The Real Diary Of A Real Boy.

[Jeff]

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June 7. father has bought a horse of Dan Randlet.  i rode up to
Brentwood with Sam Diar to get it.  it is the prettiest horse i ever
saw.  i rode it down from Brentwood and it goes jest as easy as
sitting on a spring board.  when i got home Beany got over his mad
and came over and i gave him a ride.  me and Beany never were mad so
long before.
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[Jeff]

June 9. Rany.  this afternoon me and Beany and father went to ride
with the new horse.  her name is Nellie


June 10. brite and fair.  we keep Nellie down to Jo Hanes
stable.  Frank Hanes is learning me how to clean her off. she nipped
my arm today and made a black and blew spot.  went in swimming today.
i have to get up every morning and harnes Nelly and drive father to
the depot.  i like it because i always race with the men coming down
front street.  there is George Dergin and Fred Sellivan and Gim
Wingit and i can beat them all.  i dont tell father that i race.  i
rode Nellie this afternoon with Frank Hanes and Ed Tole.  i dident go
in swimming today.

June 11. brite and fair.  Nellie kicked me today.  i gess i scrached
her today to hard with the curycomb.  it dident hurt me much.  i went
in swimming twise.

[Fraxinus]

That sort of reminds me of the little ditty that we used to sing when I was a kid to the tune of Turkey in the Straw:

"Oh the cow kicked Nellie in the belly in the barn.
But the farmer said it wouldn't do no harm."

[Jeff]

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June 12. brite and fair.  Me and Chick Chickering went bullfroging
today, we got 3 dozen hind legs and sold them to Mr. Hirvey for 30
cents and took our pay in icecream.

June 13. Rode Nellie this noon.  i have to go to the half past five
train every nite for father.  i like to drive but i dont like to go
every nite.
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[Jeff]

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June 14. Rashe Belnap and Horris Cobbs go in swimming every morning
at six o'clock.  i got a licking today that beat the one Beany
got.  last summer me and Tomtit Tomson and Cawcaw Harding and Whack
and Poz and Boog Chadwick went in swimming in May and all thru the
summer until October.  one day i went in 10 times.  well i dident say
anything about it to father so as not to scare him.  well today he
did go to Boston and he said i am going to teech you to swim.  when i
was as old as you i cood swim said he, and you must lern, i said i
have been wanting to lern to swim, for all the other boys can
swim.  so we went down to the gravil and i peeled off my close and
got ready, now said he, you jest wade in up to your waste and squat
down and duck your head under.  i said the water will get in my
nose.  he said no it wont jest squat rite down.  i cood see him laffin
when he thought i wood snort and sputter.  so i waded out a little
ways and then div in and swam under water most across, and when i
came up i looked to see if father was supprised.  gosh you aught to
have seen him.  he had pulled off his coat and vest and there he
stood up to his waste in the water with his eyes jest bugging rite
out as big as hens eggs, and he was jest a going to dive for my dead
body.  then i turned over on my back and waved my hand at him.  he
dident say anything for a minute, only he drawed in a long
breth.  then he began to look foolish, and then mad, and then he
turned and started to slosh back to the bank where he slipped and
went in all over.  When he got to the bank he was pretty mad and
yelled for me to come out.  when i came out he cut a stick and whaled
me, and as soon as i got home he sent me to bed for lying, but i
gess he was mad becaus i about scart the life out of him.  but that
nite i heard him telling mother about it and he said that he div 3
times for me in about thirty feet of water.  but he braged about my
swiming and said i cood swim like a striped frog.  i shall never
forget how his boots went kerslosh kerslosh kerslosh when we were
skinning home thru cros-lots.  i shall never forget how that old stick
hurt either.  ennyhow he dident say ennything about not going in
again, so i gess i am all rite.

June 15, 186- Johnny Heeld, a student, came to me and wanted me to
carry some tickets to a dance round to the girls in the town.  there
was about 1 hundred of them.  he read the names over to me and i said
i knew them all.  so after school me and Beany started out and walked
all over town and give out the tickets.  i had a long string of names
and every time i wood leave one i wood mark out the name.  i dident
give the Head girls any because they told father about some things
that me and Beany and Pewt did and the Farmer girls and the Cilley
girls lived way up on the plains and i dident want to walk up there,
so when i went over to Hemlock side to give one, i went over to the
factory boarding house and give some to them.  they was auful glad to
get them too and said they would go to the dance.  some people was
not at home and so i gave their tickets to the next house.  it took
me till 8 o'clock and i got 1 dollar for it.  i dont beleive those
girls that dident get their tickets will care much about going
ennyway.  i gess the Head girls wont want to tell on me another time.

June 16. Dennis Cokely and Tomtit Tomson had a fite behind Hirvey's
resterent today.  Hirvey stopped them jest as they were having a good
one.  Thats jest the way.  i dont see why they always want to stop a
fite.  All fellers fite for is to see which can lick, and how can
they tell unless they fite it out.

June 17. Brite and fair.  They is going to be a big cattle show here
this fall.  They are going to have it in a field up by the
depot.  They are going to have horse trots and shows and
everything.  We are going to have no school.  it dont come for an
auful while yet.  Charles Taylor is going to have Nelly to ride.

