The First Sunday of Advent

Here's a good primer on the Season of Advent in the Western church: The Season of Advent: Anticipation and Hope. There are links at the right for devotionals, including an Advent calendar in the shape of a Christmas tree with daily readings. Check out the essay about the word "Xmas," which infuriates some people.

Advent is also the beginning of the Liturgical Year.

If you have an Advent wreath it is customary to light the first candle tonight. Traditionally that is a purple candle, although some churches now use blue.

Incidentally, I was so busy I forgot to note Martinmas this year. Here's a nice Wikipedia primer on St. Martin's Day.

Here's a nice piece on the First Sunday of Advent from the Archdiocese of Washington.

Word on Fire's Sermon for November 27.

The Original Christmas Villages

Christmas Village Houses, History of Putzing and Toy Train Layouts

A Christmas Treat

My favorite episode of All Creatures Great and Small ever:

"Merry Gentlemen," Part 1

"Merry Gentlemen," Part 2

"Merry Gentlemen," Part 3

"Merry Gentlemen," Part 4

Black Friday Fun

Well, there's one good thing about Black Friday being almost half over: we won't have to listen to that loathsome earworm of a jingle that goes to the Kohl's commercial. Barf-o-matic.

I was awakened this morning by my favorite alarm, "Miss Gladys Stevens, age 67, who lives in Omaha, and who makes her living recording voice reminder systems." (It's a sound clip from The Andromeda Strain.) I had all my clothes laid out in the bathroom, so washed my face and dressed quickly, grabbed my phone and Nook out of their chargers, took my coupons from the back of the sofa, tiptoed downstairs to grab my jacket (even though it was 38°F when I left the house, I never used it; too busy going in and out of buildings), and Twilight and I set out on our journey.

It was still like black velvet outside, few cars on the road, mall reports (at 6:45 a.m. they were 70 percent full) instead of traffic reports. I had a little chocolate wafer to munch on, then was eating yogurt at stop lights thereafter—the one at South Cobb Drive is so long you can pretty much consume half a container. Since I had departed home a bit late, I arrived at Office Max about 6:05, but there was nothing to worry about: there were only about seven cars there. I was in and out in less than fifteen minutes, having bought several USB thumb drives in various capacities, including one for James.

If I had any pause this morning, it was feeling as if I was going to be mugged in the Office Depot parking lot. This was my next destination, straight down Cobb Parkway from Office Max, and the lot was in almost Stygian darkness. Heck, they didn't even have the store sign on. However inside the store it was quite lively (about twenty cars outside). I bought what I came there for...sorry! [in my best River Song voice] spoilers!...plus a little flashlight for my car and—hurrah!—2012 desk blotters for only $6. I like to have them for work and they aren't supplied anymore; when I tried to buy one at Christmas last year they were $13.99! Aieeeee! Luckily, by the end of January they were down to $5, so I got one then.

And thus ended my "must have" purchases.

I was in a hurry, because it was 6:30 by then and Cost Plus World Market opened at seven. I expected a line, but there was nobody there yet. A bit surprised—well, maybe not surprised, since the "crowd" at Heritage Pointe was almost non-existent and not even Ross had a lot of cars parked in front—I dashed into Anna's Linen, only to find out with all that bedding they don't carry flannel sheets, and then went into Michaels with my 25 percent off total purchase coupon. I got some trees and a snowman for the Christmas village and a couple of things from the dollar bins.

This barely got me to 6:50, when I crossed the parking lot back to World Market, intending to read my Nook, but people were going in. The employees were looking at each other, puzzled, because neither of them had unlocked the door! But I got what I came there for, the free Tintin and Snowy ornament that was accompanied by a free movie ticket!

Then shopped about a bit, buying some stocking stuffers and baking supplies, and actually finding some baker's twine.

