t it in the koop. i put a peace of cheeze on
it. tomorrow morning i ges mister rat wont steal any more eggs.

May 1. what do you think. this morning i got up to get my rat and i
found that my best hen, the bolton gray that John Adams gave me had
tried to pick the cheeze out of the trap and the trap had caught her by
the neck and killed her. i felt most bad enuf to cry. i thought i cood
get up before the hen did. i went to the may brekfast today. it was
may-fair day and they had a brekfast. me and Pewt, Beany, Whacker
and Pozzy Chadwick, Micky Gould, Pop Clark, Prisilla Hobbs, Chick
Chick-ering, Potter Gorham, Pile Wood, Curly Conner and all the fellers
were there. we had a good time and et till just before school time and
we had to hiper so as not to be late.

May 2. no eggs today. both hens went on the nest. i am going to lay for
that rat with my bowgun.

May 3. what do you think. this noon i set in the hen koop 1 hour. the
brama went on the nest and set a while and came off and cakled, then i
looked and she had lade an egg. i left the egg there and hid behind a
barrel and got my bowgun ready for the rat. well the leghorn hen went on
the nest and i suposed she was a going to lay, but she broke rite into
that egg and began to gobble it up. i was so mad that i let ding at her
with the bowgun and just then she stuck up her head and the arrow took
her rite in the back of the head. well i wish you cood have seen her.
she hollered one little pip and then went rite out of the nest backwards
and flapped round awful. i picked her up and she was dead. i dident mean
to kill her, i only wanted to make her jump and learn her not to eat
eggs. O dear, i dont know what father will say when he finds it out.

May 5, 186- Saw a bully fite today. Cris Staples and Charlie Clark.
Charlie is visiting his uncle J. Albert Clark, the feller that we
sassed. that is he said we did but we dident. Charlie is a city feller,
he lives in Chelsy and think he knows a pile about things and gets mad
if we call him names. now every feller who amounts to anything has
a nickname, and some of them have 2 or 3. my nicknames are Plupy and
Skinny and Polelegs, and Beany is called Bullethead and sometimes Fatty.
i told Charlie that if i called him Charlie the fellers would call him
sissy or Mary and he better agree to let me call him bulldog or tomcat
or diddly or gobbler or some nickname whitch wood mean something. but
he said he would lam the head off of enn