Mr. Philately has high standards of fairness and justice. He�s rarely impressed. He�s often disappointed but yesterday he was impressed. Okay, so it was a small event. But the fairness of it so surpassed the way that he used to do it that he was impressed. He was watching the girls� War of the Water Balloons.

I watched some of the preparations, not because I perceived some grand demonstration of fairness was about to unfold, but because it was amusing. (I�m so shallow on vacation.) Day-Hay took the hose and made the balloons into water balloons, all twelve or so of them. She made up all of them because, as Kat amazingly and freely admitted, Kat can�t do it. Her poor dexterity gets in the way of tying them off.

But a one-sided water balloon fight is no fun so Day-Hay gamely filled them all and tied them. She fought with the spray that rises into the air (and the chest and the face) when the balloon is only partly on the hose. She took the squirts in the eye as she tied balloon that were a little too full. She got a finger tied in one balloon and needed some rescuing.

No one would have blamed her had she not divided them equally. She legitimately could have played Little Red Hen. After all, she was the one who already was wet from the spray of the hose and the backwash of the balloons. She was the one with sore fingers (especially the one she got caught.) She was the one who did all the hard work. Yet Day-Hay came in, got two buckets, and split the water balloons up equally. She did not take the biggest for herself. She did not even hoard a particular color.

As Mr. Philately later pointed out, even if he and his brother had split the balloons evenly under the circumstances (and he is not sure that they would have done that), whatever fairness preceded the split would have ended there. While he was placing balloons in the buckets, his brother would have grabbed one and begun the fight (or, of course, it might have been the other way �round. To his credit, Mr. Philately acknowledged such a possibility.) But Kat and Day-Hay honorably waited until each bucket was full.

Unlike the youthful Mr. Philately and his brother, Kat and Day-Hay strictly observed the rules of fairness. They did not simply begin tossing water balloons. Instead, they scouted out perfect locations for each girl�s bucket. No surprise attacks here. The War of the Water Balloons did not begin until each army had its munitions safely stored in a suitable location. Neither side stole munitions from the other army.

Still, the battle was glorious. They were giggling, wet, and very honorable. And when they returned, their father gave them an imaginary medal---not for bravery but for fairness.

They couldn�t have won higher honors from him.

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