July 24. brite and fair. i only went in swiming 2 times today, once this morning and once this afternoon, but i staid in all the morning and all the afternoon so i coodent go in more then 2 times. the race is day after tomorow.
July 25. brite and fair. today we went up to Pewts and we aranged about the prises. Pewt was to give the prises. the prise for swiming fast was a bag of erly apples from Pewts garden. the prise for swiming under water was a gewsharp and the prise for the best diver was a cain fishing pole and the prise for floteing was a arrow rifle. we all give 5 cents eech to buy the cain pole. the gewsharp was one whitch Pewt had and the arrow rifle Pewt had made. So Pewt he said as long as he give 2 of the prises he was to have the say about whitch beat.
July 26. brite and fair. the fellers plaid a meen trick on me today. the meenist i ever see. i wont ever speak to enny of them agen. this morning we had the race. ferst we had the fast race. we started at the oak and swum down to the gravil. i was as far as from here to Beanys house ahead. so i got the apples. Fatty Melcher was next and Pewt was next and Beany and Fatty Gilman got tired and went ashore. next we had the floteing mach. Fatty Gilman floted the longest and then Beany becaus he was fat two and then Pewt and then Fatty Melcher and then me. i was the wirst and the fellers all howled at me. so Fatty Gilman he got the arrow rifle. i dont cair. then we went back to the oak to have the diving mach. after we had div Beany and Fatty Melcher they said i div the best and Pewt and Fatty Gilman said Pewt div the best. then Pewt giv himself the prise becaus he had the say. i was prety mad. then we went down to the gravil to have the swiming under water mach so i went ferst and i swum from the going in place on Moltons field to the elm tree on old Nat Gilmans side and when i come up and looked round they wasent enny feller ennywhere. so i swum back prety lively and my close was gone and the apples and the gewsharp and the fellers two. so i dident know what to do. i thougt they had hid the close and i hunted in the buches but i dident find them. so i wated a long time and bimeby i heard sum oars and i looked and i saw a bote with a feller and 2 girls, so i coodent holler and i hid behind a tree. so they went by and then i come out and i walked back to the oak and when i got there i found sum girls picking dasies and i lay down behind the fence and just then a hornet stung me 2 times and i yelled and gumped rite up and danced round before i thougt and then i see them and i hipered back to the gravil, they hipered two the other way you bet. well i set there in the shade for a long time until i got kind of cold and then i set in the sun. i thougt sum of the fellers wood come in swiming, but nobody come. i knowed if i wated til dark i cood get home all rite, only i wood get a licking for scaring the folks most to deth for they wood think i was drownded. well jest then i heard sum fellers talking up by the oak and i went up and there was Potter Goram and Chick Chickering. they had been fishing and had cougt sum buly pikeril. well i holered to them and they come down where i was and i told them about the meen trick the fellers had plaid on me and Potter he said he wood go home for sum close and he give me his jaket and then he hipered acres the field and me and Chick began to fish and i cougt a pirch and a eal and Chick he cougt 2 roach. then Potter he come back with my best close and so i coodent fish enny more. so i went home in my best close. when i went by Pewts he holered Plupy has got on his best close. i dident say ennything. so when i got home mother asked me about it and i told her, it want telltaily eether. so mother she told me to go up to Pewts for my close and i said if Pewt took them he cood bring them back and Beany and Fatty two. so at super father he asked me why i had got on my best close and i told him and he said if Pewt dident bring those close back in about 5 minits he wood go up and boot him down to our house and back agen and jest then Mister Purington came into the yard holding Pewt by the ear. Pewt he had the close and Mister Purington he nocked at the door and he asked for me and when i come to the door he made Pewt give me the close and then he told Pewt to tell me he was sorry for what he had done and Pewt he dident want to say it but Mister Purington most lifted Pewt of the ground by the ear and then Pewt he said he was sorry kind of mad like and Mister Purington lifted him up agen til Pewt he stood on his tip toes and his face was all onesided and his eyes all squinty and then he had to say it over agen polite. and then Mister Purington he led Pewt home all the way by the ear. i thougt i shood die. it sirved Pewt jest rite. father laffed when i told him how the hornet stung me and how the girls hipered.
