Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1877 — ANNETTA PLUMMER’S DIART. [ARTICLE]

ANNETTA PLUMMER’S DIART.

My mother told me that it would be a good way for me to make believe that I am telling Miss Annetta Fourteen what happens every day. I asked my mother: “ Will she be I? Will Miss Annetta Fourteen be the same I then that I am now when I am seven ?” She said, “ She will be the same I, and she will not be the same I.” Then I asked my mother to tell me how I could be the same I, and not be the same I. She said, “ You are the same you that you were when you were a baby, and you are not the same you.” She said that if I were the very same you—no, the very same I—that I was when I was a baby, 1 should want a rattle to shake, and to be trotted, and to pat cakes! That made me laugh out loud. Then my mother asked me if I should not like to read a little cunning diaiy, where Annetta Baby put down when she learned how to pat-a-cake, and when she jumped first time in a baby-jumper, and when she fell out of bed. And I said I should. 1 shall tell something now in my diary about poor little Banty White. She died this morning. She had the pip. Stye was a little beauty. Oh, she was just as white as snow all over, and every one in the family loved her very much. She would come when we called her, and she knew her name. She had four chickens once, and once she had seven. They are sold. I cried when my Banty died. She wasvery cunning and very nice. My mother does not think it is foolish to cry for something like that. She thinks it is foolish to cry when you can’t have things- that you want, ana when you cannot go to the places- that you want to. My mother talks to me a great deal about Banty White. The Plaguer talks some. The Plaguer is my Cousin Hiram. He is fifteen. He is very tall. He likes to plagueus when we do not wish him to do so. He says “ boo!" in our ears when we do not know he is there. They counted four good things about Banty. Kind —that was one of the good things. My cat had three kittens, and two died. My cat had fits. They were running fits. * And once she ran away. That was the last one she had, for she did not live much longer, and her little kitty was left without any mother. Banty White let the kitty come under her wings, and did not push it out. Bhe was kind to it a great many days. When she called her chickies to eat something, she wanted that kitty to come too, and she wanted the kitty to run under her wings when the chickies came under; and when the kitty did not come duick, she kept saying “ Cluck t cluck! cluck!” till somebody put it under there. Then she kept still. Not quarrelsome. This makes two good things. When any other Banty ran to get the same crumble that she was going after, she did not fly at that other one. Not pick out the best. This makes three good things. When anybody threw down corn, or crumbs, or bugs—my father picked off squash-bugs to give to the hens —she did not try to pick for the biggest one, and she did not either try to keep the best place for henelf. The best hen-place is close to the back door. Banty White was tied to a stake there, but she was will-, ing the other ones should have that good place, too. Not proud. Four good things. The Plaguer told me of thia one. He said some hens are so proud when they lay eggs that they go around cackling very loud, just as much as to say, “ Bee what I’ve done! I’ve Gone!” He said Banty White never made a very loud cackling.

My mother said that she heard the bovs * * cackle," one day, when they had brought in seme large slicks of wood. That made us laugh. Then she said she heard a little girl “ cackle,” one day, when she had picked more huckleberries than the others did. I know what little girl she meant. Me. One day, my father and my mother and myself went to see my aunt, and we stayed there all night, and Hiram put toy Banty under a Darrel to make her hot want to sit, and he forgot she was under there, and she starved almost to death, because she bad no food to eat. One day, when our great Shanghai hen wanted to sit, the Jimmyjohns went ’way into a corner of the hen-house and tried to get hold of her legs to pull her off, and she pecked them. 'Most everybody knows about the Jimmies now, I think, for they are onfy our two littletwin boys who loos just alike. One of the Jimmies held out a stick for her to bite, and so she did • little while; but she stopped biting that stick when he began to put out his other hand to take hold of her legs with, and pecked that hand. Then he threw sand in her face, so she could not see his hand, but she could. Then he threw some pinneedles that were on the ground in the hen-house; but they did not stop her from pecking that hand he was taking hold of her legs with. Then he put his straw hat on her head, so that she had to knock her head on the inside of it, and then they both took hold of her legs and pulled her off. This is » very funny story. They could not get out. They let her go back again. The button on the door of the hen-house turns itself around, and they had to stay shut up in there almost two hours. They hollered just as lond as they could, and then they cried, and then they pounded, and then they kicked the 'door, and then, they did all these same things ever again. VFhen Hiram put the cow in the barn, he heard them pounding, and heard Snip barking. Snip was lying down outside, and sometimes he got up and barked. One day, the Jimmyjohns went off' in a boat, aud it waa bad weather, and they almost got drowned. This almost makes me cry—for then we could never, never see our little Jimmies any more! Oh! what should we do without our dear little Jimmies T—AMy Morton Diaz, in Bt. Nicholas for June.