Henry A. Shute

“ Well when father came home somebody had told him about it and he made me tell him all about it, where we got her and how we fed her and everything, and when i told him about the hay i thought he was going to lick time out of me he was so mad, and he said he never knowed i cood steal, and i said i only hooked it and he said what is the diference and i said stealing is taking sumthing that you know belongs to sumbody else, and hooking is taking sumthing that belongs to you and sumbody else wont let you have. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Brite and Fair. i have got a black eye. this morning i went to school erly and when i got there Johnny Kelly was there and he said now old Plupy longlegs i will fix you and i said pile rite in and we will see and he began to swear wirse then Ti did, and i said if you want a good paist in the gob they is plenty of them rite here if you are man enuf to sale in, and when i said that he come at me so quick that i dident have time to get ready and he hit me in the eye and in the mouth 2 times and got the underhold before i cood and got me down and lammed me till i hollered enuf. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Pewt says Beany drank up more then the moneys wirth of sweatened water and smoked all the best cigars i am glad of it. i gess the next time Beany will know more.
Mar. 26. sunday. nothing to do but go to church and think of going to school tomorow. i wonder if i shall get a licking this tirm.
Mar. 27. i went to school today. they isent much fun now. it is two muddy to play ennything. so the fellers all have clappers and we clap all the time. Skinny Bruce is the best one. he has some bone clappers that jest ring. Fatty Gilman has got some made of black walnut. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Jan. 21. brite and fair. Whack and Boog have got a duble runner, they made it out of there sleds dart and arrow. it is the fastest duble runner on the hill. i went with them. we beat Pewts duble runner esy. Pewts is biger and Mister Purington Pewts father painted it buly but it cant go as fast or as fur as Whack and Boogs. Pewt was mad becaus we beat him.
Jan. 22. i went to church today. Keene and Cele sung in the quire. Beany kept sticking his head out from behind the organ and making up faces at me to make me laff out loud till the minister spoke to him and he felt prety cheep. ”

“ May 1. it was may day today and we dident have enny school. so me and Beany went up to Fattys and got him and we went down to old Nats. We wood have run all the way only Fatty got tukered out. When we got there old Nat made us promise to give him a hat or a pair of old boots becaus he kept lady Clara over Sunday. Fatty he said they was lots of old hats at home and so we went way back and got a old tall bever hat and then old Nat hiched up lady Clara and we piled in. Fatty he drove ferst becaus he said we coodent have got her unless he had got the old tall bever. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Ennyway the baby is all rite.
June 11. i hate to go to church. we have all got to be vaxinated. sum peeple in the next town have got the small pocks. Beany has been and Pewt two. Beany says the doctor takes a nife and cuts a hole in your arm and then puts on a big scab whitch has come of somebodys arm whitch has been vaxinated, and that stops the blud. but he says that if the scab dont fit you bleed to deth. ”

“ Scotty Briggam licked 2 stewdcats in one day. one day me and Pewt and Beany was standing in frunt of the libary and 2 stewdcats went in and Pewt threw a peace of dry mud and it hit the stewdcat rite in the neck and bust and went down his coller and he see us laffin and he walked rite out to where we was standing and he sed sorter sisy like whitch of you boys throwd that, and Pewt sed jest like him, if you are so smart you had better find out, and he grabed Pewt and throwd him rite in the guter and roled him round in the mud and hit him 3 good bats in the ear. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Beany he said if we wood call it square about the feeds he wood get Gim Elerson to nale on the shue. so we did and Beany got Gim to nale on the shue. Beany he raked up Gims front yard to pay him. Beany is a prety good feller. Fatty had company to his house and we dident go to ride tonite. it was two bad.
May 17. rany as time. we coodent go to ride today. it always ranes jest when a feller wants to do some thing. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Lots of things have hapened sense i wrote my last diry. Beanys father is a poliseman now and Beany feels prety big. Beany hadent better say mutch to me ennyway. the stewdcats have come back and they has been lots of fites. ”

“ Feb. 4. it snowed hard all day all the fellers are whacking cats head on each others back. you take some chork and chork the inside of your hand and your ferst and last finger and then you wet your fingers and make eyes and nose and mouth in your chorky hand and then you wate til a feller comes along and then you lam him one on the back and it makes the funniest cats head on his back you ever see with eyes and nose and mouth and 2 long ears whitch your fingers made. i got 5 on my back today and i got 1 on Beany and 2 on Pewt and 1 on Pop Clark and 1 on Nipper Brown. ”

“ Aunt Sarah told Cele he was fooling.
June 16, 186- Brite and fair. my arm is all rite.
June 17. Rany and thunderry. my arm begins to ich a little only i cant scrach it.
June 18. still rany. all our arms begin to ich. Annies arm is the wirst. we dident go to church today. That is one good thing. I never knew it to rane before on sunday.
June 19. brite and fair. every one of us is cross as time. i took hold of Georgies arm today and she began to ball and said i did it purpose. i keep hiting my arm agenst things all the time. somehow i never hit the well one. that is always the way with things. ”

“ Keene sings the treble and Cele sings the alto. it is there is a bank where on the wild time grows. at supper tonite i asked what wild time was and aunt Sarah said it must be what father and Gim Melcher used to have. ”

“ And Mager Blakes horses went by jest lickety larup for the Torrent ingine house with old Brown driving, and then Flunk Ham came piling into the church and said, give me that roap and he puled like time, then sum peeple came runing in and said where is the fire, and Flunk he said we dident know, and then we herd the ingine and went out and they was the Torrent and the fountain and lots of men, and they said where in hel is the fire and nobody knowed where it was. and then Chick Randall he asked Flunk what he was ringing the bell for and Flunk he said he found me and Beany ringing 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. ”

“ 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. 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. ”