Part 13 (2/2)
so it will be my duty, sister, in spite of your prairs and teers, not to concele from Isak the seerius nature of the thret maid by the Terible 3. have you ever reelized how my boyhood was blited by the thras.h.i.+ngs it received becaus i was a bit rude to my gentle cussen Ike. and do you reelize how many hundred times he was held up to me as a moddle and how i was erged sumtimes prairfuly by mother and moar often strapfuly by father to emulait his vertus.
and do you think, sweet but earring sister that i will alow sutch a opertunity of asureing him of my pertecksion and simpathy to pa.s.s.
o the demon and his bride and the grate grate owl by all his curage tride in the popes sanbowl
i gess not, Sarah mine. i shall go up and convinse Isak that the wicked stand in slepery plaices and that the way of the transgresor is hard. Isak has called upon his cussen for pertecksion. wood you have me fale him, speek woman.
then aunt Sarah began to laff and sed there is no use in talking to you when you are fealing like that and i shall not say enny moar and she went off.
i gnew there wood be sum fun for they always is when father talks like that and so i asted father if i cood go up to Ikes with him. he sed i cood go but i must let him do the talking and not say a word unless i was asted to. so i sed i wood be cairful and we went up. it was not quite dark and when we got up there father gnocked 3 gnocks and we heard sumone say who is there, and father sed it is me George and then Ike unlocked 3 or 4 locks and opened it about 5 inchs and it was held by a chane. then he peeped out and sed is it you George.
who have you got with you and father sed this is my boy Harry. then he sed to me this is cussen Isak and i sed how do you do cussen Isak and he sed how do you do and i sed i spoke to you one day and you dident know me and so i told father if he ever got a chanct to interduce me.
the Ike sed i am a little neer sited and i sed i see you are cussen Isak and then father nugged me with his elbo and i dident say enything moar.
then father sed you havent heard enything moar of the kidnapers and Ike he give a sort of gump and sed do you think cussen George that they is kidnapers and father sed i have thought so from sum things i have heard. and old Ike sed what have you heard and father sed well Isak i dont want to friten you but you had augt to know this. jist then Ikes wife Mary come in. we call her Mary Isak becaus they is so mutch alike and never goes enywhere and jest sets and rocks in rocking chairs and looks at each other.
when she come in father got up and shook hands with Mary Isak and interduced me and she asted him if he thougt they was verry daingerous men and father laffed and sed no cussen Mary there isent the leest dainger in the wirld. it is only sum smart fellers that wants to have a little fun with sum of our best cittisens and they isent the leest need of wurrying. so you go to bed and i will set up and talk with Isak until the poliseman comes up.
so Mary Isak went up stairs and Isak begun to perk up quite a lots until father sed as i was saying Isak when cussen Mary come in, i have read the papers cairfuly and there has been quite a number of cases cimmiler to this. 1 in Milton ma.s.schusetts and 1 in Lewiston maine and 2 in new york State. in eech case warnings was hung up like these and in each case a verry ritch and promminent cittisen was kidnaped and held for ransum.
the man in Milton had to pay 35 hundred dollars and the man in Lewiston paid i think 48 hundred dollars they wanted 5 thousand dollars but all he cood rase was 48 hundred and the 2 in New York had to pay 9 thousand apeace. but you know prises is higher in New York. probly you woodent have to pay moar than 5 thousand.
well all this time old Ike had been setting ferst in one chair and then in another chair and puling his wiskers and when father sed this he gave a grone and sed aint there no pertection under the law? and father sed the matter is being vestigated and persecution will folow enny falce step that the villins make. the trubble is they are verry hard to ketch
then Ike sed isent there sum way out of it and father sed i have been thinking Isak why dont you and J. Albert Clark and Biley Tilton and the other fellers whitch has been warned make up a purce like you and sum of the fellers done when they was afrade of being draffed in the civil war to hire subst.i.toots. then if the scoundrils get one of you the others will help pay his ransum. well Ike he thought that mite be a good idea and he sed he wood see sum of them tomorrow if the Terible 3 dident get him befoar morning. then father sed dont wurry a bit Isak while i am here they will have to get you over my ded body and Ike sed thank you George you were always a kind frend and father sed yes Isak we was frends but not xactly Damin and Pithius.