July 27. brite and fair. Pewt cant go out of the yard today. i dident speak to Beany.
July 28. brite and fair. i am going with Potter and Chick Chickering instead of Pewt and Beany. we went butterflying today.
July 29. brite and fair. nothing to wright today.
July 30. thunder storm rite after church. i wish it had been rite before.
July 31. tonite a man come down to see father and said i had gumped up behind a fence without my close on and scart his girls. he was stoping at the beach and they come up to Mager Blakes hotel. well father called me in and i told the man all about it and bimeby he begun to laff and he said it was a prety meen trick on me and he shook hands with me and he was glad i dident do it a purpose only he was sorry i got stung.
Aug. 1. me and Potter and Chick went fishing. Chick fell of little river brige with his close on. Potter caugt a whacking snaping tirtle. he gave it to Sam Dire and he cut his head of after it was cut of it wood bite a stick. Sam says it wont die til the sun goes down. he says that if you cut a snake in 2 peaces it will come together agen and heel up and be as good as ever. me and Potter is going to try it.
Aug. 2. big thunder shower last nite. we all got up and lit lamps and set round in our nite sherts. we lit all the lamps we cood find so we coodent see the litening. father kept telling funny stories, but mother and Aunt Sarah was scart and told him he hadent aught to joke when enny minit he mite be struck by litening. father he said he dident beleave the litening wood strike him enny quicker for not being scart of it then it wood if he gumped and holered o lord every time it litened. well after a while it only litened way of and we went to bed.
Aug. 3. i havent spoke to Beany yet or to Pewt eether.
Aug. 4. this morning it was Friday. we have fish chowder Fridays. i dont like it and so i drink milk and father wanted the milkman to go down celler to try some of his vinegar. mother hangs the wash boiler and the tin pans and iron kittles in the celler way and when ennyone whitch is tall goes down celler he has to stupe down so not to nock down the pans and kittles. so father he was down celler and he holered for the milkman to come down and when he went down he hit his head aginst the boiler and nocked it down and all the kittles and pans tumbled down on his head and went banging down into the celler and you never heard such a feerful noise. father was mad as time, but after the milkman was gone we all laffed as if we wood die. mother and Aunt Sarah had to set down they laffed so. mother said it made more noise then the thunder did last nite.
Aug. 5. me and Cawcaw Harding has got a new way of fishing for pikeril when we are in a bote. one of us padles the bote and the other skips for pikeril. when you try to pull a pikeril into a bote most half of the time he goes over the bote into the water, so when me and Cawcaw fishes when the feller which is skiping gets a bite he lets him have it a minit and the feller whitch is padling the bote padles towards the shore and then the feller whitch is skiping gumps rite out as soon as the water aint over his head and gives a big yank, and the pikeril goes saling into the field. sumtimes when it is woods the line gets tangled all up in a tree and we have to shin up the tree or cut it down to get the pikeril. we get prety wet but we dont cair. we always ring out our close when we get done fishing and they is most dry when we get home. today the bigest pikeril we caugt got up in a tree and we coodent shin up the tree and we coodent plug him down with rocks so we had to leeve him there. we got 12 pikeril. we are going monday.
Aug. 6. brite and fair. today after sunday school Beany he came over and we made up. this was the longest time i ever was mad with Beany. i am glad we aint mad enny more. father let me go to ride with Mister Watson and Beany this afternoon. we went down to the beach and took our lunchun. when we was coming home me and Beany got most asleep and our legs got asleep two, so Mister Watson he told us to get out and walk a little and we wood be all rite and when we got out he whiped up his horse and drove of lively and made me and Beany walk most a mile. we kep awake after that you bet. i had a good time.
Aug. 7, 186- clowdy but no rane. me and Cawcaw went fishing agen today in the bote ferst i padled and he skiped and then he padeled and i skiped. when we got up by the cove i got a bite and Cawcaw he padled the bote towards the shore and i gumped out lively and gumped into a deep place and went down way under. when i came up Cawcaw was nearly ded he laffed so. well i held onto my pole and swum to the shore it was only 3 stroaks and i sloshed up the bank and yanked that pikeril way into the buches. he was a big one. Cawcaw did it purpose. sumtime i am going to rock the bote sudding when Cawcaw is standing up skiping and he will go into the river kerswash.
