soon as he come in. after awhile i dremp i was tied on a sawlog jest
going nearer and nearer to the saw and the saw was a going skratch-zoo,
skratch-zoo, skratch-zoo. well i tride to pull away but i coodent move
and i tride to holler and i coodent make a yip, and jest before the saw
sawed into me i woke up. gosh you bet i was glad, but the funny part was
that i could hear the saw going skratch-zoo, skratch-zoo, skratch-zoo,
and what do you think it was. it was father snoring. gosh you ought to
have heard him. well at first i laffed, but by and by i wanted to go to
sleep and father snoring so loud i coodent till mother came in and told
him to go to bed and she laid on the sofa all nite. the next day i set
up and had my britches on and set up to the window all day. i saw Beany
and Pewt and i nocked on the window and waved my claw at them. i am
going out tomorrow.
April 22. i went out today. it was real warm. i dident go to church
becaus i had been sick. i let my rooster out to fite J. Albert Clark's.
they were fiting good when i looked up and there was father looking over
the fence. he made me stop the fite and shet my rooster up. i wonder if
he wood have stoped them if i hadent been there. i got 2 eggs today,
the old brama that i swaped for with Ed Tole and a bolten gray that John
Adams give me.
April 23. i went to school today. i dident have to resite becaus i had
been sick. if i dont get wirse i can goto Mis Packerds concert tomorow.
hope it wont rane.
April 24. brite and fair and it dident rane tonite, so i went to the
concert. all the girls was flowers. Keene was a crocuss and had to come
out and sing first becaus the crocuss is the first flower that comes
out. she sung i am the first of all the flowers to greet the eyes of
spring.
Jenny Morison was a tuch me not and set in the top of a rock and
sung tuch me not, tuch me not let me alone. Nell Tole was a piny or a
sunflower i have forgot whitch. Jenny Morison and Keene and Nell Tole
are the best singers for their size in town. father thinks Keene can
sing the best. he feels pretty big about Keene. i told him so one day
and he said he had to becaus i dident amount to enything. i think Jenny
Morison can sing the best but dont tell him so for he wood give me a
bat.
April 25, 186- Cant go down town for a week becaus i sassed J. Albert
Clark, that is J. Albert Clark says I sassed him but i dident. Beany had
been working for J. Albert raking up leaves in his garden. J. Albert
was a going to give him 10 cents for it and me and Beany was a going to
divide up on goozeberries and juju paist, but Beany dident dass to
ask J. Albert for his pay because he had raked all the leaves under J.
Alberts front steps and he was afraid J. Albert wood find out about it
and not pay him. Beany wanted me to ask him but i dident dass to because
i let my rooster out to fite J. Alberts last Sunday and J. Albert dont
believe in fiting roosters. last night he was setting on his steps with
some company and he had on his best lavender britches and his best blew
coat.
So Beany said, tell you what Plupy, you set on your steps and i will set
on my steps and we will holler across the street about the money that J.
Albert owes me. So Beany he went across the street to his steps and he
hollered over, hi there Plupy have you got any chink, and i hollered
back, no Beany i havent got a cent, and Beany he hollered i shood have
10 cents if J. Albert Clark wood pay me what he owes me, and i hollered
why in time dont he pay you, and Beany hollered i gess he hasent got any
chink, and i hollered he has probably spent all his chink in buying them
lavender britches, and Beany he hollered, well if J. Albert Clark needs
the money more than I do he can have it. well while we was hollering
mister Head and the Head girls who was setting on their steps got up and
went into the house laffing, and the company at J. Alberts all laffed,
and J. Albert came down and beckoned to Beany and Beany he went running
over to get his 10 cents and J. Albert he said, Elbridge, that is Beanys
name, Elbridge you cood have your money enny time if you had asked me
for it decently, but now i shall not pay you for a week and i shall not
imploy you enny more. Tell you what, Beany came over to my steps feeling
pretty cheap and we was talking about it when mother called me in and
sent me up stairs, and said she wood tell father as soon as he came
home. So i went up stairs and looked out of the window jest in time to
see Beanys father lugging Beany in by the neck. Well that nite after
father got home he jawed me and said i coodent go down town for a
week and made me go to J. Alberts right before the company and ask his
forgiveness, and Beany had to to. J. Albert was a pretty good fellow and
said it was all right, and dident want our fathers not to let us go down
town, but father said i must learn to be respectable to my elders. Gosh
we dident know J. Albert was a elder. We knowed elder Stevens and elder
Stewart and deacon Gooch and we always was respectable to them, and if
we had knowed that J. Albert Clark was a elder we woodent have sassed
him for nothing.
