April 30. i dont see what the mater is with my hens. i havent got 1 egg this week. father said there was a rat in the koop. i got a steel trap of Sam Diar and tonite i set 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 enny feller which called him names. well you jest see what trouble he got into for not having a nickname. he would have knowed better than that if he hadent lived in Chelsy.