Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?”
From the top of the flagpole, up against the blue sky, the Stars and Stripes were fluttering. Everybody looked at the American flag, and Almanzo sang with all his might.
Then everyone sat down, and a Congressman stood up on a platform. Slowly and solemnly he read the Declaration of Independence.
“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people… to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station… We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”
Almanzo felt solemn and very proud.
Then two men made long political speeches. One believed in high tariffs, and one believed in free trade. All the grown-ups listened hard, but Almanzo did not understand the speeches very well and he began to be hungry. He was glad when the band played again.
The music was so gay; the bandsmen in their blue and red and their brass buttons tootled merrily, and the fat drummer beat rat-a-tat-tat on the drum. All the flags were fluttering and everybody was happy, because they were free and independent and this was Independence Day. And it was time to eat dinner.
Almanzo helped Father feed the horses while Mother and the girls spread the picnic lunch on the grass in the churchyard. Many others were picnicking there, too, and after he had eaten all he could Almanzo went back to the Square.
There was a lemonade-stand by the hitching posts. A man sold pink lemonade, a nickel a glass, and a crowd of the town boys were standing around him. Cousin Frank was there. Almanzo had a drink at the town pump, but Frank said he was going to buy lemonade. He had a nickel. He walked up to the stand and bought a glass of the pink lemonade and drank it slowly. He smacked his lips and rubbed his stomach and said: “Mmmm! Why don’t you buy some?”
“Where’d you get the nickel?” Almanzo asked. He had never had a nickel. Father gave him a penny every Sunday to put in the collection-box in church; he had never had any other money. “My father gave it to me,” Frank bragged. “My father gives me a nickel every time I ask him.”
“Well, so would my father if I asked him,” said Almanzo.
“Well, why don’t you ask him?” Frank did not believe that Father would give Almanzo a nickel. Almanzo did not know whether Father would, or not.
“Because I don’t want to,” he said.
“He wouldn’t give you a nickel,” Frank said.
“He would, too.”
“I dare you to ask him,” Frank said. The other boys were listening. Almanzo put his hands in his pockets and said:
“I’d just as lief ask him if I wanted to.”
“Yah, you’re scared!” Frank jeered. “Double dare! Double dare!”
Father was a little way down the street, talking to Mr. Paddock, the wagon-maker. Almanzo walked slowly toward them. He was fainthearted, but he had to go. The nearer he got to Father, the more he dreaded asking for a nickel. He had never before thought of doing such a thing. He was sure Father would not give it to him.
He waited till Father stopped talking and looked at him.
“What is it, son?” Father asked.
Almanzo was scared. “Father,” he said.
“Well, son?”
“Father,” Almanzo said, “would you—would you give me—a nickel?”
He stood there while Father and Mr. Paddock looked at him, and he wished he could get away. Finally Father asked:
“What for?”
Almanzo looked down at his moccasins and muttered:
“Frank had a nickel. He bought pink lemonade.”
“Well,” Father said, slowly, “if Frank treated you, it’s only right you should treat him.” Father put his hand in his pocket. Then he stopped and asked: