June 2th, 186---sunday nite. i have been to chirch
and sunday school today, not to the unitarial. we
are going to the congrigasional now becaus Keene
and Cele are singing in the quire. so we go there.
i had ruther go to the unitarial becaus Beany and
Pewt go there. Beany blows the organ and sumtimes
he peeks out behine the organ and maiks a
feerful face and maiks everybody laff. once Beany
he thummed his nose to old Chipper Burly. Chipper
he was the sunday school supperintendent and was
beeting time for the scholers to sing and Chipper
he tirned round quick and see Beany, and Chipper
he jest hipered into the organ log and grabed Beany
by the coler and yanked him out of the lof and
wauked him out of the chirch. then he got Micky
Goold to blow the organ and Beany he lost his gob
for 2 sundays, but Micky went to sleep 2 or 3 times
and snoared feerful and they had to waik him up
and once he hollered rite out loud. so Mickey he
lost his gob and they got Beany back. They tride
Pewt and then Game Ey Watson, Beanys brother
but they was wirse than Micky. so they hired
Beany. he is the best and only lets the wind out
one or two times every sunday and the organ sounds
like a goos but that aint so bad as going to sleep
and hollering goldarn it lemme alone is it?
we had a new minister today, miser Larned has
gone away for all summer. the new minister
preeched about not killing flise and buggs and wirms
and bumbelbeas and yeller jacket hornits. he sed
they had a rite to live jest as mutch as peeple and
we hadent augt to kill them. i spose it is all rite
to let a muskeeter or flee or one of them 3 cornered
flise that hangs round a swimmin hole bite you
terrible and not even yip. how about bedbugs.
June 3, 186---today is washing day and i had
to lug about a million pales of water for old mis
Dire, Sams mother whitch comes over mondays.
her hands is all sriveled up they has been in hot
water so mutch. mother she sed that was the reason
when i asted her and father he laffed and sed he
had been in hot water all his life and he wasent
sriveled a bit. mother she laffed two. father aint
sriveled for he weigs 214 lbs. i gess he dident meen
that kind of hot water eether. i am tired most to
deth tonite.
June 4, 186---brite and fair. i went fishing today
with Potter Goram in the morning and was going
again in the afternoon but i dident get home in
time to help them flap flise out of the dining room
and mother woodent let me go to pay me for being
lait. darn it. every day we have to flap flise out
of the dining room. we all grab our flapers and
begin to flap from one end of the room to the other
flaping them into the kitchen. then we shet the doors
and keep them out. it is fun flaping for most always
i can give Keene a good bat in the ear with
a flaper when she aint looking. then she gives me
one on the snoot and then we jest go at it til mother
stops us. she maiks us take tirns now. ferst it is
me and Cele and then it is Cele and Keene. it is
never me and Keen any more. mother says we
fite enuf without fiting when there is china and
crockery and glass round and things to eat two.
ennyway it is tuf on Cele to have to do it all the
time becaus she is good and dont fite.
i told mother what old mister minister sed and
mother she sed that if old mister minister had to
fite flise for every mossel of food he et she gessed
he woodent say mutch about not killing them. Aunt
Sarah she sed so two. flise is wirse this summer.
we have got a new set of fli screnes. little ones for
the butter plates, bigger ones for the sass plates
and some grate big ones for the meat plates and the
cake basket. we had to get them becaus the old
ones was woar out and i took the big one and kept
a young robin in nearly a week and mother maid
me let him go and never wood use the screne again.
we tride to have muzlin screnes to the wiinders but
the cat and the dog jumped through them if the
doors was shet. mother says she dont know what
she will do if the flise get enny wirse.
June 5, 186---it raned last nite. brite and fair
today. it raned hard and the sidewalks was filed
with pudles of water. me and Beany had lots of
fun spatering peeple. the way we do it is this.
when we see sum peeple waulking on the sidewaulks
we run by them fast and stamp hard in the pudles
and the water spaters all over them. we dont do
it to wimmen and girls. but we do to men and
fellers. it is lots of fun to hear them sware. Beany
got 2 bats in the ear and a kick and i got 3 bats
in the ear and 2 kicks. so i beat Beany. one of the
kicks was a peeler. ennyway we had lots of fun.
today all the fellers and girls got a letter from
old mister minister and it had in it a peace of
poetry like this
do you know how menny flise fli about in the warm sun
how menny fishes in the water
god has counted eevry one
every one he called by naim
when into the wirld it caime.
there was a lot moar to it but i aint got no time to
wright enny moar of such stuf as that. i showed
it to mother and she said when he got older peraps
he wood know moar.
June 6, 186---clowdy today. jest the day to go
fishing but i had to ho in the garden. if it had raned
i coodent ho the beans becaus if you ho when it is
wet they will be all covered with black specks like
Whacker Chadwick had when he had the measles.
i have et them like that and they taist jest like those
yeller spots in creem tarter bisquit when it gets way
in a corner of your mouth up under your ear on the
inside and you cant reech it with a drink of water.
ennyway it dident rane and i had to ho whitch is
jest my luck. mother let me go at 4 oh clock to
go in swimming with the Chadwicks and Potter and
Skinny Bruce. we had sum fun tying gnots in
Skinnys shert sleev. we bet Skinny coodent swim
across under water and while he was doing it we
wet his shert sleves and tide hard gnots in them.
