The first entry was as follows:

April 7th.--_I wocked out to Crane's, and got 2 fantales. they are hardto ketch. I payed 25 scents. My father knailed a box on the stable, andI put in a bed of straw, they are bootiful. my sister would not let mehave her vale, but I got one prettier. they look woozy_.

The next day, Sunday, Philip did not look at how he could go to church orSunday-school--he had not time, he exclaimed, but his mother agreed to watchthe pigeons, and so his religious obligations did not need to be setaside.

Monday afternoon the Browns' back yard was full of little boysinspecting Philip's pigeons, not merely idle onlookers, but hard-headedpoultry fanciers, as shown by the following entry:

April 9th.--_I sold a pare of black ones to-day to Wilfblack Garbett, tobe kept three months after birth, Eva Gayton wants a pare too any color,in July. She paid for them_.