1 Tim and Tess were watching Wendy. It was the Fourth of July. All the neighbors were working together. There was going to be a neighborhood picnic. Some of the mothers were setting up tables for food. Some of the older children were setting up games. Some of the fathers were setting up fireworks. They would shoot them off after dark.
2 Wendy was tying balloons to mailboxes. She seemed happy. She kept humming the same song over and over. She was humming "Happy Birthday to You." Tim and Tess knew it wasn't her birthday. They knew it wasn't their birthday. They didn't understand.
3 They finally decided to ask Wendy. "Why do you keep humming ‘Happy Birthday to You' all the time? Don't you know that it is the Fourth of July?"
4 "Of course, I do," said Wendy. "That's why I'm humming that song. Today we are having a birthday party."
5 "Whose birthday is it?" asked the twins.
6 "Today is the birthday of our country," answered Wendy.
7 "I didn't think a country could have a birthday," said Tess.
8 "We must be very old," added Tim.
9 "Our country was born on July 4, 1776. That is when the Declaration of Independence was signed. Our leaders wrote it. They told the whole world that we were independent of England. Independent means free and on our own."
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