Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1899 — What Happened. [ARTICLE]

What Happened.

THIS is what happened to a boy one Fourth of July. I was not the boy, because I chanced to be a girl; but I know him very well, and he told me about it yesterday. He was called Dick, though it was not his real name. He and his friend, Bob Shannon had been having a glorious time all day, on this particular Fourth. They began at 5 o’clock in the morning, with fish horns and torpedoes, then at 6 o’clock came the “Antiques and Horribles,” and the two boys followed them all over town, miles and miles, till their feet were sore, and their voices hoarse with shouting. Such a sight as the “Antiques and Horribles” used to be! I remember that myself, if I was “only a girl.” They were dressed in rags and tatters, with their masked faces grinning horribly under ridiculous old hats. They blew huge tin horns, hooted and yelled, and were surrounded by a crowd of shrieking boys, who tried to out-hoot and out-yell them. What a delightful moment was that, when, after my little heart had stood still with fright at the near approach of an awful monster, with a negro’s face and billy goat’s horns, the face was suddenly removed, and I saw the smiling, ruddy face of Sam Judkins, the grocer’s boy, Meeting me with the customary “Hello, Sissy!” As a rule, it was aniinsult to be called Sissy, and I could not abide it; but at that moment it was music in my ears. Well, Bob Shannon and Dick followed the “Horribles” to the end, and then they went home and had breakfast. After that they fired off crackers in the back yard, with occasional concerts on the fish horn till noon; and then they went and took a swim. Refreshed by the cool water, they felt equal to anything, and gladly joined the party that was going to fire off the old brass cannon in the vacant lot behind the school house. This was a truly martial joy. Dick, who was a boy of lively imagination, felt like Napoleon (before Waterloo), and Wellington and Grant before Richmond, all rolled into one, and forgot that Alexander and Leonidas, his favorite heroes of antiquity, knew nothing about the joys of gunpowder, and had never heard the “crack!” “bang!” the sharp spurt of the match and the soft “f-M-s!” of the powder which make boys’ hearts leap today.

By-and-by the old cannon broke, aa everyone supposed it would, and strange to way, no one was hnrt. "It’s all nonsense,” said Dick, “about s boys getting hurt so much on the Fourth of July. That is, of course boys do get hurt, but it’s only the stupid fellows who don’t know beans. A fellow who knows what he’s about has no need to get hurt. "Come along. Bob, and let’s fire off this powder that’s left.” Of course, that would be great fun, and make a fitting link of delight between the day and the crownin# joy of the evening fireworks. Where should they go to fire the powder? Why, the flat gravel roof on the ell of Dick's house would be the very place—of course it would! • “Come along!” It was nice and hot on the roof in the afternoon sun; the boys liked it hot. Carefully they poured the remaining powder out of the horn, making a pleasant little heap beside the stout chimney, which was to be their bulwark and place of defense. Then they laid the trail, very scientifically, round the chimney, and then they stood and looked at it a little while, tasting the pure joy of anticipation, and quite sure that there were no boys so happy or so fortunate as they were in the world of Boston. “Shall we touch it off now? Oh, wait just a minute! think what fun it will be, wasn’t it lucky we got this old horn? It holds such a jolly lot. Hi! won’t the folks tn the street jump? Come on, Dick, let’s Mt Ikt off now* ,v “All right! Get behind the chimney, and I’ll touch her off. Oh, I say, isn’t thisfunP Bob hid himself behind the chimney;

Dick, slow match in hand, got well out of the way, as he thought, and with a shout of triumph touched off the fuse. A blinding flash, a hiss, as of fifty wildcats tied by their tails and turned into the standing corn of the Philistines, aud then a loud cry, as if the Philistines, or somebody, were having an exceedingly hard time of it. Dick crouched down, with his hands pressed to his blackened face, and Bob bent over him in genuine concern. "I say, Dick, old man, are you much hurt?” “Oh, I don’t know! It’s my eyes I care about, that’s all. I can’t see anything.” "Gome along down to the doctor, old man. Shall I take your hand?” “Take your grandmother! Don’t I know the way in the dark? I say, Bob.” “Yes, Dick.” “We know what a Fourth of July fool is now, don’t we?” “I reckon we do, and it’s worse than an April fool a good deal. Come along!” Fortunately the injury to Dick’s eyes was slight, and he escaped with a week in a dark room, and a fine array of blisters, the traces of which adorned his face for many a day; but he has learned how not to burn powder on the Fourth of July.- -* The Household.