Aug. 8. hot as time. me and Beany rung sum more doorbells tonite. we dident get cougt.
Aug. 9. brite and fair. Potter Goram can stuf birds, so they look jest like they was alive. he stufed a red winged blackbird so good that the cat et it and dide. and then Potter he skun the cat and stufed her. i can skin the cat on the horizondle bar, that is another way.
Aug. 10. me and Beany rung sum more doorbells tonite. we rung old Heads doorbell and then we tiptode round by the side of his house into Gim Ellersons yard and laid down behind the current bushes. well jest as old Head come piling out mad as time Pewt and Fatty Melcher come rite by and old Head grabed for them and Fatty he run and Pewt got cougt and old Head he jest lammed Pewt with his cain and Pewt holered he dident do it and old Head said he did and then he give Pewt sum good bats and sent him home balling. me and Beany most dide only we dident dass to laff out loud. jest then father come out to see what Pewt was holering about and he said what is the matter Orrin and Mister Head he said sum cussid boy has been ringing my door bell most every nite and i cougt him tonite and licked him good. and father he said who was it, and Mister Head he said it was Brad Puringtons boy, and father said i am glad it wasent my boy and mister Head he said i am glad two but i gess your boy woodent be meen enuf to ring doorbells and father he said i gess he woodent eether and then they went in and me and Beany we tiptode up Maple street and down town and then back home jest as if we had been down town all the time. that was a good one on Pewt. it made me think of the time Mister Watson Beanys father licked Beany when we rung his doorbell and he came to the door with a lamp and the wind blowed the lamp out and Mister Watson he bumped his head on the door.
Aug. 11. brite and fair. i cant help laffing every time i think of Pewt getting licked. it is a good one on Pewt.
Aug. 12. brite and fair. tonite me and Beany tride the same trick on Nipper. we saw Nip go down town and we rung Bill Greenleefs bell 2 times before Nip come back. we hid in old Ike Shutes porch and peeked out of a little window. Bill he come out and run round the side of the house and then he run up street and looked behind trees and fences and swoar terible. me and Beany near dide. he was so mad that he staid up til nearly 10 oh clock waching. we cood see him peeking out of the window and we dident dass to go home til after 10 oh clock and i got licked for being late. if Nipper had only come home when he had aught to Bill wood have cougt him and licked him and we wood have got home all rite. we will pay Nip for this.
Aug. 13. brite and fair. nothing but church today.
Aug. 14. brite and fair. i coodent go out of the yard today. Beany he come over and we are going to ring old man Hobbses door bell tomorow nite. old man Hobbs is Prisils uncle.
Aug. 15. brite and fair, and hot as time. tonite we rung old man Hobbses door bell 2 times. it was auful funny. the ferst time he come out kind of slow with a lamp. me and Beany were rite on the other side of the street laying down in the long grass. well he looked all round and walked out to the end of the piaza and then he went in mutering. bimeby we rung it agen and out he come prety lively but he dident catch us. if he was as lively as Bill Greenleef he wood have cougt us. well he went round the house and then old Missis Hobbs she came to the door and said what is it William, and he said it is some more of that Purington boys deviltry, and she said i wood speek to his father and old Hobbs he said he wood and then they went in. jest as we was going to ring the bell agen a man come walking quick down the street and went up to the door and rung the bell and jest as the bell rung old Hobbs opened the door quick and gumped out and grabed the man and said you rascul i have got you and the man said you old fool are you crasy and then old Hobbs he said i thougt it was that Purinton boy ringing my door bell and then the man went in the house and we wated til they had shet the door and we put for home and made sum sweet firn segars. tomorow old Hobbs is going to tell Pewts father. i never had so much fun in my life.
Aug. 16. brite and fair. today Pewt come down to the house and said where was you last nite and i said me and Beany was making sweet firn segars over to Beanys and i gave him 2 segars. then Pewt he said that old Hobbs come down to his house today and told his father he rung his doorbell 2 times and Pewt said he dident and his father said he dident beleeve him and was going to lick time out of him if he had and he did it. Pewt was prety mad and i was prety surprized you bet. this afternoon they was a thunder storm. after it was over we went fishing but dident get a bite.
