Often on the Fourth of July we had a picnic in the afternoon, and sometimes a ball-game too. This, of course, was in case it did not rain; rain always stopped everything, and it seemed as if it always did rain on the Fourth. Some people said this was because so much powder was exploded; but it could not be so, because it generally rained on picnic days whether it was the Fourth or not. And then on Saturday afternoons, at the time of our best base-ball matches, it often rained; and this even after we had gone to the neighboring town, or their boys had come to visit us. In fact, rain was one of the crosses of our young lives. There was never any way of knowing whether it would come or not; but there it was, always hanging above our heads like the famous sword of Damascus—or some such man—that our teachers told us was suspended by a hair. Of course, when we complained and were rebellious about the rain our parents told us that if it did not rain we should have no wheat or corn, and everything would dry up, and all of us would starve; but these were only excuses,—for why could it not rain on Sunday, when there was nothing to do and no one to be harmed? Besides, there were six other days in the week besides Saturday, and only one holiday in the whole long summer; and how could there be any use of making it rain on those days? Another thing that caused us a good deal of annoyance was that Fourth of July and Christmas sometimes came on Sunday. Of course, either a Saturday or a Monday was usually chosen in its place; but this was not very satisfactory, as some of the people would celebrate on Saturday, and some on Monday,—and, besides, we could not have a “truly Fourth” on any day except the Fourth. When we had a “celebration,” it was generally in the afternoon, and was held in a grove beside the river below the town. Everyone went to the celebration, not only in Farmington but in all the country round. On that day the brass-band came out in its great four-horse wagon, and the members were dressed in uniform covered with gold braid. Some of them played on horns almost as long and as big as themselves; and I thought that if I could only be a member of the band and have one of those big horns, I should feel very proud and happy. There was always someone there to sell lemonade, which looked very nice to us boys, although we hardly ever had a chance to get any after the powder and the fire-crackers had been bought. There were swings, and things like that; but they were not much fun, for there were so many boys to use them, and, besides, the girls had to have the swings most of the time, and all we could do was to swing them.