How feeble and insignificant was such a plan compared to that which now sent the light dancing into our eyes! "What could we have been thinking of ?" cried Jack Harris.

"We'll give 'em a broadside, to be sure, if we die for it!" We turned to with a will, and before nightfall had nearly half the battery overhauled and ready for service.

To keep the artillery dry we stuffed wads of loose hemp into the muzzles, and fitted wooden pegs to the touch-holes.
At recess the next noon the Centipedes met in a corner of the school-yard to talk over the proposed lark.

The original projectors, though they would have liked to keep the thing secret, were obliged to make a club matter of it, inasmuch as funds were required for ammunition.

There had been no recent drain on the treasury, and the society could well afford to spend a few dollars in so notable an undertaking.
It was unanimously agreed that the plan should be carried out in the handsomest manner, and a subscription to that end was taken on the spot.
Several of the Centipedes hadn't a cent, excepting the one strung around their necks; others, however, were richer.