Now up to Town Center via I-75 and US 41. I was headed for Bed, Bath & Beyond to spend a couple of coupons, but by then the one container of yogurt and the one wafer of chocolate and one gulp of milk had worn quite off and I wandered around the store feeling a bit light-headed. So I left—the coupons are good through Monday—and went on to JoAnn, eating a bag of Planters trail mix on the way. This revived me for a walk around the store, where I had one 50 percent off coupon and a lovely 25 percent off everything (including sale items!) to spend. So mostly what I bought were sale items: some bushes for the village, a light for the bookstore village piece I bought last week, some replacement bulbs, a piece of material to cover the "pantry bookcase" I set up downstairs (it's the same red gingham as the shirt Timmy used to wear on Lassie), some cording, some charms, and three magazines. Got some evenweave cloth for cross-stitching with the 50 percenter.

My best buy was a Cropper Hopper Rolling Organizer. This is regularly $90 and they had it on sale for $35...plus I had the 25 percent off coupon! It will help me clear up the clutter in my craft room although it will take up space; at least I can move it when I need to.

I stopped at Michaels next door before I realized the coupon I have started at noon and by then I intended to be home. However, I did buy a couple of berried picks to act as "antlers" for one of the wooden deer that we have in the front yard at Christmas. It originally had fresh holly for antlers, but that has faded, and I don't know where to get more of it. Hence the berries and pine to act as antlers for "Holly."

Then I came home, stopping only briefly for gasoline (it was 3.09⁹).

And now instead of napping I have had some oatmeal, assembled my rolling organizer, and am listening to a three-hour BBC radio special on Sherlock Holmes.

I really, really need more sleep. LOL...

How You Know It's Christmas

The television commercials change!

A classic: Hershey's Kisses "Bells"

Kraft "Different Snack for Santa"

Coca-Cola "Snow Globes" 2010 (warning: this is a bit loud)

Coca-Cola Christmas "Trucks"

(How did Coca-Cola get hooked to Santa Claus? No, it wasn't because Coke red and Santa suit red were the same color. Coca-Cola was once considered only a refreshing cold summer drink. They wanted folks to drink it all year round. What better way than to show Santa Claus having a refreshing drink of Coca-Cola after his run?)

A true Christmas commercial classic: Coca-Cola "Hilltop"

Folgers Coffee: "Peter" (the original!)

Publix "Working on Christmas"

Check out the face of the baby! Publix "Conspiracy"

A Happy Thanksgiving Day

I skinned out of bed at quarter to nine to get a paper. While it struck me as slightly silly, as I could look through all the Black Friday ads online, I always like to get physical reference.

As I looked through the paper I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Much fun as always, and a great bit from the Broadway musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette. The parade had a good variety of acts, including Neil Diamond singing "Coming to America." Didn't think much of the Tim Burton balloon, but then I'm not a Burton fan.

Following was the National Dog Show—a wire-haired fox terrier won; a mostly white one. Is it the year of Snowy? :-)

Then we gathered up the trash to put it out before taking our contributions—a sweet potato pie and corn casserole—to the Lucyshyns for Thanksgiving dinner. There was a full house of people, and we ate, chatted, watched football and skating, looked at Daniel's new Nook Tablet, and finally had dessert. We left a little after seven and wandered our long dark way home while listening to a Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from a few weeks ago. When we went in the bedroom to change, I could hear music playing because I had left NPR on. It was Beethoven's Sixth...and just hearing that made me want to play The White Seal, which uses that lovely piece to such good effect. So I did...and A Cricket in Times Square, too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thought I'd try something a bit different in "Thanksgiving" poetry with a little Gerard Manley Hopkins:


"Hurrahing in Harvest"

SUMMER ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks arise
   Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
   Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?

I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes,
   Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;
   And, éyes, heárt, what looks, what lips yet gave you a
Rapturous love’s greeting of realer, of rounder replies?

And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder
   Majestic—as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet!—
These things, these things were here and but the beholder
   Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
   And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his feet.


"Pied Beauty"

GLORY be to God for dappled things—
   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
      For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
   Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and lough;
      And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
   Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
      With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, im;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
                              Praise him.

An Autumn Sojourn

It wasn't a willing one, but at least part of it was pleasant!