Aug. 17. brite and fair. went up to Whacks this morning and Boog and Puzzy had 2 fites. neether licked becaus old miss Finton come out and stoped them. Boog got a bludy nose the second fite. in the afternoon i went fishing with Cawcaw. i dident get a chance to tip him over but we cougt 5 pikeril. tomorow nite me and Beany are going to ring sum doorbells.
Aug. 18. clowdy but no rane. jest the rite day to go fishing. i was going with Cawcaw but he was sick becaus he et to many apples up to Whacks. tonite Beany coodent go out of the yard becaus he dident split sum kindlings so we dident ring enny doorbells. it was a prety meen day.
all the fun i had was going in swiming.
Aug. 19. prety hot today. i went in swiming 5 times. sumthing is the matter with my eyes i keep winking them all the time. father keeps saying stop batting your eyes. i gess it is becaus i keep opening my eyes under water to see things on bottum. father says if i dont stop it i shant go in swiming enny more.
Aug. 20. it raned this morning so hard that i dident have to go to church. buly.
Aug. 21. brite and fair. tonite me and Beany rung old Missis Sawyers bell. when she come out with the lamp we run into Pewts yard and then into Nat Weeks. she went in and come out agen with a shorl on and went rite over to mister Purintons and nocked at the door. we was near enuf to hear evrything. when Pewts father come to the door she said i think things has come to a prety pass if peeple cant keep there boy from trubling there nabors. and then Mr. Purinton Pewts father said what is the matter and Missis Sawyer she said your boy has been ringing my doorbell and Pewts father he said how do you know he did it and Missis Sawyer she said i see him run rite into your yard. and so Pewts father he come out and went round the yard but coodent find ennybody. so he said praps it was the Watson boy or the Shute boy and she said praps it was becaus she had heard they was prety bad boys. then Pewts father said it was a mersy if they dident both get into jale and she said she gessed the Shute boy was a trial to his father and mother and Pewts father he said he gessed the Watson boy was two. then he said if he was her he wood go rite down and see there fathers. when me and Beany heard that we clim over Nat Weeks fence esy and put for home. when we got there they was nobody in Beanys kichen and we went in esy and got the sweet firn and begun to make sweet firn segars. bimeby we heard old Missis Sawyer blabing to Beanys mother and she said she wood go in and see if Elly was in and when she come in Beany said mother jest see how many segars me and Plupy has made and he held up a lot that we made last week and she said you boys must have wirked a long time and Beany he said it takes a good deal of time to make so many and she went back looking prety pleased becaus she thougt Beany dident ring the old doorbell and she told old Missis Sawyer that we had been making sweet firn segars all the evening in the kitchin. so old Missis Sawyer went home kind of mad becaus it wasent me and Beany whitch rung her doorbell ennyway she thougt it wasent.
Aug. 22. brite and fair.
Aug. 23. brite and fair. tonite me and Pewt and Beany and Fatty Gilman and Fatty Melcher and Billy Swett and Gim Erly and lots of the fellers come up and plaid i spy the bull. one feller lays it and he shets his eyes at the gool and counts fifty and the rest of the fellers go and hide and when he has counted fifty he trys to find the fellers and tag his gool before they do. they is a stick leening agenst the gool and if one of the fellers can get to the gool ferst he can plug the stick as far as he can and the feller whitch is laying it has to run and get the stick and go back to the gool and leeve the stick there before he can find enny more fellers and if enny fellers has been cougt they can hide agen. so tonite we plaid it til nine oh clock and i had laid it most an hour when Pewt pluged the stick and hit old Bill Morril rite in the head jest as he came round the corner and he was mad as time and we put for home jest lively. Pewt dident meen to do it. Bill hadent aught to have been coming round the corner jest then ennyway. Bill told father they was the tufest set of boys in the naborhood he ever see. i was behind the current buches when Bill told father this and he showed father his old plug hat whitch was all dented in. father he said well Bill we usted to make things prety lively when we was boys. then he told Bill that he usted to ask his father if he cood go over and sleep with Gim Melcher and his father wood say yes, and Gim Melcher he wood ask his father if he cood go over and sleep with father and Gims father wood say yes, and they wood stay out all nite and raise time, and Gims father he wood think Gim was over to fathers house, and fathers father wood think father was over to Gims house and so they woodent get cougt. that wood be a prety good trick for me and Beany to try only father wood know two mutch. i gess that is the reason father finds out so mutch about me becaus he was prety tuf when he was a boy. i gess that is the reson why ministers boys is most always tuf becaus there fathers dont know how to find out what tuf things they do. i wish i was a ministers son so i cood be tuf and not get found out, only i wood have to go to church 3 times evry sunday.