April 26. Yesterday and day before it was brite and fair, and yesterday
was as warm as summer. today, it was cold and it snowed a little. jest
enuf to make the ground look as if it was covered with salt. the birds
looked all humped up. i bet the frogs hind legs is about froze. it is
raining now. if i was a frog i woodent come out of the mud until summer.
perhaps they cant stay under more than six months.
April 27. Warm again. 2 eggs today. i have got another hen. Willyam
Perry Molton gave it to me. it is a leghorn and his other hens licked
it and made its comb bludy and so he gave it to me. it was on the nest
today but did not lay. i went to church. Mr. Cram preeched. he talked
all about birds and flowers and i liked it.
April 28. brite and fair. all 3 hens were on the nest but dident lay.
April 29. no eggs today. mother said the hens cackled all the morning.
brite and fair.
April 30. i dont see what the mater is with my hens. i havent got 1 egg
this week. father said there was a rat in the koop. i got a steel trap
of Sam Diar and tonite i set it in the koop. i put a peace of cheeze on
it. tomorrow morning i ges mister rat wont steal any more eggs.
May 1. what do you think. this morning i got up to get my rat and i
found that my best hen, the bolton gray that John Adams gave me had
tried to pick the cheeze out of the trap and the trap had caught her by
the neck and killed her. i felt most bad enuf to cry. i thought i cood
get up before the hen did. i went to the may brekfast today. it was
may-fair day and they had a brekfast. me and Pewt, Beany, Whacker
and Pozzy Chadwick, Micky Gould, Pop Clark, Prisilla Hobbs, Chick
Chick-ering, Potter Gorham, Pile Wood, Curly Conner and all the fellers
were there. we had a good time and et till just before school time and
we had to hiper so as not to be late.
May 2. no eggs today. both hens went on the nest. i am going to lay for
that rat with my bowgun.
May 3. what do you think. this noon i set in the hen koop 1 hour. the
brama went on the nest and set a while and came off and cakled, then i
looked and she had lade an egg. i left the egg there and hid behind a
barrel and got my bowgun ready for the rat. well the leghorn hen went on
the nest and i suposed she was a going to lay, but she broke rite into
that egg and began to gobble it up. i was so mad that i let ding at her
with the bowgun and just then she stuck up her head and the arrow took
her rite in the back of the head. well i wish you cood have seen her.
she hollered one little pip and then went rite out of the nest backwards
and flapped round awful. i picked her up and she was dead. i dident mean
to kill her, i only wanted to make her jump and learn her not to eat
eggs. O dear, i dont know what father will say when he finds it out.
May 5, 186- Saw a bully fite today. Cris Staples and Charlie Clark.
Charlie is visiting his uncle J. Albert Clark, the feller that we
sassed. that is he said we did but we dident. Charlie is a city feller,
he lives in Chelsy and think he knows a pile about things and gets mad
if we call him names. now every feller who amounts to anything has
a nickname, and some of them have 2 or 3. my nicknames are Plupy and
Skinny and Polelegs, and Beany is called Bullethead and sometimes Fatty.
i told Charlie that if i called him Charlie the fellers would call him
sissy or Mary and he better agree to let me call him bulldog or tomcat
or diddly or gobbler or some nickname whitch wood mean something. but
he said he would lam the head off of enny feller which called him names.
well you jest see what trouble he got into for not having a nickname. he
would have knowed better than that if he hadent lived in Chelsy.
Well today me and Charlie was setting on his steps. Beany was mad
because i was going with Charlie and he had gone riding with his father
and he felt pretty big because his father let him drive. well while we
were setting there along came Cris Staples who carries papers for Lane
and Rollins store, and Cris hollered over, hullo Polelegs. Charlie
hadent heard enyone call me Polelegs. and i said, i woodent stand that
if i was you Charlie, now less see you lam the head off of him, and
Charlie he started across the road and walked up to Cris and said who
in time are you calling Polelegs and Cris wasent going to back down and
said, you, and Charlie said jest drop them papers and i will nock your
face rite off, and Cris dropped his papers and they went at it. it was
the best fite i have seen this year. they fit from Mr. Head's down to
Gim Ellisons corner, and Cris licked time out of Charlie, and Charlie
began to yell and give up and then Cris let go of his hair and told him
he was to smart, and that it was me he was calling Polelegs and not him,
and he better not be so smart another time, and Cris he picked up his
papers and went off with a great slit in his jacket and his necktie
way round on one side, and Charlie came home howling and Aunt Clark,
Charlie's grandmother came out and said, that is what you get Charlie
for quareling. see how much better Harry feels, and i said, yes mam.
