Brite and Fair

by Henry A. Shute

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.