and Fatty Melcher and Billy Swett and Gim Erly and lots of the fellers
come up and plaid i spy the bull. one feller lays it and he shets his
eyes at the gool and counts fifty and the rest of the fellers go and
hide and when he has counted fifty he trys to find the fellers and tag
his gool before they do. they is a stick leening agenst the gool and if
one of the fellers can get to the gool ferst he can plug the stick as
far as he can and the feller whitch is laying it has to run and get the
stick and go back to the gool and leeve the stick there before he can
find enny more fellers and if enny fellers has been cougt they can hide
agen. so tonite we plaid it til nine oh clock and i had laid it most an
hour when Pewt pluged the stick and hit old Bill Morril rite in the head
jest as he came round the corner and he was mad as time and we put for
home jest lively. Pewt dident meen to do it. Bill hadent aught to have
been coming round the corner jest then ennyway. Bill told father they
was the tufest set of boys in the naborhood he ever see. i was behind
the current buches when Bill told father this and he showed father his
old plug hat whitch was all dented in. father he said well Bill we usted
to make things prety lively when we was boys. then he told Bill that he
usted to ask his father if he cood go over and sleep with Gim Melcher
and his father wood say yes, and Gim Melcher he wood ask his father if
he cood go over and sleep with father and Gims father wood say yes, and
they wood stay out all nite and raise time, and Gims father he wood
think Gim was over to fathers house, and fathers father wood think
father was over to Gims house and so they woodent get cougt. that wood
be a prety good trick for me and Beany to try only father wood know two
mutch. i gess that is the reason father finds out so mutch about me
becaus he was prety tuf when he was a boy. i gess that is the reson why
ministers boys is most always tuf becaus there fathers dont know how to
find out what tuf things they do. i wish i was a ministers son so i cood
be tuf and not get found out, only i wood have to go to church 3 times
evry sunday.
Aug. 25. brite and fair. i wish i was ded. a feller might as well be ded
as to be getting licked all time for nuthing. tonite me and Beany wated
till it was dark and we saw Bill Greenlef go down town. then we tide a
string to his doorbell and hiched the other end to old printer Smiths
door on the other side of the street and hauled it tite. bimeby Bill he
come back and went in the side door. then a man came by driving a horse
and when the horse run agenst the string both doorbells rung before the
string broak and out come Bill and old printer Smith. when they found
they wasent ennyone there they was prety mad. Bill he run round looking
behind fences and trees and old printer he swoar terible and went
through Miss Sulivans and over to Nipper Browns and all round. me and
Beany was hiding in Ike Shutes porch. bimeby they come back and talked.
Bill said they must be 2 of them and old printer he said it was about
time this thing was stoped and he was going to find out who did it if it
took him all summer. well bimeby they went in to wate and see if ennyone
rung there doorbells sum more. Bill he said he wood leeve his door open
jest a little and old printer Smith he said he wood leeve his open jest
a little two so he cood gump out and lam time out of the feller whitch
rung his bell. well bimeby me and Beany crep out esy and hunted round
til we found the string and we tide it agen as tite as we cood and then
we crep back into the porch and peeked through the window. bimeby old
mister Lyford come up the sidewalk and when he come to the string it
gerked his old plug hat of and he picked it up and brushed it and then
went of. bimeby a hack came by and when it hit the string both door
bells gingled feerful and Bill and old printer Smith came hipering out
as if they was hiched to the string. Bill went to gump of the side of
the steps and he got the string round his leg and went fluking and then
holered to old printer Smith that they was a string tide to his door
bell and printer he holered back that they was one tide to his two. then
they swoar and talked sum and jest then Pewts father come out and they
said it was Pewt and old Missis Sawyer she come out and she said it was
Pewt two. well then they begun to hunt and look behind trees and into
doorways and me and Beany got prety scart and bimeby we opened the door
esy and hipered round Ikes house and ran rite into old printer and he
grabed us both by the neck and holered i have got the misable cusses and
he draged us out to the lite and Bill and Brad said it is George Shutes
boy and Irv Watsons boy and they shook us up lively. well old Missis
Sawyer wanted them to take us to jale but Pewts father and Bill and
printer said to take us down to our fathers and so printer held us by
the neck and marched us down the street and Pewts father and Bill come
along two and old Missis Sawyer she came taging along talking all the
time that we was the wirst boys in town. we went down to fathers ferst
and he come out and Bill he went over and called mister Watson. well he
come over and they all went into the back yard and they told father
about it and Missis Sawyer said she was going to have us arested and
father he said if she wanted to arest me all rite but he wood get a
lawyer and carry the case to the circus coart if it took evry cent he
had and Mister Watson he said so two. and father he said he woodent have
his boy distirbing his nabors and he wood lick me and make me beg
evrybodys pardon, but it wasent merder or hyway robery to ring doorbells
and if they wanted to arest me to sale rite in, and Mister Watson he
said so two. then father and Mister Watson marched us up to old Hobbs
and made us beg his pardon and old Hobbs told father we was the wirst
boys in town and father aught to whale the life out of us, and then we
went down to Pewts and had to beg his pardon for getting him a licking
and then we went over to mister Heads and begged his pardon two. then
father took me into the kichin and give me a licking for eech doorbell
that we rung. he give me a good one for Missis Sawyer becaus she was a
woman and he said we dident have enny bizness to plage a woman, and he
give me a prety good one for Bill becaus Bill was a prety good feller,
and he only hit me one lick for old Hobbs becaus he was mad at what old
Hobbs said and he dident hit me a lick for mister Head becaus Pewt got
licked for it and he said Pewt had aught to have been licked so many
times when he dident that one licking one way or the other woodent make
much diference. the wirst was when i had to beg Pewts pardon. i wood
rather get 2 lickings.
