I have wrote a poim about our sheep.

my father he has got 2 sheep

he got them most almity cheep

but if them sheep dont have no lamns

he'll fill the air with feerful damns.

ain't that a pretty good poim. i bet Pewt coodent

wright that or Beany eether.

July 21, brite and fair. i dont cair this time for

it seems good to go to the Unitarial once more. i

bet Beany is glad. i bet Pewt is two. i staid in

the barn until chirch time feeding my sheep. Keene

was mad and sed i smelt awful barny. Keene feels

prety big becaus she aint got to set in the same phew

with me. Beany got stang by a hornet in the organ

lof and one side of his face was all swole up. evry

time he wood look out everybody laffed. so after

chirch old chipper Burly told him he coodent blow

the organ ennymore becaus he made faces and made

the peeple laff. so Beany has lost his gob again.

it was two bad becaus Beany coodent help it. we

are going to get up a partition to get Beany back.

July 22, 186---brite and fair. it is feerful dusty

now and when we go across the street we stamp our

feet and the dust comes up all over evrything. it is

lots of fun when peeple are near you. went in swimming

4 times.

July 23. brite and fair. i had tuf luck today.

first i got kept in the yard becaus i stamped some

dust on 2 girls whitch was going down town in white

dresses. mother heard them jawing me and come out

and made me beg there pardon and she give them

a brush and dusted them off and told me to stay in

the yard all day. then this afternoon i dident have

mutch to do xcept ho the garden. all the fellers

was away fishing or swimming or buterfliing, so i

dident have much to do and when old John Quincy

Adams Polard went by all humped up over his cain

i was picking buggs off the tomatoe plants and i jest

coodent help it and let ding 2 joosy red tomatoes

at him, the ferst whized by his head and he looked

around jest in time to get 2th rite in the eye. well

it squashed all over his face and he began to sware

and to lam round with his cane and claw the tomatoe

out of his eyes. then he come rite back to our

house and i squat down behine the tomatoe plants.

i was in a corner and coodent get out and he made

for me with his old cain. i hollered for mother and

she come out and stoped him after he had given

me 2 bats and nocked down 3 tomatoe plants. well

mother took him into the house and got sum water

and towels and washed his face and promised to have

his shert washed. then i had to beg his pardon.

that made twice in one day. that is two mutch i

think. then mother sent me to my room for the

rest of the day. so i staid there reading for a

awful long time and then i was trying to spit in the

rane baril and mother caugt me and sent me to bed.

a feller cant do nothing without being snached

baldheaded.

July 23, 186---today we wrote a partition to get

Beany back his gob. it read like this,

mister Chipper Burley. Beany wasent making

up faces last sunday when the peeple laffed. he was

bit by 2 yeller jacket hornits behine the organ and he

done prety well not to holler rite out loud. most

fellers wood have done it but not Beany. his face

was all onesided and looked so funny that peeple

coodent help laffin. his face is funy ennyway but

peeple have got used to it when it aint swole up.

Beany woodent have stuck his head out if he had

gnew how he looked. he was not to blaim. so he

wants his gob back and we hoap you wil let him

come back.

Yours very respectively.

well we got a lot of people to sine. Earl and Cutts

and father and Mr. Healy and Pewts father and old

man Dow and evrybody that read the partition sined

it and slaped their leg and laffed. sum of them

roared and sed i gess old Chipper will take notise

of that.

well then we drawed lots to se whitch wood read

the partition to Chipper and i drawed the shortest

one. i always do so i am not sirprized. i am going

up to Chips tomorrow.

July 24. brite and fair. i went up to Chips today.

he was in Boston.

July 25. if we dont have rane before long father

says there wont be ennything to eat nex year. went

up to Chips again today. he hadent got home from

Boston.

July 26, i will never speek to Chipper Burley

again. he has got the wirst temper i ever see. he

gets mad for nothing. i never see such a man, i

went up today. i met 2 or 3 men whitch sined the

partition and they asted me if i had seen Chip and

i sed no and they sed wel go up as soon as you can

so i went up. a servant girl came to the door and

told me Chip, only she sed mister Burley was in the

greenhouse. so i went to the greenhouse and he

was there with mister Busell and mister Alfrid

Coner and old Charles Coner and Joe Hiliard. he

asted me what i wanted and i told him and he

winked at the other men and sed read it and i started

to read it and i had jest got as far as mister Chipper

Burley when he got mad and grabed it and toar it

up and chased me almost down to front streete. i

wish i gnew what he was mad about. i dident do a

thing but jest start to read it. i bet i wont go there

again.

July 27, 186---rany and thunderry. i always

thougt a girl with red hair and frekles wood taist

jest loke dandylions when you bite them. i meen

of course bite the dandylions. i meen when you

kiss the girl. i dont know. some day i am going

to find out.

July 28, 186---i wunder why i wrote what i wrote

yesterday. if i thougt ennybody wood ever read

this diry i wood have toar that out. ennyway that

is what i always thougt. i bet sum of the fellers

know. but i dont. Beany has got his gob back.

they coodent get ennyone else to taik it. his face

has all gone down so it is not funny enny moar. at

least it is not enny funnier than usual and we are

used to that.

July 29, 186---it was hot as time today. this

afternoon me and Cawcaw Harding went up to the

gravil to go in swiming and jest as we was jest

ready to dive in a cold mist came up and we nearly

froze befoar we cood find our close. i tell you we

dresed prety quick and hipered for home. father

sed it was a sea tirn and sumtimes horses and catel

has been lost and froze to deth by them and i had

beter be cairful about going in swiming when it is

too hot. i never know when father is goking. one

day i asted him what the fellers witch lived in south

America and Africa did for snow-baling and he sed

that the snow was so hot sumtimes that they had to

cool their snowballs befoar they pluged them at

other felers or they wood scald them or burn them

bad. i gnew that father was goking that time but

the nex day in school i read in a school book that a

man once froze water in a red hot cup. so peraps

he wasent goking after all.

July 30 186---i have to cut grass for them sheep

evry day now and it taiks a lot of time when i cood

be fishing. i never see such things to eat. always

baaing for sumthing to eat. today they et a whole

cabbije i hooked out of J. Albert Clarks garden, and

a bushel of grass i cut over by the high school and

sum carots and sum meal and hay and a lot of

potatoe pealings and 2 peaces of lettis and drank haff

a pale of water and tiped over 3 whole pales full.

one is tame and follows me round. that is the old

one. the young one is wild and if i dont look out

wil butt me when i aint looking and where i aint

xpecting it. once she nocked me over and i hit her

with a stick hard. so now when i get in the pen

she gets in the corner. she knows she cant fool

with me. i guess not.

July 31, 186---this morning we heard a awful

baaing in the sheep pen and father called me erly

and we went out. what do you think they was 3

lamns there. 2 was ded. the old sheep the one

that i liked becaus she was tame was the one whitch

lamns was ded. she was runing up and down and

smelling of them and baaing. then she wood waulk

away from them and look round and see if they

was folowing her and when she see that they dident

she wood come back and baa sum more.

father he sed thunder that is too bad we will have

to berry them. i dont want your mother to see

them. it wil maik her feel terrible. so i got a

spaid and father took up the 2 little lamns and we

went out behine the barn and father dug a hole and

then we rapped them up in sum brown paper and

berrid them. when we went back to the barn the

old sheep was baaing terrible and runing from one

end of the pen to the other end. her eyes stuck out

of her haid and she looked at us as if she was

asking us where her lamns was. father sed thunder

this is tuf what in time can we do. i sed i dont

know and he sed he dident supose i did he never

gnew me to know ennything when it was asted. so

he patted her head and called her a good old girl and

i got sum grass for her but she woodent eat. the

other lamm was all right but the first thing i gnew

the mother sheep nocked her oan lamn over. jest

butted it over. father sed hell and he was over the

fence in jest 2 secunds. then he let her up and she

backed into a corner shaiking her head.

then the lamn kind of teetered up to her wobbly as

time and tried to suck and she butted him again and

nocked him down and father grabed her by the

back of the neck with one hand and by the end of

her back with the other and sed now old lady you

will do one of 2 things in about 2 minits. eether

nurse this lamn or go down to butcher Haleys. so

i poked the lamns nose under the sheep and in a

minit it was sucking like a good one and wigling its

tale like a snaik when you step on its head. the

old sheep tried to butt and kick and get away but

she mite jest as wel have tride to brake away from a

steal trap. i bet my father cood hold a wild bull

of bastem that the minister talked about if he had

him by the neck with one hand and the tale with

the other. i tel you that lamn had a good time.

after he dident want enny more father put him in

another pen and let the old sheep go. this noon he

held her again. it took us so long that it was too

lait to go to chirch. i bet i dident feel bad. after

dinner father held her again. tonite he held her a

few minits and then he let me hold her. she only

yanked once but i held her as good as father.

