my stuff and i sold it all to him. i am glad to get out of the store so
i can go of with Potter and Chick Chickering. we went up to the Eddy
today. we saw some blackbirds and some robins and 3 blewbirds, and got 2
last years nests. it is almost time for flying squerels. we saw a redder
today.
Mar. 22. I saw Beany today and he run out his tung at me. all rite for
you Beany.
Mar. 23. it raned and was auful windy today. i sold my iron and bones
today to old Getchel for 42 cents. i took out 12 cents to treet the
fellers and put 30 cents with my cornet money.
Mar. 24. it was warm today and fine. I saw some wild geese flying over
today. it made me feel funny to hear them holler. me and Potter and
Chick went out in the woods today with our bows and arrows and bilt a
fire and fride some potatose.
Mar. 25. this is the last day of vacation. Beany and Pewt have had a
auful row, Beany says Pewt sold all the iron and nails and kept most of
the money. Pewt says Beany drank up more then the moneys wirth of
sweatened water and smoked all the best cigars i am glad of it. i gess
the next time Beany will know more.
Mar. 26. sunday. nothing to do but go to church and think of going to
school tomorow. i wonder if i shall get a licking this tirm.
Mar. 27. i went to school today. they isent much fun now. it is two
muddy to play ennything. so the fellers all have clappers and we clap
all the time. Skinny Bruce is the best one. he has some bone clappers
that jest ring. Fatty Gilman has got some made of black walnut.
Mar. 28. we plaid ball a little today. it is geting prety dry in the
school yard now.
Mar. 29. it snowed a little today and then melted. they wasent enuf for
snow balling. my hens has begun to lay.
Mar. 30. the top of my roosters comb whitch was frose last winter when i
was sick has come of and his comb is all smooth and shiny and hasent
got enny picks on it.
Mar. 31. brite and fair tomorow is april fool day. i am going to get one
on Beany.
Apr. 1. today i had a good one to get on Beany. i rung the doorbell of
our house and mother came to the door and i stood there laffin and she
laffed and said i am glad to see you sir because i want you to fill the
woodbox and get me 5 pails of water. gosh i dident think it was so
funny. at school old Francis woodent let us play april fools on each
other but in the afternoon i went over to get Beany to come with me to
get a 4 foot yardstick down to Lyfords. i was going to get Beany to ask
for it and then they wood lam him, becaus they isent enny 4 foot
yardstick. i jest laffed to think of Beany getting licked. well when i
asked Beany he said he wood go only his father wanted him to go down to
old Kellogs harness shop to get a pint of strap oil to oil some harnes,
and if i wood go with him ferst he would go with me. so i said yes and
we went. jest before we got there Beany said you go in and ask for it,
and i will wait becaus old Kellog dont like me very well. so i went in
and old Kellog was sitting straddle of a seet with big wooden nippers on
it and he was sowing on a harness and he said cross like what do you
want and i said i want a pint of strap oil and he said o yes i have got
some good strap oil and he got down and grabed me by the coller and took
down a strap and licked me till i hollered. then he let me go and when i
went out rubing my legs Beany was jest laffing fit to die and he said
you thought you was prety smart old Plupy to get me to go down for a 4
foot yard stick dident you. and then he ran his tung out and run of down
town. i will pay Beany for that.
Apr. 2. brite and fair. i went to church.
Apr. 3. Father is going to have a garden and i have got to dig it up.
Father says he is going to help me but i know how it will be. he will
dig about ten minits and then he will go over to see Beanys father. i
dont see why it is that jest as soon as it is time for fishing father
wants to make me wirk. Pewt cought 3 pirch today.
Apr. 4. Brite and fair. last nite we went diging up the garden. father
began to dig and dug about a minit and then he stoped and went in the
house to change his shues, and then he come out and took of his coat and
then he dug a nother minit and then he went to the fence and talked with
Sam Dire and then he took of his vest and took up his spade and then he
said i was doing splendid and he wanted to see Wats a minit and he went
over to see Beanys father jest as i said he wood and dident come back.
well i dug until mother called me in to go to bed and i got about a pan
full of wirms. tonite me and father are going to dig some more. my back
is lame.
Apr. 5. Brite and fair. last nite father told me to cut the eyes out of
a lot of potatose to plant. so this noon and after school me and Keene
and Cele cut out the eyes of the potatose. we raced to see which wood
beet, i had a sharp spoon handel, Keene a darning needle, and Cele a
pen-nife. we had 3 cups to put the eyes in and when we got the eyes all
dug out we counted the eyes. Cele had 176 Keene 158 and i had 143. jest
as we got done father came home, so we showed him the eyes and i wish
you cood see him. i woodent dare to wright what he said. if i talked
like he did he wood have sent me to bed for a year. i gess he wood have
licked us all but mother laffed and laffed and said we dident know enuf
about farming. so we only got sent to bed.