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[SwampDonkey]

Reminds me of the school teacher that liked to take the yard stick and slap kids until I snatched it one day and broke it in 2 or 3 pieces. That was the end of being 'slap happy' with the yard stick.  : ;D

[sawguy21]

I did know my history teacher moved to NB. ;D We wondered where that sumbee went.

[Jeff]

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June 18. Me and Mickey Gould had a race horseback.  he had one of Ben
Merril's little black horses, we raced way round Kensington ring.  i
cood beat trotting and he cood beat running.  when i got home Nelly
was so swetty that father told me not to ride her for a week.

************************************

[asy]

How can one boy get in so much trouble!?

It's amazing!!!

I bet the Head girls will be cross when everyone else has tickets to the dance except them!!!  Can't wait to hear about the fallout from that one!

asy :D

[Jeff]

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June 19. Went up to Chadwicks after school.  Boog and Whack got
Willie fiting with Johnny Rogers.  Willie licked him.  Willie is
Whack's little brother.  he is a auful cunning little feller.  he can
fite too.  all the Chadwick's can fite.

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[Jeff]

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June 20. Brite and fair.  i am going fishing tonite with Potter
Gorham.

June 21. brite and fair.  went fishing today with Potter Gorham.  i
cought 5 pirch and 4 pickeril.  i cleaned them and we had them for
supper.  father said they was the best fish he ever et.  i also cought
the biggest roach i ever saw, almost as big as a sucker, and i cant
tell what i did with him.  i thought Potter had hooked him for fun,
but he said he dident, and we hunted everywhere for him.  i dont know
where i put that roach.
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[Dave Shepard]

"I don't know where I put that roach"

This can't possibly end well.:D


Dave

[Fraxinus]

"This can't possibly end well." :D

This is one of my favorite stories in the whole book.  8) 8) 

I couldn't stand it, reading only one day at a time, so I printed out my own copy. :D  I have passed it around to friends and relatives.  They all love it.

[ely]

i will finish the story with jeff b but when i am done i would like to know where to print my copy please.

[Jeff]

June 22. the students had their dance last nite.  they had a auful
time.  some of the girls which dident get no tickets was mad, and the
students which wanted them to go was mad and they went to Johnny
Heeld and give him time.  then he went round and told them how it was
and give them tickets.  well the nite of the dance everything was all
rite until lots of people came which hadent been on the list, but
which we had given tickets.  well the students dident want to let
them in and they were mad, and Chick Randal hit a student named
Pendry rite in the nose and nocked his glasses off and Nichols
nocked Johnny Lord way acros the entry and they was going to have a
big fite when Bob Carter and 2 or 3 men stoped it.  today Johnny
Heeld came down to the house and said i had got things all mixed up
and father made me give back the dollar.  but he told Johnny Heeld he
hadent ought to have let me try such a hard job.  Gosh, i am glad
father thinks it was a mistake, and dont know that i did it on
purpose.

June 23. there is a dead rat in the wall in my room.  it smells
auful.

June 24. Rany.  most time for vacation.  the smell in my room is
fearful.

[Fraxinus]

i will finish the story with jeff b but when i am done i would like to know where to print my copy please.

Google Gutenberg Project.  Maybe you can look earlier in the thread.  I think the info was posted there at some point.

[Jeff]

June 25. more trouble today.  it seems as if there wasent any use in
living.  nothing but trouble all the time.  mother said i coodent
sleep in that room until the rat was taken out.  well father he came
into my room and sniffed once and said, whew, what a almity
smell.  then he held his nose and went out and came back with mister
Staples the father of the feller that called me Polelegs.  well he
came in and put his nose up to the wall and sniffed round until he
came to where my old close hung.  then he said, thunder George, this
is the place, rite behind this jacket, it is the wirst smell i ever
smelt.  then he threw my close in a corner and took out his tools and
began to dig a hole in the wall, while father and mother and aunt
Sarah stood looking at him and holding their nose.  after he dug the
hole he reached in but dident find ennything, then he stuck in his
nose and said, it dont smell enny in there.  then they all let go of
their nose and took a sniff and said murder it is wirse than ever it
must be rite in the room somewhere.  then father said to me, look in
those close and see if there is ennything there.  so i looked and
found in the poket of my old jaket that big roach that i lost, when
i went fishing with Potter Gorham.  it was all squashy and smelt
auful.  father was mad and made me throw the jaket out of the window
and wont let me go fishing for a week.  ennyway i know now what
became of my roach.

[Dave Shepard]

ennyway i know now what became of my roach.

Always thinking practically!


Dave

[sawguy21]

 :D :D :D :D :D Seems like trouble comes looking for this kid.

[Sunfield Hardwood]

I've been gone a few days and or maybe I'm just slow, but what the heck is the roach he's talking about? ???

[Furby]

Read back a little bit!
Reply #285 ;)

[Sunfield Hardwood]

Thanks Furby, so I guess you don,t know either.  :D, . really though, I'm not trying to be a smart aleck , so is it a kind of fish,turtle,bug,or what ???

[Furby]

It's a freshwater/brackishwater fish.
Supposed to be good eating.

[sawguy21]

Oh. I thought he was talking about a cockroach and wondered what the fascination was.

[beenthere]

When did the "wirm" get introduced?  Jumped from 'roach' to 'wirm' in the leg.   : ???

Never a dull moment...