August 1, 186---this morning father dident have

time to hold the sheep so he hollered up-stairs for

me to get up and hold her. then i heard the door of

the hack slam and i thought as long as father had

went to the trane i woodent hurry and the nex i

gnew mother was shaiking me and teling me that it

was eigt oh clock and that my lamn was bleeting

terrible. so i gumped up and dresed and run down

and put the lamn in the pen and clim after it. the

old sheep backed into a corner when i went towerds

her and stamped her front foot and befoar i cood

gump to one side she hit me with her head and

nocked me flat. i gnew beter than to get up and so

i roled over towerds her and got her by the legs and

then i got a good grip in her wool. we had a

regular rassel and she draged me all over the pen. i

held on like a good feler and bimeby i got her in a

corner head ferst. then the lamn woodent come to

suck. i gess he was scart. i dident blame him for

i was scart two. if i hadent been scart i would have

let go so i hollered for Keene but nobody caim. i

cood hear them ratling dishes and eating breckfast

and i was most starved to death and i dident dass to

let go of that old sheep. so i hung on and began to

call the lamn. it wood baa and come prety nearly

up and then run back. bimeby it come so near that

i cood reech it but when i let go of the sheep with

one hand she began to kick and strugle and i had

another rassel with it. i was most tuckered out

when she stoped to rest again. then i hollered for

sumone to come but nobody caim. then i hapened

to think that in the Swiss Family Robinson that the

father was triing to ride a wild ass and it kicked

and bit and rared and plungged and the only way to

stop him was to bite his hear. so when he rared up

strait he grabed his ear with his teeth and bit it

throug and the ass got down on his feet once more

and stoped kicking and biting and plungging and he

never had enny moar truble with him.

so i made up my mind that when that sheep began

to tare round again i wood try it. so bimeby the

little lamn come up close and i let go one hand to

stick the lamns head in place when the old sheep

began to try to get away and i got both arms round

its neck tite and grabed its ear with my teeth and

bit as hard as i cood. well i wish you cood have

saw what hapened. i never gnew wether she tirned

a back summerset or i did. i gess we both did. she

led out a baa and slamed me down on the floor and

trod al over me and butted me over and tride to

gump out of the pen. while i was on the ground

and she was steping on me i caugt her by the legs

and down she went and most squashed me flat and

one of her feet trod on my head. you jest bet i

hollered and then Keene and Cele and mother and

Aunt Sarah come out and told me to get out of the

pen befoar i was killed. i had been triing to get

out ever since i bit her but she seamed to be

evrywhere to onct. when they come she ran into a

corner and i clim out. i was all covered with dirt

and my nose was skined and my close toar. Keene

asted me if i had ben playing ring round the rosy

and mother told her that she must wash and mend

my close for that before she went out of the yard.

so i gess Keene wont be so smart another time. i

went back to my room and changed my close and

washed my face and hands and mother put some

plaster on my face. then i had breckfast.

tonite i am so tired that i cant wright enny more.

tomorrow i will tell how we fed the lamn. i have

got so i can handle the sheep all right. Sam Dire

done it.

August 2 186---brite and fair. yesterday after i

had my breckfast mother told me to ask Sam Dire

what to do to fed the lamn. mother says Sam

Dire is the lady from Philydelfia like the story of

the Peterkin family in the young folks. when the

Peterkin family in the magasine is stuck and dont

know what to do they go to the lady from Philydelfia

who tells them jest what to do. so mother

sends for Sam Dire when she dont know what to

do. so Sam he came over and clim into the pen

and grabed the old sheep and held her until i got the

lamn and it had enuf.

then Sam he went over to the blacksmith shop and

he made 2 rings of iron. then he got a strap with

a buckel and he put the strap with a ring on it

round her neck. then he fassened a peace of closeline

to the ring and run it throug the other ring

whicht he had fassened to a beem in the corner

and brougt the end of the roap out of the pen and

tide it. so all i have to do now is to pull her up to

the ring and ty the roap. then i get my gnee agenst

her and she cant move. i done it at noon and at

nite. she holds back when i pull but when i brace

my feet agenst the side of the pen and pull you bet

she has to come. that was prety good of Sam.

tonite father nearly dide when i told him about

biting her ear and mother told him how i looked.

he went over and paid Sam 25 cents and told him

he was a beter inventer than the man which invented

hot water and i tell you Sam was pleased most to

deth.

August 3, 186---i think Lizzie Tole is the pretyest

girl i ever see in my life. it looks as if Beany wood

get her. still i am hoaping.

August 4, 186---i woodent have ennybody read

this diry for 2 million dollars. i am very cairful

about it. Beany is a prety good feller but there is

sum things that no feller can stand. i gess Ed Tole

likes me better than he does Beany but Lizzie dont.

I wood ruther have it the other way. still i am

hoaping. Beany may see sumbody he likes better.

so may she. i hoap it will be me. i forgot to say

that this was sunday. i tride to get father to let

me stay at home to taik cair of the sheep but he

woodent. he staid home himself to look after them.

i dont think that is fair. they was a thunder shower

this afternoon. it was after chirch of coarse. it

was a ripper. it struck a tree up on Coart strete

and split off a big lim. i have to wirk prety hard

cutting grass for them sheep.

August 5, 186---i have to wirk harder than enny

feller i know. all Beany has to do is to split kinlins

and lug in wood and get water from the well with

the old chane and windlas and that is always fun

becaus a feller always splashed the water all over

him and sumtimes the chane brakes and they have to

fish for it with hooks and sumtimes things get in the

well and you cant use the water for a long time and

then Beany has to come over to my house. once a

cat got drownded in Beanys well. Beany cood see

it floating round but me and Beany was mad and

he sed he never wood come over to my house again

or speak to me as long as he lived. so Beany dident

say nothing to his family but kep on luging in pales

of water. bimbye the water began to smel bad and

taist feerful and Beanys father xamined the well

after about a week more and found the old ded cat

and there was a dredful time and Beany got a licking

and had to come over to our house for water

until his well was clened out. ennyway we had made

up. gues what we got mad about. i treted Lizzie

to gibs and Beany got mad and woodent speek to me

or to her. then he bought a prize packige of candy

and got a ring that was wirth a grate deel of money

and gave it to her and now she goes with Beany

and dont speek to me. i am never going with girls

again. ennyway me and Beany are all rite again.

August 6, 186---brite and fair. Pewt is wirking

for his father painting the Academy fence. he says

he gets one dollar and a quarter a day. gosh i wunder

if he does. Beany says Pewt dont get fifty

cents a year. Pewt woodent wirk if he dident get

paid. he always has got money too. so i gess he

gets sum pay. i almost never have enny money

xcept when i let my boat and bisness is poar this

summer. i doant beleve i have ernt 2 dollars this

summer. i think father had aught to pay me fer all

the wirk i do. i am tired of that old sheep. i wish

a dog wood come in some day and kill it. we all

like the lamn. it is geting so it can eat grass a

little. evry day i ty the old sheep out in the grass.

i wish it was ded. evry time it baas i have to give it

sumthing. i wood like to give it sum poizon.

August 7, 186---hot and thundery. Cele is reading

the bible throug. she reads a chapter evry

morning. she is terible religius. she is a grate

reader of dime novels. she reads all mine. father

lets me read them. he says he likes to read them

himself. it is all indian fiting. Cele has read Nat

Todd the Traper and Billy Bolegs and Scalploc

Sam and Mountain Mike and One Eyd Pete and lots

of them. she says she likes the bible best. i dont

beleve it. she has got as far as the 2th palsam.

once father made me lern a palsam. he gave me

10 cents. i have tride to forget it and it is most

forgot. it goes like this.

day unto day utterith speach and nite unto nite

showeth gnowledge.

there is no speach nor gnowledge where thy voice

is not heard. that is all i can remember now. once

i cood say it all but i dident know what it ment. i

gnew what the 10 cents was for.

mother dont believe it wil do Cele eny good to

read dime novels but father says it will help her

atain a hapy medium.

August 8, 186---mother dont like to have Cele

read dime novils. father dont cair. i dont cair

much so long as father dont stop me. of course

Cele cood read mine after i had got throug them,

but Cele wont do that. she is two good for this

wirld. it is funny. Cele is as stuffy as a bull dog

but she has got a new England consciense, so father

says, and if mother tells her not to read dime novils

she woodent do it to saive her life. but if Cele

thougt it was rong to read dime novils mother and

father cood lam time out of her but they coodent

maik her read them. she thinks it is rite to read

dime novils but if mother tells her not to she wont

read them if you cut her rite hand off. that is Cele.

August 9, 186---me and Cele are reading Wild

Mag the Trappers Bride. she has got to the nineth

palsam now. she gets the novil when i am cutting

grass for that old sheep and i get it when she is

reading the palsams. i bet i can remember the novil

beter than she can the palsam. i bet she can two.

Keene dont read eether. she is reading Weded but

no Wife in the New York Legger. i think mother

dont like that eether. tonite mother and father had

it out. father sed he thougt it wood be all rite for

Cele to read novils but if mother sed no it was

going to be no and that is all there was about it.

Keene coodent keep still and sed it aint nice to read

dime novils and mother sed it is wirse to read Weded

but no Wife in the Legger and father sed that is jest

dam rite Joey, he calls mother Joey, and so Keene

has got to stop reading that story. Cele cried and

Keene was mad. i dident yip and nothing was sed

about me. i know when to keep quiet as well as

the nex one. this is one of them times. after we

had went out i told Cele i wood read it and tell her

all about it but she sed no it woodent be rite and she

went off balling and wiping her eyes. she red 2

palsams today to make up. i am glad i havent got

a New England consciense. it is a awful thing to

have when they is enny fun going. i hoap i shal

never have one.

August 10, 186---brite and fair. the ferst chirch

is going to have a picknic a week from nex Tuesday.

father says i cant go becaus i am a unitarial. i dont

see why. i used to go to the ferst chirch.

August 11, 186---sunday today. it raned hard

all day. it is the ferst time i ever gnew it to rane on

sunday, and i gess it is the ferst time it ever did in

this wirld. I sed i wood like to go to the ferst

chirch and sunday school but father he sed not mutch

young man, but so long as you are so anchious to go

to chirch you can go to the Unitarial with your

sister Celia. i tride to get out of it but he made me go.

so me and Cele went. this is one of the times when

i dident know enuf to keep still. i am going to that

picknic sumhow. unitarials dont never have picknics.

that is the only thing i have got agenst them.

August 12, 186---in 3 weks from today school

begins again. i dont like to think of it. it is a

shaim. i waulked down town with the ferst chirch

minister Mister Borows today. he asted me why

we dident go to his chirch enny more and sed that

he missed my sisters singing in the quire. he dident

say ennything about missing me. i told him we was

all crasy to get back to his chirch and sunday school,

only i called it sabath school becaus ministers always

call it that and evrybody else doesnt. he asted me

if we become crasy to get back about the time we

heard of the picknic and i sed no not exackly then,

for we had always felt like that way but we was

more crasier when we heard of that. all he sed was

hum. that can meen most ennything you know. i

am going to that picknic sumhow. i wish that old

sheep was ded. if i see a bear climing the fense to

kill that sheep and take off her skin and rap it up

in a neet roll the way bears do and then eat it, i

mean the sheep and leeve the skin and i had a gun in

my hand i woodent shoot that bear. that is the way

i feel about her. evry time i want to go ennywhere

i have to taik cair of that old sheep ferst.

August 13, 186---i havent seen a show in Exeter

for a long time. i wish i gnew how i was going to

that picknic.