Skinny coodent unty them becaus he aint got enny
front teeth. most of the fellers can unty gnots
eesy with their teeth but Skinny had to go home
with his shert tide around his neck and his jacket
buttened up tite.
the 3 cornered flise has come and bit Skinny
terrible while he was trying to get into his shert.
i hollered oh Skinny, do you know how meny flise
fli about in the warm sun and Skinny he up and
chased me as far as Gilmans barn and wood have
chased me further but he hadent enny shert on.
i guess if the old minister had heard Skinny sware
he woodent have sed mutch more about flise.
June 7, 186---brite and fair. not mutch today.
tonite the band played in the band room. Ed Tilton
has got a new basehorn. it is auful shiny and almost
as long as he is. Potsy Dirgin played a fife. father
says peraps i can have a fife some day but a cornet
costs two much money. they played a new march
and a peace that mother said was a romanse from
leeclare. mother used to play it. i asked her where
leeclare was and she sed it was a mans name. Cele
can hear a band peace once and play it on the piano
jest as good as they can. i can whistle it all rite but
she can put in the alto and the treble and the base
jest like it is rote.
June 8, 186---brite and fair. not mutch today
only swiming and playing base ball and a fite down
town whitch old Swain and old Kize the poliseman
stoped. tonite we all have to take a bath in the tub
in the kichen. Mother maiks me use soft sope.
the others use casteel sope but mother says soft
sope is the only thing that will get me cleen. it
stings terrible when it gets into a cut or a soar place.
after a feler has been stang with soft sope in a cut
on his hand or on his leg with a nail or a peace of
glass or a tin can he dont care mutch for anything
but a yeller jakit hornit. i had to lug all the water
for the tub and i had to fill it with fresh water for
every one of us. they aint enny sense in that. onct
wood have been enuf. twict wood ennyway.
June 9, 186---Sunday again brite and fair it is
always brite and fair sundays so fellers has to go
to chirch. last nite when Keene was going to bed
we heard sum feerful screaches in her room. mother
and aunt Sarah just hipered upstairs thinking Keene
had tiped over the lamp and was burning to deth
and both hollering for mecy sakes what is the matter.
nothing was the matter only a dorbugg had
flew into her hair and stuck there and scart her most
to deth. mother said she had augt to be ashaimed
of herself. mother give me the dorbugg and i am
going to put it down Beanys back. i bet Beany will
gump.
Beany come to our chirch today. they wasnt
eny chirch at the unitarial. in sunday school Beany
spoke a peace about a fli. it said god made the little
fli but if you crush it it will die and then he set
down. the rest of us laffed but the minister told us
it was the best peace of all and it showed that
Elbridge, that is Beany you know, was kind to flise
and insex of all kinds and if we was all like
Elbridge, Beany you know, the wirld woodent have
as mutch mizzery in it. we was all mad with Beany
for showing off and we were going to lam him one
after school let out. he cought a big bumbelbea
whitch had flew in to the window and took sum
wax and hitched a long white thread to the
bumbelbea and let him go and he flew all over the chirch
with that long white thread hanging down like a
kite tail. everybody laffed and the girls screemed
and ducked there heads down and the minister tride
a long while to ketch the bumblelbea and finely he
cought it by the thred and it clim up the thred and
stang him and he sed drat the pesky thing and
snaped his fingers and the bea flew out of the window.
then the minister sed it was natural for the
bea to be scart only he sed terrorfide whitch meens
the saim, and it dident know who was befrending it.
but it was crool to tie a string to him and the boy
whitch done it wood suffer. enny way he sed you
woodent do it wood you Elbridge and Beany he
sed no sir. then Beany he went behine the organ
and we sung oh how happy are we all in our little
sunday school and Beany let the wind out of the
organ 2 times. so we aint going to lam Beany.
ennyway the ministers thum is all swole up.
June 10, 186---i put the dorbugg down Beanys
back. you aught to heard him holler.
June 11, 186---rany and cold. a big black ant
has got 2 nippers and can bite like time. i am going
to put one down Beanys back some day.
June 11, 186---the cat drank sum fli poison today
and dide. we are going to have some fli paper after
this. father says all you got to do is to get sum pich
and spred it on brown paper and the flise will get
their hine legs all stuck up on it and die. so
tomorrow i am going down to the sawmill and scraip
a lot of pich off the ends of the logs.
June 12, 186---brite and fair. today i scraiped
a lot of pich off the logs and then took it home and
tonite father warmed it until it was all runny and
spred it on a lot of sheets of brown linen. it was
awful sticky, i bet it wood hold a cat, then befoar
we went to bed he put 1 in the kitchen sink and 2 on
the table and 2 on the dining room table and 2 in
the setting room, and he hung one up over the sink
to kech flise on the wall. well in the middle of the
nite i heard awful swareing down stairs and heard
father hollering for mother to come down. i set up
and lissened. i gnew it wasent berglers for father
cood nock the stuffing out of enny bergler and if it
was i gnew he woodent let mother come down where
they was dainger. so i lissened and oh time how
father was swareing. i never heard enny such
swareing in my life, and father aint a swareing man.
then i heard mother begin to laff. then i gnew it
was all right. so i lissened. then i heard father say
for god's sake get the sizzers and cut this damn linen
off my head, and mother sed keep still and stop
swareing, and father he sed, i have got to keep still
for i am all stuck up and i had augt to be aloud to
sware. then he laffed. then mother she said i am
afrade i shall have to cut off most of your hair, and
father he sed get hold of the end of it and yank
quick. then i heard him say why dont you pull
a poor cusses head off and she sed i gess i have
jugging by the looks of this linen. it is all covered
with hair. then i heard her cutting with sizzers and
then he sed it is lucky i came down in my shert tale
if i had been dressed i wood have had to go to bed
tomorrow until you went down town to by me a
new sute. you see father had gone down for a
drink of water in the dark and had got into the fli
paper. father had augt to know better than to do
that becaus once he drunk sum water out of a dipper
in the pale in the dark and the nex morning he
found my squirrel drowneded in the pale and he
never gnew whether it was drownded before he
drank or after he drunk and it made him sick to
wonder whitch was whitch. well after a while father
and mother come up stairs again, i cood hear Keene
and Cele gigling in there room and i wanted to
holler do you know how many flise fli about in the
warm sun but i dident dass to. this morning mother
sed that father he sed he forgot all about the drink
of water and dident get it but we aint going to
have enny more fli paper round the house. it was
wirse than having a poliseman with handcufs and
twisters.