Charlie is never going to speak to me again.
May 7. Beany was pretty mad when I told him about the fite because he
dident see it. i gess he will find it don't pay to get mad with me. i
saw Charlie today but he dident speak. he has got a black eye. Cris has
got a funny looking nose on one side.
May 8. Chitter Robinson went in swiming today. i bet it was cold.
May 9. Went down to the high school yard tonite to hear the band play.
they have got a new leader a Mister Ashman of Boston. he can play the
cornet with 1 hand. i went down today to pay the gasman for the gaslite
i broke. it cost 1 dollar and i have only got 87 cents for my cornet.
sometimes i dont believe i shall ever get that cornet. Scott Brigam can
blow a bugle. a bugle is like a cornet only a cornet has 3 keys and a
bugle is all covered with flappers and curly things where you put your
fingers. Rashe Belnap can play a cornet splendid but he dont play very
often. Frank Hirvey plays one that goes over his shoulder way behind his
back. gosh i wish i cood get a cornet.
May 10. father has found out about my killing that hen. he dident get
mad but said i ought to have cut her head off and she wood be good to
eat, but i supose it is to late now for it is almost a week ago and i
burried her the next day.
May 11. me and Potter Gorham went mayflowering today. i got a bunch
and sold them to a student named Chizzum for 35 cents. i put it with my
cornet money. i have now got $1.22. i can get a cornet for 25 dollars a
second hand one. i am afraid i shall never get that cornet.
May 12. Rany last nite and this morning. in the afternoon it cleared up.
gosh i wish you cood see the licking Beany got tonite. me and Beany went
out to go up to see Pewt and make some sweet fern sigars. Beany came
over for me and went up to Pewts. on the way Beany went up an rung his
doorbell and we hid behind the fence and Mister Watson, Beany's father,
came out holding a light and shading it with his hand. the wind blew the
lite out and in going in again he hit his head an awful bump against
the door. me and Beany nearly died laffing only we tride not to laff
too loud. well we went up to Pewts and Pewt had been sent to bed for
something and so we started back and met a man who said is this you
Elbridge, it was pretty dark and Beany said yes and Mister Watson
grabbed us both by the collar and said, so you are the boys who rung my
doorbell and then he give Beany a rap on the side of the head and began
to shake him round lively and while he was shaking Beany up i put for
home. i hid behind the fence and i cood hear him say i will learn you
to asosiate with that misable Shute boy and wast your time ringing
doorbells, and Beany was saying, o father i will never do it again. i
nearly died laffing to hear Beany a rattling round on the sidewalk. i
hope Mister Watson wont tell father. i gess he wont for he gets over his
mad pretty quick. every time i think of Beanys legs flying round in the
air i giggle rite out and when i think of Mister Watson bumping his head
i nearly die. sometimes i think it pays to be tuff.
May 13, 186- Keene and Cele have got some new crokay slippers. you bet
they feel pretty big about it.
May 14. nothing particular today.
May 15. Went in swimming today. the water was pretty cold but i swum
acros the river twise.
May 16. the suckers have come. Potter Gorham caught three yesterday. me
and Potter was going yesterday after school but father woodent let me
becaus i dident split my kindlings.
May 17. the band played tonight. father made me go to bed at nine but i
cood hear it becaus my window is jest acros the road. they are playing a
new peace. it is the woodup quickstep, they say Ned Kendall cood play it
on a bugle better than ennybody. old Robinson cood and Mister Ashman can
play it splendid. it goes
ta-ta tata, ta-ta tata, ta-ta tata
tatatatatatata.
ta-te-ta-te-tiddle iddle-a
ta-te-ta-te-tiddle iddle-a
ta-te-ta-te-tiddle-iddle-a
tiddle-iddle-iddle-iddle-ata
it is the best peace they play except departed days. that always makes
me feel like crying it is kinder sad like. i hope i can get my cornet
some day.
May 19. had a auful toothake today and had to go down to docter Pitman
and he pulled it out. i tell you it hurt. Docter Pitman said the roots
must have reached way to the back of my neck. Beany went with me and
then told all round that i hollered. you jest wait Beany.
