Henry A. Shute

“ Pricilla sung and plaid and Nipper rote down the geese sum on the blackboard and rote his name under it jest as good as he cood. i wanted to rite Nipper under it but old Francis wood paist time out of me if he found out who rote it. you aught to hear Pricil play and sing. he sings do your best for one another making life a plesent dream, help a poor and weried brother puling hard agenst the streem, and the old organ goes boom ya, boom ya, boom ya ya ya, that is a prety song for a feller to sing whitch never will give the fellers the core of his apple but always eats it hisself. ”

“ A boy is going to raise tune or he aint a boy and you mite as well put him into skerts to onct. i never gnew a puppy to grow up into a good dog unless he chewed up slippers and spoilt moar things than he was wirth. then mother sed that depends on what you call a good dog. if you meen a dog whitch is all the time fiting that is one thing but if you meen a real good dog that is another thing. then father he sed i woodent give a cent for a dog that cant fite. a god dog that is groan up dont care to fite but will if he has to. and a good man dont cair to but will if he has to. ”

“ 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. ”

“ May 5, 186- Saw a bully fite today. Cris Staples and Charlie Clark. Charlie is visiting his uncle J. Albert Clark, the feller that we sassed. that is he said we did but we dident. Charlie is a city feller, he lives in Chelsy and think he knows a pile about things and gets mad if we call him names. now every feller who amounts to anything has a nickname, and some of them have 2 or 3. my nicknames are Plupy and Skinny and Polelegs, and Beany is called Bullethead and sometimes Fatty. ”

“ Aunt Sarah she up and sed i gess you needent wurry about any boy of yours being a miss Nancy, George Shute, and father laffed and sed well it dont seam as if i ever cood have a boy like that but you cant be sure. as far as i know there aint enny ministers in my family sence the pilgrim fathers landed on the wild New Ingland shoar. then Aunt Sarah she sed peraps it would have been better if they had been a few and father he sed that may be so but i dout it. then father he sed it aint natural for a boy to set round like a sick hen. ”

“ Beany had augt to have wated. but i supose when a feller gets going with a girl he dont think. Beany is not bad but thinkless. i hoap it will be a lessen to him. he is feerfully wurrid but he needent be for if the wirst comes to wirst i shall sell one of my hens. i havent told him this becaus if he gnew it perhaps he wood spend the dollar for sumthing else for her. but while i have a hen to my naim Beany shall not go to jale. i wood not go to bed at all tonite if father woodent know it but if my lite aint out by 10 oh clock he hollers for me to go to bed lively. ”

“ Bruce Brigam is the best cornet player in town. i bet i can play like time if i ever get a cornet. then the rest of them went in and none of them hollered xcept the baby and he always hollers when ennything is the matter. father told Cele that he got old Nigger Tashs scab for her and he gessed she wood begin to turn prety dark culored before a week or 2. ”

“ Mr. Winsor said i was a sport, well while the roosters were fiting, sunday school let out and he skipped acros the street and walked off with one of the girls and we hollered for him to come and see the fite out, and he turned red and looked mad. the leghorn squorked and stuck his head into a corner. when a rooster squorks he wont fite any more.
December 5. snowed today and school let out at noon. this afternoon went down to the library to plug stewdcats. there was me and Beany and Pewt, and Whacker and Pozzy Chadwick and Pricilla Hobbs. ”

“ 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. ”

“ May 6. my hens dont lay enny now. i gess i dont give them enuf to eat. it is prety hard to keep a horse and hens two. we dident drive tonite becaus it raned. it was brite and fair yesterday.
May 7. today was sunday and we coodent drive lady Clara. tomorrow nite we are going to lay for old man Churchil with his troter. i bet we can beat him.
May 8. i have missed in my lesons most every day, and so has Fatty and Beany. today i swaped a hen for a buchel of meal for lady Clara. we drove her tonite but we dident find ennyone to race. ”

“ Beany is mad if enny of the fellers go with Lizzie Towle. she likes Beany better than she does enny of the fellers and Beany ought to be satisfied, but sometimes he acks mad when i go down there to fite roosters with Ed. i gess he needent worry much, no feller isnt going to leave of fiting roosters to go with no girls. well i most forgot what i was going to say, but after church i went up to Micky Gould who was going to fite me behind the school house, and said Micky lets be friends and Micky said. ”

