some of the girls which dident get no tickets was mad, and the students
which wanted them to go was mad and they went to Johnny Heeld and give
him time. then he went round and told them how it was and give them
tickets. well the nite of the dance everything was all rite until lots
of people came which hadent been on the list, but which we had given
tickets. well the students dident want to let them in and they were mad,
and Chick Randal hit a student named Pendry rite in the nose and nocked
his glasses off and Nichols nocked Johnny Lord way acros the entry and
they was going to have a big fite when Bob Carter and 2 or 3 men stoped
it. today Johnny Heeld came down to the house and said i had got things
all mixed up and father made me give back the dollar. but he told Johnny
Heeld he hadent ought to have let me try such a hard job. Gosh, i am
glad father thinks it was a mistake, and dont know that i did it on
purpose.
June 23. there is a dead rat in the wall in my room. it smells auful.
June 24. Rany. most time for vacation. the smell in my room is fearful.
June 25. more trouble today. it seems as if there wasent any use in
living. nothing but trouble all the time. mother said i coodent sleep in
that room until the rat was taken out. well father he came into my room
and sniffed once and said, whew, what a almity smell. then he held his
nose and went out and came back with mister Staples the father of the
feller that called me Polelegs. well he came in and put his nose up to
the wall and sniffed round until he came to where my old close hung.
then he said, thunder George, this is the place, rite behind this
jacket, it is the wirst smell i ever smelt. then he threw my close in a
corner and took out his tools and began to dig a hole in the wall, while
father and mother and aunt Sarah stood looking at him and holding their
nose. after he dug the hole he reached in but dident find ennything,
then he stuck in his nose and said, it dont smell enny in there. then
they all let go of their nose and took a sniff and said murder it is
wirse than ever it must be rite in the room somewhere. then father said
to me, look in those close and see if there is ennything there. so i
looked and found in the poket of my old jaket that big roach that i
lost, when i went fishing with Potter Gorham. it was all squashy and
smelt auful. father was mad and made me throw the jaket out of the
window and wont let me go fishing for a week. ennyway i know now what
became of my roach.
June 26. Keene and Cele are going to sing in the Unitarial quire. father
says he will give them some bronze boots. mother got them some new nets
for their hair today. girls has lots more done for them than fellers.
June 27, 186- Brite and fair. school closed today. we dont have enny
more school til September. snapcrackers have come. 8 cents a bunch at
old Langlys store. Lane and Rollins sell them for 10 cents. torpedos 8
cents a bunch. pin wheels 1 cent each. Pewt is going to have a cannon.
father wont let me have a cannon. he says i dont know enny more than to
look into it and blow my head off.
June 28. clowdy but no rane. 4th of July pretty soon. father says when
he was a boy all they had for fireworks was balls of wool soaked in
tirpentine whitch they lit and fired round. i am glad i did not live
then.
June 30. clowdy but no rane. went in swimming 3 times today. i am going
bullfroging monday.
June 31. no July 1. Went to church today.
July 2. i went bullfroging today. thunder storm today.
i have got 10 bunches of snapcrackers and some slowmatch. i spent a
dolar of my cornet money. i gess i shall never get that cornet. i hope
it wont rane the 4th.
July 3. Nite before 4th. Pewt and Beany can stay out all nite. father
took my snapcrackers into his room and said if i get up before 5 i cant
have enny.
July 4. i am to tired to wright ennything. i never had so much fun in my
life. i only got burned 5 times. 1 snapcracker went off rite in my face
and i coodent see ennything til mother washed my eyes out. Zee Smith
fired a torpedo and a peace of it flew rite in the corner of my eye and
made a blew spot there. i fired every one of my snapcrackers. it took me
all day.
July 5. brite and fair. i dident wake up today til 10 o'clock. i was
pretty sore and my eyes felt as if they was sawdust in them.
July 6. brite and fair. father staid home today. i wanted him to go
fishing but he woodent.