June 13, 186---i am having awful tuf luck with
my hens this year. Miss Dires cat cougt 8 of my
chickings this week. i went over to tell her about
it and have her pay for the chickings and she sed
how did i know it was her cat and i sed it was a
old yeller cat that she had for 2 or 3 years and i
see it runing with a chicking in its mouth. then
she sed it wasent her cat and i sed all right i am
going to kill it with a rock and she sed you better
not kill it if you know what is good for you and i
sed what do you care if it aint your cat and she
sed i will maik it mine if you kill it and you will
wish you was ded if you kill it. so i went home.
then Nellie steped on my best hen whitch was
scraching behine her in the stall and squashed her
almost as flat as a doremat. enny way i have got
to do sumthing about that cat. i wonder what old
mister minister wood do if a cat killed his chickings.
i supose he wood say it is rong to kill a cat and that
a cat had as mutch rite to live as---as---well as old
Mis Dire.
June 14, 186---2 chickings gone today. i let a
rock ding at the cat and jest missed her. i wish i
had a bull dog.
June 15, 186---went in swiming today. 3 times.
The 3 cornered flise are auful and bit like time. i
squashed lots of them and they wont fli about in
the warm sun enny more. I dont cair. me and
Pewt are going to set a trap for the cat. Pewt can
make bully box traps. if he ketches the cat i am
going to give him my collexion of birds egs. it is
werth it. i aint got menny chickings left.
June 16, 186---brite and fair of course. it always
is sunday. i went to chirch sunday and to sunday
school. i wanted to go to the Unitarial but father he
sed no i wood go where he told me to or i coodent
go at all. i thought i had got him there and i sed
all rite i will stay to home and he sed all rite you
can stay to home and stay in bed. so i thougt i had
better go to chirch and i sed all rite i will go to
chirch. i told him as long as we had got a phew in
both chirches someone augt to set in it once in a
while. the minister is going to get up a club to
study insex throug the telescope and to lern us about
their ways. he said beas have queans and droans
and aunts have a government and keeps cows. i
wonder if he xpects us to beleeve that. and flees can
be traned to ride a vellosipede but he dident know
that if you ketch a big grashoper and say grashoper
gashoper gray give me sum molasses and then fli
away the grashoper will give you some molasses.
just think he dident know that and he dident know
that ef you squashed a caterpiller it would rane
before nite. we have all got to join the club. i wish
i had staid in bed.
tonite Pewt come over with a big box trap and
we set it in the hen coop and left the dore open.
i bet we will ketch her. we bated it with a peace of
pikerel.
June 17, 186---Gosh what do you think. we have
caugt that cat. this morning i went to the hencoop
and the trap was sprung. when i shook it a little i
cood hear the old cat growl and spitt. so i nailed
the cover down so he coodent get out and gess what
we done with him. tonite after dark we carried the
box to the deepo and put him on the nite fraight
trane for Haverhill. nobody see us. we wated till
the trane started and then went home. Pewt wanted
to drownd the old cat but i thougt if we did i wood
have to lie about it and while i can lie good if i
have to i had ruther not. and it wood be eesier to
say i dident know ehere the cat was peraps it wood
be in Haverhill and peraps in Boston.
June 18, 186---brite and fair. Gosh what do you
think. the first thing i see this morning was that
old cat setting on Mis Dires steps. i thougt she must
have comeway back from Haverhill but after breckfast
old mother Moulton come over and asted me
if i had seen her cat. she was terrible xcited and
asted me more than 40 questions but i dident know
ennything. Pewt come down and sed she had been
to his house and to Beanys and all over the naborhood.
gosh i bet we caugt her cat and sent it away.
ennyway what rite had her old cat in my hencoop.
tonite me and Pewt set a new trap and bated it
with a fresh sucker. i have got to get the old yeller
cat. one more chickling disapeared to day.
June 19, 186---it raned hard last nite. i gess cats
staid to home and dident go out. this morning the
trap wasent spring. had to ho in the garden after
it dride up. toniet we put a big shiner in the trap
for bate.
June 20, 186---we cogt that old cat today. i know
it was her this time becaus when the cover come
down it pinched her tale and there was a bunch of
yeller hair in front of the trap. tonite we put the
trap on the fraight trane and that is the last of
that old cat. old mother Moulton is still hunting
for her cat. i wonder if the 2 cats will know eech
other when they meet in Haverhill. i xpect mis
Dire will be over tomorrow to find out where her
old cat is. i dont know where she is. i havent hit
her or killed her and i dont know what has become
of her.
June 21, 186---brite and fair. today i saw that
old cat again. i wonder whose cat we cought. i had
to pay Pewt 10 cents for his traps. we set another
for tonite.
June 22, 186---awful hot today. i dident ketch
that cat. i went fishing today for some cat bate.
went in swimming 5 times. got some good shiners.
i have found out whose cat we sent to Haverhill
the last time. there was a peace in the Exeter
News-Letter whitch sed. lost a valuble black and
yeller striped tiger cat. a grate pet. had on a red
satin bow. a suteable reward will be paid for
infirmation as to whareabouts. A. P. Blake. gosh A.