Apr. 6. brite and fair. i hoped it wood rane today so we coodent dig.
but it dident. if they had been a circus it wood have raned like time.
last nite we dug some more. father started all rite but jest then he
said he had got to go down town with mother. so i dug until Beany and
Pewt came over and then we begun to plug peaces of dirt at Charly Dire
and after a while somebody broke a window in Sam Dires house. Pewt said
it was me and Beany said it was Pewt. father came home and sent me to
bed. he give Sam Dire 25 cents for the window. ennyway Pewt broke it.
Apr. 7. brite and fair.
Apr. 8, 186- it raned today. i am glad of it.
Apr. 9. it raned today. i am glad of it. i went to church.
Apr. 10. tonite me and Beany and Whack finished diging all the rest of
the garden. when father came home he went out and steped on a rake that
was lying down with the sharp points up and ran it into his foot and he
came limping into the house swaring auful, but he wasent much hurt and
isent going to have enny garden. ennyway he left the rake there himself.
Apr. 11, 186- Brite and fair. father is going to have some geese. he
went to Dal Gilmors and Dal said you cood keep geese for nothing becaus
all they et was grass and father says he can raise geese on grass until
October and then kill them and sell them and make lots of money. ennyway
they was grass enuf becaus we want going to have enny garden since
father steped on the rake. Dal Gilmor has got a old goose whitch is more
then 30 years old. i bet he is tuf.
Apr. 12. Brite and fair. father came home tonite erly and we begun to
make a geese pond. we took a baril and cut it in 2 and made 2 tubs. then
we dug a hole in the garden and put in 1 tub and filled it with water.
it made a buly pond. next saterday father is coming home erly and we are
going to hampton falls to get sum geese eggs.
Apr. 13. Rany Franky fell out of bed last nite. father said it was my
falt. the baby had the crupe. father says something is always the
matter.
Apr. 14. clowdy but no rane. beany has got a dog, it is black and tan,
not 2 dogs but jest 1. his name is Gip and he can fite.
Apr. 15. still clowdy. Frank Hanes has got a dog like Beanys. his name
is Dime, i bet he can fite.
Apr. 16. brite and fair. i put some minnies in the geese pond today. it
was after church and i got them yesterday. they wood have dide in the
tin pail, so it wasent rong to put them in Sunday. tomorow we are going
down to get the geese eggs.
Apr. 17. brite and fair. i am wrighting this in bed. it has been a prety
tuf day i tell you. father coodent come home erly becaus he had to wirk,
so he give me fifty cents and me and Beany went down to hampton falls
after the geese eggs. well we got them and started home. we had Beanys
fathers horse and we saw a old black horse by the side of the road and
Beany said i wood like to plug him with a geese egg, i said praps they
is a roten egg there. so we shook the eggs till by and by they was one
whitch ratled. then Beany choze to plug him and he let ding at him and
the egg hit him a paister rite in the side and broak and spatered him
all over with yellow, and he kicked up and ran away before i cood get a
nother egg. then we went on till we saw 2 cows and we shook the eggs
again till we got 2 whitch ratled and when we went by we stood up in the
wagon and let ding at the cows. i hit one rite in the frunt of her head
and the yellow ran down over her nose and Beany hit the other in the
side and then a man holered at us and we licked the horse and drove of
lively. then we saw a cat sitting in a barn door and we both let ding at
her but dident hit her and both eggs smached agenst the barn and the
cat ran into the barn and a man came out with a tin pail in his hand and
a little stool in the other and holered at us and we licked up the horse
again. after that we dident plug enny more for they was only 7 eggs left
and they only ratled a little. when we got home Beany let me out and i
told father about the eggs being roten, he was prety mad and said i had
aught to have shook them before i took them. he asked me what i did with
the roten eggs and i said i threw them away and jest then Mister Watson
Beanys father came over with Beany and 2 men and it was the same man
whose horse we pluged with roten eggs, and the man who holered at us
when we plugged the old cows. the man grabed me by the coller and told
father i was the wirst boy in the town and if father dident lick me out
of my skin he wood, and father said hold on there, they aint nobody
going to lick my boy unless he licks me ferst, and he walked up to the
man prety quick, and the man let go my coller and father said if they is
any licking to be done i can do all that is necesary, and the man said
we are going to have him arested, and father said what has he done and
the man said these two boys have been throwing rocks at my horse and
have cut a big gash in his side and he is all over blud, and the other
man said we had been pluging rocks at his cows and had cut one on the
head and one on the side well me and Beany said we only threw geese eggs
at them and the blud was the runny part of the eggs and we crossed our
throtes and hoped to die if it wasent so, and father said to the man did
you xamine the gash and he said he was so mad when he see the horse that
he hitched up the other horse and followed us and told his hired man to
look after the horse and brogt the other man to. so father said to
Beanys father to hich up his horse and we wood go down and see if we
had lied to him and he said if i had lied to him he wood give me the
wirst licking i ever had. well jest as we were going to get in the wagon
the man whitch had the tin pail and the stool in his hand come driving
up and said we had been pluging roten eggs at his barn and father said
he wood be cussed if he ever saw such boys, and me and Beany said we
dident mean to hit the barn but we pluged at the cat and dident hit her.