August 14, 186---i was going fishing all day today

and taik my dinner with me but of coarse i

had to come back at one oh clock to feed that darned

old sheep. i wish we lived in a bear country.

August 15, 186---brite and fair. perhaps if i did

i woodent dass to go fishing. ennyway i wish that

old sheep was ded. i am still hoaping to go to that

picknic.

August 16, 186---we have had a terrible xciting

time here today. if it hadent been for Cele we wood

have lost our sheep. me and Keene fit hard with

clubs and broomsticks and kicking in the ribs and

pulling his tale but Cele done it. i shood never have

thougt of it. but Cele did. father says Cele is a

heroin. he says Cele has got some branes but that

me and Keene has got moar curage than jugment.

He says mother has got some branes two. i gess

father was tickled to deth about it.

well this is the way it was. old Henry Dow has

got a awful cros dog. when it aint tide he keeps it

with him. today it got untide or knawed its roap

and the ferst i gnew i heard Keene begin to screach

and a growl and a kind of choking sort of baa. i

was up in the barn lof, but when i herd that i come

down prety quick. when i got there old Dows dog

had that sheep rite by the gozzle and had throwed it

down. the lamn was trembling and baaing and

Keene was lamming that dog with a broom jest as

hard as she cood paist him and screaching as loud

as she cood. he dident mind the broom stick enny

more than a fether. i ran up and kicked him in the

ribs but that dident maik him let go. i got hold of

his tale and pulled and kicked but he hung on.

they was maiking a awful choking growly noise.

mother run out and then run back and i herd her

pumping a pale of water and i run for the ax. jest

as i got it and come out of the shed Cele come taring

out of the house with sumthing shiny in her hand

and throwed it rite in that dogs nose and eys, and

he let go and began to howl and paw at his eys and

nose and role over and tare round. people were

running into the yard and mother come out with a

pale of water jest as Sam Dire clim over the fense

with a red hot iron in his pinchers and come taring

up. the dog had scooted for hom howling bludy

murder and when Sam got there he was so xcited he

put the red hot iron on the sheep and set its wool

afire. we wood have had roast lamn for dinner if it

hadent been for mother who throwed her pale of

water part of it on the sheep and part of it on Cele

who got in the way. the funny part of it was that

when we xamined the sheep we found she wasent

hurt mutch. the bull dog had got his teeth partly

in her thick wool and partly in her lether coller. she

was scart about to deth and kep hudling up against

us like a cat. Keene she sed she saw the whole of

it. the old bull dog started for the lamn and that

old sheep whitch had never liked the lamn gumped

rite in front of it with her head down and the bull

dog gumped and grabed her instead of the lamn. if

he had grabed the lamn he wood have killed it to

onct. tonite father asted more than 40 questions

about it. he sed we al done splendid. that me and

Keene showed grate curage but that Cele and mother

showed grate jugment. he nearly dide laffing when

he heard Sam Dire set fire to the sheep. he sed he

gesed Sam dident want to lose his heat. father

asted Cele how she hapened to think to do that and

that is the funny part of it. sumtimes you

have to laff at funerals. well Cele sed that in Scalploc

Sam a bear had a deth grip on his dogs throte

when Scalploc Sam he grabed his pepper pot and

throwed a hanful of pepper in his eys and nose and

while the bear was ritheing in agony and filling the

welkin with horid roars and snarls and growls Scalploc

Sam loded his thrusty riffle and slew him. slew

means kill.

so that give Cele the idea and she done it. she

sed she dident get enny help from the palsams. so

mother is going to let Cele read dime novils if she

dont read two many. then Keene up and sed that

she had aught to be aloud to read Weded yet no

wife but mother she sed no. so father give Keene

15 cents and gave me ten cents. i told him he had

aught to let me go to that picknic but he sed he

dident believe in eleven hours conversion i told him

i had been thinking about that picknic for eleven

days and he laffed and sed i would have to get along

with that ten cents. i tell you we was all tired

tonite. i think father had aught to let me go to that

picknic. i am still hoaping.

August 17, 186---today that sheep let the lamn

suck and seamed to like it. she rubed agenst me

and was as tame as the old one was. if she is going

to ack that way i shall like her. Beanys father is

going to let Beany go to that picknic. Mister Watson

Beanys father rings the town bell and is the

ganiter of the ferst chirch. Beany always has all the

luck. i dont have enny. it is most time for that

picknic but nobody aint sed nothing to me about it

yet. i am still hoaping.

August 18, 186---when i woke up this morning it

was raining hard and it raned all day. this is the

ferst time i ever gnew it to do that and the 2th time

i ever gnew it to rane on sunday. today i split the

wood and luged it in and fed the sheep and did all

them things that i have to do and most felers dont

have to do and then i read awhile and we talked

about the bull dog and the sheep. then i rote a poim

about it.

one day in sumer in Au-gust.

it was so hot we nearly bust

my sheep was painting with the heat

when a dog came taring down the street

and then without delay or pause

he gumped on them with teeth and claus

P.S. a dog aint got no claus to clau with, only

nails and nails woodent rime with pause.

he seezed that sheep by her white throte

and shook her till she was all aflote

he wood have killed her ded rite there

when my sister Keene who you coodent scare

let out a screech you cood heard a mile

and laid on a broom in her very best style

and while she was taning his mizable hide

i give him sum feerful kicks in the side

and squashed him almost perfictly flat

but he wodent let go for all of that

till my sister Cele came runing out

with a scornful look on her hansom snout

(P.S. a second time. it is a kind of mean thing

to say about my sister Cele but it is a good rime

ennyway as long as i sed she was hansome i dont

beleeve she wood cair.)

and she throwed in that dogs face and eys

peper enuf to make 40 Kyann pepper pyes

and that dog let go and begam to yell

and howl as if he was rite in hell

(P.S. 3th we unitarials say there aint no hell

but i aint sure)

and he made for home on the cleen gump

jest as mother came out with a pale from the pump

and old Sam Dire clim over the fench

with a red hot iron and a munky rench

(P.S. again. fench is ment for fence. poits

can do this whenever they have to)

and he set on fire that poor sheeps fur

and that was the best he cood do for her,

but mother throwed that pale of water

half on the sheep and 3 fourths on her daughter

and Cele sed Sam you dam big lout

just what in hell are you about?

(P.S. once more. my sister Cele never sed that

really. she wood ruther cut her rite hand off than

use such langage. but nobody but me will ever

read this)

and Sam sed looking verry wize

i apoller-oler-ollergize.

and then thinking he better not stop

he clim the fence to his backsmith shop

and oh how grateful that sheep must feel

to me and mother and Keene and Cele.

but old Sam Dire has went to his shop

where we certingly hoap old Sam will stop.

(P.S. the last time. we really dont hoap so

becaus we all like Sam very mutch. Sam is one of

the best fellers we ever gnew. But i had to finnish

the poim some way. ennyway Sam wont ever

read it.)

There i think they aint many better poims than that.

i bet the Exeter News leter wood put it in their

paper if i dassed to let them. i bet Beany coodnt

have wrote it. i bet Pewt coodent have either.

August 19, 186---tomorrow is the last day

before the picknic and i am still hoaping. it

will be prety mean if i cant go to that picknic. i am

stil hoaping.

August 20, 186---hooray i am going to that picknic.

i had almost given up hoap. mister minister

Barrows come and asted me if i wood let my boat

for the picknic. i sed i never let my boat to a

picknic unless i rew it myself becaus i never gnew

who wood row it and how they wood treet it and

once they dident bring it back at all but after they

had used it all day they left it up river and dident pay

me and i had to go up after it and when i had

waulked three miles up river i found it on the

other bank and it was too cold to swim across and

i had to waulk way back to the brige and then go up

on the other side to get it and it took me most all

day and the boat was all full of dried mud and ded

hornpout and i had to spend the rest of the day

in washing it out and dident get enny pay.

wel he sed they wood pay me well and wood treet

the boat verry carifully but i sed i coodent trust

enybody eether to pay for the boat or to take cair of it.

so i sed i gess i dident want to let the boat unless i

did the rowing and was there to look after it. i

sed it was the only boat i had and that father was

always telling me not to let evry Tom Dick and

Harry have it jest becaus they wanted it.

he sed he wood assure me that everything wood

be all rite if i wood tell him how mutch i wanted

for it but i told him he coodent have the boat unless

i went with it and he had beter get a boat of

sumbody elce. he sed that my boat was large and safe

and that nobody elce has so good a boat.

i told him that wasent my fault but that was the

way i did business, so after awhile he sed well if i

wood promise to do all the rowing that he wanted

he wood ingage me and my boat and he is going

to give me 50 cents. i only get 25 cents most of the

time but i thougt i had augt to get 50 of him. so

he sed all rite and i am going. when father come

home i told him the minister had sed that if i wood

come to the picknic and help row the boat he would

give me 25 cents more than i usally got, and he

sed i cood do it if he wanted me as bad as that. i

dident tell father all i sed to the minister or all he

sed to me. i dont think the minister wanted me

very bad. i think he wanted the boat more. enny

way he had to do it. tomorrow i am going to wash

the boat out and i bet i will have a good time.

Keene says she woodent want to go where she

wasent wanted but i told her that when they paid

me twice as mutch as i usally got it showed that they

wanted me prety bad. so Kerry coodent say mutch

to that.