well bimeby the poliseman come up and it was old Filander Kize and he was smoaking a old black pipe that smelled wirse than one of our poppers that we pluged at the pedler and old Ike sed have you got to smoak that mister Kize and old Filander sed yes it is the only thing that will keep me awake and so Ike sed well i supose i shall have to stand it. so me and father come away after shaking hands with old Ike and father told him to go to bed and to get a good nites rest and not to wurry and then we come away and we cood hear him locking all the locks and bolting all the bolts and puting up the chane so the Terible 3 coodent kidnap him.
when we was going home father began to laff and sed i supose i was a meen cus to wurry cussen Isak like that but all my life he has been held up to me as a moddle and if i thougt you wood tirn out like him i shood feal like throwing you over the brige in a bag with rocks in it. think of living a life without fun. gosh he mite have been a useful cittizen if he hadent been so cussed good. how ever i will go up tomorow and chirk him up a little.
when we got home mother and Sarah was setting up and darning stockings and Sarah sed well George did you wurry the poar man out of his wits and father sed piece woman i treeted him with the uttmost kindness and was a grate c.u.mfort to him.
of coa.r.s.e i was cairful not to under estimait the dainger for feer that Ike mite be bold to rashniss and xpose himself needlessly to dainger. it wasent verry hard to perswuade him to stay in the house for a weak or 2. indeed i think i wood have had to fite hard to get him out. but when i left him i asured him taht if wirst come to wirst he cood probly be able to pay his ransum if it wasent moar than 20 thousand dollers. i thougt he was going to faint ded away then and i told him with me and Melander Kize and old Swane and Mizzery Dugin and old Brown willing ot sackrifise our lifes for him he needent wurry.
then Aunt Sarah sed and she coodent talk verry well because she was triing to bite a thred off, i think i shall go up and tell cussen Isak that you are jest stirring him up and father sed he will not beleeve you for i told him the hoal family but me had tirned agenst him straingly becaus they thougt he has did sum dredfill thing that wont see the lite of day and that Harry and I are the only ones that stand up for him and Aunt Sarah bit off the thred with a snap and sed George Shute if i cood beleeve a single wird you say i shood be verry indignent, and father sed it is harroing to be so douted and missunderstood by them whitch is deer to you and he pertended to burst into teers and sed he wood go to bed and weap his piller sopping wet and he made up a auful face and winked at mother and went up stairs and Aunt Sarah sed to mother what a man he wood have been on the staige. he wood have beet comical Brown and Artimus Ward and Joshua Billings all to peaces, and mother she sed yes he wood but i prefir him jest as he is.
October 29, 186---rany again. it hasent done enything but rane for 3 weaks. it was so rany that we coodent put up eny sines or comit eny crimes. i saw old Filander coming down from Ikes this morning and when i went to school i say Mary Isak with all the winders open airing out the house.
October 30, 186---cold and windy. all the horse chesnuts in frunt of Sheriff Odlins place has fell down and all the fellers is stringing them on strings and pluging them over the telligraf wires. of coa.r.s.e me and Beany and Pewt does it to pa.s.s away the time and devert suspishons. we have got moar serius things to think about. saw old Filander come down from Ikes again today and saw Mary Isak airing out the house again. tonite father went up again to c.u.mfort Ike. father says that he dont think Ike cood et along without his sunny precence.
every time father comes home from Ikes he says Ike sends down town for a man to put on a new chane or a new lock on the door. father says if he goes a few moar times he will get him to put iron bars in the winders. old mother Moulton stays there days. father says he hasent had so mutch fun sence he took laffin gas and cleened out docter Johnsons ofice and throwed docter Johnson out of one winder and docter Prey out of the other and Gim Melcher down stairs.
October 31, 186---Hork and Spit both dide today.
give them a big ded rat that old mis Dire give me. they toar it into bits and et it fir and all and when i come home from school they was both ded and all curled up. i asted old mis Dire how she cougt the rat and she sed she poizened it with rat poisen only she called it rat poizen. i told her it killed my horks and she sed she was sorry but she forgot to tell me. i thougt at ferst that she done it perpose to pay me for sending her old cat to Haverhill but i gess she dident. we had a meating of the Terible 3 today and if she had done it a perpose we wood have atended to her case even if she was a woman. while the Terible 3 dont maik war on wimmen, we dont perpose to have wimmin maik war on us.
Filander is still at Ikes. tonite we drawed lots to see witch shood go up with a sine to Biley Tiltons.
i got the shortest straw and had to go. Pewt had printed a sine whitch sed.
Bewaire the vengunce of the Terible 3 it spairith not the wicked man.
but it strikith in darkniss. Bewair.
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