Part 5 (2/2)

i dident know she had read it so when the minister had went off kind of stiflegged i asted her if she dident thing it was a riping story and she sed no she dident see how i cood read it but she had read it to see if there was ennything impropper in it and they wasent. she sed she only read it to see if there was ennything really rong in it. she dont care for sutch stories i am afrade. then she asted if i wanted ennything and i sed no and she went down stairs.

then when she had went i clim out of bed and waived my hand to Ed and Gimmy and they come out with their rosters under their arms and set them a going and they hadent made more than a dozen gumps at eech other when in come old mother Moulton with sum gelly and custerd for me and she stoped the fite and jawed the boys and asted them if they dident know enny beter than to have a rooster fite in the yard of a poar boy whitch had nearly dide only a few days ago and Ed and Gimmy sed no mam we dident know he had been so sick and we woodent have did it and they picked up their roosters and went home and i skiped into bed prety lively for a boy whitch had nearly dide a few days ago. so when she come up i was in bed and i et the custerd and part of the gelly and it was bully. i wish she hadent come so soon. that wood have been a good rooster fite.

i set up most haff of the time today. tomorrow i am going downstairs. Fatty Gilman come down today and brought me 2 oranges and a red bananner.

mother let me eat the oranges but woodent let me eat the bananner. i dont know what she done with it. i supose sumone et it. enyway i dident.

Aug. 30 186---today i went out in the yard. it was brite and fair all day. lots of the felers come up and had a tirnament. first they had a match throwing green apples on a stick. Puzzy Chadwick throwed the furtherest. he threw one from my yard across the high school yard and it went throug a window in old Heads cariage shop. it was so far that when the men in that room piled out swaring they dident supose it was one of us and thy swore at John Toomy and 2 other fellers in the school yard.

Pewt was the next best. perhaps it wood have went as far as Puzzys but sumthing stoped it. what stoped it was a mans head. i dont know who the man was but when that apple hit him rite on the back of his head he throwed down sum boards he was luging into the shop and clim the fense and chased John Toomey and the 2 other felers way down south street. i gess he dident catch them becaus he swore so when he come back and if he had cougt them and licked them he wood have felt better.

men always do.

so we dident throw enny more apples. so then we had sum ra.s.sels and the twin Browns and Potter Goram had a mach wigling their scalps and ears.

Harry Brown beat on a scalp wigling and Potter on ear wigling. the 2 Chadwicks Puzzy and Bug fit again and neether licked.

then we had a spitting match. Ed Tole beat. he always does. then mother come out and sed i had been out long enuf. so i went in. i had a pretty good day.

September 1. brite and fair. it seams bully to be well again and to see the fellers and to go in swimming and fis.h.i.+ng. i havent went in swimming or fis.h.i.+ng since i have ben sick but i am going in in a day or too. i can eat things now whitch is better than enything. a feller cant do mutch unless he has a good apet.i.te. father says there is one thing whitch has kept me back all these years. he sed that if i had had a beter apet.i.te when i went to that picknic i cood have et nine pecks of stuff insted of only five. he sed he wood have to get the doctor to give me a tonick the nex picknic time so that i can do a gob that will be a credit to the family. he sed enny healthy boy witch can go to a chirch picknic and only eat 5 meesly pecks of food aint doing jestice to himself or his frends and he hoaps i will do beter nex time. he says he dont want me to make a hog of myself but he does want me to make a record that he can be proud of. he says i can be champeen if i only try hard.

i never know whether father is goking or not, but i think this time he must be goking. ennyway it wasent becaus i et two mutch that made me sick, it was becaus i got poizoned by poizen ivory leeves and that stuffed up my stomack. if it hadent been for that i bet i woodent have been sick. then going so long without ennything to eat and wirking hard dident do me enny good. they are still mad with me. i am sorry now i sed what i did. when a feller has lade between life and deth for 3 days he looks at things diferent from what they wood if he was well and was going round with fellers like Pewt and Beany and Whach and Fatty and Pop and Medo and Tady and Skinny and fellers like them.