May 21. erly this afternoon me and Fatty Melcher got some real segars
at Henry Simsons store and went down behind old man Churchills store and
smoked them. we were both auful sick and laid there all the afternoon.
when i went home i walked wobbly and mother asked me if i was sick and
she put me to bed and was going to send for the docter, but father came
in and when he found out what aled me he laffed and said it served me
rite. then after supper he set out on the steps rite under my window and
smoked a old pipe and i cood smell it and i thought i shood die. then
mother asked him to go away and he laffed and said all rite, but he
gessed i had enuf for one day and she said she gessed so and i gess so
too. he said if it hadent made me sick he wood have licked me.
i dont see why it is so, father swears sometimes when he hits his thum
with a hammer and once when he was in the dark he was walking towards
the door with his arms out to feel for the door, one arm went on one
side of the door and the other arm on the other side and he hit his nose
a fearful bump rite on the ege of the door, and i wish you cood have
heard him swear, well if i swear he licks me, and he smokes and if i
do he says he will lick me and he dont go to church and if i dont go he
says he will lick me. O dear i gess i wont smoke enny more.
May 22. Went in swimming today twise, once down to the raceway and once
up to the gravel.
May 23. Went butterflying with Chick Chickering today, it is a little
early for them, but we got two blew and black ones and three little red
ones. Me and Chick are making aquariams. Chick has got a splendid glass
one. i made mine out of a butter firkin. i sawed it off half way and
then washed it out with soft soap and rensed it 2 or 3 times and then i
put in some white sand and stones and i have got some little minnies and
kivies and a little pickerel. it looks splendid and i change the water
every 3 days.
May 24. Nothing particular today.
May 25. i can swim under water from the big tree on Moulton's side of
the river at the gravel to the tree on the bank on Gilman's side. i went
in 3 times today.
May 26. My rooster is sick. he has et something. he sits all humped up.
i went in swimming 2 times today.
May 27. My rooster is pretty sick. i tride to give him some kiann pepper
tonite. father said kiann pepper was good for sick hens, so i held his
mouth open and give him a spoonful. when i let him go he kept his mouth
open and sorter sneezed pip-craw pip-craw pip-craw, and then he went
to the water dish and began to drink. i think he is better because he
hadent drank any water for 2 days before. he was still drinking when i
went away. i gess he will be a lot better tomorrow.
May 28. What do you think, this morning when i went out to feed my hens
i found my rooster dead. he had drank up all the water and he was all
puffed up. i felt pretty bad. father says i gave him enuf kiann pepper
for a horse. he aught to have told me. he was a pretty good rooster too.
i am having pretty tuff luck.
May 29. i read over my diary today. i have forgot to tell whether it was
brite and fair or rany, i cant say now.
May 30, 186- Nothing particular today. brite and fair.
May 31. brite and fair. went up to Whacker Chadwicks today after school
to help him plant his garden. we had about a bushel of potatoes to plant
and it was fun to sit round a basket and cut up the potatoes. after a
while Gim Erly and Luke Mannux cume along and we began to plug potatoes
at them, they plugged them back and we had a splendid fite, me and Whack
and Pozzy and Boog Chadwick on one side and Gim Erly and Luke Mannux and
Bob Ridly on the other. Luke Mannux hit me twice rite in the back of the
head. i am going up tomorrow to help them some more. went in swimming
once to-day.
May 32 no i mean June 1. i went up to Chadwicks after school. Captin
Chadwick was there and they wasent enny pluggin potatoes. went in
swimming.
June 2. Rany. Beany is mad with me. i dont care.
June 3. went to church today.
June 4. clowdy but no rane. went up to Chadwicks today and sawed wood.
Boog and Pozzy fit while me and Whack sawed wood then we went in swiming
down to Sandy Bottom. some body tide some hard gnots in my shirt. i
forgot to split my kindlings tonite.
June 5. brite and fair. Beany is still mad.
June 6. brite and fair. i know what Beany is mad about. he thinks i told
about his getting a licking. i dident tell. he can stay mad if he wants
to.
June 7. father has bought a horse of Dan Randlet. i rode up to Brentwood
with Sam Diar to get it. it is the prettiest horse i ever saw. i rode
it down from Brentwood and it goes jest as easy as sitting on a spring
board. when i got home Beany got over his mad and came over and i gave
him a ride. me and Beany never were mad so long before.
June 9. Rany. this afternoon me and Beany and father went to ride with
the new horse. her name is Nellie.
June 10. brite and fair. we keep Nellie down to Jo Hanes stable. Frank
Hanes is learning me how to clean her off. she nipped my arm today and
made a black and blew spot. went in swimming today.
i have to get up every morning and harnes Nelly and drive father to the
depot. i like it because i always race with the men coming down front
street. there is George Dergin and Fred Sellivan and Gim Wingit and i
can beat them all. i dont tell father that i race. i rode Nellie this
afternoon with Frank Hanes and Ed Tole. i dident go in swimming today.
June 11. brite and fair. Nellie kicked me today. i gess i scrached
her today to hard with the curycomb. it dident hurt me much. i went in
swimming twise.