I took my Thanksgiving leave a little bit differently this year, so that I was at work today. In hindsight, this may have been a mistake, as many people take Wednesday off and leave early on Tuesday. The roads were already a wreck by two o'clock and by quitting time the traffic map online was turning colors not seen in nature. (Who knew there was a redder red for hopelessly snarled traffic? I didn't want to see it turn purple!) So naturally I had to come home via surface streets.

The weather had been unpleasantly warm and still at lunchtime when I emerged from the building (thankfully the sun was mostly obscured by clouds or it would have been much warmer than the mid 70s), but a breeze was building up by the time lunch was over, tossing pine straw and the odd acorn from the trees. The breeze was still playing about the fading leaves as I left work.

This surface-street route takes a while, but is generally rewarding. The first part of the route takes me through Dresden Drive, which is now a mix of older homes and new development. The streets were already outlined with rows of brittle, brown leaves, with a broken line of crushed leaves in the center of the road.

Once having crossed Peachtree Road, I am in my favorite portion of the ride, driving through the Brookhaven neighborhood. Again, this is an old neighborhood where older homes are gradually being remodeled or struck down for newer homes. The designs are varied, from low ranch homes to one French plantation reproduction, to saltbox or Georgian-fronted edifices. My favorite are the stone and brick houses that look to me like English hunting lodges. I have one in particular I'm very fond of, in a warm, dark brown stone, and it looks like it's finally been purchased. Oh, how I would love to decorate it, especially at Christmas, imagining it in holly swags and wreaths with bright red ribbons! I love my home, but I've never gotten over my "English hunting lodge" envy (or my Craftsman home envy, either). Here again, the gutters were overflowing with thick ribbons of browning leaves, as I left Brookhaven and drove along Windsor Road and finally into Chastain Park.

By now the sky was grey and lowering. The autumn color has definitely faded everywhere, and Chastain Park was merely an obstacle course of speed bumps and cars jockeying for parking spaces for an after-work walk. The final pleasant part of the ride was down Mount Paran Road, where a few more "English hunting lodges" were passed—including the one with the waterfall out front! "Mr. Inflatable," our name for the guy on the corner of the pretentious neighborhood near the end of Mount Paran, appeared not to have his decorations out yet, and had nothing for Thanksgiving! However, one big white house was already decked out with thousands of white lights and snowflake-shaped light ornaments, which shone out brightly as it became darker.

Then it started to rain and the rest of the sojourn was more like a miserable trudge for the car, while I roasted inside (since I had to close the windows) until I finally surrendered and put the air conditioner on.

Old Advent

Did you know that at one time the season of Advent was as long as Lent?

Where Lent was a preparation period for Easter, so Advent was for Christmas. For forty days, starting on November 15, you were to meditate on the idea of the son of God coming to earth as an ordinary baby, to grow as all men did. Not an omnipotent God from on high, but a regular man who needed physical sustenance to survive, a mother's love, a father's guidance, friends to play with, as well as the awareness of his own purpose. The long days of Advent are there for us to ponder that miracle and that of our own existence.

More than likely many have been preparing for Christmas already, from the first time the hint of a Christmas commercial—the Glade Christmas candle ads began in mid-October!—started a frantic routine of buying gifts, getting a jump on holiday menus, decorating the home. But is that what Christmas is really all about? I for one love buying or making gifts for those I love. I have friends whose very delight is to deck every house corner with Chritmas color and glow and glitter. Others I know take pleasure in baking days to provide a lovely spread on their dining table. And there it is all well and good, have you the funds and the energy to do so.

But so much of Christmas appears to be an obligatory one if one is to believe not only the advertising rammed at you from every corner but the yearly complaints from every quarter...you MUST buy this gift to show love, you MUST make this cake and those cookies decorated just so to be the perfect hostess, your decorations must be of a certain caliber.

