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.