Feb. 14. pretty cold today. going to have a new kind of speling mach tomorrow.

Feb. 15. Got to the head in spelling today. old Francis makes us all stand up in the ile and gives us a lot of words to spell and then we wright them down on our slates and then the head feller or girl changes slates with the foot feller or girl and so on and then old Francis wrights the words on the blackboard and then we mark each others slates.

John Flanygin was the foot feller and had my slate. well most of Johns words was wrong. but John marked mine all write. i gess John dident know it, but ther was 4 or 5 of my words speled wrong. i set out to tell old Francis but dident da.s.s to becaus he licked me for teling that i paisted Cawcaw Harding that time. so i kept still and kept at the head and John kept at the foot. i hope John will do it again tomorrow.

Feb. 16. Beat in speling today.

Feb. 17. beat in speling today.

Feb. 19. Beat in speling today. old Francis is a going to give a prise tomorrow. i told father i was pretty sure to get it and he said it will be the first one. Aunt Sarah asked him if he took many prises. and he said he dident get much of a prise when he got me. i gess he wont say that tomorrow when i bring my prise home.

Feb. 20. i dident get the prise. you see yesterday John Flanygin spelt more words write than Gimmy Fitsgerald and Gimmy went to the foot. when we marked slates Gimmy marked 9 of my words wrong out of 20, and i had to go down most to where John Flannygin was. old Francis said he dident beleave i had aught to have staid at the head so long as i did and i was afraid he wood lick me and John but he dident. he said he was ashamed and disapointed in me but i gess he was not the only one who was disapointed. i had told Pewt and Beany i wood treat on what father wood give me for getting the prise. Pewt and Beany was both mad, and are going to lay for Gimmy.

Feb. 21, i forgot to say what the wether was most every day this weak.

it has been brite and fair most of the time, only it snowed two days and raned most of one day. brite and fair today and cold as time.

Feb. 23, Clowdy and cold. Pop Clark had to crawl through a chair today.

he went through so fast old Francis only hit him 2 bats. Tady Finton and n.i.g.g.e.r Bell both got licked. Tady dident cry or holler a bit, but n.i.g.g.e.r hollered just like a girl. i supposed n.i.g.g.e.r was more of a man than that.

Feb. 24, Beany and Pewt got punching today in school and old Francis made them stand on the platform with their arms round each others neck all the forenoon, i bet they felt pretty cheep. Brite and fair.

Feb. 25, i have got a new pair of britches at erl and Cutts. i gess Beany aint the only one which has good clothes eather.

Feb. 26. Nothing particular today. Went down to old Heads shop to see the stewdcats ride velosipedes. There is going to be a race in the town hall tomorrow night.

Feb. 27. Father said i cood go to the velosipede race if i woodent miss splitting my kindlings for a week. i did miss them twice but mother dident tell him and if he dont ask her before tonight i am all right.

Feb. 28. Last night went to the velosipede race. it was jest ripping.

i got down before the door opened. Bob Carter came pretty soon but he woodent let us in until the ticket man came. Mr. Watson was the ticket man and he let me and Beany and Shinny Thing in free. they had a lot of seats in the center of the hall, and the rest round the edges, and a open track around the hall. On the platform set Bill Morrill and Dave Quimby and John Getch.e.l.l and Eben Folsom. Most of the fellers in the race were stewdcats and most of the stewdcats and the girls had the seats in the center of the hall. The stewdcats who were to race were Stone and Stuart and Lee and Clifford and August Belmont and Swift and Nichols and George Kent and Cutler and Johnny Heald and Gear and Burly and Bob Morison. the townies were Charlie Gerish and Doctor Prey. each feller rode round the hall twice to get going like time, and then Dave Quimby hollered go and he had to ride around the hall until he had rid a quarter of a mile.

When the stewdcats rode all the other stewdcats yelled and the girls waved their handkerchiefs and the band played and the excitement was dreadful.

After a while Doctor Prey came out and all the townies got up and cheered and the band played the star spangled banner, because Doctor fit in the war, and Doctor took of his hat and bowed and then rode round like time. he rode faster than most every one of them except Stone and Stuart and Lee and Clifford and Belmont and Swift. i guess if Doc hadent fit so hard in the war he wood have beat them all. and then Charlie Gerish came out and all the townies hollered again and Charlie made his legs go so fast that they coodent hardly see them, and jest before the last time around his velosipede slipped and Charlie went fluking over three settees. he jumped on his velosipede again and went around with his britches all torn but he dident get around quite quick enuf to beat Stone, then the townies yelled and said it was a cheat and the stewdcats hissed, and some of the townies said they could lick the stewdcats, and the stewdcats said they wasent man enuf and it looked as if there was a going to be a row when Charlie Gerrish got up and said he was beat fair and there wasent anything to get mad about, and that he would like to shake hands with the stewdcat which beat him, and he wood like to race him another time but he coodent then because he hurt his leg, and then they shook hands and every one felt buly, and the stewdcats said hooray for Charlie and the townies hollered hooray for Stone, and Bill Morrill made a speech and give the prise to Stone and the band played and we all went home. i bet Doc. Prey and Charlie Gerrish can lick any two stewdcats in the hall.