Whether or not you also celebrate Christmas as the birth of a Savior or just as a secular feast, Christmas is about LOVE. Not the quantity of the gifts or the food, but about the love shown by sharing, whether food, gifts, or yourself. Let Advent be your time to prepare for a Christmas that you love, then enjoy Christmastide itself, not just December 25, but the rest of the holiday as well. Think, plan, consider, read, meditate, pray if you so choose...but enjoy!

You Know That Old Myth About Suicides and the Holidays?

It's just that, a myth.

From Health.com: "Most people think the winter holidays are a risky time, but suicides are lowest in December and peak in the spring."

Classic Thanksgiving Commercials

Just to get you in the mood:

MetLife "Peanuts" Commercial

Meijer "Grandma" Commercial

Publix "Head of the Table"

Publix "Leaves"

and the classic:

Publix "Salt and Pepper Shakers"

"Ghosts"

Fannie Stearns Davis

I am almost afraid of the wind out there.
The dead leaves skip on the porches bare,
The windows clatter and whine.
I sit here in the quiet house. low-lit.
With the clock that ticks and the books that stand.
Wise and silent, on every hand.

I am almost afraid; though I know the night
Lets no ghosts walk in the warm lamplight.
Yet ghosts there are; and they blow, they blow,
Out in the wind and the scattering snow.-
When I open the windows and go to bed,
Will the ghosts come In and stand at my head?

Last night I dreamed they came back again.
I heard them talking; I saw them plain.
They hugged me and held me and loved me; spoke
Of happy doings and friendly folk.
They seemed to have journeyed a week away,
but now they were ready and glad to stay.

But, oh, if they came on the wind to-night
Could I bear their faces, their garments white
Blown in the dark around my lonely bed?
Oh, could I forgive them for being dead?
I am almost afraid of the wind. My shame!
That I would not be glad if my dear ones came!

Turn by Turn by Turning

It rained today, mostly a drizzle which left everything damp and grey. The interstate traffic maps were a horror of warning colors, so I took surface streets home.

The upside to this was that I wandered hither and yon through tree-filled neighborhoods and got a preview of peak color (or at least as peak as Georgia gets; we don't ordinarily get bright colors here—more muted tones). This area of the state has a high percentage of pine trees, and also trees that stay green pretty much until the leaves fall off, so the bits of color are more isolated glimpses than an all-over palette change.

As I noticed on Sunday, even further north in Ellijay, the maples have the brightest color this year, but have only a branch or two turning at the time, sometimes even the tips of the leaves only. The predominant color is yellow, except for the dogwood trees, which are in various stages of turning a rusty red color that looks like it's bleeding and puddling into the green. Occasionally, however, a collection of underbrush, like in the neighborhoods around Chastain Park, will beam brightly in the fall triumvirate of yellow, orange, and red, and a tree—again the maples—bursting with gold, russet, and scarlet, like the one standing guard outside the IBM complex off Cobb Parkway, occasionally coming into view to be greeted by choicest ooohs and ahhhs.

What some trees are blooming with most are Hallowe'en decorations: bats, ghosts, mummies, witches bashed into tree trunks. "Mr. Inflatable" on Mt. Paran Road is SRO on his front lawn: spooks, haunts, necromancers, and what looks like the Headless Horseman and I believe an inflatable hearse. The entire atmosphere was spooky on the way home anyway, low grey clouds, the occasional patter of raindrops, the creaking windshield wipers, the previously fallen leaves ground into a moist brownish-yellow paste at the roadside.

Let There Be Christmas Lights!

Thank you to the folks at Family Christmas Online for rescuing this website:

Antique Christmas Lights

Wonderful photos and information on the first electric light "outfits" for Christmas trees (replacing the so-flammable candles—except, as the site points out, some of the lights burned so hot that they were just as dangerous as candles), plus a page on vintage Christmas music taken from Edison cylinders, and even Christmas memories from readers of the web site.