August 28, 186---it is almost time for school to

begin and i have lost a hole week in bed and my life

has been despared of. i dont beleeve enny feller

ever was so sick as i have been and still lived to

tell the tale. doctor Pery sed he never gnew a feller

to go throug what i have went throug and live. it

was that darn picknic that done it. doctor Perry

says they aint a doctor in Exeter that dont lay in a

lot of extry caster oil and rubarb and sody and a

new popsquert and get a lot of sleep the nite befoar

a chirch picknic. he sed that a collick from eating

two mutch is bad enuf but when a feller is all swole

up with poizen ivory leeves two it is wirse.

it is a very long story and i dont beleeve i can

write it out all in one evining becaus sumtimes my

head goes round like a button on a barn door so

father sed.

wel the morning of the picnic i got up erly and

washed out my boat and had it at the worf when the

peeple come down. mother sed she dident want me

to go unless i took sumthing for them to eat so she

put me up a half dozen donuts and sum sanwiches

and sum apple tirnovers and a little bottel of pickels.

well i thougt they wood have enuf for all of the

people without that and so i et it all while i was

washing out the boat. i gnew i was a going to have

a hard days wirk and i wanted to be ready and after

i had hid the basket and had the boat reddy the

peeple began to come down to the worf. they had

baskets and pales and paper boxes and ice creem

freesers and bottels and plaits and goblets and mugs

and cups and brown paper packages of coffy that

smeled awful good and made me hungry again

althoug i had et a hole basket full.

well the minister was there with a long taled

coat and a white neck ty and decon William Henry

Johnson and decon Ambrose Peevy and Aunt Hannar

Peevy and Widow Sally Mackintire and lots of

them and evrybody was talking and laffing and

stepping on things they hadent aught to step on and

puting things in rong places and loosing things jest

like old peeple always do.

the ferst thing they done was to pile on to the

worf so many that the worf sunk down and the

water come over it and wet most of there feet and

they al screached and hipered up the bank and then

begun to blame me for it as if i had done it when i

was in the boat and dident tuch their old worf. and

Mrs. Lydia Simpkins shorl went floting down river

and i had to row out and get it and she sed i had

augt to know better than to get too many peeple

on a worf and wet their feet and they thougt i done it

a purpose. sum peple wood have given me ten cents.

she mite have thanked me. the minister was all rite.

he sed it wasent my falt. so they was more cairful

nex time and one at a time they tiptode acros the

worf and got into the boats. i had my boat full

and al the women grabed at the sides of the boat and

hollered wen it rocked the teentyest bit.

but after they see i gnew what i was about they

begun to have a good time draging their hands in the

water and setting one sided. it made it awful hard

to row but i dident say nothing but rew as hard as

i cood. i dident know until we got to the eddy

woods why it was so hard. it was becaus Thomas

Edwin Folsoms coat tales were draging in the water

all the way. if i had gnew that i dont beleeve i wood

have sed nothing. they sung songs like lightly row,

lightly row ore the sparkling waives we go and

rocked in the cradle of the deep and come away come

away theres moonlite on the lake and row brother

row the stream runs fast the rapids are near and

the boat is---sumthing or other i have forgot. they

always sing songs like them.

when we got up to the Eddy they got out and the

decons coat tales were driping over his hine legs so

he took his coat off and hung it on a lim of a tree to

dry. then i had to lug all the baskets and pales up

the bank. befoar i went down for a second lode

of peeple Mrs. Dearborn give me 2 more sanwiches

and 3 donuts and a drink of lemonade for rowing

them so good and when i had et them i started down

river again. it was bully to se how eesy that boat

went after the people was out. it was jest as eesy

as nothing at all. i met all the boats comeing up.

they was rowing evry whitch way. the oars was

splashing and not keeping time. there was one man

whitch thougt he was a grate rower. he set in the

back rowing seat and had 2 or 3 full groan peeple in

the front part of the boat and a little dride up

woman who dident weig more than a empty basket

on the back seat and she was triing to steer the boat.

the bow of the boat was sunk down and the stirn

was up in the air so that the ruder dident tuch the

water. the boat would swing round and the man

wood pull sideways till his face was all one sided and

jaw at his wife becaus she dident know enuf to steer

a boat, and she wood paw back that she gnew as

mutch about steering as he did about rowing. they

were having a real good time.

then i met Beany with 2 fat wimmen in the stirn

seat and in the front seat Beany was up so high

that his oars cood hardly reech the water and the

boat was one sided becaus one woman was twice as

fat as the other and the other peeple were leening

over the side of the boat and Beany was sweting like

a horse and mad enuf to bite a peace out of the bow

of the boat and eat it and he was going about one

mile an hour and his face was as red as Skiny

Bruces hair. i set up and rew with long even stroaks

and fethered my oars and dident splash a bit and the

boat went on an even keel with little whirlpools

when the oars came out and when i passed Beany the

peeple in his boat sed dont that Shute boy row well,

i wish he was rowing this boat. if he was we wood

get there sum time today. and Beany was mad

and i heard him say huh old Plupy is only showing

off.

well when i got back to the worf there was sum

more peeple wating with sum milk cans of lemonaid,

and a freeser of ice creem and i was so hot from

rowing so hard that i set down and brethed hard

and wiped my face and held my head in my hands.

they asted me if i was sick and i sed no only xasted

becaus i am so thirsty my throat is dry. so they

give me a glas of lemonaid and a saucer of ice cream

and 2 peaces of cake and after i had et that i sed i

felt better and was ready to row them up. they

asted me how long it would taik and i sed if they

wood set so the boat wood run even i wood do it

prety quick. so they done as i sed and i rew steddy

by the gravil and the oak and the cove and the fishing

bank to the willows whitch is haff way and they give

me 2 glasses of lemonaid and when i had drank it

i started again and rew stedy till i got to the last tirn

when i passed Beany and the other boats that the

old pods were rowing.

when i went by Beany he sed i bet you havent been

way down to the worf old Plupe and the peeple in

my boat sed he surely has and the fat wimmen in

Beanys boat sed the nex time we come up we will

get him to row us and not you Elbrige. i sed to

myself low so they woodent hear me i bet you wont

if i can help it.

well i landed my peeple at the bank and luged

up their stuff befoar Beany got there. when he got

there a awful funny thing hapened. Beany he give

2 or 3 long stroaks to land the boat and he done it

pretty good for him. while the boat was running in

Beany balanced in the bow ready to gump out and

hold it. well when he done it and lifted the bow to

pull up the boat the stirn went down so far that the

water came over the side of the boat and the fat

wimmen were setting in about six inches of water.

well they screeched and tride to get up but they

was weged in so tite that they coodent till 2 of the

men gumped into the boat and yanked them up and

you augt to hear them lay into Beany. the back

of their dreses was sopping wet.

wel peeple had put up swings and fellers was pushing

girls in swings and runing under them and sum

were swinging in hammocks and sumone had bilt a

fire and sum were setting the tables and sum were

setting down on shorls and cushings and children

were playing copenhagin and going to Gerusalem

and it was a lively time.

i wanted to have sum fun but the minit i landed

2 wimmen that i had never saw befoar wanted me

to go out with them to get sum flowers and leeves

for their table and of coarse i had to go but as i was

prety well tuckered out i made them give me one

more glas of lemonaid and 3 sandwiches. that was

better than nothing and after i had drank it and et

them i was reddy and we went off in the boat. i rew

them across the river and we found sum vines with

shiny leaves and a lot of yeller dazies and sum cardinel

flowers and the wimmen made reaths of them

one for eech plait on the table.

while we was doing this sum more people come

and they began to make reaths and i helped them.

bimeby we had enuf and we went back to the picknic

with our arms full. when we got there they

was a big crowd round sumthing on the ground and

we run up and found that Beany had fell out of a

swing and had hit on his head. he swang the

higest of enyone when he fel out and if he hadent

hit on his head it wood have killed him. it made

him kind of squint eyd for a while and his head was

on one side for 2 or 3 days but it dident hurt him.

miss Lewccretia Baley had spraned her anckle by

steping in a hole and had to set with her anckle

rapped up in a shorl. but i notised she et as mutch

as ennyone, and Tommy Tomson had got a fishhook

in his leg and had to have it cut out. evryone was

having a good time and i cood smell the coffy.

after Beany was pernounced out of dainger and

was able to crawl round and drink about 3 glases

of lemonaid before dinner was ready, sum fellers

is pigs ennyway, i had to row sum moar peeple up

river for sum cardinel flowers. before i done this

i got them to give me 2 creem cakes and a peace of

blewberry pie. i aint like Beany always waiting to

eat without wirking for it. a feller has to eat in

order to wirk good.

well when i had et them i rew the people up river

and when they wood see a cardinel flower they wood

holler to me and i wood row the boat up to the place

where the cardinel flower was and they wood pick it

and holler over it and then we wood go on. the

river was kind of low and the banks were steep and

slipery where the cardinel flowers grew and Charlie

Lane, the feller whitch was in the boat, had on sum

white britches and we had got enuf and was going

back when one of the wimmen sed oh see that splended

one we must have that one. so i rew up and

Charlie got out and clim up and got the flower

whitch was a big one 2 or 3 feet above the water.

when Charlie got it he turned round and sed

the rose is red the vilet blew

the pink is sweet and---

and his hels flew up and he set down in the slipery

mud and slid rite into the water, that is his hine legs

went in to his gnees but he grabed the boat and that

stoped him. his white britches were wet and covered

with green slime to his gnees and the seat of

his britches was black with mud. the wimmen

nearly dide laffing and Charlie sed mersy sakes what

a mess. most evry other feller wood have swore

feerful but Charlie doesnt sware and is a good young

man. that is why we call him Charlie.

well Charlie sed he gessed he wood woulk home

and change his britches, he called them his pants,

and so he got out of the boat and clim up the bank

and started. i dident tell him he was on the rong

side of the river becaus he dident ast me and i

supose he gnew what he was about. the last i see

of him he was going towerds Kensinton. while i

was sick i sort of wurred about him but when i ast

mother she sed he was in the store. he works for

old Gid Lyford.

when we got back to the picknic old Mrs. Bolton

had had a spell and the minister and Decon Sawyer

was lifting her into Miss Susan Parkinsons caryall

to drive her home. sum feller had throwed a teeny

little bull toad in her lap. huh i shood think that

was a prety thing to have a spell for. i never see

ennyone have a spell. i wish i had got there in time

to see it. Beany sed it was grate fun and elvrybody

injoyed it.

