Wed 14th Clear, cooler. We are hoeing potatoes to day & other trash in garden. Soon we must go to haying. That is hard work & endless almost but I will go at it with a good spirit & arrive it through

Thurs. 15th Pleasant we commence Haying a little We mow under the -- and the hill & so a path to the road

Friday 16th Warm. We mow some back of the shed & get in 3 loads of hay. I go to a raising at J Hanks A.M. The world looks fair & bright to day as ever in such merry summer days. Why are not all happy?

Saturday, July 17th 1847.

The 23d Anniversary of my birth has arrived Is it possible that I have lived in the earth 23 years about 1/3 of mans existence; ah how swiftly time flies away. It seems to me but yesterday since I was a little helpless boy. The first thing (as it seems now) that I can remember of myself is my creeping on the floor one time at supper & cried to be taken up & when my sister Emily was in her last sickness (in 1826) our folks got some burdock leaves to put to her feet; Then we were a family of 8 children from 2 to 21 years old. 20 ½ years after the death of Emily my other beloved sister was buried & now close side by side they sleep. 6 boys of us remain