P. Blake is Mager Blake who owns the Squamscot
Hotel. I know that cat. i wish me and Pewt
gnew some peeple in Haverhill peraps we cood get
the reward. tonite i paid Pewt another ten cents
and we set another trap. i wonder whose cat we
will get nex time.
June 23, 186---brite and fair, i never knew it to
rane sunday. cougt another, dont know whose cat
it is. if we open the cover the cat will gump out and
if we dont sum body elces cat may get sent Haverhill.
ennyway enny cat whitch is cougt in my hencoop
has got to take chances.
tonite we sent it away on the trane. we almost
got cougt putting it on. went to chirch and sunday
school. Beany has got his gob back at the unitarial
and has went back there, so there wasent enny fun.
i heard old Mis Dire calling her cat tonite for most
an hour. i guess we got that old cat at last.
June 24, 186---Mis Dire was calling her cat this
morning. she come and did the washing today but
she dident say ennything about her cat but i think
she was uneezy and she looked at me sort of hard.
i bet she thinks i have killed her cat.
June 25, 186-- today old Mis Dire come over. i
was in the shed and i saw her go waulking stiflegged.
after a minit or too mother called me. i pertended
i dident hear her and kept on spliting wood, then
she come out and told me old Mis Dire sed i killed
her cat and wanted to ast me some questions and
mother sed now if you have killed her cat tell the
truth. i sed i anit killed it or hit it or drowneded
it and i dont know where it is. so we went in. old
Mis Dire was there mad as time and she sed now
Harry Shute i want to know what you have did with
my cat and if you lie to me, then mother sed
quick ome moment Misses Dire if you are going to
ast him enny questions you have got to do it in a
different way if you xpect enny anser. mother she
looked at old Mis Dire and old Mis Dire looked at
mother mad as time but mother had a kind of funny
look in her eyes not a mad look but a kind of look
that made old Mis Dire back water prety quick.
then old Mis Dire sed you throwed a rock at my
cat last week and i sed yes i did and i wish i had
hit hir and killed her but i dident. then she said
you and that misable Watson boy and that jalebird
of a Purinton boy have drowned my cat and i sed
i dont know about them but i dont beleve they done
it becaus they dident have enny chickings but hope
to die and cross my throte i havent seen your cat or
hit your cat or drowned your cat and i dont know
where she is i honest dont. old Mis Dire asted me
more than 40 questions and after a while she went
home. she was pretty grumpy and sed sumbody
had got to pay for her cat but i guess she desided
i dident know ennything about it. she went over
to Pewts and to Beanys but dident find out ennything.
Mother she was glad i told the truth and i did
dident i? i dident hit her old cat, or killed it or
drowned it or see it and i dont know where it is.
mother told father about it when he come home
from Boston and father sed dam her old cat. i
wont have you bothered about her old cat. i wood
have told her to go to the devel. mother laffed and
sed no you woodent George you wood have felt bad
and pitted her as i did. she is a poar old woman
and it is two bad for ennyone to kill her pet cat.
ennyway that is over and i aint got to wurry over
my chickings enny more. i wish i dassed tell father
about it but i am afraid father wood tell mother for
a goke and if mother dident think it was rite she
wood make me go to Haverhill or Boston and hunt
for them 3 old cats. father i know wood laff his
head off but i dassent tell him. 3 old cats sounds
like a base ball game dont it. ennyway me and Pewt
made 3 home runs dident we.
June 26, rany. dident do ennything today.
June 27, 186---i havent wrote ennything about
school becaus i dident like school and dident like to
think about it. the fellers is all rite and we have
sum fun playing base ball and foot ball and corram
and duck on a rock and nigger baby. but we have
to study like time and they aint hardly enny fites
becaus if 2 fellers has a fite old Francis licks time
out of them and recess aint very interestin if they
aint enny fites. school closes tomorrow and i am so
glad i dont know what to do. i gess old Francis
wanted to celibrait today for he licked 9 fellers.
Skipy Moses for paisting Medo Thirsten in the eye
with a spit ball and Chitter Robinson for not
singing in tune and he cant if he wanted to so what is the
sence of licking him i dont see and Pewt for putting
a carpit tack in Pheby Taylors seat. Pheby he is a
feller you know and when he set on it he gumped
up lively and let out a yell. Pheby dident tell he
aint that kind of a feller but old Francis seamed to
know it was Pewt and snached him bald headed in
two minits and Whacker Chadwick for wrighting a
note to a girl and Pozzy Chadwick for maiking up a
face at him when he was licking Whack and Bug
Chadwick for telling him to stop when he was licking
Pozzy. the Chadwicks all got licked the same
day. it aint the ferst time eether by a long chork
and Skinny Bruce for drawing sumthing on the
school house fence that hadent aught to be drew and
Pacer Gooch for calling Gran Miller a nigger and he
is a nigger whitch dont seem rite to me and Human
Nudd, his name is Harman but we call him Human
for wrighting with a squeaky slate pensil. he hadent
enny other. i gess old Francis gnew this was his
last day for licking for he never licks on Xibition
day but is as nice as pye.
June 28, 186---Gosh school is over. i cant hardly
beleeve it. lots of peeple come in today and of
course all the good boys and girls spoke peaces and
direlogs and done xamples on the blackboard. Huh
i am glad i am not a good scholar and a faveret of
the teecher. last of all we give old Francis a silver
pensil on a chane. the wirst of it was i had to
chip in ten cents. the Chadwicks give a dollar.