Mr. E. O. Luvrin had been stang by a hornit on

his underlip and evrybody had a good time looking

at him. i don't beleeve there was ever a beter

picknic.

the tables had been set and looked fine. our table

with the reaths was the pretyest. well we all set

down and evrybody sed hush, hush and the minister

sed a long prair. peraps it seamed longer becaus

i was most starved to deth. i had been wirking

so hard and it was a long time since i had my breckfast.

well after the minister got through, we pitched in

and et. i never had so good a dinner in my life.

we had ham sanwiches and cornbeef sanwiches and

tung sanwiches and pickles and milk and pickle

limes and creem cakes and blewberry pie and chese

and rasbery tirnovers and astrackan apples and

balled egs and blackberrys and tee and coffy and

sardeens on crackers and custerd pyes and squash

pyes and apple pyes and gelly roles and tarts and

coconut cakes and all the ice creem we cood eat,

pink ice creem and white ice creem and yeller ice

creem.

i et sum of everything they had. you see it was

a long time since i had my breckfast and i had been

wirking hard and mother had always told me to

eat evrything in my plait and i wanted to ennyway.

so i et until i coodent eat ennymore and most everybody

done so two.

after dinner i helped clear away the things and

then sum peeple went wauling in the wood sum slep

in the hammucks and sum set down in cerkles and

played gaims and told storys. they was one big

cerkle whitch had the minister and most of the

decons and their wifes and all the old wimmen and

they was playing childrens gaims and hollering and

laffing jest like children. old E. O. Luverin the feller

whitch had been stang by a hornit on the underlip

had told me to bate a hook and set my pole for

a big hornpout or an eal. so i done that before dinner.

i put a big steal hook on the line and bated it

with the bigest grashoper i cood find, an old lunker,

one of them kind that maiks a noise lika a nutmeg

graiter and when it flise ratles its wings. then i

unwound al my line and threw the bate out as

fur as i cood and set the pole with a croched stick

rite down in the sand by the boats. i was lissening

to the peeple playing gaims when sum feller hollered

Plupy you got a bite and i looked and saw that my

line was tite and my pole bending. so i hipered

down the bank and grabed the pole and pulled in.

i had a big one on the hook and he pulled terrible,

but i yanked him out and i pulled so hard that he

went way over my head and rite in the middle of the

cerkle of peeple.

it was an old lunker of an eal and when it lit on

the ground it twisted and squirmed and thrashed

round like a snaik and of al the screaching and tirning

of back summersets by the wimmen whitch were

fat and coodent get up quick, and of all the holding

up of skerts and hipering for the woods by the thin

wimmen you never saw in all your life.

and the men hollored and got out of the way of

that eal as quick as the wimmen and one decon hollered

what in hel and damnation are you trying to

do you cussid fool, and sum of the others sed things

i gess they wished they hadent. me and Beany was

triing to get that eal of the hook. i got my foot on

his neck and he squermed round my leg and got my

britches leg all covered with slime. bimeby i got

him off and into my boat, and when i went back old

Mrs. Sofire Peezley was having a spell. i never seen

ennyone have a spell before and it was very interesting.

she screached and cried and then threw her

head back and laffed and claped her hands together

and roled her eys and gulped and swallered, and the

wimmen were patting her on the back and making

her smell of amonia botles and calling her dear and

blesid lamn, and poar darling and talking to her as if

she was a baby, and wimmen were coming back

from the woods and saying it was a burning shaim

and looking at me mad and saying i had aught to be

in jale. and old E. O. Luvrin jawed me but it

dident do no good becaus his lip was so swole that

nobody cood understand what he sed. but i sed i

aint done nothing what are you pichin into me for?

Then a woman sed you are the wirst boy in town

and you are jest like your father was, and i sed i

gess if you gnew what my father sed about you you

woodent say much more and she tirned red and sed

if that boy stays here i wont. it is a shaim to have

sutch a boy at a desent picnic or with desent peeple.

then they all got round me and jawed me and the

minister sed i must go home and i sed all rite if

i have got to go i wil taik my boat, and he sed verry

well take your boat and go. i am verry mutch

disapointed in you. then i sed ennyway i want my

fifty cents and they all sed dont you give him a cent

he has been a newsense. then i sed it may be all

rite to call a feller a newsence after he has rew about

a hundred peeple more than fifty miles and luged

barils stuff up the bank and made reaths and picked

flowers and rescued peeple from drownding whitch

dident know enuf to sit in a boat, but i aint going

till i get my fifty cents then they sed if i dident

go rite off they wood lick me and i woodent get my

fifty cents.

so i got into my boat and rew up river. then i

rew back and kept in the middle of the river and

began to holer things to Beany. i gnew they

coodent drive me off the river so i hollered to Beany

did you see old Misses Peezley have that fit? gosh i

bet she maiks old man Peezley stand round. peraps

that is why he is baldheaded. Beany dident dass to

say nothing.

then i hollered Beany did you hear old decon

Aspinwall sware at me? he wanted to know what

in hel and damation i was triing to do. that is prety

talk for a decon aint it?

i shood think he wood feel ashaimed the nex time

he speeks in prair meeting.

i cood see the decon talking to the minister xcited,

and Misses Peezley was talking xcited two. but

Beany dident dass to say nothing. so i hollered

again to Beany did you see old Rhody Shatuck hold

up her skirts and hiper for the woods? did you

ever see sutch skinny legs? then old man Shatuck

run down the bank and hunted round for a rock but

i gnew he coodent find one becaus there aint enny

rocks there and he tride to break a lim off a tree

to plug at me and he hollered and sed he would brake

my back, but i gnew he coodent get me and i hollered

again to Beany o Beany aint it lucky the minister is

married becaus all the wimmen is hanging round

him and Beany dident dass to say nothing, but they

all got together and talked and then the minister

come down the bank and called me to come in and

he wood give me my fifty cents if i wood go strait

home but i sed not mutch i dont come where you can

get a holt on me and lam time out of me.

well he sed i will not hurt you but i sed you sed

you wood pay me and you dident and i cant trust

you. he turned red as a beat and sed i am verry

sorry that you acuse me of being untroothful but

here is your money if you will come near enuf so

i can toss it into the boat. so i backed the boat in

holding my oars ready to row out if he tride to

grab the boat or to gump in but he dident do eether

but throwed the fifty cent peace into the boat and i

started for home.

i gess it was about time for i began to feel prety

quear. my head aked and there was black specks

before my eys and my face and hands burned like

fire and smarted and my boans aked.

i gess i shall have to stop here for i hear mother

coming up with my chicken broth and tost and am

most starved to deth. father says i weig 2 pounds

less than nothing and my arms and legs is jest like

pipe stems or spider legs.

Continnude from the last.

August 29 186---when i got home i hiched the

boat and my head went round so i had to set down.

then i got up and went home. mother saw me and

sed what is the matter with your face it is as red

as fire. i sed i gess the muskeeters done it. she

asted me if i wanted enny supper but i sed i dident

ever want to eat again but i wanted a drink of water.

so i drunk sum water and went up stairs. then i

begun to feel bad and caled mother and she come

up jest in time. i was awful sick. father come up

and Aunt Sarah and they held my head and run in

and out of the room with wash boles and towels. o

i was awful sick and mother sed for mersy sakes

what have you been eating and father sed for goddlemity

sake what haven't you been eating?

bimeby i felt a little better only my face and hands

burned and itched. mother sed she dident like the

looks of it and she never gnew a feller to be sick at

his stomack with a red face and hands. so she wet a

towel in cold water and put it on my face and hands

and bimeby i gess i went to sleep.

sumtime in the nite i began to feel sick again and

had awful panes in my stomack and i called mother

again. this time i was awful sick again and father

and mother and Aunt Sarah were verry busy for a

long time. bimeby i wasent so sick to my stomack

but my panes were wirse and father went for docter

Perry. he was gone a long time before he come

back with him. doctor Perry he took a look at me

and sed poison ivory, so he got it did he. then he

felt of my stomack and looked at by tung and felt

my pulce and heard me grone and gave me a dose

of castor oil and then he took out a little popsquirt

the litlest i ever see and he sed i gess i shall have to

give you a subteranian interjection. i thougt a

interjection was a part of speach like alas and o and

ah. ennyway that is what the grammar says.

but this wasent that kind for the docter run the

sharp point of that little popsquert whitch was jest

as sharp as a needle rite into my arm. it hurt like

time and i hollered but after he had pulled it out i

began to feel kind of lite and floty and the ferst i

gnew the pane was gone and i dident know nothing

more.

well the next morning i felt a little beter but not

enuf to get up and not enuf to eat but after a while

i felt wirse again and mother sent for doctor Perry

again and he come and give me some more medecine

and another subteranian interjection whitch put me

to sleep again. the next time i woke up again i

coodent open one ey and only see a teeny bit out of

the other, but i felt better, only i iched feerful and

smarted. doctor Perry laffed when he come in and

sed i looked funny but not so funny as old E. O.

Luvrin. he sed all the peeple whitch set at one table

had it and had it wirse than i did, but i was sicker

the other way.

he sed that all the docters had been up day

and nite and always were buzy when there was a

chirch picknic. he sed that if he had his way chirch

picknics wood not be aloud enny more than prize

fites and cock fites. he sed that the peple were prety

mad with me and thougt i done it purpose, but he

told them if i had done it a perpose i woodent have

been fool enuf to tuch the ivory myself, whitch was

prety good for the docter. ennyway i give him

plenty of biziness. i suppose i hadent augt to have

sed what i did about Missis Shatucks legs and old

Misses Peezleys fit, but i aint sorry for what i sed

about the old decon swaring. i hadent done nothing.

jest cougt a eal. i must have left him in the boat.

gosh when i get well enuf to go down to the boat he

will be in auful smelly condition. i am sory i forgot

him.

Well i had to stay in bed 4 days. most of the time

i had web cloths on my head and coodent see nothing.

Cele come up and read Wild Mag the Trapers Bride

and a new novil Dair Devvil Dave the Dead Shot.

she oferred to read the 92th palsam to me but i told

her i dident feal strong enuf yet so she read 2 more

chapters of Dair Devvil Dave instead.

Beany come over with a tame rat tide with a

string. he wasent very tame and bit Beany 2

times. Potter Goram brogt his collexion of butterflise

and a live green snaik. mother woodent come

in until he put the snaik in his poket. the 2 Chadwicks

Puz and Bug came in twise and fit for me, in

the ferst fite Puzzy got a black ey and in the 2th

fite Bug got a bludy nose. they was good fites and

jest about even. i tell you they is always redy to

help a frend.

