12. Copy-book inscribed "Diry."

The examination of this copy-book lasted the rest of the day, and it was
read with the peculiar pleasure one experiences in reviewing some of the
events of a happy boyhood.

With the earnest hope that others may experience a little of the
pleasure I gained from the reading, I submit the "Diry" to the public.

HENRY A. SHUTE.

EXETER, N. H. Sept. 23, 1902.

DIRY

Father thot i aught to keep a diry, but i sed i dident want to, because
i coodent wright well enuf, but he sed he wood give $1000 dolars if he
had kept a diry when he was a boy.

Mother said she gessed nobody wood dass to read it, but father said
everybody would tumble over each other to read it, anyhow he wood give
$1000 dolars if he had kept it. i told him i wood keep one regular if he
wood give me a quarter of a dolar a week, but he said i had got to keep
it anyhow and i woodent get no quarter for it neither, but he woodent
ask to read it for a year, and i know he will forget it before that, so
i am going to wright just what i want to in it. Father always forgets
everything but my lickins. he remembers them every time you bet.

So i have got to keep it, but it seems to me that my diry is worth a
quarter of a dolar a week if fathers is worth $1000 dolars, everybody
says father was a buster when he was a boy and went round with Gim
Melcher and Charles Talor. my grandmother says i am the best boy she
ever see, if i dident go with Beany Watson and Pewter Purinton, it was
Beany and Pewt made me tuf.

there dos'nt seem to be much to put into a diry only fites and who got
licked at school and if it ranes or snows, so i will begin today.

December 1, 186- brite and fair, late to brekfast, but mother dident say
nothing. father goes to boston and works in the custum house so i can
get up as late as i want to. father says he works like time, but i went
to boston once and father dident do anything but tell stories about what
he and Gim Melcher usted to do when he was a boy. once or twice when a
man came in they would all be wrighting fast, when the man came in again
i sed why do you all wright so fast when he comes in and stop when he
goes out, and the man sort of laffed and went out laffing, and the men
were mad and told father not to bring that dam little fool again.

December 2. Skinny Bruce got licked in school today. I told my
granmother about it and she said she was glad i dident do enything to
ge