Humorous Nostalgia

A classic ad:

Pizza Hut (Leftover Christmas Turkey) 1986

Rudolph Day, September 2011

Tis the Season TV by Joanna Wilson

This is a first, an exhaustive effort to chronicle every television special, movie, animated feature, and series episode from the advent of television to the present that has to do with December holidays (Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.) and Christmastide. If you are a lover of these specials and series episodes, this is the volume for you, although the recommendation comes with several caveats.

First, it's not complete. Now, there are so many Yuletide media efforts it would have been more miraculous if Ms. Wilson had not skipped any of them. Nevertheless, she did skip at least one television film, the Keshia Knight-Pulliam vehicle The Little Match Girl, nor did I see Rick Steves' European Christmas and PBS's annual Christmas at St. Olaf and Christmas at King's College, although other PBS specials and cable channel specials are represented. There may be others missing; these are only the ones I saw.

Second, not all Christmas series episodes are described, and mistakes and misspellings appear in descriptions. For example, three Lassie Christmas episodes are not described, there is no description for the Knot's Landing Christmas episode, etc. Some of the description mistakes are very amusing if you are familiar with the series: for instance, in the description of The Waltons episode "The Children's Carol," Verdie is referred to as "Burdie"! There are other goofs like this.

Also, occasionally Wilson's descriptions are very stilted.

Still, I am impressed. This was a huge body of information to research, and it's very difficult to describe yet the twelfth or thirteenth Lawrence Welk Show Christmas episode or what happens in several decades of Bing Crosby or Bob Hope specials! It's my hope Ms. Wilson will get leave to do a second edition of this book and fix all the errors. A complete version of this work would be stunning.

As a nice, basic reference, this book cannot be beat.

Fall Creeps in On Little Cat Feet

Unfortunately for me, my favorite season arrives just as our busiest season at work is winding down. Sometimes it seems that there's little time for me to lift my eyes from my monitor or from the myriad of things I must do on weekends to note the seasons slowly shifting gear.

We could hardly credit it, but it seems Tropical Storm Lee, for all the damage it did other places, here "broke the back" of summer. We'd had 89 days of sizzling 90s during the summer (one more did turn up to break the record) and there seemed no end of it until Lee flipped the switch. Oh, this didn't mean it automatically made it cool. Temps are still, on average, hovering in the low 80s, which is common here in September. However, there have been odd days where the clouds have triumphed and it's been in the 70s, with a nice cool breeze coming from the north or northeast, and one golden day where it never got out of the high 60s.

In the end, the body knows when you need to slow down and it's given me a bit of a whack today: stuffed nose, lightheadedness, feeling as if I didn't sleep even when I did. So instead of at a desk, I am wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, heeding the brake imposed upon me.

Outside I can see what's been happening while my mind's been elsewhere: one of the trees in the yard is dotted with yellow leaves. There are other, crackled brown, strayed on the deck, and some bright red leaves on a tree in the yard next door. When we went shopping on Sunday, I marveled at how the trees lining the parking lot had changed: the tips of the maple leaves—indeed some of the whole leaves—have turned scarlet. Everywhere the dogwoods, which are the last to bloom and the first to turn, sport reddish leaves. In the parking lot at work, the roof of my car has been regularly thumped with falling acorns, which lie brown (and occasionally squashed) in clusters on the tarmac.

The last of the baby birds have fledged and gone their way, except for one young cardinal who sits on the feeder (and even occasionally feeds) and clings to his childhood, begging his mother or father to feed him (they oblige, with resignation it appears). Very soon the bluebirds will return to provide a piece of the sky on earth.

And, oh, the sky!—after a summer of insipid pale blue overlaid with a thin yellowish coating of smog and pollen, the sky is once again bright blue, painted with a feathery brush of ghost-white cirrus clouds. It's a preview of cool autumn days to come.

Rudolph Day, August 2011

Part of the delight of preparing for Christmas is the wonderful autumn season that precedes Christmastide. It is a blessing to know that the intense heat of summer will fade into the pleasant temperatures of autumn, and then one day a frost will tip the grass and leaves with silver-white in preparation for winter.