Ed Tole brougt up his rooster and had arainged

a fite with Gimmy Fitzgeralds rooster but jest as

they was going to set them a going the old minister

called to see if i was ded and when he found i wasent

he made a long call and praid fer me and told me i

had sinned deaply but wood be forgiven if i had

faith. all the time i cood see Ed and Gimmy peeking

round the corner of the barn and wateing till the

old minister had went so they cood have their rooster

fite. i was afrade they wood have it behine the

barn where i coodent see it and i thout that old minister

never wood go. while he was there he saw

the bible open to the 92th palsam and he sed it is

very grattifiing to me to see that you are reading the

bible and i sed i wasent reading it becaus i coodent

read ennything yet, but my sister Cele comes up and

reads to me and he sed she is a very good girl indeed

and i have heard she is very diffeernt from the rest

of the Shute family. i sed yes sir. then he looked

round some moar and found Wild Mag the Trapers

Bride whitch was rite on the table. i wood have hid

it only i coodent get it unless i piled out of bed and

i dident think it was proper to get up in my shert

tale befoar the minister. so i hoaped he woodent

see the novil but he did and he picked it up and

looked at it and read the naim and held it jest as if it

was a bull toad or a snaik and then he sed are you

reading this vile trash and i sed yes sir, and he sed

how cood you read it with your eyes swole up, and i

sed i cood see sum. he sed you jest told me you

coodent see to read. i dident know what to say so

i sed yes sir. then he sed awful stern do you meen

to tel me that your sister Celia---and jest then

mother she come in and sed i am afrade mister Barrows

that we hadent aught to disturb our pashent

too long. he isent verry strong yet.

and he said that is true Misess Shute but he has

made some staitments about this improper book that

i think it is my duty to look into and he held up

Wild Mag the Trapers Bride and mother she sed it

seems as if Mr. Shute and i are compitent to deside

what our children are to read.

and he sed but my dear Misses Shute this is a

verry improper book indeed and mother she sed have

you read it and he sed god forbid i wood not disgraice

my inteligents by reading sutch a book, and

my mother she sed how do you know then it is a

impropper book without reading it? and he sed

how can a bok of the naim of Wild Mag the Trapers

Bride be a good book and mother she sed she had

read it and there was nothing impropper at all in it.

i dident know she had read it so when the minister

had went off kind of stiflegged i asted her if she

dident thing it was a riping story and she sed no she

dident see how i cood read it but she had read it to

see if there was ennything impropper in it and they

wasent. she sed she only read it to see if there was

ennything really rong in it. she dont care for sutch

stories i am afrade. then she asted if i wanted

ennything and i sed no and she went down stairs.

then when she had went i clim out of bed and waived

my hand to Ed and Gimmy and they come out with

their rosters under their arms and set them a going

and they hadent made more than a dozen gumps at

eech other when in come old mother Moulton with

sum gelly and custerd for me and she stoped the fite

and jawed the boys and asted them if they dident

know enny beter than to have a rooster fite in the

yard of a poar boy whitch had nearly dide only a

few days ago and Ed and Gimmy sed no mam we

dident know he had been so sick and we woodent

have did it and they picked up their roosters and

went home and i skiped into bed prety lively for a

boy whitch had nearly dide a few days ago. so

when she come up i was in bed and i et the custerd

and part of the gelly and it was bully. i wish she

hadent come so soon. that wood have been a good

rooster fite.

i set up most haff of the time today. tomorrow

i am going downstairs. Fatty Gilman come down

today and brought me 2 oranges and a red bananner.

mother let me eat the oranges but woodent let me

eat the bananner. i dont know what she done with

it. i supose sumone et it. enyway i dident.

Aug. 30 186---today i went out in the yard. it

was brite and fair all day. lots of the felers come

up and had a tirnament. first they had a match

throwing green apples on a stick. Puzzy Chadwick

throwed the furtherest. he threw one from my

yard across the high school yard and it went throug

a window in old Heads cariage shop. it was so far

that when the men in that room piled out swaring

they dident supose it was one of us and thy swore

at John Toomy and 2 other fellers in the school

yard.

Pewt was the next best. perhaps it wood have

went as far as Puzzys but sumthing stoped it. what

stoped it was a mans head. i dont know who the

man was but when that apple hit him rite on the

back of his head he throwed down sum boards he

was luging into the shop and clim the fense and

chased John Toomey and the 2 other felers way

down south street. i gess he dident catch them

becaus he swore so when he come back and if he had

cougt them and licked them he wood have felt better.

men always do.

so we dident throw enny more apples. so then

we had sum rassels and the twin Browns and Potter

Goram had a mach wigling their scalps and ears.

Harry Brown beat on a scalp wigling and Potter on

ear wigling. the 2 Chadwicks Puzzy and Bug fit

again and neether licked.

then we had a spitting match. Ed Tole beat. he

always does. then mother come out and sed i had

been out long enuf. so i went in. i had a pretty

good day.

September 1. brite and fair. it seams bully to

be well again and to see the fellers and to go in

swimming and fishing. i havent went in swimming

or fishing since i have ben sick but i am going in in

a day or too. i can eat things now whitch is better

than enything. a feller cant do mutch unless he has

a good apetite. father says there is one thing whitch

has kept me back all these years. he sed that if i had

had a beter apetite when i went to that picknic i cood

have et nine pecks of stuff insted of only five. he

sed he wood have to get the doctor to give me a

tonick the nex picknic time so that i can do a gob

that will be a credit to the family. he sed enny

healthy boy witch can go to a chirch picknic and

only eat 5 meesly pecks of food aint doing jestice to

himself or his frends and he hoaps i will do beter

nex time. he says he dont want me to make a hog

of myself but he does want me to make a record

that he can be proud of. he says i can be champeen

if i only try hard.

i never know whether father is goking or not,

but i think this time he must be goking. ennyway

it wasent becaus i et two mutch that made me sick,

it was becaus i got poizoned by poizen ivory leeves

and that stuffed up my stomack. if it hadent been

for that i bet i woodent have been sick. then going

so long without ennything to eat and wirking hard

dident do me enny good. they are still mad with

me. i am sorry now i sed what i did. when a

feller has lade between life and deth for 3 days he

looks at things diferent from what they wood if

he was well and was going round with fellers like

Pewt and Beany and Whach and Fatty and Pop and

Medo and Tady and Skinny and fellers like them.

So i have been thinking over what i have did and

sed and i am very mutch ashaimed of myself. if

enny other feller had went and sed things about

my mother and sister or about aunt Sarah and my

father that i sed about old Rody Shatuck and Misses

Peezley and Decon Aspinwall i wood have felt like

giving him a bang in the snoot. i wood have did it

if he wasent two big, and if he was i wood have

triped him up sum nite with a roap or plunged him

with ripe tomatose or rotten egs when he had got

on his best close.

but i needent be afraid that ennyone wood say ennything

against my folks becaus they dont have fits

and dont run round after ministers and dont hold

up their skerts xcept when there is a mouse round

and that is always at home where peeple cant see

them. so i shant have to bat ennyone for that but

that dont make enny difference becaus i have did

rong.

so i have thougt it over and last nite when the

band was playing departed days and the romance

from Leclare in the band room i desided i wood

wright a letter to all the peeple i had sassed and

beg their pardon. it is prety tuff to do it but it

aint haff as tuff as being snaiked rite up befoar

them by your father and made to beg their pardon.

i have had to do this quite a number of times. so

this morning when i woke up and had brekfast i

remembered what i desided and i went up to my room

and rote a lot of letters to peeple. i gess when

father finds it out he will think i am prety good

feller after all.

it took me a long time to do it and i hated to

waist the time becaus it is prety near the last weak

of vacation but i gnew i wood feel beter when i

had done it and i done it. this is what i rote to

decon Aspinwall.

decon Aspinwall

Congregasional Chirch

Exeter New Hampshire

dear sir i have been thinking over what i sed to

you when i hollered to Beany about your swaring

at me at the picknic last weak and i done verry

rong and please to forgive me. of coarse it wasent

so mutch becaus you swore so but becaus you are

a decon of the chirch and speek in prair meating

and so you hadent augt to have did it. but that is

no xcuse for me to sass you. father sed i wasent

verry mutch to blaim. he says he dont object to

swaring but when a man tries to be a decon and

plug ugly at the saim time it is the dam hippockrasy

of it that maiks a man mad. i only tell you this

to show you i was not verry mutch to blaim. but

i am verry sorry i done it. you needent tell father

what i sed, but i hoap you will try hard not to sware

so another time when there is wimmen and girls and

a minister present jest becaus a boy done what they

told him to do and cougt a eal.

yours very respectively

Harry Shute

i bet that decon will be glad when he gets that

leter. i bet there aint many fellers whitch can write

a better letter than that. i bet Beany coodent. i bet

Pewt coodent eether. this is the letter i rote to old

Misses Peezley.

Mrs. Sofire Peezly

Exeter New Hampshire

dear Misses Peezly. i am verry sorry for hollering

to Beany them things about you. when you

had that fit i suposed it was becaus you was mad

and i was kind of mad two becaus i had been

cheeted out of my fifty cents by the minister, becaus

i cougt a eal after they had told me to do it. then

i remembered that my father had sed once that you

had them fits when you wanted sumthing and kept

having them until you got what you wanted and

that he pitted mister Peezly.

so i dident think when i hollered to Beany and i

wish you wood pleese forgive me.

it is a awful thing to have fits when you cant help

it. mother says that peeple whitch have fits have to

be verry careful not to get xcited. so when you go

to a picknic again and enny feller throws a bull toad

or a snaik into your lap you must reflek that a bull

toad and a green snaik never bite or scrach and aint

poizen. if you had gnew that at the picknic you wood

not have had that fit. mother says that if peeple

keep having fits they get wirse and sumtimes go

crasy. so i hoap you will forgive me and will be

very cairful not to get xctied. it is dredful to have

fits and i am verry sorry for you.

yours verry respectively

Harry Shute

there i think she will be verry mutch pleesed when

she gets that leter. she wont think i am the wirst

boy in town.

this is the letter i rote to Rhody Shatuck.