Mar. 2. i went to a show in the town hall tonight. it was a singing show called the haymakers. it was splendid. Mr. Gale got it up. they have been practising all winter. Alice Gewell was a dary maid and Charlie Lane was a katydid, and lots of others sung. it was splendid.

Mar. 3. Cloudy but no rane. went down to Langley's store for some juju paste, saw a fite. Old Kize tried to arest Bill Hartnit and Bill lammed time out of him and after a while old Swain came up and arrested him.

Mar. 4. Brite and fair. Went to church to-day, the fernace smoked so the people had to come home. They say they will have it fixed before next Sunday. i hope not.

Mar. 5. School closes tomorrow. i got kept after school tonight for whispering to Cawcaw.

Mar. 6. School closed today and we voted for prises. Mr. Gordon give 4 prizes for the 2 best fellers and 2 best girls for the term. So we voted for them. Most of the fellers wanted to vote for Jenny Morrison because she was the prettiest girl there and can go the greeshun bend better than enny girl in the school. and most of the girls dident like Jenny Morrison and wanted to vote for Dora Moses and Mary Luverin, and the girls wanted to vote for Lees Moses because he was polite to them and rather go with the girls than the boys and we holler at him, but he can fite for i saw him lick Gim Erly one day, and Gim Erly can ra.s.sle better than enny one but Jack Melvil. well most of the fellows wanted to vote for Tady Finton or Pop Clark or Skinny Bruce because they never get mad or cry when they are licked and make lots of fun, but we knew they coodent get the prize for they are all the time raising time and getting licked and so we voted for Honey Donovan and Moses Gordon, and when the votes was counted Dora Moses and Mary Luvering got the prizes for the girls and Mose Gordon and n.i.g.g.e.r Bell for the boys. That was all write about Dora Moses and Mary Luverin because they was the best girls and always went together, but we dident like it very well about Mose and n.i.g.g.e.r, only we thought that so long as Mose's father give the prizes Mose ought to have one. i gess most of the girls must have voted for Nig, because they was mad with Lees Moses. i know what they was mad at too.

Then the first cla.s.s give old Francis a present of some books and when he turned over the leaves there was twenty dollars there, and old Francis was surprised and made a fine speech, and the people all clapped becaus he made such a good speech. i heard him saying it over the night before when i was kept after school. No school for 2 weeks.

Mar. 7. When my father was a boy he was the best fiter in this town.

Mar. 9. Went down to Fatty Melchers today to make a violin, we cut a piece of wood the shape of a violin then take some horsehairs and strech them over a brige and you can play a tune on them. in school i learnt to play on a piece of india rubber. you pull a piece of elastic out of your congres boot and hold it in your teeth and pull it t.i.te and snap it with your fingers and you can play tunes that you can hear but no one else can. old Francis saw me snapping the elastic and came and took it away.

i have got plenty more in my boot. i am saving money to buy me a cornet.

when i get enuf i am a going to play in the band. +++

Mar. 10. plesent day. old Si Smiths big white dog and a bull dog had an awful fite today. neether licked and they had to squert water on them to seperate them. they dident make no noise, only jest hung write on to each others gozzles. my aunt Sarah said it was dredful, and she staid to the window to see how dredful it was.

Mar. 11, 186- Went to church in the morning. the fernace was all write.

Mister Lennard preeched about loving our ennymies, and told every one if he had any angry feelings toward ennyone to go to him and shake hands and see how much better you wood feel. i know how it is becaus when me and Beany are mad we dont have eny fun and when we make up the one who is to blam always wants to treet. why when Beany was mad with me becaus i went home from Gil Steels surprise party with Lizzie Towle, Ed Towles sister, he woodent speak to me for 2 days, and when we made up he treated me to ice cream with 2 spoons and he let me dip twice to his once. he took pretty big dips to make up. 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. huh old Skinny, i can lick you in 2 minits and i said you aint man enuf and he called me a nockneed puke, and i called him a wall eyed lummix and he give me a paist in the eye and i gave him a good one in the mouth, and then we ra.s.sled and Micky threw me and i turned him, and he got hold of my new false bosom and i got hold of his hair, and the fellers all hollered hit him Micky, paist him Skinny, and Mister Purington, Pewts father pulled us apart and i had Mickys paper collar and necktie and some of his hair and he had my false bosom and when i got home father made me go to bed and stay there all the afternoon for fiting, but i gess he dident like my losing my false bosom. ennyway he asked me how many times i hit Micky and which licked. he let me get up at supper time. next time i try to love my ennymy i am a going to lick him first.