We call autumn our "social season." It starts before the simmering summer is over, during Labor Day weekend, when we partake of fannish fun at DragonCon. For four days we wander about a fantasy world filled with wizards, space pilots, pirates, alternative history "steampunk" characters, superheroes, actors, writers, artists, and more. The following weekend, usually warm, kicks off "fall": the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain Park. This huge craft festival carries everything from cutesy kids' clothing to lawn furniture, foods to musical instruments, decorations made of everything from clay and glass to metal and wood, plus has performances and booths of dozens of kinds of food. We arrive at the opening hour and by the time it gets hideously hot, we are ready to leave, but usually have a grilled corn on the cob before we depart.

In October comes another craft festival, a recent discovery, the Georgia Apple Festival in Ellijay, GA, part of Georgia's apple country. While there are occasionally Yellow Daisy repeats, most of the vendors are completely different, and we come home with a peck of freshly-picked Granny Smith apples, delightfully tart to make your mouth pucker.

It is in the lovely weather in October and November in which we usually take our vacation. While temps may crawl into the unwelcome 70s during the height of the day, the evenings are cool and crisp, the perfect time for explorations outdoors.

It's also the time of year when we start up having game nights again. End of fiscal year is over with and we can relax. The house is swathed in fall decorations and looks inviting instead of burned out, ready to welcome friends. The "Mistletoe Mart" is held at the Cobb County Civic Center (too early, if you ask me) in October as well.

In November comes our wedding anniversary, and then one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving. I know folks who start decorating their homes for Christmas before Thanksgiving, simply because of the number of decorations they put up, but I simply can't do it. I love the idea of Thanksgiving—not all the "Pilgrims and Indians" tales, but the idea of sharing food and conversation with friends, the savory food and drink, the scents of cinnamon and apples and warm spice in the background. If it's cool enough, we might even have a fire in the fireplace.

But once Thanksgiving weekend is over, it's Christmas decorating in earnest! Plus there are more delights to come: the Apple Annie Craft Show at St. Ann's Church, the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company Christmas performance, and other holiday fun before Christmas even arrives, twelve days of visiting, a New Year's Eve party, and, to close out the season, our Twelfth Night party.

Rudolph Day, July 2011

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

I'm already collecting Christmas books for reading this year. Some are holdovers from last year, as I had quite a few things on last year's pile.

Santa, by Jeremy Seal, is a British book I heard about while listening to the author read it on BBC Radio 7 (now BBC Radio 4X). It's a whimsical look at the history of Santa Claus from his origins as St. Nicholas.

Another holdover from last year is a Mary Higgins Clark Christmas mystery book, Dashing Through the Snow. She has a half-dozen of these little Christmas mysteries; this will be my first.

Yet another holdover is Christmas 1945, which I wanted as soon as I saw it last year, but never managed to get to before the season was over. It's nonfiction about the first Christmas after the end of World War II.

Plus just recently I found a book I didn't even know about, Tis the Season TV, subtitled "The Encyclopedia of Christmas Themed Episodes, Specials and Made-for-TV Movies," by Joanna Wilson. How could I resist? (I wonder if she's going to put out a second edition; I have descriptions for all the Lassie episodes she only had titles for. :-)

(I may not wait for Christmas to start the latter. It's like a bag of peanuts just begging to be eaten.)

Happy Independence Day!

Happy birthday to the United States of America! It's a day of picnics, gatherings, fireworks, and fun. It's also a day to think about our past and hope and work for the future.

I included this next postcard because I was thinking of all those old children's books, like Eight Cousins and The Bobbsey Twins in the Country where the children get together and put on a little patriotic parade. The pertinent chapter from the latter serves as a demonstration of what children worked up for themselves, without adult intervention, in the early 20th century.

CHAPTER IX

FOURTH OF JULY

The day following the picnic was July third, and as the Meadow Brook children were pretty well tired out from romping in the woods, they were glad of a day's rest before entering upon the festivities of Independence Day.

"How much have you got?" Tom Mason asked the Bobbsey boys.

"Fifty cents together, twenty-five cents each," Harry announced.

