The man that sells the squawking toys and the rubber balloons
on sticks is in town. All he can say is:," Fi' cent." He will blow
up the balloons tomorrow morning. The men with the black-velvet
covered shields, all stuck full of "souvenirs," are here, and the
men with the little canes. I guess we'll have a big crowd if it
doesn't rain. What does the paper say about the weather?
The boys have been playing a new game for some time past, but
it is only this evening that you notice it. The way of it is this:
You take an express-wagon - it has to have real wheels: these
sawed-out wheels are too baby - and you tie a long rope to the
tongue and fix loops on the rope, so that the boys can put each a
loop over his shoulder. (You want a good many boys.) And you
get big, long, thick pieces of rag and you take and tie them so as
to make a big, big, long piece, about as long as from here to 'way
over there. And you lay this in the wagon, kind of in folds like.
Then you go up to where they water the horses and two of you go
at the back end of the wagon and the rest put the loops over their
shoulders, and one boy says, "Are you ready ?" and he has a
Fourth of July pistol and he shoots off a cap. And when you hear
that, you run like the dickens and the two boys behind the wagon
let out the hose (the big, long, thick piece of rag) and fix it so it
lies about straight on the ground.
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