Aug. 25. brite and fair. i wish i was ded. a feller might as well be ded as to be getting licked all time for nuthing. tonite me and Beany wated till it was dark and we saw Bill Greenlef go down town. then we tide a string to his doorbell and hiched the other end to old printer Smiths door on the other side of the street and hauled it tite. bimeby Bill he come back and went in the side door. then a man came by driving a horse and when the horse run agenst the string both doorbells rung before the string broak and out come Bill and old printer Smith. when they found they wasent ennyone there they was prety mad. Bill he run round looking behind fences and trees and old printer he swoar terible and went through Miss Sulivans and over to Nipper Browns and all round. me and Beany was hiding in Ike Shutes porch. bimeby they come back and talked.
Bill said they must be 2 of them and old printer he said it was about time this thing was stoped and he was going to find out who did it if it took him all summer. well bimeby they went in to wate and see if ennyone rung there doorbells sum more. Bill he said he wood leeve his door open jest a little and old printer Smith he said he wood leeve his open jest a little two so he cood gump out and lam time out of the feller whitch rung his bell. well bimeby me and Beany crep out esy and hunted round til we found the string and we tide it agen as tite as we cood and then we crep back into the porch and peeked through the window. bimeby old mister Lyford come up the sidewalk and when he come to the string it gerked his old plug hat of and he picked it up and brushed it and then went of. bimeby a hack came by and when it hit the string both door bells gingled feerful and Bill and old printer Smith came hipering out as if they was hiched to the string. Bill went to gump of the side of the steps and he got the string round his leg and went fluking and then holered to old printer Smith that they was a string tide to his door bell and printer he holered back that they was one tide to his two. then they swoar and talked sum and jest then Pewts father come out and they said it was Pewt and old Missis Sawyer she come out and she said it was Pewt two. well then they begun to hunt and look behind trees and into doorways and me and Beany got prety scart and bimeby we opened the door esy and hipered round Ikes house and ran rite into old printer and he grabed us both by the neck and holered i have got the misable cusses and he draged us out to the lite and Bill and Brad said it is George Shutes boy and Irv Watsons boy and they shook us up lively. well old Missis Sawyer wanted them to take us to jale but Pewts father and Bill and printer said to take us down to our fathers and so printer held us by the neck and marched us down the street and Pewts father and Bill come along two and old Missis Sawyer she came taging along talking all the time that we was the wirst boys in town. we went down to fathers ferst and he come out and Bill he went over and called mister Watson. well he come over and they all went into the back yard and they told father about it and Missis Sawyer said she was going to have us arested and father he said if she wanted to arest me all rite but he wood get a lawyer and carry the case to the circus coart if it took evry cent he had and Mister Watson he said so two. and father he said he woodent have his boy distirbing his nabors and he wood lick me and make me beg evrybodys pardon, but it wasent merder or hyway robery to ring doorbells and if they wanted to arest me to sale rite in, and Mister Watson he said so two. then father and Mister Watson marched us up to old Hobbs and made us beg his pardon and old Hobbs told father we was the wirst boys in town and father aught to whale the life out of us, and then we went down to Pewts and had to beg his pardon for getting him a licking and then we went over to mister Heads and begged his pardon two. then father took me into the kichin and give me a licking for eech doorbell that we rung. he give me a good one for Missis Sawyer becaus she was a woman and he said we dident have enny bizness to plage a woman, and he give me a prety good one for Bill becaus Bill was a prety good feller, and he only hit me one lick for old Hobbs becaus he was mad at what old Hobbs said and he dident hit me a lick for mister Head becaus Pewt got licked for it and he said Pewt had aught to have been licked so many times when he dident that one licking one way or the other woodent make much diference. the wirst was when i had to beg Pewts pardon. i wood rather get 2 lickings.