then the other men told him about the horse and cows and he said it was
only roten eggs and then they felt beter, and they said they was willing
to let us of with a good licking, but father said he woodent lick me for
ennybody else, but he wood pay them for their truble and they said they
wood settle for fifty cents each and i had to pay it out of my cornet
money. i only had one dollar and 30 cents but Aunt Sarah give me 20
cents. i beleive i had rather got a licking for it will take me 6 weaks
to ern so much money and i wood have got over a licking as soon as i
got to sleep. then father sent me to bed. i wonder if Beanys father
licked him. i shall know tomorow.
Apr. 18. Brite and fair. Beany dident get licked.
Apr. 19. Brite and fair. i bet father cood have licked those 3 hampton
falls men together easy.
Apr. 20. Brite and fair. i shall never get that cornet.
Apr. 21. i had some fun today. they wasent enny school today becaus old
Francis had to go to a funeral or something. so i bilt a nest for my
hens.
Apr. 22. Brite and fair. father aint going to have enny geese. tonite we
got a old yellow hen of Sam Dire and set her on 7 eggs in the
horse-stal, and then we had super. nothing hapened at super xcept that
Keene got sent to bed for sticking out her tung at father when she
thought he wasent looking but he was, becaus he woodent let her go over
to see Lucy Watson Beanys sisters new hat. well after it was dark father
said i forgot to pay Sam for his hen and he started rite acros the
garden to go over to Sam Diars and it was dark and i herd a auful splash
and thumping round and feerful swaring and i knew father was in the
geese pond. i woodent dass to wright down what he said, if i had said
what he did he wood have sent me to bed for a year. well he came limping
home and swaring into the house and he made me get a lanten and we went
out to the barn and he took the old hen by her hind legs and swung her
round jest as we fellers do when we plug apples on a stick and pluged
her way over in Sam Diars yard and then he took the eggs and pluged them
as far as he cood and told me to fill up the pond tomorow or he wood
lick me. then we went in and mother and aunt Sarah nearly killed
themselves laffin and father said i spose you wood laff if i killed
myself and when i went up to bed i laffed easy and Keene and Cele were
laffing under the bed close. bimeby i herd father laffin and then we all
laffed loud. jest think i had to pay a dollar and a half of my cornet
money for pluging 5 eggs and father pluged 7 eggs and a old hen and
dident have to pay ennything, ennyway it was fun to see him.
Apr. 23. Brite and fair. i filled up the geese pond. it was sunday but
it was after dark.
Apr. 24. Brite and fair. when father came home i told him i had filled
up the geese pond and he asked me where the tub was and when i said i
had filled it up he said i was a loonatic and dident know enuf to go in
when it raned. so he made me dig out the tub and fill in the hole. i
tell you i have to wirk prety hard.
Apr. 25. Brite and fair. today old man Thirsten Medos father came to the
house and told mother someone had pluged roten eggs at his barn. mother
dident know what to say for a minit for she dident want to tell about
fathers falling into the geese pond, so she said she was very sure i
hadent done it but she wood speak to father about it, so when father got
home old man Thirsten came up to the house and said George that cussid
boy of yours has been pluging roten eggs at my barn and father said this
time Kimball, his name is Kimball, he dident do it for he was with me
all the evening til he went to bed. so father and old man Thirsten went
down to see the barn and it was all spatered with yellow. then old man
Thirsten said he wood give a dolar to know who the scowndril was whitch
pluged those eggs, and father said i wish you cood Kimball, it is a
outrage, and father looked auful funny, jest as he did when he scart old
Ike Shute that time on the high school steps. when we went home father
kept laffing, and when he told mother she said it was a shame and he
aught to make it rite with him, and so father bought a sawhoss of him,
he sells sawhosses, and i have got to use it. somehow i always get the
wirst of it.