July 7. father told me i cood go fishing and stay all day. i dont know
what had come over him becaus most always he raises time when i go
fishing and dont come home erly. so i went and cought 3 pickerels and 4
pirch and 2 hogbacks and went in swiming 2 times. well as i was a coming
home 2 or 3 people met me and said they was company at my house, so when
i got home i skined in the back way so as not to see the company til i
got on my best britches, but i met father in the door and he told me to
go rite up to mothers room and see the company. so i skined up to her
room holding my hand behind me becaus i had tore my britches auful
getting over a fence and i dident want the company to see. well what
do you think the company was. it was the homliest baby you ever see,
it looked jest like a munky and made feerful faces and kinder squeaked
like. Mother was sick and they was a old fat woman who told me to go
out, but mother said she wanted to see me and she kissed me and asked me
to kiss the baby. i dident want to but i did it becaus mother was sick.
mother asked me how many fish i caught and what kind and i told her and
said she shood have some for her supper, but she said she gessed she
woodent have enny jest then.
then i went down stairs and father did i like the baby and i said it was
homly, and he said it was 10 times as good looking as i was and he said
he was glad that when the baby grode up it woodent have Beany and Pewt
to play with and woodent be tuff like me, and then Aunt Sarah said she
gessed me and Beany and Pewt wasent enny tuffer than father and Gim
Melcher were when they was boys, and then father laffed and told me to
go to bed and i went. that was a auful homly baby ennyway.
July 8. nothing particular today. you bet that baby can howl. went to
church.
July 9. brite and fair. most every morning we go up in mothers room to
see the old fat woman wash the baby and hear it howl. it turns black in
the face. i bet it will be a fiter.
July 10. i have got a new nickname. it is yallerlegs. that is becaus
father bought me a pair of kinder yellow britches, and made me wear
them. i bet he woodent like to be called yallerlegs.
July 11. brite and fair. went in swiming today to a new place. we call
it the stump. it is up by the eddy.
July 12. a thunder storm. in the afternoon went fishing but dident get a
bite. Pewts father says fish wont bite after a thunder storm.
July 13. a auful hot day. tonite i went up to the depot to see Majer
Blake and Charles Tole fite over passengers to the beach.
July 14. i am going to the beach to stop with Beany in his fathers tent.
it is called hotel de pig.
July 15. i gess i will go tomorrow.
July 16. me and Beany went to the beach and stopped all day and all
nite. we had a bully time.
July 17. another hot day. went in swiming 4 times. my back is all
burned.
July 18. me and Beany got in the newsleter today. the paper said the
Siamese twins was at the beach stoping at Watsons tent. Pewt was mad
becaus we got in the paper and he dident and told all round that it
dident mean me and Beany but Rashe Belnap and Horris Cobbs.
July 19. Hot as time. nothing particular today.
July 20. Hot as time. nothing particular today.
July 21. Auful hot. big thunder shower and litening struck a tree in
front of Perry Moltons house.
July 22. Went to church. Beany let the wind out of the organ and it
squeaked and made everybody laff. Keene and Cele sing in the quire.
father feels pretty big about it.
July 23. i got stung by hornets today. i went in swiming at the eddy and
when i was drying my close i set rite down on a stump where there was a
nest of yellow bellied hornets. they all lit on me and i thought i was
afire for a minit. i ran and div rite off the bank and swam way out
under water. when i came up they were buzing round jest where i went
down. when i came out the fellers put mud on my bites and after a while
they stoped hurting. i tell you the fellers jest died laffing to see me
run and holler.
July 24. Brite and fair. i was all sweled up with hornet bites but
they dident hurt enny, i looked jest like Beany when he had the mumps.
everyone laffed at me.
July 25. i got a fishhook in my leg today. me and Fatty Melcher was
a fishing when we got our lines tangled, i hollered first cut, but i
dident have enny nife and Fatty woodent let me have his nife. So we got
jerking our lines kinder mad like and all of a suddin the hook got into
my leg. gosh you bet it hurt. me and Fatty got the hook out but it bled
some. the worst of it was there was a wirm on the hook and when we got
the hook out they wasent enny wirm there. Fatty says people sometimes
dies from having wirms in them. i bet this one has crawled way in. it
may grow inside of me. something is always hapening to me. when i got
home i went down to docter Derborns store and bought some wirm medicine
and swalowed sum. it was auful bitter. it cost 20 cents out of my cornet
money.
July 26. brite and fair. i was all rite today except my leg was stiff
mother asked what made me lame and she put on a peace of pork. i told
her about the wirm and she said the pork wood draw him out if he was
there but she gessed he dident go in. when i told her about the wirm
medecine she jest set down and laffed. so i gess i needent wory about
having wirms. i went down to doctor Derborns and tride to get him to
take the medicine back but he said he woodent. i think he is pretty mean
not to.
