Page 24

By Jack Joseph Smith

Im sitting up on the bed reading "Young Outlaw", by Horatio Alger Jr., and listening to "Back in the Saddle Again", by Gene Autrey, when I hear a rumbling through the night, I can't see stars abound, but the wonder was, with Mr. de Long's old steel automobile coming over Our back wall, I yelled Mom, Mom, and airplane crashed in the back yard, she said "what", but the I reassured her that the captain was out, and wander- ing aroud, and appeaed O.K. de Long

Original Scan

Page 24

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker reads Horatio Alger and listens to Gene Autrey when a rumbling car comes over the back wall. He calls to his mother that an airplane has crashed, then says the captain is out and appears unharmed.

The book and song place the speaker in bed before the noise interrupts him. His report to his mother turns a neighbor's automobile into an airplane; the page ends with the handwritten name de Long.


Claude

The boy sits on his bed reading "Young Outlaw" by Horatio Alger Jr. and listening to "Back in the Saddle Again" by Gene Autrey when a rumbling in the night turns out to be 'Mr. de Long's old steel / automobile coming over / Our back wall'. He yells to his mother that an airplane crashed in the back yard, then reassures her that 'the captain was out, and wander- / ing aroud, and appeaed O.K.'

The page is a comic childhood anecdote in which a diet of adventure stories and cowboy songs turns a neighbor's car accident into a plane crash with a surviving captain. The run-on handwritten sentence, strung together with commas, keeps the breathless pace of a child telling the story.