Diary of a Poor Lad

David was given an assignment to write a diary of a day in the life of a poor child in Victorian times. What he produced is a microcosm of his writing style, and I love it.

Note the handwriting, still not very tidy, and note the brevity. Because David writes slowly, he tends to write less, which is sort of a shame because he writes so WELL for an 8-year-old. Note also the humor, and the complicated phrasing and punctuation. I've transcribed it for you, and added paragraph spacing for clarity.

Thanks, David, for being my willing blog fodder today!

Dear Diary,

This morning I woke up and had breakfast - bread with
some of last night's cheese. I took our last shilling to buy a
small meat pie for lunch and went to the market area. After I
took the pie home, I went to get some more money.

"Clear the street for you?" I asked a man, and when he
nodded, I swept him a path through the muck.

At noon I went home and found the rats had eaten my
blanket. I ate half the pie and went back to work. By the
end of the day, I had 10 shillings and sixpence - enough for
10 days!

By tomorrow my hat will probably have been eaten. Ah well
- time for a bit of sleep

.