midnight before
Pepper Whitcomb had a horse-pistol nearly as large as himself , and Jack Harris , though he , to be sure , was a big boy , was going to have a real oldfashioned flintlock musket . However , I did n't mean to let this drawback destroy my happiness . I had one charge of powder stowed away in the little brass pistol which I brought from New Orleans , and was bound to make a noise in the world once , if I never did again . It was a custom observed from time immemorial for the towns-boys to have a bonfire on the Square on the midnight before the Fourth . I did n't ask the Captain 's leave to attend this ceremony , for I had a general idea that he would n't give it . If the Captain , I reasoned , does n't forbid me , I break no orders by going . Now this was a specious line of argument , and the mishaps that befell me in consequence of adopting it were richly deserved .