to with a will and before nightfall had half the battery and ready for service to keep the dry we stuffed of loose into the and fitted wooden to the at recess the next noon the met in a comer of the school yard to talk over the proposed lark the original though they would have liked to keep the thing secret were obliged to make a club matter of it inasmuch as were required for there had been no recent drain on the treasury and the society could well afford to spend a few dollars in so notable an undertaking it was agreed that the plan should be carried out in the manner and a to that end was taken on the spot several of the hadn t a cent excepting the one strung around their necks others however were richer i chanced to have a dollar and it went into the cap quicker than lightning when the club in view of my to name the guns s battery i was than i have ever been since over anything the money thus raised added to that already in the treasury to nine dollars � sl fortune in those days but not more than we had men and things use for this sum was divided into twelve parts for it would not do for one boy to buy all the powder nor even for us all to make our purchases at the same place that would excite suspicion at any time particularly at a period so remote from the fourth of july there were only three stores in town to sell powder that gave each store four customers not to run the slightest risk of remark one boy bought his powder on monday the next boy on tuesday and so on until the requisite quantity was in our possession this we put into a and carefully hid in a dry spot on the wharf our next step was to finish cleaning the guns which occupied two for several of the old were in a very state indeed having completed the task we came upon a difficulty to set off the battery by daylight was out of the question it must be done at night it must be done with for no doubt the neighbors would turn out after the first two or three shots and it would not pay to be caught in the vicinity who knew anything about who could arrange it so the guns would go off one after the other with an interval of a minute or so between we knew that a minute lasted a minute double the quantity two minutes but practically we were at a stand still there was but one person who could help us in best funny stories this extremity � sailor ben to me was assigned the duty of obtaining what information i could from the ex it being left to my discretion whether or not to him with secret so one evening i dropped into the cabin and turned the conversation to in general and then to particular but without getting much out of the old boy who was busy making a finally i was forced to the whole plot the admiral had a sailor s love for a joke and entered at once and heartily into our scheme he volunteered to prepare the himself and i left the labor in his hands having bound him by several extraordinary oaths � such as hope i may die and shiver my � not to betray us come what would this was monday evening on wednesday the were ready that night we were to s battery mr saw that something was wrong somewhere for we were restless and absent minded in the classes and the best of us came to grief before the morning was over when mr announced as the subject of our next composition you might have knocked down the mystic twelve with a feather the coincidence was certainly curious but when a man has committed or is about to commit an offence a hundred trifles which would pass unnoticed at another time seem to point at men and things him with fingers no doubt himself received many a start after he had got his wicked of neatly piled up under the house of lords wednesday as i have mentioned was a and the assembled in my bam to decide on the final arrangements these were as simple as could be as the were connected it needed but one person to fire the train arose a discussion as to who was the proper person some argued that i ought to apply the match the battery being after me and the main idea moreover being mine others the claim of as the oldest boy at last we drew lots for the post of honor twelve slips of folded paper upon one of which was written thou art the man were placed in a measure and thoroughly shaken then each member stepped up and lifted out his destiny at a given signal we opened thou art the man said the slip of paper trembling in my fingers the sweets and anxieties of a leader were mine the rest of the afternoon directly after twilight set in stole down to the wharf and fixed the to the guns laying a train of powder from the principal to the fence through a of which i was to drop the match at midnight at ten o clock goes to bed at eleven o clock is as quiet as a i best funny stories try church yard at twelve o clock there is nothing left with which to compare the stillness that over the little in the midst of this stillness i arose and glided out of the house like a phantom bent on an evil errand like a phantom i flitted through the silent street hardly drawing breath until i knelt down beside the fence 