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AFTER THE FOURTH

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 14, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 27.

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AFTER THE FOURTH.

JIM MEAD had done his best by his country on the anniversary of "the day when our land was made free." He had risen at midnight to salute the auspicious morning with the tooting of a fish-horn, he had fired tremendous charges into the air all day long, and finished by subsiding at night into tipsy slumber. Next morning, when he came forth rather jaded and listless, he encountered Aunt Mary Cole, the intimate friend and conscience of the whole village.
"Well," said she, resting her bag, full of school-children's goodies, on the fence, "did you have a good Fourth?"
"Prime!" answered Jim, glibly, but uneasily.
"You banged and tooted to your heart's content, and then you went and stamped and clapped your hands over a spread-eagle oration?"
"Now, Aunt Mary, it was just a first-class speech," said Jim, determined to stand by his colors.
"And you all roared yourselves hoarse when you were told you had a duty to your country. Now, do you want me to tell you where I think your duty to your country lies?"
"Yes, Aunt Mary, only don't be too ha'sh."
"I say you'd better go to work and keep your children in shoes, so they can go to school and get their learning. If you let 'em grow up into poor shif'less trash, you've made your country a present of so many paupers; that's all!"
"Now, Aunt Mary!"
"If you're so master patriotic, Jim Mead, why don't you try to leave your country as good as you found it? Trim up the hedge here, and hoe your garden! Columbia'll be much obliged to you for that, when she would not turn her hand over for a million guns fired off under her nose."
"You always was pretty rough on the lame and the lazy, Aunt Mary!"
"It's no such a thing!" said Aunt Mary, emphatically. "I always let 'em alone till they begin to make puffed-up speeches about their patriotism and their dignity as Americans, and then I just want to see 'em prove themselves. You just set your foot down like an honest man now, that you won't celebrate another Fourth till you've given America a good citizen, and then Columbia and I'll have some respect for you! Good-morning."
She passed on, upright as a needle.
Jim looked in at the kitchen window.
"Maria," said he, "where's that hoe gone to? I guess I'll hoe the beans."—Youths' Companion.