Went to a Sunday school concert in the evening. Keene and Cele sung now i lay me down to sleep. they was a lot of people sung together and Mister Gale beat time. Charlie Gerish played the violin and Miss Packerd sung. i was scart when Keene and Cele sung for i was afraid they would break down, but they dident, and people said they sung like night horks.

i gess if they knowed how night horks sung they woodent say much. father felt pretty big and to hear him talk you wood think he did the singing.

he give them ten cents apeace. i dident get none. you gest wait, old man till i get my cornet.

Went to a corcus last night. me and Beany were in the hall in the afternoon helping Bob Carter sprinkle the floor and put on the sordust.

the floor was all shiny with wax and aufully slipery. so Bob got us to put on some water to take off the shiny wax. well write in front of the platform there is a low platform where they get up to put in their votes and then step down and Beany said, dont put any water there only jest dry sordust. so i dident. well that night we went erly to see the fun.

Gim Luverin got up and said there was one man which was the oldest voter in town and he ought to vote the first, the name of this destinkuished sitizen was John Quincy Ann Pollard. then old mister Pollard got up and put in his vote and when he stepped down his heels flew up and he went down whak on the back of his head and 2 men lifted him up and lugged him to a seat, and then Ed Derborn, him that rings the town bell, stepped up pretty lively and went flat and swore terrible, and me and Beany nearly died we laffed so. well it kept on, people dident know what made them fall, and Gim Odlin sat write down in his new umbrella and then they sent me down stairs for a pail of wet sordust and when i was coming up i heard an auful whang, and when i got up in the hall they were lugging old mister Stickney off to die and they put water on his head and lugged him home in a hack. they say Bob Carter will lose his place. me and Beany dont know what to do. if we dont tell, Bob will lose his place and if we do we will get licked.

Mar. 12. Mister Stickney is all write today. gosh you bet me and Beany are glad.

Mar. 13, 186- brite and fair. Mr. Gravel has bought old Heads carrige shop. he is a dandy and wears shiny riding boots and a stove pipe hat and a velvet coat and goes with Dan Ranlet and George Perkins and Johny Gibson and the other dandies. i went down today and watched Fatty Walker stripe some wheels.

Mar. 14. clowdy. Elkins and Graves had an oxion to-night. Beany got ten cents for going round town ringing a bell and hollering oxion. i went with Beany and it was lots of fun. Beany wouldent treet. he says he is saving money for something. i know what it is it is a valintine for Lizzie Tole. it was mean of Beany not to treet becaus i did as much hollering as he did.

Mar. 15. The funniest thing hapened to-day you ever saw. after brekfast me and father took a walk and then went and set down on the big school steps. father was telling me some of the things he and Gim Melcher used to do. father must have been a ripper when he was young. well ennyway while we was talking old Ike Shute came along through the school yard.

Ike wears specks and always carries a little basket on his arm. he cant see very well, and father said to me, now you jest keep still and you will see some fun and when Ike came along father changed his voice so that it sounded awfully growly and said where in the devil are you going with that basket, and Ike was scart most to deth and said only a little way down here sir and father said, move on sir and move dam lively and i nearly died laffing to see Ike hiper. well after a while i see Ike coming back with old Swane and old Kize the policemen. i tell you i was scart but father only laffed and said you keep still and i will fix it all right. so when they came up he said to old Kize what is the trouble Filander and he said Mr. Shute here has been thretened by some drunken rascal, and father looked aufuly surprised and said that is an infernal shame, when did it happen Isak, and Ike said about fifteen minits ago and father said we have been here about as long as that and i dident see the scoundrel. how did he look Isak, and Ike said i coodent see him very well George but he was a big man and he had a awfu deep voice and father said did he stagger enny and Ike said i coodent see wether he did or not but i cood tell he was drunk by his voice. so old Swain and old Kize went down behind the school house and off thru the carrige shop yard to see if they cood find him, and me and father walked home with Ike to protect him and father said now Isak if ennyone insults you again jest come to me and if i can catch him i will break every bone in his body, and father and Ike shook hands and Ike shook hands with me and then we went home and father began to laff and laffed all the way home and then he told mother and aunt Sarah and they said it was a shame to play such a trick upon him and father laffed all the more and said Ike hadent had so much exercise for a year and it wood do him good and give him something to think about. ennyway they said it was a shame to teech me such things, and father said he would rather i wood be tuf than be like Ike, and Aunt Sarah said i never wood be half as good as Ike for he never did a wrong thing in his life, and father laffed and said he dident da.s.s to for his mother wood shet him in the closet. it was aufully funny, but i gess they was right. i shall never be half as good as Ike. i wonder if old Swane and old Kize have caught that man yet.