So i have been thinking over what i have did and sed and i am very mutch ashaimed of myself. if enny other feller had went and sed things about my mother and sister or about aunt Sarah and my father that i sed about old Rody Shatuck and Misses Peezley and Decon Aspinwall i wood have felt like giving him a bang in the snoot. i wood have did it if he wasent two big, and if he was i wood have triped him up sum nite with a roap or plunged him with ripe tomatose or rotten egs when he had got on his best close.

but i needent be afraid that ennyone wood say ennything against my folks becaus they dont have fits and dont run round after ministers and dont hold up their skerts xcept when there is a mouse round and that is always at home where peeple cant see them. so i shant have to bat ennyone for that but that dont make enny difference becaus i have did rong.

so i have thougt it over and last nite when the band was playing departed days and the romance from Leclare in the band room i desided i wood wright a letter to all the peeple i had sa.s.sed and beg their pardon. it is prety tuff to do it but it aint haff as tuff as being snaiked rite up befoar them by your father and made to beg their pardon.

i have had to do this quite a number of times. so this morning when i woke up and had brekfast i remembered what i desided and i went up to my room and rote a lot of letters to peeple. i gess when father finds it out he will think i am prety good feller after all.

it took me a long time to do it and i hated to waist the time becaus it is prety near the last weak of vacation but i gnew i wood feel beter when i had done it and i done it. this is what i rote to decon Aspinwall.

decon Aspinwall Congregasional Chirch Exeter New Hamps.h.i.+re dear sir i have been thinking over what i sed to you when i hollered to Beany about your swaring at me at the picknic last weak and i done verry rong and please to forgive me. of coa.r.s.e it wasent so mutch becaus you swore so but becaus you are a decon of the chirch and speek in prair meating and so you hadent augt to have did it. but that is no xcuse for me to sa.s.s you. father sed i wasent verry mutch to blaim. he says he dont object to swaring but when a man tries to be a decon and plug ugly at the saim time it is the dam hippockrasy of it that maiks a man mad. i only tell you this to show you i was not verry mutch to blaim. but i am verry sorry i done it. you needent tell father what i sed, but i hoap you will try hard not to sware so another time when there is wimmen and girls and a minister present jest becaus a boy done what they told him to do and cougt a eal.

yours very respectively Harry Shute

i bet that decon will be glad when he gets that leter. i bet there aint many fellers whitch can write a better letter than that. i bet Beany coodent. i bet Pewt coodent eether. this is the letter i rote to old Misses Peezley.

Mrs. Sofire Peezly Exeter New Hamps.h.i.+re dear Misses Peezly. i am verry sorry for hollering to Beany them things about you. when you had that fit i suposed it was becaus you was mad and i was kind of mad two becaus i had been cheeted out of my fifty cents by the minister, becaus i cougt a eal after they had told me to do it. then i remembered that my father had sed once that you had them fits when you wanted sumthing and kept having them until you got what you wanted and that he pitted mister Peezly.

so i dident think when i hollered to Beany and i wish you wood pleese forgive me.

it is a awful thing to have fits when you cant help it. mother says that peeple whitch have fits have to be verry careful not to get xcited. so when you go to a picknic again and enny feller throws a bull toad or a snaik into your lap you must reflek that a bull toad and a green snaik never bite or scrach and aint poizen. if you had gnew that at the picknic you wood not have had that fit. mother says that if peeple keep having fits they get wirse and sumtimes go crasy. so i hoap you will forgive me and will be very cairful not to get xctied. it is dredful to have fits and i am verry sorry for you.

yours verry respectively Harry Shute

there i think she will be verry mutch pleesed when she gets that leter. she wont think i am the wirst boy in town.

this is the letter i rote to Rhody Shatuck.

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