The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-07-03

lutte was on time, if not little previous,
but the morning hours dragged. Break
fast time came and went, and not soul
aside from the faithful few who were
doing it all, and the inevitable small boy
hangers on-rallied to the hilltop to Gel
citrate. The committee boys felt thin
at the waist, and one by one went home
to breakfast, promising to return on
wings in order to do their assigned parts.
An hour passed, then another, and
still another, and only now and then a
spectator was half carried, half coaxed,
to the hilltop. Jake made the trip from
the store, the mines and the cottages to
the hill dozens and scores of times, and
finally from sheer exhaustion and dis
appointment gave it up. The cannon
doomed at intervals up, down and
across the valley; the flag tapped lazily
on the pole; the lemonade grew stale
and the candy almost melted in the
burning SUM-, The ardor of the boys be-
gan to wane, and finally there was no
one to serve the guns but Jake, whose
enthusiasm was reduced to a simple re-
gard for the reputation of his hill. In a
fit of desperation and anger he scooped
a handful of small stones from the
ground and rammed them in on a
charge of powder. The discharge was
so much louder that he repeated the
dose in other guns, until the whole val
ley got bombardment of stones that
shattered window panes and ratified on
the roofs of the houses.
The boys laughed and cheered when
they saw the people rush out of doors
and stare at the display on the hilltop.
A dozen pairs of hands fell to gathering
stones, and after few more volleys the
inhabitants turned out en- masse and
climbed up the hill for safety. Then the
boys resumed blank charges and the day
closed with every soul in Oreville on
Jake's hill.
Years passed before Jake got an
other chance to play a leading part in
Fourth of July doings. The year fol-
lowing he had emigrated to another state,
and spent the day wandering from cross
roads to crossroads, and from postofice
to postoffice looking for the Fourth. The
next year he put in hoeing corn. The
year after that he held flag for Sun
| day school picnic, riding twenty miles
standing up in hay wagon loaded with
! idgeting, perspiring humanity, and went
| home to reflect that he had endured the
tortures Of a twenty mile ride on lum-
Der trucks, working like a yeoman mean
while to keep old glory afoat, just to
eat some of his mothers cake and his
aunt's bread and his cousins biscuit.
The next year, however, made up for
string of eventless Fourths.
It was the occasion of the Prince Of
Wales visit to America, and Jake had
become town boy in wide awake
place that got up mock reception to
spurious highness, who made his en-
trance in state on a canal barge The
fantastic turnout was something gor-
geous in its hideousness and in it's uni
versatility. All America, including even
All Sin and a group of his cousins, was
represented in procession that moved
with floats and carriages, on foot and on
horseback. Up to the last moment the
aborigines were forgotten in the rage
for showing foreign acquisitions. Jake
was patron of the literature of the
border and an admirer of the red man,
and his services were accepted without
question to fill the gap in the procession
All went we'll, and the lumber colored
child Of the forest received his share of
homage from the crowds that reviewed
the pageant.
Finally the canal bridge came in sight,
with the prince standing on the edge of
the barge receiving the welcome of the
nations at the hands of a spokesman as
each division came up. Jake saw just
in time that he was nation all in him
self and must be his own spokesman,
although no speech had been given him
to rehearse. 1t occurred to him, too
that his speech must be in the Indian
tongue, and he knew but one expression
that he could trust himself on. Halt