bluntness was simply a species of noble frankness. T...

On the fifteenth of July Schwarmer came as he was expected to do; for besides being a blunt man, he was known to be one who rarely broke his promise. He arrived on the morning t...

Mere words can give but little idea of Ruth's speech. It was what would be called in military phrase of the "rapid-firing order." Her pretty brown eyes were ablaze with feeling....

The first day of May Mr. Schwarmer came and brought a carload of workmen. There had been a very large number from the beginning. The Library building was completed and the build...

Mr. Bombs came on from Chicago the evening after the first meeting of Ruth and Adelaide in the Library, greatly to the surprise of the Schwarmers, especially to Adelaide; but wh...

Three skilled Pyrotechnics came down from the city a week before the Fourth to set up Mr. Bombs' Pyro-spectacle, The Siege of Yorktown. Mr. Bombs himself was very busy superinte...

The dedication of the library proved to be a very enjoyable affair although the military "fuss and feather," the Independence Day racket and the ostentatious hoisting of flags w...

Mr. Bombs did not go to Chicago alone nor as soon as he intended. He planned to go at the first breaking out of the Centennial, which was to be on the day when Chicago was exact...

In less than four years after the events recorded in the last chapter a young man of fascinating appearance stepped off from the train at the Killsbury station. His name was Alf...

Bombs began to explain and Adelaide listened with silent attention until he came to the point where he sent the four boys to the river bank to make Laurens divide the fireworks...