Apr. 26, 186- it raned like time last nite but it was brite and fair
when i got up. what do you think, me and Beany are going to by a horse
of old Nat Mason. he lives down Stratam road and he has a old troter
that can go like time.
Apr. 27. brite and fair. me and Beany saw old Nat today. we aint got
enny chink. if i hadent paid that money to those hampton falls men for
pluging roten eggs at there cows i should have sum. all i can rase is
thirty five cents and Beany can rase fifteen cents. Fatty Gilman most
always has lots of chink.
Apr. 28. me and Beany saw Fatty today. he wants to go in with us becaus
he says his folks want to use old Chub so mutch that he dont get enny
chance to use him. but Fatty he hasent got enny chink eether. enny way
we are going to see old Nat tomorrow and peraps he will let us have it
on tick.
Apr. 29. brite and fair. today was saterday and this afternoon me and
Beany and Fatty went down to see old Nat. he was in a old house smoking
a old pipe made out of a corn cob. so Fatty he asked him to show us his
old plug, only Fatty dident say old plug but said Mister Mason can we
see your troting horse, and old Nat he got up and went to a little barn
and opened the door and holered get up lady Clara and she tride to get
up and coodent, and old Nat swoar and kicked her and then she coodent
get up, and then he clim over her and puled her head up into the rack
and then he took a stick and hit her sum more and swoar sum more and
then she got up. then Beany he asked old Nat what made her not get up
and he said that troting horses most never laid down more than once or
twict a weak and sum of the best troters never laid down. he said Dexter
and Flora Tempel never was knowed to lay down. then Fatty asked him to
let us see her trot and he hiched her into a buggy and we set on the
fence and old Nat he drove of most walking. bimeby we herd the old wagon
ratling and old Nat he came down the street just fluking. I never saw a
horse go so fast. i tell you old Nat he had to pull to stop her. she
breethed prety hard and jerky, but Nat he said it was hickups becaus she
had et too mutch. Fatty he asked how old she was and old Nat he said she
was bout 12 but that she wood be good til she was 30. Then we asked how
mutch he wood sell her for and he said he wanted 5 dolers for her but he
wood let us have her for 2 dolars and fifty cents and we could have the
wagon for 2 dolars and fifty cents two, and he wood throw in the harnes.
but we dident have the money and so we tride to swap and bimeby he said
if i wood give him my gun and Fatty wood give him his silver pensil
case and Beany give him his 6 bladed nife he wood trust us for a month.
so we give him the things and he give us the horse. only we coodent take
her then becaus we have got to find a place to keep her. none of us dass
to tell our folks about it. we woodent let Fatty know about it if we
hadent suposed he had plenty of chink.
Apr. 30. brite and fair. after church today we went round to see if we
cood get a place to keep our horse. we asked Noot Crumet but Noot he
said he dident have enny place to put her unles he give her his room and
he told us to go to Bucher Haly and see if we coodent get a chanse to
put her in his smoke house for we cood keep her longer there than enny
where else and so we went to him and he chased us out of his yard. then
we went to Charles Flanders but he dident have but one room and his shed
wasent big enuf to keep a gote, and then we went over to old Jethrow
Simpsons and Jethrow he said if we wood help him haul wood enuf to fill
his shed we cood keep her in his barn as long as we wanted to and have
enuf hay two.
May 1. it was may day today and we dident have enny school. so me and
Beany went up to Fattys and got him and we went down to old Nats. We
wood have run all the way only Fatty got tukered out. When we got there
old Nat made us promise to give him a hat or a pair of old boots becaus
he kept lady Clara over Sunday. Fatty he said they was lots of old hats
at home and so we went way back and got a old tall bever hat and then
old Nat hiched up lady Clara and we piled in. Fatty he drove ferst
becaus he said we coodent have got her unless he had got the old tall
bever. so Fatty he drove up as fur as ass brook and then Beany he drove
as fur as the old brick meeting house and then i drove as fur as the
hall place where Jethrow lives. we all had to stand up when we drove
becaus the ranes is two short. when we got there old Jethrow was there
and he had a dingel cart and we hiched lady Clara into it and went up to
Jady Hill for sum wood. we wirked till 12 oh clock and then we run home
to dinner and run back agen. i took all the meal i had for my hens most
2 quarts and i fed her. it is Fattys tirn next to get meal for her. then
we wirked til six oh clock and we were allmost ded we were so tired.
