Mary Roberts Rinehart

“ But they met no one, and their entrance into the dormitory up-stairs, which under ordinary circumstances would have thrown two dozen small boys into the greatest excitement, to-night faded into insignificance beside the counting of paper balloons, now fish, now flesh—in the shape of a portly, swaying elephant—and now fowl, which rose unsteadily above the housetops, circled dizzily, threatening every moment to go up in a flash of flame, and then, caught by a fortunate breeze, sailed off majestically, growing smaller and fainter, until even the children's keen eyes failed to distinguish them. ”

“ We can get up easy, and then you can look out the window too. Oh, there's another!"
A tall rocket rose hissing from somewhere beyond the asylum, bent its head gracefully, and with a little report sent down a shower of red and blue stars, their colors still pale against the evening sky. Bertram watched with his mouth open; then he looked at the rows of heads beginning to show at the upper windows of the building. ”

“ Bertram drew a long breath.
"That's nothing," said the red-haired boy. "Just wait till dark. Why, from our windows last Fourth there was more rockets than you could count, goin' up at the same time, and red fire and green fire, and Roman candles and balloons, and over across the river they had the Fall of Pompeii and George Washington."
"We always have fireworks at Beach Head," said Bertram modestly, "but we never have the fall of anything, or George Washington." ”

“ But through all that day's stress of fumigating and disinfecting, of temperature-taking, doctors' visits, and strained relations with mademoiselle, Bertram talked of the orphans, of the red-haired boy, of the twenty-four white beds, into which their owners tucked themselves without assistance, until insensibly Mrs. Van Court began to realize that some of the orphans across the way were boys just as little and helpless as her own. ”

“ Bertram asked, crossing the street slowly.
The red-haired boy got cautiously down, wiping his hands on the lining of his pockets.
"It's fun," he said. "There's a policeman on the front steps, and the groceries and meat and ice is all left at the gate. Then we carry them in. Ten of us has scarlet fever, and two measles."
A boy rode by on a bicycle, throwing torpedoes right and left. One flew into the asylum yard and lay there uninjured; the red-haired boy pounced on it, and exploded it with his heel. ”

“ She fixed the tray with practised hands.
"That's about the last clean napkin," she said, half to herself. "Goodness help us if they don't bring some clean napkins from the shore. Where's madamzelle?"
"She's asleep," said Bertram, eying the comfort of the kitchen and Norah's good-humored face wistfully. "I wish you'd let me eat my supper here, Norah. Mother is coming in the morning, but just now I'm a little lonely."
"Then ye shall," said Norah heartily, drawing a chair to the kitchen table. ”

“ Mademoiselle was occasionally called upon to darn the damaged white suits; as to burned fingers she was less solicitous; they repaired themselves, in time.
Bertram nodded. He was looking just then at the asylum yard. For years the Ridgeview orphans had been a bone over which the different factions of the neighborhood had quarreled furiously. They were divided into two sections—the charitable and generally elderly board of lady managers, whose children were well past the measles and scarlatina period, and who found the asylum's present location central and easily accessible ”

“ Van Court went around to the front of the building and appealed to the night policeman, drowsing on the step.
"You'll have to see the board of health, ma'am," he said civilly. "The people around here is always complainin' that there's a leak in the quarantine, and it would cost me my place to let the little boy out."
Mrs. Van Court hurried back again, passed her handkerchief through the fence to Bertram, who was crying from hunger and a sense of exile, and ran over home. After a brief but somewhat heated interview with mademoiselle she called up the president of the board of lady managers. ”