Year: 1873

This is the season Of the year wher
picnics are most frequent. For rea
solid enjoyment we, for our part, mus.
prefer we'll conducted funeral to a.
ordinary picnic. You generally reac


the ground about eleven o'clock, ar


the exercises begin with climbing


hill, up which you are compelled /
carry two heavy lunch baskets. Whe


you reach the summit you are pos


lively certain the Thermometer mu
be nearly six hundred and fifty in ii


shade; you throw yourself on IL


grass and in few moments brigad


of black ants begin to erawldewR-tt---
back of your neck, while a phalah:
of ticks charge up your trowser leg
And just as you jump up your oldes;
boy, who has been out in the woods
where he stirred up yellow jackets
nest, comes in with his head and face
swelled to the size Of water backet;
conveying the information that your
other boy, William Henry, is up a
tree and can't get down. After labor
ing to release William Henry the
thermometer seems to have gone up
two hundred more degrees, and you
will take swim in the creek. While
you are in the water, young Jones
strolls out with Miss Smith and uncon,
scious of your presence they sit down
close to your clothes, and engage in
conversation for three quarters of an
hour, while you lie in the shallow
stream afraid to bulge, and nearly
killed by the hot sun, When they
leave, you emerge and find that some
wicked boy from the nighboring viii
lage has run off with your shirt and
socks. You fix up as well as you can,
/ and when you get back to the party
they are eating dinner from cloth
on the ground. A spider is spinning
a cobweb from the pickle jar to the
end of ham; straddlebugs are frolick-
ing around the poundcake, catterpil.
lars are exploring the bread plate.
grasshoppers are jumping into butter,


where they stick fast, the bees are so


thick around the sugar bowl that you


are afraid to go near it, and there are
enough ants in the pie to walk COM


pletely off with it. You take q seat,


however, determined to try to eat
something, but you get up suddenly
all at once, as it were, for you have set


down on brier. Then William Hen


ry, who has qualied an unreasonable


quantity of lemonade, gets the collie,


and his mother goes into Mysteries be.


cause she thinks he is poisoned with


pokeberries. You lay him under an
fumbrella and proceed to climb tree
} in order to fix swing for the girls.
After skinning your hands, tearing
your trOwsers and running your coat,


you get to the top, tie the rope and


undertake 20 come down on it. You


do come down with velocity, and your


fingers are rubbed entirely raw. Just


then it begins to rain furiously, and
the whole party stampedes to the de-


pot for shelter. When the shower


slackens you 60 back to the ground to
get the rope, and just as you get up
in the tree the owner of the place
comes along with a gun and dog,


and threatens to blow your brains out
and eat you up if you don't leave i'm


mediately. Then you come down
, again with CELEBRITY, and go over The


fence as if you were earnest. Going


home in the train all the passengers
, regard you, from your appearance, as
au escaped convict, or q luntic who
,, has broken from his keepers; and
when you reach home you plunge into
shirt, cover your, hands with court
plaster, and register solemn vow
/, never to go to another picnic. And
we are with you; we never will either


GMav dalap