Page:Boy scouts in the White Mountains; the story of a long hike (IA boyscoutsinwhite00eato).pdf/57

 to out-top a man. They went down a considerable incline, and found two or three hundred feet of fresh climbing ahead of them when they reached the base of the south cone. They were scrambling up through the spruces when suddenly from the summit they heard a report—then a second—a third—a fourth—then the rapid musketry of a whole bunch of cannon crackers. It sounded odd far up here in the silence, and not very loud. The great spaces of air seemed to absorb the sound.

When they reached the top, Peanut had stripped a spruce of all branches, and tied the flag to the top. It was whipping out in the breeze. As the first boy's head appeared in sight, he touched off his last bunch of crackers, and, taking off his hat, cried, "Ladies and gentlemen, salute your flag in honor of the Independence of these United States of America, and the Boy Scouts of Southmead, Massachusetts!"

"Peanut's making a Fourth of July oration," Frank called down to the rest.

Rob laughed. "From the granite hills of New Hampshire to the sun-kissed shores of the golden Pacific," he declaimed, "from the Arctic circle to the Rio Grande, the dear old stars and stripes shall wave—"

"Shut up," said Lou. "This place ain't the spot to make fun of the flag in. I say we all just take