Aug. 26, 186- Brite and fair. tonite i asked father about him and Gim Melcher staying out all nite and he laffed and said it was trew. then i asked him how menny times he did it and he said all the times he wanted to becaus his father thougt he was a beter boy then he was. well i asked him if i cood stay out all nite sum time and he said no. then he said i woodent dass to and i said i bet i wood. then he said i cood if i wanted to and then mother she said George are you crasy and he said no but he gessed after i had been out a while i wood be homesick. so after super i asked Beany and Beany he asked his father and he told his father what father said and bimeby Mister Watson Beanys father he said Beany cood stay out if i cood. so we are going to stay out Monday nite.
Aug. 27. brite and fair. nothing but church.
Aug. 28. rany as time. jest the luck. i coodent sleep enny last nite thinking about staying out all nite. ennyway i dident go to sleep til most morning and when i woke up it was raning hard, and it raned hard all day. it has stoped now. they wasent enny fun today.
Aug. 29. brite and fair. i am wrighting this in the morning becaus i shall be to bizzy tonite to wright ennything. i bet me and Beany will have sum fun. last nite father said they was a tiger got out of a circus and he kind of thougt it was somewhere in the Eddy woods. i aint afrade. Beany aint neether.
Aug. 30. brite and fair. i gess i wont try to stay out all nite agen. it aint enny fun. yesterday afternoon mother made me go to bed so i woodent be sleepy at nite and Beanys mother she did two. i coodent sleep and bimeby i got up and stuck my head out of the window and looked over to Beanys house and Beany he was looking out of his window and bimeby Potter and Cawcaw went by with their fish poles and you bet i wanted to go two, but i had to stay in my room. so Beany and i begun to holler acrost to each other and i made up this poitry about Beany,
fat pork and beens thats what it meens that Beanys got the belyake from fat pork and beens.
and then Beany he made up this poitry about me,
Plupy Shute is meener than Pewt and he is a prety meen galoot.
then mother made me go in a room on the other side of the house, but i coodent sleep and she let me get up at super time. when father come home he said the tiger had carrid of and et up a bull over to Kingston and he gessed he was coming this way, but i wasent scart. well after super i split my kindlings and me and Beany went down town. we went to doctor Derborns store and got sum soda water and Beany he paid for it. then we got sum goozeberries of old Si Smiths and i paid for them and then we went over to Beanys and got a lot of sweet firn segars and then we went down town agen. we went into stores and looked at things and we went down to the warf and then we went acrost to the raceway and went in swiming. it was kind of cold and we dident stay in very long. then it began to be dark and we went back to water street and staid in the stores til the nine oh clock bell rung and then we went back home. the folks was all setting on the front steps. so me and Beany set down two and bimeby the folks said they must go in and they all went in and shet the door. it made me feel lonesum when i herd them lock the door. it must be prety tuf on fellers whitch havent got enny home. then me and Beany went over to his house and set on the steps til his folks went in and shet the door and then we set on the fence under the gas lite and we herd Nat Weeks come home and mister Gewell and bimeby Si Smith shet up his store and then it begun to be loansum. so we went down as fer as the swamscot house and they was a lite in sum of the rooms and we set down on old Kellogs steps and talked. bimeby old Straton the gas man come round with a little ladder and clim up and put out the gas and then it was prety dark. then Beany he said less go up to Pewts and yowl like cats. so we went up into Pewts garden and we begun to yowl feerful like cats and bimeby Pewts father opened a window and holered scat you devils and jest then Nat Weeks he stuck his head out and he holered scat two.