Whack sed that if he had gnew that they were all
3 going to be licked yesterday they wood have spent
the dollar and woodent have given nothing. they
needed that dollar two. ennyway school is out till
September hurray.
June 29st. i just took it eezy to-day. the ferst
day of vacation always seams to me like when
you find a five cent peace in a pair of your last years
britches. you can spend it for ennything you want
and you havent got to save it or put it in your bank
or by sumthing that you need. so yesterday after
school closed i split up wood enuf for today and
sunday, and today i just dident do nothing. a man
and 2 wimen hired my boat and wanted me to row
them up river but i told them i had a weak arm.
one of the wimen said poar boy what is the matter
with it and i sed it dident know but it trubles me a
good deal. then the other one sed whitch arm is it
and i sed the right one and she sed you must be
lefthanded and i sed yes i am a little. i lied about
that but i dident lie about my week arm or about
my truble with it. both my arms is week. if they
wasent i cood lick Pewt and it trubles me becaus my
arms is so skinny. the fellers laff at my legs two.
well the man hired my boat and i went with them
and the man rew all the way and i had a good time
only i had to be cairful to keep my right hand in
my jacket pocket most of the time and point out
things to them with my left hand. ennyway i cood
row with one hand better than that man cood
with too. he splashed and cougt crabs and once
his heels went up and he went rite over on his back
the wimen laffed and he laffed two.
June 30, 186---brite and fair. i gnew it wood be.
we had a new minister today. old mister minister
preeched sumwhere elce but he come back in the
afternoon to sunday school and started his club.
everybody had to join. most of the fellers dident
want to. Chick Chickering says he is glad he dont
go to our chirch becaus if he did he coodent colect
enny more butterflise and kill them with ether and
stick them in a box with a pin. Chicks father is a
minister two and he goes fishing and birdseging
and butterfliing with Chick. i am glad my father
isent a minster but if he was i wood want him to be
like Chick Chickerings father. Gosh i always laff
when i think of father being a minister.
he woodent be getting up clubs to save the lifes
of flise and snaiks and intch wirms and moth millers
and cockroches, but he wood gnock enny feller pizzle
end upwards that raised time in chirch. today we
had to a sine a book and pay five cents and promise
not to take the life of animal or bird or reptil or insex.
Pop Clark asked what a feller had augt to do if a
mad dog come down the street fomeing at the mouth
and biting and taring rite and lef, or if a poizen
adder or ratlesnaik coiled round your hine leg. the
minister sed if it caim to be a question of the life of
a human being or of an animal or a reptil of coarse
the life of a human being shood be spaired. so he
has got sum sence but not mutch.
June 31, 186---i ment July 1, brite and fair. hoap
it wont rane on the 4th. jest as soon as vacation
comes i have a lot of gobs to do. spliting wood and
going errands and cleening out the cellers and the
barn and wirking in the garden. i woder what
peeple think a vacation is for. i try to do evrything
mother wants becaus in 3 days it will be the 4th.
July 2, 186---only 1 day after this before the 4th.
i went up to Pewts today. he has borowed Harris
Cobbs cannon. it is an old lunker. Pewt says if
you put in six fingers of powder and wads and then
fill it to the muzle with grass and ram it tite it will
shaik the winders all over town.
July 3, 186---tomorrow is the 4th. i am going to
get up at 3 oh clock. father says that is the erliest
and if i get up one minit before that i wont go out
at all. it seams to me 3 oh clock is prety lait. sum
of the fellers stay out all nite.
July 5. brite and fair. i was so tired last nite that
i coodent wright. i dident go to bed until nearly
leven and i got up at 3 oh clock. it was the best 4th
i ever had. Pewt's cannon xploded the ferst time.
we loded it to the muzle and put the muzle rite
agenst the stone step of old Nat Weeks house. then
we lit the fusee and run. i gess it is lucky we done
it for there was a feerful bang and a big flash jest
like when litening strikes a tree rite in front of your
house and a big hunk of that cannon went rite
throug old Bill Greenleafs parlor winder and took
sash and all and gnocked a glass ship in a gloab that
the glassblewers blowed into forty million peaces
and gnocked a big hunk out of the marbel top table
and sent the things on the whatnot all over the room.
Bill he come downstairs in his shert tale and
hollered and swore so you cood hear him fer eigt miles
eesy. me and Pewt and Beany hid behine Pewts
fathers paint shop and lissened. Nat Weeks he
come out and old printer Smith and old Bill Morrill.
Old Ike Shute dident. i gess he dident dass to. we
cood hear them talking it over and cood hear Bill
holler and sware and Bills wife say mersy sakes
aint this dredful. they thogt it must have been did
by Flunk Ham and Chick Randall or the Warren
boys, all big fellers becaus they sed it must be big
fellers to have sutch a big cannon. so me and Pewt
and Beany clim over Fifields back fence and went
down town throug Spring street.
Beany set fire to a bunch of fire crackers in his
poket and birnt him so he can only sit down on one
side. Fatty Melcher stumped Pewt to hold a
firecracker in his mouth and let it go off. it is eezy
enuf. all you have got to do is to put the end
between your teeth and lite the other end and shet
your eys. it will go off and burst in the middle and
all you will get is a few sparks that dont hurt mutch.
but this one was a flusher and it flushed at the end
whitch was in Pewts mouth and a stream of sparks
went rite down Pewts gozzle. you would have
dide to see Pewt spitt and holler and drink water.
he drank most a gallon and he wont speak to me
becaus laffed.