“ Mary Watson, Beany's sister and Mary Straton whose father chased me and Beany when we broke the gaslite, can run faster then enny of the fellers xcept Tomtit and Arthur Francis.
Oct. 24. i have been sick agen. not very sick but my legs aked ferful. mother says it is becaus i am growin so fast, but i know why, me and Boog Chadwick rassled all yesterday afternoon. ferst i throwed Boog and then Boog throwed me, and when we got through Boog was only 2 throws ahead. we dident get mad at all. ennyway i dident have to go to church. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Fatty says people sometimes dies from having wirms in them. i bet this one has crawled way in. it may grow inside of me. something is always hapening to me. when i got home i went down to docter Derborns store and bought some wirm medicine and swalowed sum. it was auful bitter. it cost 20 cents out of my cornet money.
July 26. brite and fair. i was all rite today except my leg was stiff mother asked what made me lame and she put on a peace of pork. i told her about the wirm and she said the pork wood draw him out if he was there but she gessed he dident go in. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Aunt Sarah sed George do you really think they is enny dainger. and father sed not a bit. sumone is having fun with Ike and Aunt Sarah sed why do you want to scare him to deth and father sed sister mine our gentle cussin Isak has had far two easy a life and it is a good thing to instil into his mind the idea that moths and rust do corrup and theeves braik throug and steel. then aunt Sarah tride not to laff and sed i think it is a shaim to wurry so good a man as he is and father sed. ”

“ July 29. i tried to have father let me stay away from church today because my leg was sore but he said all rite you can stay, but i gess that leg will be too sore to let you go in swiming this week. so i went to church and dident limp enny. this afternoon i set under the apple tree and read Bush Boys. father and mother went to ride with Nellie. it is the first time mother has been out. Aunt Sarah took care of the baby. they gess they will name it Edward Ashman Shute. i gess it is named Ashman after the leader of the band. ”

“ July 10. me and Cawcaw had a prety good time today. we cougt 3 dozen bull frogs legs. we got sum old busters. it is auful funny to catch them. they will bite a bare hook, so we swing the hook by them and they gump for it and then they kick and almost tern rong side out trying to get of of the hook. then we grab them by the legs and whak their heads over the side of the bote and their inside comes out and sumtimes lots of hard water snales comes ratling out and sumtimes they has fishes and sumtimes other bull frogs or stripers. then we cut of there legs. me and Cawcaw always kill them ferst. ”

“ Mother she was glad i told the truth and i did dident i? i dident hit her old cat, or killed it or drowned it or see it and i dont know where it is. mother told father about it when he come home from Boston and father sed dam her old cat. i wont have you bothered about her old cat. i wood have told her to go to the devel. mother laffed and sed no you woodent George you wood have felt bad and pitted her as i did. she is a poar old woman and it is two bad for ennyone to kill her pet cat. ennyway that is over and i aint got to wurry over my chickings enny more. ”

“ Tucks where Gim lives and tell him about it. Well father sed boys always fit and she mustent wurry about it he gessed Willy wood get over it. but he told me not to ask Gim Erly down here agen. so after supper when i had to go for the yeest i ran up to Gims and giv him the nife and the slingshot and told him not to tell.
Sept. 12. Brite and fair. Will has got a black eye and a scrached nose. Nellie has got well and we had a ride today after church and i let Will drive. in the afternoon Beany and Pewt came over and we had a shooting mach with the whailbone bow behind the barn. ”

“ They tride Pewt and then Game Ey Watson, Beanys brother but they was wirse than Micky. so they hired Beany. he is the best and only lets the wind out one or two times every sunday and the organ sounds like a goos but that aint so bad as going to sleep and hollering goldarn it lemme alone is it?
we had a new minister today, miser Larned has gone away for all summer. the new minister preeched about not killing flise and buggs and wirms and bumbelbeas and yeller jacket hornits. he sed they had a rite to live jest as mutch as peeple and we hadent augt to kill them. ”