Today is Abbey’s birthday! She is turning twelve. Abbey’s Ma is baking her a cake, and Abbey’s Da has gotten her a cat he found at the dock! She was trying to steal the fish he was catching. Abbey named her Graypaw, for she is a light gray with gray stripes down her tail. Abbey’s Ma says that we may be able to keep her, if her Da will sneak home a fish for her to eat, and if we can provide a cup of milk and cream that she can drink each day. We all adore her, and Abbey and I shall keep her and clean up her messes. Ma is making a mess spot, and curling a blanket on my bed as a nest for her at night. He mews, and meows, and purrs, and he is the most darling thing I shall ever see! I believe Ivyheart is starting to feel jealous of all the attention that is being given to Graypaw.
April 25, 1916
The days are getting warmer, and our tenement is steamy and humid because of the warm in between weather. Abbey’s Da says that during the summer, the farmers crops will be plentiful so there will be so much produce, no one could possibly buy it all! Abbey’s Grandpapa needs all of the nutrition he can get to keep him alive and healthy. Over the winter, there was a long, five day blizzard, and her Ma had to get a wheat grinder to make sure we had enough bread for all of us. Someone had to constantly turn the little handle to make enough wheat for a loaf of bread. I got tired of being cooped in our small tenement. Da insists that in a couple weeks Mattias will sell newspapers to earn a little more money, for we will all need new summer clothes. I am also earning more money, so I have already bought a necklace, a little treasure box, where I hid a new pair of earrings, a black shawl, and a new book: The People Handbook Series.
May 4, 1916
There is less and less time to write in my journal, for school has began in earnest. I spend most of my days working and doing homework. I work very hard at school, and even my teacher has to admit that I am the best in the class. It is already 9:00, so I must get to bed now.