Missis Rody Shatuck

Exeter New Hampshire

dear Missis Shatuck. I am verry sorry for hollering

to Beany at the picknic last weak about your

skinny legs. i woodent have did it if i had been

well, but i had been poizened by poizen ivory leeves

and the minister had cheeted me out of my fifty

cents and everybody had jawed me becaus i cougt

a eal and so i done it. if you had a hair lip or a

squint ey or a wenn on your neck like old Nat

Mason it woodent be so bad but it is a dredful

thing to have such skinny legs as you have got and

i am verry sorry for you becaus i have got skinny

legs myself and the fellers have made fun of me

ever since i can remember and it is awful to be made

fun of all the time. if i was a girl i cood cover them

up with my skert and nobody wood know they was

skinny unless i fell down or the wind blew two

hard or i pulled up my skert like you done at the

picknic.

so if i was you i wood be very cairful not to pick

up your skert like you done at the picknic and nobody

will know how skinny your legs is. sumtimes

i wish fellers wore skerts but i gess i would

ruther have skinny legs. so pleese to forgive me

for what i done.

yours very respectively

Harry Shute.

this is the leter i rote to the minister.

the referent minister of

the ferst Congrigasionel Chirch

dear sir. i thougt i wood wright you and tell you

how sorry i am that i sed the sassy things to you

whitch i sed at the picknic last weak. i am also

verry sorry indeed that i douted your word when

you sed you wood give me the fifty cents. if you

had been ennything but a minister i wood not have

thougt you wood cheet me but i have heard my

father say that ministers has so many things give

to them and has so many old mades and fulish

wimmen after them that they aint mutch to blaim

if they forgets sumthings whitch they hadent augt

to forget. you see i dident know you verry well

and i thought you mite be one of them kind of

ministers but i found out that you wasent when you

paid me the fifty cents and done as you agreed when

you promised not to grab me and lam time out of

me. i was reddy for you and if you had grabed that

boat i wood probly have rew so hard that you wood

have been puled into the water all over. i am glad

you done as you agreed and paid me. you were

prety lait in doing it and i was not to blaim for

thinking you wood not keep your agreement, espesially

as the wimmen all told you not to pay me

a cent.

so i am verry sorry for what i sed and i think

you done prety well for a congirigasional minister

and i hoap you will forgive me even if i am a

unitarial and done beleeve in hel as you do.

yours very respectively

Harry Shute.

i bet when old mister minister gets that leter he will

wish i had staid in his chirch. but it is two lait

now. i bet they will all be sorry i left the chirch.

it aint many fellers whitch are willing to oan up

that they are rong as i have done in these leters.

my granmother usted to say that a soft answer

tirnith away rath. so i bet i have made sum frends

by them leters.

when i got throug wrighting the leters it was almost

time for dinner but i had a little moar time

and i rote one mor to miss Tabithy Wilkins. she

is a old made and she was xcited when i holered

to Beany about the wimmen chasing after the minister

and i dident mean her and so i thougt i had

augt to tell her so she woodent wurry. so i rote

her a leter two. this is what i rote her.

Miss Tabithy Wilkins

Exeter New Hampshire

dear miss Wilkins. when i hollered to Beany at

the picknic last weak about the wimmen running

after the minister you thought i ment you and you

got xcited. i thougt i wood wright and tell you who

i ment. i dident meen you at all. i ment your 2

sisters Mary Ann and Unice and i ment missis

Angilina Annis and Feeby Derborn and 2 or 3

others.

i hoap you have not wurred about this. i rote

jest as soon as i cood for i have been awful sick

and lade between life and deth for a long time and

coodent see ennything becaus my eys were all swole

up by poizen ivory. i gnew you wood be glad to

know i dident meen you, but i wood speek to your

2 sisters if i was you.

yours very respectively

Harry Shute.

after i had rote that i got sum stampls of mother.

she wanted to know what i wanted them for and

when i told her what i had did she sed it was verry

brave of me to admiit i was rong and i must feel

verry happy over it and i sed i did and i et my

dinner and put the leters in the post ofice and all i

have got to do now is to have a good time for the

nex 2 weaks.

September 3th, 186---brite and fair and hot as

time. i dident have enny chanse to wright ennything

yesterday. i dident feel mutch like it neether. i dont

believe enny feller had so mutch truble in 2 weaks

as i had last nite. to hear father talk you wood

think i was a bank burglar or a cannybile whitch

kills and eats children. i have been jawed and licked

and kep in my room and sent to bed without super,

only Cele brougt it up after father had went down

town, and had evry thing did to me jest becaus i

rote them leters and i dont see what there was in

them leters to make ennyone mad. i coodent wright

enny beter leters than them if i tride a hole weak,

and the peeple whitch got them is feerful mad with

me and father says that posiably they may persecute

me at law and i may have to go to jale for what i

rote and father says i have got him into a feerful

scraip becaus i told them peeple what he sed about

them. but then he sed it so i dont see why he shood

be mad, and what he sed is true and he says that

evrybody knows it is true so i done see why he

shood be mad.

the wirst of it is mother is mad with me two, that

is to say mother aint mad xactly for she dont get

mad but she is verry mutch displeesed with me and

sed i done rong in wrighting to them as i did. i

dont see why. ferst she says i done rong by hollering

to Beany about them and she was glad i begged

their pardon and now she says i done rong becaus

i dident stop when i begged their pardon and not

say enny more. of course i had to xplain things to

them. ennyway i dont understand it now and i

dont beleeve i shall if i have to go to jale for forty-five

years. i wonder if peeple ever do stay in jale

forty-five years. peraps i shall find out sum day.

i dont care. ennything i sbetter than having evrybody

mad with you. a feller mite as well be ded.

i wish i was ded. if i was ded peraps sum of them

wood be sorry.

well day before yesterday was a bully day. i

went fishing in the morning with Pewt and Fatty

Melcher and cougt 2 hogbaks, old lunkers and 3

pickeril and a big roach almost as big as the one i

left in my jaket poket the time the folks thougt

there was a ded rat in the wall of the house and

got old man Staples to pull down the plastering.

then in the afternoon i went butterfling with Potter

Goram and got sum splendid red and black ones

on the nettle flowers by the side of the road. father

he came home from Boston good-natured and was

glad to see i was so mutch better and we had the

roach and pickeril for supper and they was fine.

after supper father went down town for sumthing

and we was setting round the table. Cele had read

the 95nd palsam and was reading Dare Devvil Dave

the Ded Shot and i was wateing for father who

sed he wood bring me a new novil from Fogg and

Fellers store. Keene was reading the Fireside Companion,

mother lets her read that insted of the New

York Legger. Georgie was putting a picture puzel

together and Annie and Franky and the baby had

been put to bed when i heard father comin up the

steps. as soon as he opened the door i sed have

you got my novil and he sed the thing you will get

is a thundering good licking insted of a novil and i

see i a minit that he was mad. so i sed what have

i done and he sed what in thunder did you wright

that devilish leter to that infernal idiut Aspinwall

for? and i sed i done it to beg his pardon and

mother she sed i done rite. then father he sed that

is a prety way to beg a mans pardon by telling him

i sed he was a dam hippokrit. then i sed i dident

say you sed he was a dam hippokrit i only sed you

sed when a man tries to be a decon and a plug ugly

one at the same time it was the dam hippockerasy

of the thing that made you mad. i dident say you

sed he was a dam hippokrit.

father he sed for goddlemitys sakes what is the

difference? what rite had you to tell him that ennyway

and i sed well you did say it dident you? and

he sed of coarse i sed it and it is true but if you

dont know enny more than to tattle evrything i say

at home i will give you a good sound thrashing rite

now and i thougt i was going to get it when mother

sed wait George to father and then she sed to me

what did you wright to decon Aspinwall and i cood

remember all of it and i told her jest what i had

rote and she leened back in her chair and begun to

laff and laffed and laffed until i thought she wood

fall out of her chair and Aunt Sarah she laffed almost

as hard as mother and father he begun to laff

and then we all laffed. i laffed becaus i see father

laffin and i sed to my self it is all rite he wont lick

me now. so i laffed. after we had stoped laffing

mother sed how did you find out about the letter

George and father he sed i went into Fogg and

Fellers store to get your novil and while i was talking

to Jack Fogg up come decon Aspinwall as red

as a beat and sed what do you mean George Shute

by calling me a dam hippokrit? and i sed i havent

called you a dam hippokrit or enny sort of a hippokrit

and he sed yes you have and i have it hear in

black and white and he shook a leter rite in my face.

so i sed i dont know what you meen. i havent rote

any leter about you and he sed i know it but your

misable son has ritten this atrosius epissle and you

shall pay for it sir, you shall pay for it. well all

the peeple in the store were lissening and i was a

geting mad and so i sed well decon i know you aint

drunk for you are to cussed meen to pay for a drink

and so i gess you must be crasy but to keep you

from going cleer out of your mind i will read the

leter and i was sirprized. but i tried to smooth it

over and sed now decon do you supose for one minit

that i ever thougt that of you, mutch less sed it?

and he sed yes sir that is jest what a man like you

wood say and think two. well i kep my temper

and tride to smooth him down but the more i tride

the mader he got and finally he told me i was a

defaimer of innosent persens and that he wood maik

me proove it in coart. then i got mad and sed look

hear you longnosed old vagrant, sue and be damned,

but i have heard enuf of your chin musick and if

you say 2 words moar i will smash that sankit

monious old snout of yours so flat that they wont be

able to see your ears. then i told him to go to hell

and i come home. but it was the bigest fool performance

to wright a leter like that i ever heard of

and if you ever do ennything again like that i will

tan the hide off of you.

i sed i woodent and i hoaped nobody wood say

enny more but jest then mother sed i hoap you

were moar cairful about the other leters and father

he sed what have you sent enny others and i sed yes

sir and he sed who elce did you wright to and i told

him and he sed what did you wright to Missis Peezly

and i sed i told her i was verry sorry for what i

hollered to Beany and asted her to forgive me, and

he sed are you sure and i sed yes sir hoap to die

and cross my throte. and he sed what did you wright

to Rody Shatuck and i sed i rote her jest about

the saim as i had rote to Missis Peezly and he asted

if i was sure and i sed hoap to die and cross my

throte. and he asted me what i rote to the minister

and i sed i asked him to forgive me becaus i douted

his word and for sassing him and he sed are you

sure and i sed hoap to die and cross my throte.

then he asted if i rote the same to the other peeple

and i sed yes ser and he sed well thank the good

lord you had more sence than you did when you

rote the leter to old Aspinwall. and i sed yes sir

I am glad i had so i thougt i was all rite when the

door bell rang kind of mad. i can always tell how

a person feals when he rings our doorbell and when

he neerly pulls it out i know he is mad. i felt as

if sumthing was going to hapen jest then.

well Cele went to the door and i heard a woman

asing if father was in and i reconised Misses Peezlys

voice and i gnew she was mad and i wondered what

she was mad for. so father he went in and i cood

her her yapping away at him and cood hear father

talking but coodent hear what they was saying.

mother sed i hope you told your father the truth and

i sed yes mam. bimeby father come in and called

mother and she went in and i cood hear her talking.

jest then the door bell rang and Cele let in old Rody

Shatuck and a minit afterwerds in come Angelina

Annis and Unice and Mary Ann Wilkins and Feeby

Derborn all of them jest mad enuf to fite. i cood tell

they was mad by the way they asted for father. i

tell you i got fealing prety sick but i coodent see

what they was mad about. when they went into

the parlor you wood have thougt it was a chirch

meating when they was voating for the carpet in the

vestry. evry woman talked to onct jest as loud as

they cood. i never head such a noise in my life

before. bimeby father come in and told me to come

in and told me not to say a word unless to answer

questions that he asked. i hated awful to go in but

i had to. when i got in they was all there with there

faces as red as beats and mad enuf to bit spikes.

