April 22. i went out today. it was real warm. i dident go to church becaus i had been sick. i let my rooster out to fite J. Albert Clark's. they were fiting good when i looked up and there was father looking over the fence. he made me stop the fite and shet my rooster up. i wonder if he wood have stoped them if i hadent been there. i got 2 eggs today, the old brama that i swaped for with Ed Tole and a bolten gray that John Adams give me.
April 23. i went to school today. i dident have to resite becaus i had been sick. if i dont get wirse i can goto Mis Packerds concert tomorow. hope it wont rane.
April 24. brite and fair and it dident rane tonite, so i went to the concert. all the girls was flowers. Keene was a crocuss and had to come out and sing first becaus the crocuss is the first flower that comes out. she sung i am the first of all the flowers to greet the eyes of spring.
Jenny Morison was a tuch me not and set in the top of a rock and sung tuch me not, tuch me not let me alone. Nell Tole was a piny or a sunflower i have forgot whitch. Jenny Morison and Keene and Nell Tole are the best singers for their size in town. father thinks Keene can sing the best. he feels pretty big about Keene. i told him so one day and he said he had to becaus i dident amount to enything. i think Jenny Morison can sing the best but dont tell him so for he wood give me a bat.
April 25, 186- Cant go down town for a week becaus i sassed J. Albert Clark, that is J. Albert Clark says I sassed him but i dident. Beany had been working for J. Albert raking up leaves in his garden. J. Albert was a going to give him 10 cents for it and me and Beany was a going to divide up on goozeberries and juju paist, but Beany dident dass to ask J. Albert for his pay because he had raked all the leaves under J. Alberts front steps and he was afraid J. Albert wood find out about it and not pay him. Beany wanted me to ask him but i dident dass to because i let my rooster out to fite J. Alberts last Sunday and J. Albert dont believe in fiting roosters. last night he was setting on his steps with some company and he had on his best lavender britches and his best blew coat.
So Beany said, tell you what Plupy, you set on your steps and i will set on my steps and we will holler across the street about the money that J. Albert owes me. So Beany he went across the street to his steps and he hollered over, hi there Plupy have you got any chink, and i hollered back, no Beany i havent got a cent, and Beany he hollered i shood have 10 cents if J. Albert Clark wood pay me what he owes me, and i hollered why in time dont he pay you, and Beany hollered i gess he hasent got any chink, and i hollered he has probably spent all his chink in buying them lavender britches, and Beany he hollered, well if J. Albert Clark needs the money more than I do he can have it. well while we was hollering mister Head and the Head girls who was setting on their steps got up and went into the house laffing, and the company at J. Alberts all laffed, and J. Albert came down and beckoned to Beany and Beany he went running over to get his 10 cents and J. Albert he said, Elbridge, that is Beanys name, Elbridge you cood have your money enny time if you had asked me for it decently, but now i shall not pay you for a week and i shall not imploy you enny more. Tell you what, Beany came over to my steps feeling pretty cheap and we was talking about it when mother called me in and sent me up stairs, and said she wood tell father as soon as he came home. So i went up stairs and looked out of the window jest in time to see Beanys father lugging Beany in by the neck. Well that nite after father got home he jawed me and said i coodent go down town for a week and made me go to J. Alberts right before the company and ask his forgiveness, and Beany had to to. J. Albert was a pretty good fellow and said it was all right, and dident want our fathers not to let us go down town, but father said i must learn to be respectable to my elders. Gosh we dident know J. Albert was a elder. We knowed elder Stevens and elder Stewart and deacon Gooch and we always was respectable to them, and if we had knowed that J. Albert Clark was a elder we woodent have sassed him for nothing.
April 26. Yesterday and day before it was brite and fair, and yesterday was as warm as summer. today, it was cold and it snowed a little. jest enuf to make the ground look as if it was covered with salt. the birds looked all humped up. i bet the frogs hind legs is about froze. it is raining now. if i was a frog i woodent come out of the mud until summer. perhaps they cant stay under more than six months.
April 27. Warm again. 2 eggs today. i have got another hen. Willyam Perry Molton gave it to me. it is a leghorn and his other hens licked it and made its comb bludy and so he gave it to me. it was on the nest today but did not lay. i went to church. Mr. Cram preeched. he talked all about birds and flowers and i liked it.
April 28. brite and fair. all 3 hens were on the nest but dident lay.
April 29. no eggs today. mother said the hens cackled all the morning. brite and fair.