"Well, I've got thirty-five, and we had better get our stuff early, for Stimpson sold out before noon last year," concluded Tom.

"I have to get torpedoes for Freddie and Flossie, and Chinese fire-crackers for Nan," Bert remarked, as they started for the little country grocery store.

"I guess I'll buy a few snakes, they look so funny coiling out," Tom said.

"I'm going to have sky rockets and Roman candles. Everybody said they were the prettiest last year," said Harry.

"If they have red fire I must get some of it for the girls," thoughtful Bert remarked.

But at the store the boys had to take just what they could get, as Stimpson's supply was very limited.

"Let's make up a parade!" someone suggested, and this being agreed upon the boys started a canvass from house to house, to get all the boys along Meadow Brook road to take part in the procession.

"Can the little ones come too?" August Stout asked, because he always had to look out for his small brother when there was any danger like fireworks around.

"Yes, and we're goin' to let the girls march in a division by themselves," Bert told him. "My sister Nan is going to be captain, and we'll leave all the girls' parts to her."

"Be sure and bring your flag," Harry cautioned Jack Hopkins.

"How would the goat wagons do?" Jack asked.

"Fine; we could let Roy and Freddie ride in them." said Bert. "Tell any of the other fellows who have goat teams to bring them along too."

"Eight o'clock sharp at our lane," Harry told them for the place and time of meeting. Then they went along to finish the arrangements.

"Don't tell the boys," Nan whispered to Mildred, as they too made their way to Stimpson's.

"Won't they be surprised?" exclaimed Mabel.

"Yes, and I am going to carry a real Betsy Ross flag, one with thirteen stars, you know."

"Oh, yes, Betsy Ross made the first flag, didn't she?" remarked Mildred, trying to catch up on history.

"We'll have ten big girls," Nan counted. "Then with Flossie as Liberty we will want Bessie and Nettie for her assistants."

"Attendants," Mabel corrected, for she had seen a city parade like that once.

It was a busy day for everybody, and when Mr. Bobbsey came up on the train from Lakeport that evening he carried boxes and boxes of fireworks for the boys and girls, and even some for the grown folks too.

The girls could hardly sleep that night, they were so excited over their part, but the boys of course were used to that sort of thing, and only slept sounder with the fun in prospect.

"Are you awake, Bert?" called Harry, so early the next morning that the sun was hardly up yet.

"Yep," replied the cousin, jumping out of bed and hastily dressing for the firing of the first gun.

The boys crept through the house very quietly, then ran to the barn for their ammunition. Three big giant fire-crackers were placed in the road directly in front of the house.

"Be careful!" whispered Bert; "they're full of powder."

But Harry was always careful with fireworks, and when he touched the fuses to the "cannons" he made away quickly before they exploded.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Hurrah!" shouted Freddie, answering the call from his window, "I'll be right down!"

All the others too were aroused by the first "guns," so that in a very short time there were many boys in the road, firing so many kinds of fire-crackers that Meadow Brook resounded like a real war fort under fire.

"Ouch!" yelled Tom Mason, the first one to bum his fingers. "A sisser caught me right on the thumb."

But such small accidents were not given much attention, and soon Tom was lighting the little red crackers as merrily as before.

"Go on back, girls!" called Bert. "You'll get your dresses burnt if you don't."

The girls were coming too near the battlements then, and Bert did well to warn them off.

Freddie and Flossie were having a great time throwing their little torpedoes at Mr. Bobbsey and Uncle Daniel, who were seated on the piazza watching the sport. Snoop and Fluffy too came in for a scare, for Freddie tossed a couple of torpedoes on the kitchen hearth where the kittens were sleeping.

The boys were having such fun they could hardly be induced to come in for breakfast, but they finally did stop long enough to eat a spare meal.

"It's time to get ready!" whispered Nan to Bert, for the parade had been kept secret from the grown folks.

At the girls' place of meeting, the coach house, Nan found all her company waiting and anxious to dress.

