o 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