Monday 28th July 1808

Dear Diary,
Betty Tert is ill again. Doctor Proctor was sent for and Jane thought it best Willy was distracted and that someone should perhaps amuse him for a couple of hours. She picked out a someone....yours truly.
With a fixed smile upon my face I found him in the parlour. He was sat in a chair by the window with his arms folded and a determined look upon his face. I whipped out my shuttlecock and waved it in his face.
"Want to play battledore with my shuttlecock?" I enthused.
"Can't!" he spat back.
Jane came in and motioned at me to hurry along as the Doctor was coming up the drive.
"I know, follow me and I'll take you into the woods to do something I loved to do as a boy."
If Jane had not urged him on I doubt I could have moved him from his seat. I led him out, reluctantly, away from the Grange and down to where the old hawthorn tree grew that I climbed as a boy. The topmost branches were waving in the warm breeze. I pulled myself up on a lower branch.
"Come on, last one to the top is a...."
"Can't!" he yelled.
I dropped down again and gritted my teeth. Taking a deep breath and refixing my smile I tried again.
"I know, let's play hide and seek. Do you want to be a hider or a...."
"Can't!" he shouted and gave me such a malevolent look, my smile faltered.
" Alright," I said, "You decide what you want to do!" I tried to keep my composure.
"Can't!" he answered.
I grabbed his arm and dragged him back to the Grange and flung him through the scullery door.
"Hello Poppet," smiled Mrs Crutchlow, "You have fun?"
Willy smiled at her, so angelically, I was speechless. "Want a bun, Darlin'?" She asked him.
"Cun I?" he grinned, innocently.
It seems his vowel problem does not only pertain to his writing.
"I'll leave him with you, Mrs Crutchlow if I may." I said making for the door.
"Can't!" he hissed as I passed him.