Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-07-14
TWO SANE FouRTHs.

day man. He was a Vermonter, and
had not been brought up TO observe
days and seasons. Every day with
us was much like every other day.
/ except the Sabbath. On that holy
day we were taught 70 walk softly
and be careful what We did To go
| a-swimming or to catch a fish would
have been very sinful. BY the way,
| am moi so sure but that some such
notions nowadays would be better for
! us.
| remember now only two fourths
of July until was Is years old. The
present independence day recalls
them. The first was when l was
eleven years old. We lived in Wau-
shara county, this state, and after the
manner of early pioneers. That year
the people in the little nearby village
! OF Dakota celebrated. 1t was the first
| event of the kind in that community,
and my father took the whole family,
| mother and six of us children, to the
celebration, with the OK team. All the
! folks we knew We're there, and ever
SO many besides. There | saw fire.
| crackers for the first time. The one
| little store there had got as many as
dozen punches of them, and there
were exciting times. The most of
them, especially the little girls, were
scared of them, and we all lodged
when one was about to go off. | did
not have any of my own, for / hadn't
the price, but | could go where the
noise was and got excited for moth
ing, and | did it, But the great ex-
element came when the anvil was
shot off. The blacksmith, being
mighty man in our estimation, did
wonderful things with his anvil. He
turned powder into the square hole
on top and then drove in a plug,
alongside which a little crease had
been cut to act as kind of fuse; and
then he touched the thing off with
long iron rod red hot at the end.
Geel what A noise it made! | had
never before supposed SO great
noise was possible,-excepting when
the lightning struck the big tree in
front of our house.
And there was lemonade,
new thing to me. | did not have any
pennies with which to indulge in such
a luxury, but one of my boy friends
let me have a taste out of his glass,
and | then and there declared that
when | got rich I'd have all the lem
Oh 60 Arfp rbn,,ab ~
was against the commandments to GO
so, / coveted the firecrackers and
lemonade | saw others INDUCING in
that day till l must have peon very
much of a sinner when | wen Zone
that night.
But there was another thing that
made more of an impression on me
that independence day than both fire.
crackers and lemonade After the
crackers were gone and the lemonade
drank. the procession was formed to
march to the grove where the exer-
cises appropriate to the day were to
be held. watched the people get
into line without attention to any
particular feature to the parade. for
there was no such thing as a band
there--we had never heard of such
thing Any kind of parade was new
to me and too wonderful for me to
comprehend. SO | stood along with
my friend Henry Bristol the preach
er's son, and looked on with big eyes. !
| have never seen grand parade in |
the army that seemed so great 10 m
as that procession which formed by /
the little schoolhouse and marched /
out into the woods. say l was |
standing with my boy friend Henry |
Bristol looking on. Think of my |
amazement when he left me and |
walked over to where pretty Henri /
eta Hamilton stood, and the two /
marched away side by side as did |
other pairs of young folks who were /
known to be going together" Well, /
we'll. well Heury'S daring to do such
measure But it did more than as |
tonish. 1t gave me a touch. as much /
as small boy could feel. of what !
older folks call jealousy. didn't /
know then what was the matter with /
me. but knew felt mighty mean /
/ didn't like Henry half so well as /
had when he gave me taste
OF his lemonade aud let me fire off !
one of his crackers: but I seemed to
like Henrietta great deal better
than ever before Anyhow. l began
to feel mighty uncomfortable for SO
small 4 boy but couldn't for the life
OF me tell what allied me. had half
a mind 10 start of home afoot and LEI
the rest of the folks enjoy their oil
II they liked. Yet did
not quite Ike to lose what was com.
ms, the picnic dinner and the like.
SO I fell in at the rear Of the process.
sion and went pouung and sulking
out into the woods. have since then
heard that folks make bigger fools OF
themselves as the result OF jealousy
than from any other cause. Well.
when We got TO the grove. where the
young men had put up a platform and
fixed some seat in front there were
other things 20 take my attention. so
party forgot all about Henry and
Henrietta.
There vas some singing and 8
speech Sy somebody, aud then Mr.