July 27. i coodent go in swiming today on account of my leg. all the
fellers went in and i had to set on the bank and see them.
July 28. Coodent go in swiming today either. my leg is nearly well.
mother took off the pork today. it was all white where the pork was. i
can go in swiming Monday. i went down to the library tonite. it is the
first time i have been down since Joe Parsons chased me out. i gess he
has forgotten it. i got out Bush Boys to read. it is a splendid book
about shooting lions and zebras and gerafs and everything.
July 29. i tried to have father let me stay away from church today
because my leg was sore but he said all rite you can stay, but i gess
that leg will be too sore to let you go in swiming this week. so i went
to church and dident limp enny. this afternoon i set under the apple
tree and read Bush Boys. father and mother went to ride with Nellie. it
is the first time mother has been out. Aunt Sarah took care of the baby.
they gess they will name it Edward Ashman Shute. i gess it is named
Ashman after the leader of the band. i am going to tell him tomorrow and
see if he wont sell me a cornet on trust. brite and fair.
July 30. Brite and fair. i told father i was going down to see Mr.
Ashman, and he said if you ever do i will lick you. the babys name is
Edward Ashton Shute and not Ashman. i woodent name him for enny cornet
player. it is pretty tuff luck. if i cood have got that cornet i woodent
have minded a licking. went in swiming today.
July 31. Franky had the croop last nite. i waked up and heard him cough
auful funny and kinder as if his throte was tite. i called mother and
she came in and hollered for Aunt Sarah and father and they rushed round
lively and gave him egg and sugar and put hot cloths on his throte til
he howled and after he cood howl he was all well. Aunt Sarah took him in
with her the rest of the nite. father said i was a brick to wake up and
call them. i dont know when he has called me a brick before. went in
swimming 3 times to-day.
Aug. 1. brite and fair. Annie tumbled down the front steps from the top
to the bottom. she howled and mother thought she was about killed but
she was so fat that she dident hurt her.
Aug. 2. father came home early to-day and took mother and Aunt Sarah and
Keene & Georgie to ride. Me and Cele staid to look after the house. Cele
went up stairs to look after the baby and when she was gone i got Annie
and Franky fiting. it was the funniest fite i ever saw. they jest pushed
each other round and tried to claw each other. while they was fiting
Cele came down stairs and pulled them apart and boxed their ears and
made them go in different rooms. She jawed me and said she wood tell
father. when father came home she told on me and father sent me to bed
at six o'clock. You jest wait Cele and you will find out.
Aug. 3, 186- brite and fair. the fellers played a pretty mean trick on
me tonite. they played it on Nibby Hartwel last nite. Nibby is visiting
his aunt and comes from the city and is pretty green like most folks
from the city. you see if i hadent got sent to bed becaus Cele told on
me i wood have been there and seen them play it on Nibby. well last nite
all the fellers was out. Whack and Boog and Pozzy and Pewt and Beany and
Nipper and Cawcaw and Pile and Chick and Micky and Pricilla and Fatty.
Nibby he was there too. they wanted to play lead the old blind horse
to water and i was to be the blind horse. they said they had some fun
playing it the nite before, that was when they played it on Nibby but i
dident know that. Well you blindfole a feller and give him a rope and
a swich and the other fellers get on the other end of the rope and the
feller nearest you has a bell and rings it and you pull and if you can
pull him up to you, you can paist time out of him with your swich, only
if you pull off your blindfole all the fellers can paist time out of
you. Well they blindfoled me and hollered ready and i began to yank and
pull and the feller rung his bell and he came pretty hard at first but
i kept yanking and bimeby he come so quick that i nearly fell over back
wards and i felt him and grabed him and began to paist time out of him
when he grabed away my swich and began to paist me, and that wasent fair
and i pulled off my blindfole and who do you suppose it was, well it was
Wiliam Perry Molton and he was mad. they had tied me to his door bell
and i had yanked out almost ten feet of wire. when i saw who it was
gosh i began to holler and he stoped licking me. i gess he never licked
anyone before because he dident know just how to lay it on. well when
he found out how it was he let me go but he said he shood have to do
something about the boys distirbing him so. it was a pretty mean trick
to play on a feller. we are going to try and play it on Pop Clark
tomorrow nite.
Aug. 4. brite and fair. me and Hiram Mingo had a race today to see
whitch cood swim the furtherest under water. i beat him easy. he can
lick me but i can beat him swiming.