well when we asked old Jethrow whitch stal we shood put her in he told
us to take our old plug and get out or he wood lick us. jest think of
that. well we dident know what to do. so we waited til most dark and
then Beany said we had beter go to the next house becaus they was a big
shed there. so i said i wood ring if Fatty wood ask and so i rung the
bell and a woman came to the door and Fatty told her all about it and
she said old Jethrow was a meen old skin flint and we cood put our horse
in her shed and cood keep her their as long as we wanted to. so she
give us a lantern and we went out and they was a buly place and we made
a stal with 2 boards and put a lot of saw dust under her and give her a
pale of water only we dident have enny hay. well bimeby Beany said that
he cood see the hay sticking out of the cracks in old Jethrows barn, and
we went over and looked and we cood see plenty of hay there. so Fatty he
said we had ernt that hay and we aught to have it, and Beany said so
two, and Fatty said he woodent steal ennything but this hay was ours and
we had ernt it. so Fatty and Beany puled out a board and held it open
while i puled out enuf hay and then we fed lady Clara and went home.
ennyway the hay was ours and it wasent stealing to take it.
May 2. brite and fair. this morning i got up erly and went over to the
barn. Beany he was there and Fatty he came after i had got there. lady
Clara was laying down and woodent get up. i gess she was prety tired.
so we fed her and Fatty brogt some otes. so we curred her down as far as
we cood reech and brushed her and then we went home. at brekfast mother
asked me what made me smel so barny and i said i had been helping Fatty
curry his horse. at noon we fed her agen and tonite we got her up and
curred her other side. we dident drive her today.
May 3. rany as time. we cant drive lady Clara today. we curred her 2
times.
May 4. tonite we drove lady Clara. We went down Newmarket road. we took
tirns driving. one of the wheals come of and we had to get out and walk
home holding on the wheal.
May 5. Ed Adams give us a nut and we fixed the wheal. we had a ride
tonite. i tell you lady Clara can go. we beat Gim Lovering tonite. he
dident know who we was becaus it was two dark but we knowed him. we beat
him and then we waited for him to come up and then we beat him agen. we
did that 3 times, and Gim he was mad.
May 6. my hens dont lay enny now. i gess i dont give them enuf to eat.
it is prety hard to keep a horse and hens two. we dident drive tonite
becaus it raned. it was brite and fair yesterday.
May 7. today was sunday and we coodent drive lady Clara. tomorrow nite
we are going to lay for old man Churchil with his troter. i bet we can
beat him.
May 8. i have missed in my lesons most every day, and so has Fatty and
Beany. today i swaped a hen for a buchel of meal for lady Clara. we
drove her tonite but we dident find ennyone to race.
May 9. brite and fair. if Beany dont shell out more meal he wont drive
lady Clara agen.
May 10. Beany got a peck of meal today at old Si Smiths. he charged it
to his father.
May 11. we had a buly ride tonite we raced 4 fellers and beat them.
May 12. brite and fair. tonite we coodent get lady Clara up. we are
going to try agen tomorrow and drive her in the day time.
May 13. rany agen. we got lady Clara up this morning. Beany and Fatty
pulled in front and i licked behind. this afternoon one of our wheals
broak down. Ed Adams give us a nother wheal. it went on all rite only it
isent as big as the other wheals and it makes the wagon go one sided a
little. we had a good ride today. we have to be pretty careful in
tirning around a corner becaus the wagon is one sided.
May 14. today was sunday. father told me if i smelt so of the barn he
woodent let me go up to Fattys agen. i bet he wood be mad if he knowed i
oned a horse.
May 15. there was a fite in school today. i dont care mutch about fites
now. i had ruther race horses. tonite we raced with a big white horse
and beat him esy. we all had to pull on the ranes to stop lady Clara.
May 16. brite and fair. Beany is behind 5 feeds and me and Fatty had to
make it up. last nite lady Clara lost a shue. so this morning before
school we walked every where we drove last nite and Beany found the shue
way down to long meter Dows on Hamton road. Beany he said if we wood
call it square about the feeds he wood get Gim Elerson to nale on the
shue. so we did and Beany got Gim to nale on the shue. Beany he raked up
Gims front yard to pay him. Beany is a prety good feller. Fatty had
company to his house and we dident go to ride tonite. it was two bad.
May 17. rany as time. we coodent go to ride today. it always ranes jest
when a feller wants to do some thing.
May 18. it raned all yesterday and last nite and today. i bet it will
rane a week. we are having prety tuf luck.