arade came
opposite he could see Cousin Albert outlined against the white-washed
fence on the opposite side of the street. Swinging the package a time or
two to give it momentum, as one does a club, Alfred loosened his hold on
three corners of the canvas. The mess slid out as he had planned it
would. He aimed all of it at Cousin Albert.

Alfred was pretty sure aim generally, but he had not experimented with
the sort of ammunition he was using on this occasion; he was not
familiar with its scattering qualities. Alfred did not have time to
either see or hear how his aim had affected Cousin Albert. There was an
angry confusion of yells and curses extending down the line of march.
Alfred felt sure that something awful had happened.

"Catch him! Hang him!" There was a shuffling of feet in the darkness.
Those at the head of the procession had dropped their torches. Alfred's
joke on Cousin Albert had spread to some twenty others; in fact, all in
line opposite the window were included in the joke.

There was a rush for the old tan-house. Alfred flew. Down the stairs,
over the fence, through the widow Cunningham's, across the street,
through Captain Cox's yard and into his home, the thoroughly frightened
boy fled.

Pete Keifer, who had been in the army, a ninety day man, one of the
first to go to the front at the call of duty, one of the first to leave
for home after Bull Run, was most vehement in his threats on the lives
of those who had broken up the torch light procession. Keifer's hearing
was undoubtedly affected by the two pound lump that struck him in the
ear, and some scattering. Sammy Rowland's white shirt front caught a
cluster as large as a saucer. His wife said she had a feeling something
was going to happen when he put on a biled shirt on a week day.

Aaron Todd, who wore a set of whiskers that would have sent him to the
Senate had he lived in Kansas, carried home concealed in his whiskers a
pound or so of Alfred's joke.

Alfred lay in bed trembling. Every sound, every footstep on the street
startled him. When the father returned home he trembled until the bed
shook, fearing it was the mob entering the house. He heard his father
laughing, also the mother; then he heard footsteps on the stairs.
Pretending to be sound asleep he snored loudly. As his father neared the
bed he pretended to suddenly awake. The parent carelessly inquired: "How
long you been in bed?"

"Oh, I don't know how long, I've been asleep. Why