"Just tie your scarfs loose under your left arm," ordered Captain Nan, and the girls quickly obeyed like true cadets. The broad red-white-and-blue bunting was very pretty over the girls' white dresses, and indeed the "cadets" looked as if they would outdo the "regulars" unless the boys too had surprises in store.

"Where's Nettie?" suddenly asked Nan, missing a poor little girl who had been invited.

"She wouldn't come because she had no white dress," Mildred answered.

"Oh, what a shame; she'll be so disappointed! Besides, we need her to make a full line," Nan said. "Just wait a minute. Lock the door after me," and before the others knew what she was going to do, Nan ran off to the house, got one of her own white dresses, rolled it up neatly, and was over the fields to Nettie's house in a few minutes. When Nan came back she brought Nettie with her, and not one of her companions knew it was Nan's dress that Nettie wore.

Soon all the scarfs were tied and the flags arranged. Then Flossie had to be dressed.

She wore a light blue dress with gold stars on it, and on her pretty yellow curls she had a real Liberty crown. Then she had the cleanest, brightest flag, and what a pretty picture she made!

"Oh, isn't she sweet!" all the girls exclaimed in admiration, and indeed she was a little beauty in her Liberty costume.

"There go the drums!" Nan declared. "We must be careful to get down the lane without being seen." This was easily managed, and now the girls and boys met at the end of the lane.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the boys, beating the drums and blowing their horns to welcome the girls.

"Oh, don't you look fine!" exclaimed Harry, who was captain of the boys.

"And don't you too!" Nan answered, for indeed the boys had such funny big hats on and so many flags and other red-white-and-blue things, that they too made a fine appearance.

"And Freddie!" exclaimed the girls. "Isn't he a lovely Uncle Sam!"

Freddie was dressed in the striped suit Uncle Sam always wears, and had on his yellow curls a tall white hat. He was to ride in Jack Hopkins' goat wagon.

"Fall in!" called Harry, and at the word all the companies fell in line.

"Cadets first," ordered the captain.

Then Flossie walked the very first one. After her came Nan and her company. (No one noticed that Nettie's eyes were a little red from crying. She had been so disappointed at first when she thought she couldn't go in the parade.) After the girls came Freddie as Uncle Sam, in the goat wagon led by Bert (for fear the goat might run away), then fifteen boys, all with drums or fifes or some other things with which to make a noise. Roy was in the second division with his wagon, and last of all came the funniest thing.

A boy dressed up like a bear with a big sign on him:

TEDDY!

He had a gun under his arm and looked too comical for anything.

It was quite warm to wear a big fur robe and false face, but under this was Jack Hopkins, the bear Teddy, and he didn't mind being warm when he made everybody laugh so.

"Right foot, left foot, right foot, forward march!" called Nan, and the procession started up the path straight for the Bobbsey house.

"Goodness gracious, sakes alive! Do come see de childrens! Ha, ha! Dat sure am a parade!" called Dinah, running through the house to the front door to view the procession.

"Oh, isn't it just beautiful!" Martha echoed close at Dinah's heels.

"My!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey; "how did they ever get made up so pretty!"

"And look at Flossie!" exclaimed Aunt Sarah.

"And see Freddie!" put in Uncle Daniel.

"Oh, we must get the camera!" Mr. Bobbsey declared, while the whole household, all excited, stood out on the porch when the parade advanced.

Such drumming and such tooting of fifes and horns!

Freddie's chariot was now in line with the front stoop, and he raised his tall hat to the ladies like a real Uncle Sam.

"Oh, the bear! the bear!" called everybody, as they saw "Teddy" coming up.

"That's great," continued Uncle Daniel.

By this time Mr. Bobbsey had returned with the camera.

"Halt!" called Harry, and the procession stood still.

"Look this way. There now, all ready," said Mr. Bobbsey, and snap went the camera on as pretty a picture as ever covered a plate.

"Right wheel! forward march!" called Nan again, and amid drumming and tooting the procession started off to parade through the center of Meadow Brook.