All the Chadwicks got birned when they was blowing
up old Buzell's fence posts, they was lots of
fites down town and a house on Franklin Street and
a barn on Stratam road birned up. it was the
best 4th i ever gnew. Father sed about 2 more 4ths
and he wood go out of bisiness.
i sed 2 4ths is eigt and he sed dont you try to be
funny. if you do you will get a bat in the ear. so
i shet up. when father says that it is about time
to shet up.
July 6, brite and fair. saterday again. it is
funny when i am in school i am crasy for it to be
saterday but when it is vacation i hate to have
saterday come. it means 2 things that aint very
good. one is that another weak of vacation has
gone and the other is that the next day is sunday
both of whitch is prety tuf. tonite me and father
went in swimming at the gravil. we had a good
swim and then we floted down river. it was warm
and the treetoads was crokeing and a peewee was
peeweeing high up in a elm tree and bats was fliing
and it was fine. evry now and then a fish wood
splash or a mushrat dive.
when we got home all the folks was setting on
the front steps and we got talking about the
doodlebug club. father he calls it that. father sed they
aint no fool like a dam fool and sed that once when
he was in school his teecher old Ellis the father of
Rody Ellis that i went to school to used to paist
time out of the fellers jest for nothing. so the
fellers they got prety sick of it and one day Jim
Melcher and of coarse father, he and Jim Melcher
always went together and Charles Taylor two
and Oliver Lane and 2 or 3 others went out and
batted down about a pint of bumblebeas with shingles.
they got stang 2 or 3 times a peace but no
feller minds being stang in a good caus. so the
next day they went to school erly and poured all
them ded beas in his old lether seat.
well old Ellis come in and rung the bell and sed
prair and paisted time out of 2 or 3 fellers for
exercise and toar the sherts off 2 or 3 others for old
acquantence saik so father sed and then he set down
hard in his chair and more than forty of the stings
of them ded bumblebeas riggid in deth so father
sed ran rite into him. well he let out a yell you
cood have heard at Hampton Beach and gumped
rite over his desk and run out of the school house
howling and holding hisself in both hands and
sweling up feerful in grate aggony. and father he
sed he was stang in forty seven places and swole up
so that they had to get old killpigger Haley i mean
pig killer Haley to get his briches off with a
skining knife.
i wonder if old mister minister wood like
bumblebeas if we done that to him.
July 7, rany as time. i thought i woodent have
to go to chirch but what do you think it cleered up
and the sun come out a hour before chirch. how is
that for tuf luck.
July 8, rany not hard but drissly. i wood have
went fishing today but there was a thunder shower
this morning and fish wont bite after thunder but
go down in deep holes and lay still. this afternoon
we had the meating of the club. the minister talked
lots and ansered questions. i asted him if we had
aught to tare down spiders webs becaus they kiled
flise. he sed yes then i asted him if the spider
woodent starve to deth if he coodent ketch flise.
then he sed spiders was sumtimes poizinus and i
asted him if he had ever been bit by a horsefli. then
we had speeking and Beany spoke his peace about
god made the little fli
but if you crush it it will die
and then my sister Cele spoke the peace
do you know how meeny flise
fli about in the warm sun
and the minister clapt his hands and we all did two.
then Tomtit Thompson sed he had a new peace
about insex and the minister asted him to speak it
and Tomtit dident want to, but the minister sed he
had aught to be willing to help out in a good caus.
Tomtit he sed he was afrade the minister woodent
like it but the minister sed he was very sure he
wood like it and so Tomtit he stood up and made a
bow and sed his peace and it was jest bully.
now i lay me down to sleep
while the bedbugs round me creap
if one should bite before i waik
i hope to god his jaw will braik
and what do you think the minister he got mad and
told Tommy he was a bran from the birning and a
apostate. i thought they wasent but 12 apostates
ever and wasent enny now but that is what he called
Tommy and he throwed him out of the club by the
ear, wisht it had been me.
Well after Tommy had went the minister talked
to us about how wicked it was for Tommy to use
the name of god in sutch a conexion. I asted him
why it was wicked to use it in conexion with a
bedbugg when it wasent wicked to use it in conexion
with a fli like Beanys peace and my sister Celes and
he sed one was used in the spirrit of love and the
other in the spirrit of hate. then we sung a hynm
and went home. i wish i was Tomtit Thompson.
July 9, 186---brite and fair. gosh what do you
think. the committy of the chirch came to our
house today and asted mother if she wood have the
minister to supper as it was her tirn. mother sed
certenly i wood be very glad to entertain him. after
the committee left i sed gosh mother you told a
awful whacker to them old wimmen when you sed
you wood be glad to do it dident you. mother she
laffed and sed peraps it woodent be as deliteful as it
mite be but she wood try hard to be glad to do it
and if i wood do my part and all the rest wood we
cood give him a good supper and it woodent hurt
us to do it. so we have all got to duff in.
July 10, it is going to be a weak from Friday nite
that the minister is coming. Friday nite is the nite
they have prair meeting and he will have to go prety
soon after supper so he wont be there very long.
aunt Sarah she sed what if he invites us to go and
mother she sed she gessed father wood have a prety
good xcuse ready. she never gnew him to fale.
mother sed that 10 days wood give her time to get
ready. we have all got to wirk. then mother sed
she wood have to warn father not to say ennything
tuf and warn the children not to speak when the
minister was saying grace and not to notice the new
napkins and thing like that and that she had got
to sweep evry room and wash all the winders and
rub up the silver and the caster and the caik baskit.
when father come hom tonite mother she told him
about having the minister to supper and father sed
gosh what for. and mother she sed George that is
a nice way to speak about a minister and father he
sed why can't you let me take him down to old Eph
Cuttlers and get him a stake and sum fride potatoes
and about 4 fingers of fusil oil whiskey and it wood
do him a pile of good. mother she sed i am ashaimed
of you George for talking so. why cant you take
it serius and father he sed it is serius ennuf and i
am trying not to burst into teers over it. honest if
you wood let me take him to Hirveys resterant it
wood save you a lot of truble. but mother sed no
we must do our part and father he sed gosh he
suposed so but it was tuf. then father he sed i
suppose you wont dast to bat out the flise if he
comes. then Beany hollered for me and i dident
hear eny more.