Aug. 26, 186- Brite and fair. tonite i asked father about him and Gim
Melcher staying out all nite and he laffed and said it was trew. then i
asked him how menny times he did it and he said all the times he wanted
to becaus his father thougt he was a beter boy then he was. well i asked
him if i cood stay out all nite sum time and he said no. then he said i
woodent dass to and i said i bet i wood. then he said i cood if i
wanted to and then mother she said George are you crasy and he said no
but he gessed after i had been out a while i wood be homesick. so after
super i asked Beany and Beany he asked his father and he told his father
what father said and bimeby Mister Watson Beanys father he said Beany
cood stay out if i cood. so we are going to stay out Monday nite.
Aug. 27. brite and fair. nothing but church.
Aug. 28. rany as time. jest the luck. i coodent sleep enny last nite
thinking about staying out all nite. ennyway i dident go to sleep til
most morning and when i woke up it was raning hard, and it raned hard
all day. it has stoped now. they wasent enny fun today.
Aug. 29. brite and fair. i am wrighting this in the morning becaus i
shall be to bizzy tonite to wright ennything. i bet me and Beany will
have sum fun. last nite father said they was a tiger got out of a
circus and he kind of thougt it was somewhere in the Eddy woods. i aint
afrade. Beany aint neether.
Aug. 30. brite and fair. i gess i wont try to stay out all nite agen. it
aint enny fun. yesterday afternoon mother made me go to bed so i woodent
be sleepy at nite and Beanys mother she did two. i coodent sleep and
bimeby i got up and stuck my head out of the window and looked over to
Beanys house and Beany he was looking out of his window and bimeby
Potter and Cawcaw went by with their fish poles and you bet i wanted to
go two, but i had to stay in my room. so Beany and i begun to holler
acrost to each other and i made up this poitry about Beany,
fat pork and beens
thats what it meens
that Beanys got the belyake
from fat pork and beens.
and then Beany he made up this poitry about me,
Plupy Shute is meener than Pewt
and he is a prety meen galoot.
then mother made me go in a room on the other side of the house, but i
coodent sleep and she let me get up at super time. when father come home
he said the tiger had carrid of and et up a bull over to Kingston and he
gessed he was coming this way, but i wasent scart. well after super i
split my kindlings and me and Beany went down town. we went to doctor
Derborns store and got sum soda water and Beany he paid for it. then we
got sum goozeberries of old Si Smiths and i paid for them and then we
went over to Beanys and got a lot of sweet firn segars and then we went
down town agen. we went into stores and looked at things and we went
down to the warf and then we went acrost to the raceway and went in
swiming. it was kind of cold and we dident stay in very long. then it
began to be dark and we went back to water street and staid in the
stores til the nine oh clock bell rung and then we went back home. the
folks was all setting on the front steps. so me and Beany set down two
and bimeby the folks said they must go in and they all went in and shet
the door. it made me feel lonesum when i herd them lock the door. it
must be prety tuf on fellers whitch havent got enny home. then me and
Beany went over to his house and set on the steps til his folks went in
and shet the door and then we set on the fence under the gas lite and we
herd Nat Weeks come home and mister Gewell and bimeby Si Smith shet up
his store and then it begun to be loansum. so we went down as fer as the
swamscot house and they was a lite in sum of the rooms and we set down
on old Kellogs steps and talked. bimeby old Straton the gas man come
round with a little ladder and clim up and put out the gas and then it
was prety dark. then Beany he said less go up to Pewts and yowl like
cats. so we went up into Pewts garden and we begun to yowl feerful like
cats and bimeby Pewts father opened a window and holered scat you devils
and jest then Nat Weeks he stuck his head out and he holered scat two.