Aug. 5. Nothing particular today. only church.
Aug. 6. the baby was sick today had the doctor.
Aug. 7. the baby was sicker. i dident go in swiming.
Aug. 8. the baby is better today. i went in swiming 5 times.
Aug. 9. Raned all day. The baby is all rite. i went bullfroging with
Chick Chickering.
Aug. 10. Nellie is sick. Joe Hanes cut a hole in her and put in a onion
and some braded hair and then father took her out to pastur. i cant ride
her for a month.
Aug. 11. brite and fair. mister Watson, Beanys father got throwed off of
his horse today and renched his rist. the horse coodent have throwed him
but the gert broke. Mister Watson can ride splendid.
Aug. 12. brite and fair. No more church this month. bully.
Aug. 13. brite and fair. i went down to Ed Toles and me and Ed rode on
the hack with Joe Parmer.
Aug. 14. Ed Tole and Frank Hanes are mad. Frank hollered over to Ed,
Ed Tole fell in a hole and coodent get out to save his sole, and Ed
hollered back Frank Hanes aint got no branes. and then they was mad.
Aug. 15. Wiliam Perry Molton has got some ripe apples in his back yard.
me and Pewt helped him ketch some hens today and he said we cood have
some apples if they was any on the ground. they was only 2 wirmy ones
but before we left 5 or 6 fell off i gess it was because Pewt pushed me
agenst the tree. they was pretty good apples too.
Aug. 16. Rany. i went fishing with Potter Gorham. caught 3 roach and 5
hornpowt. we et them for supper. father said i can clean fish most
as well as he can. he says he will come home some day erly and go a
fishing.
Aug. 17. John Gardner has hung up a Grant and Colfax flag. they will be
some fun this fall.
Aug. 18. brite and fair. Today i went fishing with Fatty Melcher. we
caught some ells and some hornpowt. ells and hornpowt can live a long
time out of water and so when i got home i put 5 that were alive in the
rane water barril.
Aug. 19. brite and fair. it is fun to sit round all day Sunday and not
have to go to church.
Aug. 20. brite and fair. i had to spend the whole morning in going to
the river for water for washing. it was wash day and when mother went to
the rane water barril there was 5 dead hornpowt floting on the top. she
made me tip the barrel over and get water from the river. they was some
fun for Beany helped me and he stood in the hand cart and filled the
tubs and all of a sudden i let go and the old cart flew up and Beany and
the tub and the pail and everything went rite in. Beany isent going to
speak to me ever again.
Aug. 21, 186- Gosh, we are having fun now. what do you think. they is
going to be a big mass meeting this fall. Ben Butler and Jake Ely and
lots of old pelters are going to be here, and they is going to be 4 or
5 bands and lots of fun. well before that comes they is going to be lots
of political meetings and the first one is to be next week, and father
is going to make a speach. Gim Luverin and Bil Morrill and General
Marsten and Tom Levitt, and he is a ripper to holler. and they want
father to make a speach. father says he must work for the party and
perhaps he can get his salery rased. so he has been a riting every nite
and mumbling it over to hisself and last nite he said he had got it.
tonite he is a going to speak it to us.
Aug. 22. last nite father studed his speach over and let us stay up
to hear it. he stood up and looked auful stirn and put one hand in the
buzum of his shert. i coodent help laffin, but he told me to shet up
or i cood go to bed and so i shet up. i tell you it was fine. It begun
Mister Moddirator had i supposed, or for 1 moment dremp that i a humble
offis holder under this glorious government, wood have been called upon
to speak, i shood have remained at home with my wife and my children.
i said, if you dont want to make a speach why dont you stay at home
that nite, and he said 1 more word from you sir and you go to bed. so i
dident yip again.
then he went on like this, were it not that a crool axident in my erly
youth, in my far away boyhood days prevented me from voluntearing and
desecrating my life to my countrys welfare, in the strugle jest ended
i wood have poared out evry drop of my blud to have maintaned her owner
and the owner of her flag. mother began to laff and said George how
can you tell such feerful stories, you know you were scart most to deth
becaus you was afraid you wood be drafted.
father said they was a lot of old fellows traveling round the country
and talking that way who coodent have been drug into the war with a ox
chane. then he stood on the other leg a while and said, it is peculiarly
aproprate that Exeter, the berth place of Lewis Cas, the educater of
Webster, the home of Amos Tuck, of General Marston shood be fourmost
in the party strife, and as for me i wirk only for my partys good, my
countrys good, without feer or hope of reward. they was a lot more to
it, and some of it you cood hear about a mile he hollered so.