and then we kep still a minit and Pewts father said i wish there wasent a cussid cat alive and Nat Weeks he said so two and then they went to bed agen. bimeby we begun to yowl agen and then we yowled jest like cats fiting and Pewts father opened the window agen and pluged a club out into the yard and holered scat and then we kep still and we herd him tell Nat Weeks that he had got his gun loded and if he herd it go of he needent be sirprized. so you bet we dident yowl agen. so after Pewts father and Nat Weeks had gone to bed agen we clim over the fence esy and went of up towards Gilmans barn. Beany stumped me to go as fer as the barn and we was going there when i thougt of the tiger and told Beany about it. we wasent afrade but they wasent enny fun in going down to the barn so we went back down towards the high school yard and it was prety dark there and so we dident go down to set on the steps. bimeby it struck eleven oh clock. ferst the town clock and jest after it the factory bell an then we cood hear clocks striking in the houses on the street. i tell you it made me feel loansum. we coodent see enny lites in the houses, so we set on the steps and told stories and talked about the fellers and the girls. Beany said he gessed he wood mary Lizzie Tole, Ed Toles sister sum day. i bet he wont. then Beany he said when he was a man he wood by the club stable and have all the horses he wanted to drive, and i cood wirk for him if i dident get drunk [curiously enough, the first two statements in this prophecy came true] like most of the hostlers. i told him that i wasent going to wirk for ennybody for i was going to play in the band like Bruce Brigam, Scotty Brigams brother.
bimeby we herd sum real cats yowling and it sounded sort of feerful.
Cele read us a story when we was sick with the scarlet fever about a man whitch had a black cat and he got mad with her and cut out one eye. then he got mad with his wife and cut her throte and stuck her up in the chimny in the celler and pluged up the hole. bimeby the polisemen come to find out where his wife was and they hunted evry where in the house and stable and hen koop and evrywhere and bimeby they wanted to go into his celler. so the man he said all rite fellers come rite down and so the polisemen went down celler with him and he showed them all over the celler and they looked evrywhere and coodent find ennything and jest as they was going out they herd a feerful yowl and they stoped and lissened and it kept on yowling in the chimny and when they took a pickax and wanted to dig a hole in the chimny the man whitch killed his wife said they wasent ennything in the chimny for it hadent been opened for 1 hundred years, but they cut open the chimny and what do you gess they found. well they found his wife with her throte cut and a old black cat with 1 eye out setting on her showlder yowling. so they grabed the man and punched time out of him and they hung him to a lampost. well when Cele read that story to us we all was wirse for 3 days and Annie never got over it and when i hear a cat yowl i think of what the polisemen found in the chimny. so when i herd the cat yowling i told Beany that story and Beany he dident want to go of of my steps enny more. bimeby the town clock struck 12 oh clock and so it was morning and so we tost up to see whether Beany shood wait til i got in my house or i shood go over to Beanys to wait til Beany got into his house ferst. i lost jest as i always do and so i had to go over to Beanys and he tride the door and it was unlocked and so Beany he went in and i hipered acrost the road as quick as i cood and went in the back way. i wasent afrade only i wasent going to have Beany beat me in geting into bed. i went up stairs as esy as i cood but when i went by mothers room she said is that you Harry and i said yes and she said are you going out agen and i said no it is morning now and i am going to bed and she laffed and said good mornin. then i piled into bed and dident wake up til 10 oh clock. Beany dident get up til 12 oh clock. father saved a mans life today in Boston.
he was a old man whitch tride to get on a train whitch had started and father saw he was going to tumble of and get killed and he run and grabed him and the old man tride to pull away and holered and the trane was going faster and father had to run and push the old man and he grabed him by the seet of his britches and give him a hist and piched him rite into the door of the car and then father he gumped of. evrybody said the old man wood be killed if it hadent been for father.
Aug. 31. i bet Beanys father never saved a mans life. i bet Pewts never did neether. i asked father if he xpected the old man to give him a good deel of mony for it or a gold wach, and father he said the conscenceless of having did a noble act is enuf reward. Gosh if i had saved a old mans life i wood have made him pay me. i wood have grabed him and said old man pay me 2 dolars or of goes your hind legs. i realy woodent let him drop but i wood have scart him til he give me 2 dolars. father he said that wood be hyway robery. i dont care.
