I send Two Sunsets — Firecrackers

I send Two Sunsets-1
Day and I-in competition ran-
I finished Two-and several Stars-
While He-was making One-

His own was ampler-but as I 5
Was saying to a friend-
Mine-is the more convenient
To Carry in the Hand-
(F.557/J.308)
[1, 3, 7] Sunsets, Stars, Mine:: names of firecracker.
[2] Day:: a day pupil.
[7] Mine:: a hint on firecracker.

Stars.-The composition to prepare stars is as follows . . . The material is reduced to fine powder, and mixed with the hands. The composition is moistened with whiskey in which gum has been dissolved. . . . Serpents are very small rocket cases charged with composition. ─ A Practical Treatise on the Fabrication of Matches, Gun Cotton, Colored Fires (1864)

These mines are tin pots, with strong bottoms, and a little more than two diameters in length: the mine must be fixed in the hole in the wheel, with its bottom resting on the bowl; then loaded with serpents, crackers, stars, small water-rockets, &c. in the same manner as pots of aigrettes; but in their centre fix a case of Chinese fire, or a small gerbe, which must be lighted at the beginning of the last case on the wheel. ─ Encyclopaedia Britannica (1823)

Mr. Hovey's Fire Works . . . He supplies cities, towns and clubs, for public exhibition or for individual use, with Pyramids, Bengola Lights, Chinese Flyers, Saxons, with colored fires, Fancy Crosses, Palm Trees, Illuminated Stars, Diamonds, and Triangular Pieces in Lance Work, Mines, of all sizes, Vertical Wheels, Pigeons or Line Rockets, Rockets, (Serpents, Streamers, Stars,) and Roman Candles, and Large Temple Columns. ─ The stranger's guide in the city of Boston (1848)