Mar. 16. Pewt dreened 18 marbles and 2 chinees out of me to-day. we was playing first in a hole. school today. sailed boats in the brook in J.

Albert Clark's garden and got pretty wet.

Mar. 17. Scott Briggam has got some little flying squirrels. he is going to get me one for thirty-five cents. i am going to take it out of my cornet money.

Mar. 18. Father wont let me play marbles in ernest. it aint enny fun dreening a feller and then giving them back. i bet father didnt when he was a boy.

Mar. 19. Scott Briggam brought my squirrel today and i paid him 35 cents, 3 ten cents scrips and five cents. i have got it in a bird cage.

Mar. 20. my squirrel got out of the cage last nite and father found him in the water pail drownded. father got up in the night and got a dipper and drank some water out of that pail, he dident eat any brekfast because he was thinking that the squirrel might have been in the pail then. i wonder if it was. ennyway 35 cents of my cornet money has gone up.

Mar. 23. school today. went down to Pewts to draw pictures. Charlie Woodbury can draw the best, then Pewt, and then me. Beany dont like to draw. we was talking about what we was going to be when we grew up.

Charlie Woodbury is going to be a picture painter, Pewt is going to be a lawyer, Potter Gorham and Chick Chickering are going to stuff birds for a living, Beany is going to be a hack driver, Gim Wingit is going to run a newspaper, Cawcaw Harding is going to be a piscopal minister becaus he says they only have to read their speaches out of a book, Nipper Brown is going to be a professer, Priscilla Hobbs is going to play a organ in the baptis church. Prisil can play 3 tunes now on a little organ. i am going to be a cornet player like Bruce Briggam. cornet players can go to all the dances and fairs and prosessions and are invited in and treated when people are married and they serrinade them at night, and they don't have to work either.

Mar. 25. almost as warm as summer, went to church and Sunday school.

Beany has got a job blowing the organ for Kate Wells. he only let the wind go out 2 times today. it was funny becaus when the organ stopped Mister Wood who was singing let out an auful hoot before he knowed what he was doing Beany will lose his job if he does it again.

Mar. 29, 186- The toads has come out. fine warm day. me and Potter Gorham have been ketching toads this afternoon. they sit in the pudles and peep. folks think it is frogs but most of it is toads. Potter got 23 and i got 18. tonite i put my toads in a box in the kitchen after the folks went to bed. in the night they all got out of the box and began to hop round and peep mother heard it and waked father and they lissened.

when i waked up father was coming threw my room with a big cane and a little tin lamp. he had put on his britches and was in his shirt tale, and i said, what are you going to lick me for now i havent done nothing and he said, keep still there is some one down stairs and mother said dont go down George and father said, lissen i can hear him giving a whistle for his confedrit, i will jump in and give him a whack on the c.o.konut. i had forgot all about the toads and you bet i was scart. well father he crep down easy and blowed out his lite and opened the door quick and jest lammed round with his club. then i heard him say what in h.e.l.l have i stepped on, bring a lite here. then i though of the toads and you bet i was scarter than before, mother went down with a lite and then i heard him say, i will be cussed the whole place is ful of toads.

then mother said did you ever. and father said he never did, and it was some more of that dam boys works and he yelled upstairs for me to come down and ketch them. so i went down and caught them and put them out all but 2 that father had stepped on and they had to be swep up. then all the folks came down in their nitegounds and i went up stairs lively and got into bed and pulled the clothes round me t.i.te, but it dident do enny good for father came up and licked me. he dident lick me very hard becaus i gess he was glad it wasent a berglar and if it hadent been for me it might have been berglars insted of toads.

Mar. 30. brite and fair, went out with Potter Gorham. saw some toads 2 robins and a blewbird. gosh it makes a feller feel good to see birds and toads and live things.

Mar. 31. April fool day tomorrow. i am laying for Beany. old Francis licked 5 fellers today becaus they sung rong when we was singing speek kindly it is better far to rule by luv than feer.