Hi, Mike Powell : Dallas Hinton!
I read your message from 08.11.2019 00:50

 MP> Since I would not expect a young child to be putting those on the
 MP> track, I could only assume it was firecrackers or the like because
 MP> the author mentioned that the 4th of July was soon.

Yeah, I think the mentioning of the 4th of July is important. Probably it is
indeed connected somehow with the holiday.

PS: However, there were several days before the holiday. "...It was a few days
before the Fourth of July, and a gray..." Could he put them on the rails right
on the 4th of July?

;-)

Bye, Mike!
Alexander Koryagin
english_tutor 2019

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