June 12. brite and fair. Me and Chick Chickering went bullfroging today,
we got 3 dozen hind legs and sold them to Mr. Hirvey for 30 cents and
took our pay in icecream.
June 13. Rode Nellie this noon. i have to go to the half past five train
every nite for father. i like to drive but i dont like to go every nite.
June 14. Rashe Belnap and Horris Cobbs go in swimming every morning at
six o'clock. i got a licking today that beat the one Beany got. last
summer me and Tomtit Tomson and Cawcaw Harding and Whack and Poz and
Boog Chadwick went in swimming in May and all thru the summer until
October. one day i went in 10 times. well i dident say anything about it
to father so as not to scare him. well today he did go to Boston and he
said i am going to teech you to swim. when i was as old as you i cood
swim said he, and you must lern, i said i have been wanting to lern to
swim, for all the other boys can swim. so we went down to the gravil and
i peeled off my close and got ready, now said he, you jest wade in up
to your waste and squat down and duck your head under. i said the water
will get in my nose. he said no it wont jest squat rite down. i cood see
him laffin when he thought i wood snort and sputter. so i waded out a
little ways and then div in and swam under water most across, and when i
came up i looked to see if father was supprised. gosh you aught to have
seen him. he had pulled off his coat and vest and there he stood up to
his waste in the water with his eyes jest bugging rite out as big as
hens eggs, and he was jest a going to dive for my dead body. then i
turned over on my back and waved my hand at him. he dident say anything
for a minute, only he drawed in a long breth. then he began to look
foolish, and then mad, and then he turned and started to slosh back to
the bank where he slipped and went in all over. When he got to the bank
he was pretty mad and yelled for me to come out. when i came out he cut
a stick and whaled me, and as soon as i got home he sent me to bed for
lying, but i gess he was mad becaus i about scart the life out of him.
but that nite i heard him telling mother about it and he said that he
div 3 times for me in about thirty feet of water. but he braged about my
swiming and said i cood swim like a striped frog. i shall never forget
how his boots went kerslosh kerslosh kerslosh when we were skinning home
thru cros-lots. i shall never forget how that old stick hurt either.
ennyhow he dident say ennything about not going in again, so i gess i am
all rite.
June 15, 186- Johnny Heeld, a student, came to me and wanted me to carry
some tickets to a dance round to the girls in the town. there was about
1 hundred of them. he read the names over to me and i said i knew them
all. so after school me and Beany started out and walked all over town
and give out the tickets. i had a long string of names and every time
i wood leave one i wood mark out the name. i dident give the Head girls
any because they told father about some things that me and Beany and
Pewt did and the Farmer girls and the Cilley girls lived way up on
the plains and i dident want to walk up there, so when i went over to
Hemlock side to give one, i went over to the factory boarding house and
give some to them. they was auful glad to get them too and said they
would go to the dance. some people was not at home and so i gave their
tickets to the next house. it took me till 8 o'clock and i got 1 dollar
for it. i dont beleive those girls that dident get their tickets will
care much about going ennyway. i gess the Head girls wont want to tell
on me another time.
June 16. Dennis Cokely and Tomtit Tomson had a fite behind Hirvey's
resterent today. Hirvey stopped them jest as they were having a good
one. Thats jest the way. i dont see why they always want to stop a fite.
All fellers fite for is to see which can lick, and how can they tell
unless they fite it out.
June 17. Brite and fair. They is going to be a big cattle show here this
fall. They are going to have it in a field up by the depot. They are
going to have horse trots and shows and everything. We are going to have
no school. it dont come for an auful while yet. Charles Taylor is going
to have Nelly to ride.
June 18. Me and Mickey Gould had a race horseback. he had one of Ben
Merril's little black horses, we raced way round Kensington ring. i cood
beat trotting and he cood beat running. when i got home Nelly was so
swetty that father told me not to ride her for a week.
June 19. Went up to Chadwicks after school. Boog and Whack got Willie
fiting with Johnny Rogers. Willie licked him. Willie is Whack's little
brother. he is a auful cunning little feller. he can fite too. all the
Chadwick's can fite.
June 20. Brite and fair. i am going fishing tonite with Potter Gorham.
June 21. brite and fair. went fishing today with Potter Gorham. i cought
5 pirch and 4 pickeril. i cleaned them and we had them for supper.
father said they was the best fish he ever et. i also cought the biggest
roach i ever saw, almost as big as a sucker, and i cant tell what i
did with him. i thought Potter had hooked him for fun, but he said he
dident, and we hunted everywhere for him. i dont know where i put that
roach.