and then we kep still a minit and Pewts father said i wish there wasent
a cussid cat alive and Nat Weeks he said so two and then they went to
bed agen. bimeby we begun to yowl agen and then we yowled jest like cats
fiting and Pewts father opened the window agen and pluged a club out
into the yard and holered scat and then we kep still and we herd him
tell Nat Weeks that he had got his gun loded and if he herd it go of he
needent be sirprized. so you bet we dident yowl agen. so after Pewts
father and Nat Weeks had gone to bed agen we clim over the fence esy and
went of up towards Gilmans barn. Beany stumped me to go as fer as the
barn and we was going there when i thougt of the tiger and told Beany
about it. we wasent afrade but they wasent enny fun in going down to the
barn so we went back down towards the high school yard and it was prety
dark there and so we dident go down to set on the steps. bimeby it
struck eleven oh clock. ferst the town clock and jest after it the
factory bell an then we cood hear clocks striking in the houses on the
street. i tell you it made me feel loansum. we coodent see enny lites in
the houses, so we set on the steps and told stories and talked about the
fellers and the girls. Beany said he gessed he wood mary Lizzie Tole, Ed
Toles sister sum day. i bet he wont. then Beany he said when he was a
man he wood by the club stable and have all the horses he wanted to
drive, and i cood wirk for him if i dident get drunk [curiously enough,
the first two statements in this prophecy came true] like most of the
hostlers. i told him that i wasent going to wirk for ennybody for i was
going to play in the band like Bruce Brigam, Scotty Brigams brother.
bimeby we herd sum real cats yowling and it sounded sort of feerful.
Cele read us a story when we was sick with the scarlet fever about a man
whitch had a black cat and he got mad with her and cut out one eye. then
he got mad with his wife and cut her throte and stuck her up in the
chimny in the celler and pluged up the hole. bimeby the polisemen come
to find out where his wife was and they hunted evry where in the house
and stable and hen koop and evrywhere and bimeby they wanted to go into
his celler. so the man he said all rite fellers come rite down and so
the polisemen went down celler with him and he showed them all over the
celler and they looked evrywhere and coodent find ennything and jest as
they was going out they herd a feerful yowl and they stoped and lissened
and it kept on yowling in the chimny and when they took a pickax and
wanted to dig a hole in the chimny the man whitch killed his wife said
they wasent ennything in the chimny for it hadent been opened for 1
hundred years, but they cut open the chimny and what do you gess they
found. well they found his wife with her throte cut and a old black cat
with 1 eye out setting on her showlder yowling. so they grabed the man
and punched time out of him and they hung him to a lampost. well when
Cele read that story to us we all was wirse for 3 days and Annie never
got over it and when i hear a cat yowl i think of what the polisemen
found in the chimny. so when i herd the cat yowling i told Beany that
story and Beany he dident want to go of of my steps enny more. bimeby
the town clock struck 12 oh clock and so it was morning and so we tost
up to see whether Beany shood wait til i got in my house or i shood go
over to Beanys to wait til Beany got into his house ferst. i lost jest
as i always do and so i had to go over to Beanys and he tride the door
and it was unlocked and so Beany he went in and i hipered acrost the
road as quick as i cood and went in the back way. i wasent afrade only i
wasent going to have Beany beat me in geting into bed. i went up stairs
as esy as i cood but when i went by mothers room she said is that you
Harry and i said yes and she said are you going out agen and i said no
it is morning now and i am going to bed and she laffed and said good
mornin. then i piled into bed and dident wake up til 10 oh clock. Beany
dident get up til 12 oh clock. father saved a mans life today in Boston.
he was a old man whitch tride to get on a train whitch had started and
father saw he was going to tumble of and get killed and he run and
grabed him and the old man tride to pull away and holered and the trane
was going faster and father had to run and push the old man and he
grabed him by the seet of his britches and give him a hist and piched
him rite into the door of the car and then father he gumped of. evrybody
said the old man wood be killed if it hadent been for father.
Aug. 31. i bet Beanys father never saved a mans life. i bet Pewts never
did neether. i asked father if he xpected the old man to give him a good
deel of mony for it or a gold wach, and father he said the conscenceless
of having did a noble act is enuf reward. Gosh if i had saved a old mans
life i wood have made him pay me. i wood have grabed him and said old
man pay me 2 dolars or of goes your hind legs. i realy woodent let him
drop but i wood have scart him til he give me 2 dolars. father he said
that wood be hyway robery. i dont care.
