fire-works every July, so it would never do to offend them. And yet how could Mr. Rovering be so disloyal to his own party as to have his window not only thrown wide open, but full of enthusiastic spectators of the other party's procession?

In the midst of these dismal reflections there was another knock at the door, and the Boxes "just dropped in," as they expressed it.

Fortunately there were only three of them; but Master Freddie Box proved to be a whole family in himself, for while the rest of the party—eleven in all, including Mr. and Mrs. Rovering—kept edging nearer and nearer to the window, he occupied himself in exploring every nook and corner of the room in search of fire-crackers. He peered into the vases on the mantel-piece, crawled under the sofas, looked behind the fire-screen, and tilted everything movable in the apartment.

Meanwhile the hands of the clock had crept around to nearly ten, the street below swarmed with surging crowds, and every time a shout arose the seven Rollups and the two Boxes all tried to put their heads out of the window at once, while Mr. and Mrs. Rovering were obliged to content themselves with a fine view of the latest style in back hair.

It was during one of these false alarms that a cry from young Master Box attracted the general attention within-doors.

"Robbers! thieves! murder!" he shrieked, withdrawing his hand from under the bed, from whence there now began to issue the most dismal succession of howls.

"The Eds!" exclaimed Mr. Rovering.

"The trundle-bed!" moaned his wife, and at that moment the parade began to appear.

Meanwhile the two Eds had been released from their odd prison-house, and were staring about them with wondering eyes.

"Is it the circus?" queried Edgar, seeing the crowd in the room and hearing the music in the street.

"Where are the pea-nuts?" demanded his brother; but as at that instant Mrs. Rovering recovered, and bethought herself that her sons were still in their night-clothes, they were hurried behind the screen to be dressed.

It appeared on examination that the only reason the two Eds had not been smothered outright was that the mattress in the trundle was a very thin one, having, in fact, been expressly manufactured for a boarding-house, and thus there was room for enough air to come in over the sides to keep breath in the boys' bodies until Freddie Box woke them up.

But now everybody's attention was turned to the street again, for torches were waving wildly, boys shouting, men cheering, and the crowd pushing in a way that everybody loves to watch.

The young Rollups, who were not particularly little if they were young, hung half out of the window in solid double layers; then behind them, and clutching their sacks and jackets to prevent accidents, were the Honorable and his wife; next stood Mr. and Mrs. Box, each very short, trying to see over the shoulders of Mr. and Mrs. Rollup, who were both very tall; and in the rear of them tip-toed Mr. and Mrs. Rovering, who had by this time overcome their political scruples, and were now trying by every possible means to obtain a glimpse of the reflection from a lantern or to spell out a word now and then on a banner, which by dint of dodging to look under this one's elbow, over that one's head, and around another's arm, they sometimes succeeded in doing.

As for Freddie Box and the two Eds, they would never have known whether it was men or kangaroos that were parading if a brilliant idea had not suddenly presented itself to the ever-active brain of Master Fred. This he made haste to confide to his young hosts, whereupon they all three hurried off down stairs, and presently came staggering back with a tall step-ladder, which they proceeded to set up behind the crowd at the window in stealthy triumph. Then they quickly scrambled to the top, where they had such a magnificent view of everything that Box junior could not refrain from giving vent to a crow of delight.

At the same instant there was a louder shout than usual in the street below, and Mrs. Box, in her absorbing curiosity to know what was going on, turned to see if there was anything upon which she could stand, when her eye fell on the step-ladder. And then, as another round of applause was given by the throng, she mounted to the step below the Eds in a flash.

"Hip, hip, hurrah! zip, bang, boom!" went the procession until nearly midnight, and the group at the Roverings' window looked and cheered and screamed and waved their handkerchiefs until the last torch zigzagged out of sight. Then they all turned away, and discovered Mrs. Box on the step-ladder.

"Come, my dear," said her husband, when he had overcome his astonishment, "it's time we were going;" but no sooner had Mrs. Box made a movement to descend than the step-ladder creaked so terribly that she declared it would fall if she did not remain perfectly quiet.

Mr. Box begged and entreated her to come down, but she obstinately refused to move hand or foot lest she should precipitate her boy to the floor.

"I care not for myself," she affirmed, "but for him—and them," indicating the two Eds.

"Let Freddie creep around you and come down first," finally suggested Mr. Box, looking quite wild with despair and sleepiness; but this too proved of no avail.

What was to be done? Here it was past midnight, the house was being locked up, Mr. and Mrs. Rovering were yawning, and the trundle-bed waited to be filled.

Still the fact remained that the step-ladder had creaked, and Mrs. Box vowed she would remain where she was until broad noon before she would bring down her son and her friends' sons with violence to the floor.

"Look! look, somebody!" cried Freddie. "I guess another p'rade's coming."

That was sufficient. Mrs. Box went down the ladder even quicker than she had gone up, rushed to the window, and stared up and down the street. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Freddie, hustling the two Eds in front of him, descended to the floor with such speed that just as the three were clear of it the step-ladder tottered and fell with a crash.

Master Fred's drums turning out to belong to a section of the paraders moving homeward through the next avenue, the Boxes speedily hurried off in that direction, leaving the Roverings to settle for the broken step-ladder and give their landlady notice that they had decided to move into back rooms on a side street.