July 11, brite and fair. i have got an idea. me
and Pewt and Beany are goin to talk it over tonite.
we are going to have chicken and gelly and hot
bisquit and custereds and cold ham and cookys and
whips and lots of other things for supper friday
nite. Keene and Cele are going to sing shall we
gather at the river and theres a chirch in the valley
by the wild wood. father wanted them to sing little
brown gug how i love thee and we'll all drink stone
blind when Johnny comes marching home and Sally
come up Sally come down Sally come twist your
heal around the old man has gone to town Sally
come up in the middle but mother sed no they must
sing good chirch songs.
July 12, Keene and Cele and i washed the winders
upstairs today. i had to lug about 2 million pales
of water. i asted mother what was the use of
washing the upstairs winders for him as he wasent
going to stay over nite. father he sed if we fed him
two mutch he mite have the collick and have to be
put to bed and perhaps stay 2 weaks. he sed we
must be cairful and not feed him to hy.
July 13, brite and fair, we washed the downstairs
winders today. darn the minister ennyway.
July 14, brite and fair of coarse. sunday went to
chirch of coarse, also sunday school. more tuf
luck. the minister cant come Friday but will come
Thirsday so he will have a hoal evening with us.
gosh.
July 15, had to raik up the yard. i aint been
fishing hardly this summer. darn the minister.
July 16, or ennywhere else eether. today i had to
cleen the barn and woodshed and pile the wood up
neet. i wonder who they think is entertaneing the
minister ennyway. darn him to darnation. i hoap
nobody will ever see this diry.
July 17. we are all nerly ded. mother and aunt
Sarah has been cooking all day. Keene and Cele
have been practising hynm tunes and i of coarse
have did most all the wirk. Pewt and Beany come
over tonite and fixed up what we shall do to the
minister. jest you wait and see old mister minister.
i bet mother wil be glad and Aunt Sarah two.
Tomorrow the minister comes. i bet he will wish he
dident.
July 18, brite and fair. we have had a grate time.
i never had sutch a time in my life. i gess nobody
ever did befoar. everyone is in bed xausted but
me. they think i am in bed but i am wrighting this.
last nite me and Beany and Pewt talked over what we
shood do to the minister. i told them what father
done to old man Ellis and Pewt wanted to do that
but i thot perhaps i mite not get the rite chair to put
the bumblebeas in and if father set on them i mite
as well run away to sea. then peeple has been knowed
to tare off their britches when they are stang by
the hornits and bumblebeas and if the minister done
that it would be very mortifiing to my mother and
my aunt Sarah and my sisters Keene and Cele.
so we desided that woodent be proper althoug we
wanted to like time. then Beany wanted to put a
live snaik in his hat, but we desided the snaik wood
scare mother and my aunt Sarah and my two sisters
to deth. then Pewt he sed less dig up some of those
red stink wirms behine the barn and put a handfull
in his hat. you know they smell so that you have
to use soft soap and sand and scrub your hands 2
or 3 days before you can get it off. so neether of
us wanted to tuch one.
then i sed mother is going to set the table and
put on all the chicken and gelly and butter and cake
and creem and everything and cover them with the
fli screens and shet the doors and have nobody go
in until super is ready. super is to be at six and she
is going to have evrything ready at five and then
they are all going upstairs and dress up in their
best and curl Celes hair and ty up Keenes hair with
a red ribon becaus her hair wont curl and dress
Georgie and Annie and Frank and the baby and maik
father put on a cleen coler and shert and black his
boots and promise to be cairful not to say ennything
that would shok the minister, so i sed less go in the
kitchen and ketch about 2 million flise and put them
under the fli screnes, and they sed i was a buster
to think it up.
well at five oh clock the table was all set and it
looked fine. i never see it look so good. so after
the folks had went up stairs me and Pewt and
Beany clim into the kitchen and cougt a bushel of
flise and tiptode into the dining room and lifted up
the screnes and put them under. after we had prety
near filled the screnes we tiptode out.
well father he came home and swoar when he
had to put on a cleen shert and coler and i blacked
his boots. i have to do evrything of coarse. that
is what i am for so evryone thinks. mother had
on her black silk dress with some lase round her
neck and Aunt Sarah two and the girls was all
dressed up and father two and they all looked fine.
mother looked the best. she always does and Aunt
Sarah the next. Keene sed i hadent blacked the
back part of my shoes and that wasent enny of her
business and so i told her to shet up and she made
a face and run out her tung. then father he sed
now if you two children begin enny of that you
will go to bed lifely. so we both shet up. well we
wated and wated and the minister dident come and
we wated sum more and the minister dident come
and i got scart, becaus if he dident come the folks
woodent see the goke and i wood get time paisted
out of me. well finally the bell rung and Cele went
to the door. Keene was mad because she coodent
and she started to run out her tung at Cele and then
she remembered what father sed and she stoped
just in time.
