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. they is a stick leening agenst the gool and if one of the fellers can get to the gool ferst he can plug the stick as far as he can and the feller whitch is laying it has to run and get the stick and go back to the gool and leeve the stick there before he can find enny more fellers and if enny fellers has been cougt they can hide agen. so tonite we plaid it til nine oh clock and i had laid it most an hour when Pewt pluged the stick and hit old Bill Morril rite in the head jest as he came round the corner and he was mad as time and we put for home jest lively. Pewt dident meen to do it. Bill hadent aught to have been coming round the corner jest then ennyway. Bill told father they was the tufest set of boys in the naborhood he ever see. i was behind the current buches when Bill told father this and he showed father his old plug hat whitch was all dented in. father he said well Bill we usted to make things prety lively when we was boys. then he told Bill that he usted to ask his father if he cood go over and sleep with Gim Melcher and his father wood say yes, and Gim Melcher he wood ask his father if he cood go over and sleep with father and Gims father wood say yes, and they wood stay out all nite and raise time, and Gims father he wood think Gim was over to fathers house, and fathers father wood think father was over to Gims house and so they woodent get cougt. that wood be a prety good trick for me and Beany to try only father wood know two mutch. i gess that is the reason father finds out so mutch about me becaus he was prety tuf when he was a boy. i gess that is the reson why ministers boys is most always tuf becaus there fathers dont know how to find out what tuf things they do. i wish i was a ministers son so i cood be tuf and not get found out, only i wood have to go to church 3 times evry sunday.
Aug. 25. brite and fair. i wish i was ded. a feller might as well be ded as to be getting licked all time for nuthing. tonite me and Beany wated till it was dark and we saw Bill Greenlef go down town. then we tide a string to his doorbell and hiched the other end to old printer Smiths door on the other side of the street and hauled it tite. bimeby Bill he come back and went in the side door. then a man came by driving a horse and when the horse run agenst the string both doorbells rung before the string broak and out come Bill and old printer Smith. when they found they wasent ennyone there they was prety mad. Bill he run round looking behind fences and trees and old printer he swoar terible and went through Miss Sulivans and over to Nipper Browns and all round. me and Beany was hiding in Ike Shutes porch. bimeby they come back and talked. Bill said they must be 2 of them and old printer he said it was about time this thing was stoped and he was going to find out who did it if it took him all summer. well bimeby they went in to wate and see if ennyone rung there doorbells sum more. Bill he said he wood leeve his door open jest a little and old printer Smith he said he wood leeve his open jest a little two so he cood gump out and lam time out of the feller whitch rung his bell. well bimeby me and Beany crep out esy and hunted round til we found the string and we tide it agen as tite as we cood and then we crep back into the porch and peeked through the window. bimeby old mister Lyford come up the sidewalk and when he come to the string it gerked his old plug hat of and he picked it up and brushed it and then went of. bimeby a hack came by and when it hit the string both door bells gingled feerful and Bill and old printer Smith came hipering out as if they was hiched to the string. Bill went to gump of the side of the steps and he got the string round his leg and went fluking and then holered to old printer Smith that they was a string tide to his door bell and printer he holered back that they was one tide to his two. then they swoar and talked sum and jest then Pewts father come out and they said it was Pewt and old Missis Sawyer she come out and she said it was Pewt two. well then they begun to hunt and look behind trees and into doorways and me and Beany got prety scart and bimeby we opened the door esy and hipered round Ikes house and ran rite into old printer and he grabed us both by the neck and holered i have got the misable cusses and he draged us out to the lite and Bill and Brad said it is George Shutes boy and Irv Watsons boy and they shook us up lively. well old Missis Sawyer wanted them to take us to jale but Pewts father and Bill and printer said to take us down to our fathers and so printer held us by the neck and marched us down the street and Pewts father and Bill come along two and old Missis Sawyer she came taging along talking all the time that we was the wirst boys in town. we went down to fathers ferst and he come out and Bill he went over and called mister Watson. well he come over and they all went into the back yard and they told father about it and Missis Sawyer said she was going to have us arested and father he said if she wanted to arest me all rite but he wood get a lawyer and carry the case to the circus coart if it took evry cent he had and Mister Watson he said so two. and father he said he woodent have his boy distirbing his nabors and he wood lick me and make me beg evrybodys pardon, but it wasent merder or hyway robery to ring doorbells and if they wanted to arest me to sale rite in, and Mister Watson he said so two. then father and Mister Watson marched us up to old Hobbs and made us beg his pardon and old Hobbs told father we was the wirst boys in town and father aught to whale the life out of us, and then we went down to Pewts and had to beg his pardon for getting him a licking and then we went over to mister Heads and begged his pardon two. then father took me into the kichin and give me a licking for eech doorbell that we rung. he give me a good one for Missis Sawyer becaus she was a woman and he said we dident have enny bizness to plage a woman, and he give me a prety good one for Bill becaus Bill was a prety good feller, and he only hit me one lick for old Hobbs becaus he was mad at what old Hobbs said and he dident hit me a lick for mister Head becaus Pewt got licked for it and he said Pewt had aught to have been licked so many times when he dident that one licking one way or the other woodent make much diference. the wirst was when i had to beg Pewts pardon. i wood rather get 2 lickings.
Aug. 26, 186- Brite and fair. tonite i asked father about him and Gim Melcher staying out all nite and he laffed and said it was trew. then i asked him how menny times he did it and he said all the times he wanted to becaus his father thougt he was a beter boy then he was. well i asked him if i cood stay out all nite sum time and he said no. then he said i woodent dass to and i said i bet i wood. then he said i cood if i wanted to and then mother she said George are you crasy and he said no but he gessed after i had been out a while i wood be homesick. so after super i asked Beany and Beany he asked his father and he told his father what father said and bimeby Mister Watson Beanys father he said Beany cood stay out if i cood. so we are going to stay out Monday nite.
Aug. 27. brite and fair. nothing but church.
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. 30. brite and fair. i gess i wont try to stay out all nite agen. it aint enny fun. yesterday afternoon mother made me go to bed so i woodent be sleepy at nite and Beanys mother she did two. i coodent sleep and bimeby i got up and stuck my head out of the window and looked over to Beanys house and Beany he was looking out of his window and bimeby Potter and Cawcaw went by with their fish poles and you bet i wanted to go two, but i had to stay in my room. so Beany and i begun to holler acrost to each other and i made up this poitry about Beany,
fat pork and beens thats what it meens that Beanys got the belyake from fat pork and beens.
and then Beany he made up this poitry about me,
Plupy Shute is meener than Pewt and he is a prety meen galoot.