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Show 157 began. At first there were a few modest rockets, which rose to a middle height, burst, and embossed a flower of golden sparks against the t;'<y. At each one the crowd let forth a plangent moan. Slowly the tempo increased, the rockets rose more often and to greater heights, began to show a wider range of color. Red, green, wilver, blue flared above, dropped their burning flakes into the cobalt water. Once an orange sun sent out a swirl of serpents; another spun about and exploded into purple. But this display was short, and when it ended, the crowd settled back to wait for the main event. It was long in coming, and the children, having danced in delight at the fireworks, began to grow quiet. The small ones murmured fretfully, crept into the circle of their elders, and the tiniest curled up on their mother's lap and fell asleep. There followed the half-cooing,half-querulous sounds of consolation, as the mothers shifted the small burdens about, or keened a bit over the sleeping innocence. Soon there came a breeze from the river, and the crowd turned its face upstream. Not yet. Another interval - - more murmurs, minoe complaints - then another stillness made the crowd expectant, and in a moment they saw the first of the candles floating around the bend. They rode quietly, gently, one small flame and then another. A low cry went up, the children sighed in pleasure, and finally a continual murmur accompanied the candles as they moved into sight and glided downstream. The current spread them apart; the narrow point of light broadened, narrowed, broadened again. At times the flames bobbed up and down, and one or two went out. But in a while |