sure enuf it was the minister and he sed he was
delade because he had to reprove thoughtless boys
whitch were ketching small and innosent fish with
sharp hooks. father whispered to me that is a hell
of a reeson for keeping a man starving to deth and
i laffed but nobody paid attension to me. well they
all shook hands with the minister and Cele made a
curtsy and sed tea is ready and we all marched out
into the dining room mother and the minister first,
then father and Aunt Sarah and then Keene and
Cele and then the little ones and Georgie and i come
last as i always do when there aint enny wirk to do.
well as soon as they got in i herd them all draw
a long breth and then Aunt Sarah sed for mersey
sakes and mother she sed for heavens sake and father
he sed for goddlemity sakes and the minister he sed
my greef what a disgusting site. well you cood
hardly see the things to eat they was so covered
with flise. then i winked at mother and sed
god made the little fli
and if you crush it it will die
and then i winked again but mother she dident laff
back and father grabed me by the neck and sed did
you do this devilish thing and he shook me till i
cood hardly say yes, when mother made him put
me down. then she sed what did you do sutch a
dredful thing for and when i heard her voice i
woodent have did it for a $1000, and i sed becaus
the minister was all the time preeching not to kill
flise and mother and all of us was all the time more
you dident kill them the more you had to flap out
and it got so that you dident dass to eat a piece of
currant cake or blewbery bred for feer it wasent what
you thought it was and mother she sed and then i
stoped quick for i dident want to get mother in a
scraip but she sed go on and tell it all.
so i sed she sed that if the minister had to fite
with about leven milion flise evry day in summer
for evrything he et or drank she bet he woodent
preech god made the little fli and then the minister
he sed but my dear boy god did make the little fli
dont you reelise that and i sed and god made swallows
and kingbirds and leest flicatchers and spiders,
what have you got to say about that. i had him
there but father sed no imperdence young man tell
us all. so i went on and told all about it, what
Pewt sed and what Beany sed and what i sed and what
we done. 2 or 3 times father had to coff awful and
wipe his eyes. he sed he got sum pepper up his
nose some how he dident know how. when i finished
father sed you go to your room and i will see you
laiter. so i went up stairs and wated a auful long
time afrade father wood come up and lam time out
of me. well bimeby Cele come up and sed very
solum father wants to see you down stairs in the
dining room. so i went down and there they all
set at the table with a new super ready and the flise
all flaped out. all but the minister. father he sed
sit down boy and have sum super and i sed aint
you going to lick me and he sed not if i know myself
and i sed where is the minister and father he sed
he has went home mad. i tride to get him to stay
and eat super with us and i tride to get him to go
to Hirvey's resterant and he asted me if i was going
to punish you and i sed that was a matter between
the boys mother and father and i gessed they wood
have to settle that themselfs and the minister was
mad and woodent stay.
mother she sed i dont think he was mad George,
i think he was hert. father he laffed and sed well
if i had acted so i wood have been mad but a
minister was hurt. ennyway he will lern something
some day i hoap. then he filled up our plates and
we et and et and et and father told the funiest stories
i ever heard. we laffed so we cood scarcely eet.
that nite after i had went to my room father he
come up to my room and opened the door and sed
Harry are you awaik. i had heard him coming and
put out the lite and gumped into bed. i sed yes sir
and he sed
god made the little fli
and if you crush it it will die
and then he shet the door and went to bed.
July 18, 186---i bet that old minister wont come
to our house again verry soon. we are going
back to the unitarial chirch. they have got a new
quire there and Keene and Cele are going to sing in
the unitarial quire. it will seem kind of good to be
there again, and there aint enny meeting in the afternoon
only sunday school. i dont cair mutch about
sunday school becaus they dont lern us mutch there.
today i rode horseback with Ed Tole. he has got
a little red pony not as big as Nellie. it can go like
time. Ed rides it without a sadle. when i ride
without a sadle and sturups it nearly splits me in too,
and hirts my backboan. today we raced. Nellie can
trot faster than Eds but Eds can run faster. i
woodent swap ennyway.
July 19, 186---hot as time. today i met my uncle
Robert. he aint my uncle Robert but is my fathers
uncle. he is my great uncle so mother says. he
aint half so big as my father. he is my grandfathers
brother. my grandfather is dead. my uncle
Robert aint quite. father says he is dead but dont
know it.
well ennyway i met him and said how do you do
uncle Robert and he sed whose boy are you and i
sed i am George Shutes boy and he sed huh i hoap
you will maik a better man than your father. i
wanted to say sumthing sassy to him but if i had
sed what i thought father wood have lammed time
out of me. father always licks me for mispoliteness
and imbehavior, so i jest looked at him scornful
and tirned my back on him. he had went along so
peraps he dident see me. i hoap he did. i bet my
father is 5 times as good as uncle Robert. i asted
mother and she sed i supose sum peeple wood say
uncle Robert is best but i dont quite like his kind.
i told father what uncle Robert sed and father laffed
and sed i must not blame uncle Robert becaus after
he was born they dident find it out for several weeks
and so he got a bad start and hadent never cougt up.
i wonder if that is true or one of fathers gokes
i can always tell.
then father sed that Isac was a grate trile to uncle
Robert he was so tuf, and Aunt Sarah she sed why
George Shute you know that Isac never did a rong
thing in his life and father sed no i gess he dident
but if he had been aloud to go with me and Gim
Melcher and Charles Talor and the rest of the boys
we wood have made a man of Ike.
July 20, 186---father has bougt 2 sheep. mother
sed what in the wirld do you want 2 sheep for and
father he sed he got them cheep becaus they dident
have enny lamns in March. father says they may
have sum enny time now and i must keep my eye
pealed.