Aug. 23. We are all going the nite of the rally. mother says she wont go
for she wood be ashamed to hear father tell such dredful stories. Aunt
Sarah dont want to go because she is afraid father will brake down. but
she has got to go with me and Keene and Cele and Georgie.
Aug. 24. father practised his speach tonite and we all hollered and
claped at the fine parts. he has got a new pair of boots. they hurt like
time and he only wears them nites when he is practising his speach.
Aug. 25. father licked me tonite becaus i spoke some of his speach to
Beany. he was auful mad and said i was the bigest fool he ever see. the
fellers have got up a Grant Club. Pricilla cant belong because he is a
demicrat.
Aug. 26. father called me and Beany out behind the barn tonite and gave
us 10 cents apeace if we woodent say anything about his speach. after
supper father practised again but he dident holler so loud becaus he was
afraid some body wood hear him and mother dident want him to wake up the
baby, and it was sunday too.
Aug. 27. it has been brite and fair all the week and hot as time. i have
to go to the river for soft water because it hasent raned eny since i
had to tip over the rane water barril. i have got a little tirtle as big
as a cent. father went down to General Marstons office tonite to arrange
about the rally. he came home and practised about an hour. i gess he
wood have practised all nite if the baby hadent waked up an hollered.
Aug. 28. we are all getting ready for the rally. Keene and Cele and
Georgie have got some new plad dresses. father has got a pair of gray
britches and a black coat. mother said the rally was a good thing
becaus it was the first time she had seen father dressed up since he was
married.
Aug. 29. they was a big thunder shower last nite. we all got up in the
nite and went into mothers room. mother sat on the fether bed and all
them that was scart cood set there. i wasent scart. father said it would
be jest the cussid luck to have it rane the nite of the rally.
Aug. 30. we had the last practise tonite, father put on his best close
and new boots and the girls had on their plad dresses and i had on a new
paper coller. we all set down and father came in and stood up. i tell
you he looked fine. well he begun, mister modderater had i suposed or
for 1 moment dremp, and then he forgot the rest. i tell you he was mad.
i wanted to laff but dident dass to. well after a while he remembered
and went through it all rite, and then he went over it 2 times more.
gosh what if he shood forget it tomorrow nite. he is going to wright
some of it on his cufs and he practised tonite making jestures so as to
bring his cufs up so that he cood read it.
Aug. 31. the rally is tonite. father woke us all up last nite hollering
in his sleep. he dremp about the speach. this morning he went to Boston
without eating his brekfast. i gess he is begining to be scart. i am a
going to make his boots shine today. gosh what if he shood brake down. i
gess i am getting a little scart too. brite and fair.
Sept. 1. Last nite father came home and the first thing he did was to
send me down to miss Pratts for his shert. it was all pollished and
shone like glass. then he asked if i had blacked his boots and then he
et supper. he dident eat much though. he said Mr. Tuck came down from
Boston with him. Mr. Tuck was a going to make a speach first and then he
was going to introduce Gim Loverin as chairman and then Gim Loverin was
a going to call on father. father said he bet 5 dollars he wood call him
Gim instead of mister modderator. father was pretty cross at supper. i
gess he was getting scart. the baby began to cry and father asked mother
why she dident choak the squawling brat and mother sorter laffed and
put the baby into fathers lap and said i gess you had better choak him.
father laffed and began to toss the baby up and down. he likes the baby
and while he was playing with it he was all rite. but after supper he
was cross and said he hed an auful headake. then he went practising his
speach again so as not to call the modderator Gim. well we got ready and
went down erly to get some good seats so as to hear father and see him
come in with them that was to set on the platform. we wanted to go down
with father but he said he coodent bother with us. but before we went he
came down stairs with his new close on and he looked fine but his face
looked auful white. he said he had a headake but as soon as he got
started to speak it wood all go off. so we went down. Cele had her hair
curled and Keene had a new red silk ribbon on her hair becaus her hair
wont curl and Aunt Sarah had on a new dolman with beeds on it and some
long coral earrings and they all looked fine. Aunt Sarah took Georgie by
the hand becaus she was the littlest and me and Keene and Cele followed
on.