Sept. 1. brite and fair. they was a peace in the Boston paper today about father. it said heroik rescu of a old man and it told about father saving the old mans life. lots of peeple spoke to father about it.
father walked down town tonite 3 times. he most never goes down. father is going to take me to Boston tomorow if i behaive myself and dont do as i did before.
Sept. 2, 186- i had to get up feerful erly this morning. after brekfast me and father rode up to the depo in Joe Parmers hack. while we was wating for the trane Charles Talor and Charles Gray and all the fellers began to pich into father jest fun like and father got the best of them evry time. You cood here them holler about a mile. then the trane come and we piled in. evrybody knowed father and called him George and evrybody piched into him and he ansered back so that he made evrybody laff. that was the way it was all the way to Boston. when we got to Boston we went into a bird store and staid a while and then father took me out to see a house with a canon ball in it where the british had fired it in the revolution. then we went down to the custum house where father wirks and father took of his coat and put on a thin coat and put on sum cuffs made of pastbord and then he took out sum big books and begun to wright. he give me a sheet of yellow paper and a pensil and told me i cood draw sum pictures. when he come in one man holered hullo George what are you going to do with the boy, drownd him, and father he said no but i wood if he dident amount to more then you have, and then that man he shet up and a nother man he holered George have you saved enny more peeple and father he said no i had a chanse to but his name was Mudge and i let them hang him, and then that man he shet up. his name was Mudge two. bimeby a man come in with specks and side wiskers and sum papers and a squint eye, and he come up to fathers desk and father took the papers and wile he was wrighting i drawd the man with his specks and his old side wiskers and his squint eye. when father had fixed his papers the man said is that your boy mister Shute and he said yes and the man said can he draw and father said yes and he took the paper before i cood grab it and give it to the man and the man looked at it and begun to look mad and father said what is it and he showed it to father and then tore it up and went of mad. and father tirned red and asked me if i dident know more then that. then father he picked up all the peaces and we paisted them together and he showed it to the men and they all laffed and said i was a buster. bimeby a man come in and said that the naval oficer wanted to see father and father took the picture and went in. bimeby he came back and said the naval oficer jawed him and then he looked at the picture and laffed and said he wanted the picture and he took it and told father he had better shet that boy up. then it was dinner time and we went out and et dinner at a resterrant. i had meat and bread and coffy. after dinner we went back to the offise and a man come in and asked who was mister Shute and father said he was and the man said are you the man whitch put a old man on the trane at the depo and father said yes and i thougt the man wood give father a hundred dolars or a gold wach and father looked as if he thougt the man wood say noble man you have saved my fathers life, but the man looked mad and said well sir you did a prety smart thing to throw a helpless old man on to the rong trane and send him of 100 miles away from home and scart all his peeple most to deth becaus they thougt he was merdered and cost him 3 dolars to telegraf and stay all nite and if you dont know more then that you had beter soke your head. father he said what was the old fool trying to get on the trane for if he dident want to go on it, and the man he said he was trying to get of the trane and you woodent let him and the man holered so loud that evrybody cood hear him and shook his fist and went of swaring feerful. then Mr. Pope he said o what a fall was there my countrymen just like what was in the fourth reader and Mr.
Davis he said immortal seezer ded and tirned to clay, that is in the fourth reader two. then all the men laffed and said the treat is on you George and father he laffed two and said he wood be cussed, and he said that is what a man got by not tending to his own bizness. tonites paper had a peace in it about father and said the old man whitch father put on the rong trane was going to be marrid and his girl got mad becaus he dident come and marrid another man whitch was there and the old man was going to sew father for braking up the mach. father said he bet Ben Ridwill and Jaky Howe rote it for the paper and he wood fix them.
Sept. 3. brite and fair. sunday today but father dident go to walk. he was prety cross two. Beany got sent out of sunday school for raising time. after he went out he clim up to the window and made up feerful faces at us. mister Erl the suprintendunt was jest going to make a prayer and see us laffin and see Beany before Beany cood gump down and he grabed his cane and run out of the sunday school and chased Beany down to Gim Elersons. Beany cant come agen. i wish i was Beany.
Sept. 4. clowdy but no rane. school begins today, gosh.