Rody Shatuck called me a misable brat and old

Missis Peezly called me a low minded retch and

made a mosshun as if she was going to paist me one

with her old umbrela, but father told me to set down

in a chair by mother then Angelina sed to mother

that she augt to be ashaimed of herself for incurageing

me in my criminallity. that is what she sed

but i dident know what she ment. but father who

had not yipped a single yip sence i went in sed loud

now look hear Misses Shatuck i want you to understand

that you must keep Missis Shute out of this

discussion. you can say what you like to me or

about me and when you are all through i may have

sumthing to say but if ennyone of you say a word

disrespectful to her why then we will stop this thing

to onct. Now if you understan that go ahead. well

i gess they understood it for of all the talk you ever

heard, you wood have thought to thousand hens

was cakling. they jest give it to me and father.

father looked stern and serius but i thougt i cood

see sumthing in his eys that looked like he wanted to

laff, but mother dident look a bit like laffing. bimeby

when they had talked about a hour it seamed to me

they stoped. then father sed now young ladies i

am a grate deel older then you are and have tride

to look at the matter on both sides. why father aint

within a most a hundred years so old as eny of

them but he gnew how to pleese them. mother

looked mad but father went on. as for you Missis

Peezly nobody here ever heard of you having fits

or ennything else. i goke a good deel to home here

and i never goke about peeple i dont like. it is

always about peeple for which i have the greatest

respec and liking. i may have sed sumthing like

what he sed and if i did i hadent augt to have did

it, and woodent have did it if i had suposed that

this boy woodent have gnew better than to have

took it serius. i beg your pardon verry sincerely

and this boy must do it two. so father he done it

and i had to do it a 2th time. well she told father

she was sorry she lost her temper with him for

evrybody sed he was a perfick gentleman, but she

still thougt the boy had augt to be punished verry

sevearly for mottifiing her so. father he sed she

mite be very sure he wood attend to that and he

glore at me when he sed it as if he wood cut me into

40 peaces and she sed good nite to father and good

nite to mother and mother looked at her as if she

wasent there and old Missis Peezly tirned red and

snifed and went out stifleged.

then father he sed to Rody Shatuck now Missis

Shatuck the last thing in the wirld that a yung lady

shood be ashamed of is to be slite and graiceful.

that is one of the menny things you had augt to be

proud of. there isnt a fat woman in this town

whitch dusent envy you for your graice and activity,

of coarse the boy was very infortunate in

his choice of words but i asure you that the only

thing he did was to call two publick atension to your

verry atractive figure. i am real sorry i was not

there to taik advantage of a most unusual oportunity.

and then old Rody gigled and sed she had

been told she had a fine figure but she dident like

to be told like i told it and father glore at me again

and sed it woodent happen again and she sed goodnite

to father and to mother and mother looked at

her as if she wasent there at all and she tirned red

and snifed and went off stifleged like old Missis

Peezly.

then father sed to Mary Ann and Unice Wilkins

and Feeby Derborn. young ladies there probly aint

enny peeple that do as mutch for the moral uplif

of the chirch as those devoted young wimmen whitch

do so mutch to help the minister in his menny duties

in the chirch and parrish and when the history of

the chirch is rote you young ladies will occupy a

very high place on the role of onner. they always

is and always will be peeple whitch is consoomed

with gelousy and probly sum one has sed things and

my son has heard them. but i am sure young ladies

whitch is so kind harted as you have shew yourselfs

to be will not be two sevear on a boy whitch at the

time was sufering from poizen ivory and over eating

and as for his part he wood punish him sevearly

for saying what he did.

so they sed if he wood do that it wood be all rite

and they sed it was a pleasure to talk with a man

who was so willing to do rite and to maik others

do rite and father sed it was a pleasure to meat and

talk to ladies of their standing in chirch and in

society and he shook hands with them and they sed

good nite to father and to mother and mother looked

at them jest as if they wasent there, and they all

tirned red and snifed and went off mad as time and

jest as stifleged as the others.

well after they had went father looked at mother

kind of funny and scrached his hed and sed well

Joey, he calls mother Joey, you have got about as

mutch tack as a fire alarm on resurexion day and

mother sed George Shute do you realy mean to say

that you are going to whip him for lying to you after

what you have sed to them wimmen? and father

laffed and sed he had to do sumthing to teech me a

lesson and that one moar nite like this wood send

him to a mad house. and mother told him he lide to

them wimmen wirse than i had lide to him and he

sed it wasent lies it was dipplomercy and if she had

enny tack he wood have had them gnitting sox and

mittens for him, and mother snifed two.

so then he took me up stairs and licked me. not

verry hard but moar than i desirved. but the wirst

was that i cant go out of the yard for 3 days and

nex weak is the last weak of vacation. i think it is

prety meen to treat a boy so whitch has lade between

life and deth for 3 days. i always get the

wirst of it when i try to be good.

i never will try to be good again if i live a million

years.

September 4, 186- brite and fair. it mite jest

as well rane as not. i cant go out of the yard

today and none of the fellers have been up. i saw

Beany ride by on Jo Palmers back. i hollered at him

but he dident look. then Pewt went down throug the

high school yard with 2 oars over his shoulder. me

and Pewt aint so frendly now becaus old man Purinton

has bougt 2 boats, new ones and is leting them

to peeple for less than i get for mine. he has

painted them all white with a red rim and a picture

on the stirn and they dont enny peeple want my

boat. i wasent mad with Pewt but he feals so big

over his old boats that it maiks me sick.

ennyway he mite have come over to see me when

i was sick and laid between life and deth 3 days.

sum other peeple mite have come. Lizzie Tole was

one of them. if it had been Beany she wood have

went to see him.

i read in a book onct how a feller had a girl

whitch took up with another feller whitch had a

fine horse and buggy and a silver mounted harnis.

so this feller told her he had lost all faith in wimmens

consistency and had put them out of his life for

ever. so the girl laffed and told him all rite she

dident cair. so he went away with his hart curroded

with bitterniss and went to wirk in a hotel. He

wirked so hard that in 3 years he oaned the hotel

and had money in the bank. then the girl rote him

that she had always luved him and never had luved

the other feller but he rote her that the dye was

cast, he shood never marry. and he never did, so

his children never gnew a mothers cair.

so i shall never marry like that feller who dident

and all on account of Beany. sumhow i cant get

mad with Beany. i had augt to menny times and

keep mad two but i cant do it.

September 5, 186---i got up erly this morning

befoar father went to Boston and took cair of Nellie

and swept out the stable and luged in the water and

split a lot of wood and blacked fathers boots and

set up and had breckfast with him. i was hoaping

he wood let me go out of the yard. but he dident

say nothing about that but did say i had got to get

up evry morning befoar he goes away and do my

chores i done them so well this morning. i thougt

that was a prety mean thing for him to do. i wished

i hadent got up. well tonite father he caime home

mad and sed i was the bigest fool he ever see. he

sed i had blacked his boots with stove polish and

evrybody laffed at him. so i wont have to get up.

i had to black his boots over 2 times with Day and

Martins blacking befoar i cood get them to shine.

it was a awful long day in the yard. Beany brougt

his black and tan terrier over and we got Frank

Haines dog over and had a fite but jest as they

were going good mother come out and poared a

pale of water on them and they run off prety quuick.

neether licked. that is always the way. sumbody

always stops the good fites.

it was Saterday nite and after i had luged in

about a milion pales of water and filled all the tubs

for the folks to taik there baths in father he sed

to mother, Joey, he calls her Joey, becaus her name

is Joanna. sumtimes when father wants to plage

her he calls her Johanna with a h and says she is

irish. she dont like that becaus she is inglish.

mother came to America when she was 3 years of

aig and so she doesent remember verry much about

ingland. father says mother dont understand gokes

becaus she is inglish and mother says she is glad

of it becaus a good menny of fathers gokes hadent

augt to be understood by ennybody. when she says

that father always laffs and says she is a goker

herself sumtimes.

well i forgot what i was a going to say becaus

when i wright about my father and mother i dont

think about ennything else they are so bully. My

father was the best fiter in Exeter or ennywhere

elce. Ed Thursten told me that once he and father

went down to newmarket and a feller in the hotel

tride to lick father and father hit him a old he one

in the snout and gnocked him up 2 flites of stairs

and round 3 corners befoar he stoped. i bet they

aint many fellers whitch cood do that. ennyway

Ed was there and seen him do it and he says he

can show me the hotel and the stairs and the corners

he went round and the big dent in the wall where

he stoped. so i gess it must be so. i bet Beanys

father coodent do it. i bet Pewts coodent eether.

evrybody likes father and calls him George and

he gokes with them and gets them to say funny

things and then he laffs and evrybody laffs. so he

dont never have to fite now. i am glad of it for i

shoodent like to se father fite even if he can lick

evrybody.