Sept. 1. brite and fair. they was a peace in the Boston paper today
about father. it said heroik rescu of a old man and it told about father
saving the old mans life. lots of peeple spoke to father about it.
father walked down town tonite 3 times. he most never goes down. father
is going to take me to Boston tomorow if i behaive myself and dont do as
i did before.
Sept. 2, 186- i had to get up feerful erly this morning. after brekfast
me and father rode up to the depo in Joe Parmers hack. while we was
wating for the trane Charles Talor and Charles Gray and all the fellers
began to pich into father jest fun like and father got the best of them
evry time. You cood here them holler about a mile. then the trane come
and we piled in. evrybody knowed father and called him George and
evrybody piched into him and he ansered back so that he made evrybody
laff. that was the way it was all the way to Boston. when we got to
Boston we went into a bird store and staid a while and then father took
me out to see a house with a canon ball in it where the british had
fired it in the revolution. then we went down to the custum house where
father wirks and father took of his coat and put on a thin coat and put
on sum cuffs made of pastbord and then he took out sum big books and
begun to wright. he give me a sheet of yellow paper and a pensil and
told me i cood draw sum pictures. when he come in one man holered hullo
George what are you going to do with the boy, drownd him, and father he
said no but i wood if he dident amount to more then you have, and then
that man he shet up and a nother man he holered George have you saved
enny more peeple and father he said no i had a chanse to but his name
was Mudge and i let them hang him, and then that man he shet up. his
name was Mudge two. bimeby a man come in with specks and side wiskers
and sum papers and a squint eye, and he come up to fathers desk and
father took the papers and wile he was wrighting i drawd the man with
his specks and his old side wiskers and his squint eye. when father had
fixed his papers the man said is that your boy mister Shute and he said
yes and the man said can he draw and father said yes and he took the
paper before i cood grab it and give it to the man and the man looked at
it and begun to look mad and father said what is it and he showed it to
father and then tore it up and went of mad. and father tirned red and
asked me if i dident know more then that. then father he picked up all
the peaces and we paisted them together and he showed it to the men and
they all laffed and said i was a buster. bimeby a man come in and said
that the naval oficer wanted to see father and father took the picture
and went in. bimeby he came back and said the naval oficer jawed him and
then he looked at the picture and laffed and said he wanted the picture
and he took it and told father he had better shet that boy up. then it
was dinner time and we went out and et dinner at a resterrant. i had
meat and bread and coffy. after dinner we went back to the offise and a
man come in and asked who was mister Shute and father said he was and
the man said are you the man whitch put a old man on the trane at the
depo and father said yes and i thougt the man wood give father a hundred
dolars or a gold wach and father looked as if he thougt the man wood say
noble man you have saved my fathers life, but the man looked mad and
said well sir you did a prety smart thing to throw a helpless old man on
to the rong trane and send him of 100 miles away from home and scart all
his peeple most to deth becaus they thougt he was merdered and cost him
3 dolars to telegraf and stay all nite and if you dont know more then
that you had beter soke your head. father he said what was the old fool
trying to get on the trane for if he dident want to go on it, and the
man he said he was trying to get of the trane and you woodent let him
and the man holered so loud that evrybody cood hear him and shook his
fist and went of swaring feerful. then Mr. Pope he said o what a fall
was there my countrymen just like what was in the fourth reader and Mr.
Davis he said immortal seezer ded and tirned to clay, that is in the
fourth reader two. then all the men laffed and said the treat is on you
George and father he laffed two and said he wood be cussed, and he said
that is what a man got by not tending to his own bizness. tonites paper
had a peace in it about father and said the old man whitch father put on
the rong trane was going to be marrid and his girl got mad becaus he
dident come and marrid another man whitch was there and the old man was
going to sew father for braking up the mach. father said he bet Ben
Ridwill and Jaky Howe rote it for the paper and he wood fix them.
Sept. 3. brite and fair. sunday today but father dident go to walk. he
was prety cross two. Beany got sent out of sunday school for raising
time. after he went out he clim up to the window and made up feerful
faces at us. mister Erl the suprintendunt was jest going to make a
prayer and see us laffin and see Beany before Beany cood gump down and
he grabed his cane and run out of the sunday school and chased Beany
down to Gim Elersons. Beany cant come agen. i wish i was Beany.
Sept. 4. clowdy but no rane. school begins today, gosh.