angler. Yet have I conscientiously endeavored to adapt myself to the impatient temper of the age, daily degenerating more and more from the high standard of our pristine New England. To the catalogue of lost arts I would mournfully add also that of listening to two-hour sermons. Surely we have been abridged into a race of pigmies. For, truly, in those of the old discourses yet subsisting to us in print, the endless spinal column of divisions and subdivisions can be likened to nothing so exactly as to the vertebræ of the saurians, whence the theorist may conjecture a race of Anakim proportionate to the withstanding of these other monsters. I say Anakim rather than Nephelim, because there seem reasons for supposing that the race of those whose heads (though no giants) are constantly enveloped in clouds (which that name imports) will never become extinct. The attempt to vanquish the innumerable heads of one of those aforementioned discourses may supply us with a plausible interpretation of the second labor of Hercules, and his successful experiment with fire affords us a useful precedent. But while I lament the degeneracy of the age in this regard, I cannot refuse to succumb to its influence. Looking out through my study-window, I see Mr. Biglow at a distance busy in gathering his Baldwins, of which, to judge by the number of barrels lying about under the trees, his crop is more abundant than my own, - by which sight I am admonished to turn to those orchards of the mind wherein my labors may be more prospered, and apply myself diligently to the preparation of my next Sabbath's discourse. -H. W.] Bellowses, lungs. Bile, boil. Bimeby, by and by. Blurt out, to speak bluntly. Buster, a roistering blade; used also as a general superlative. masquerade; supposed to have had its origin soon after the Revolution, and to commemorate the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. It took the place of the old Guy Fawkes procession. Crooked stick, a perverse, froward person. Cunnle, a colonel. Cus, a curse; also, a pitiful fellow. D. Darsn't, used indiscriminately, either in singular or plural number, for dare not, dares not, and dared not. Deacon off, to give the cue to; Doughface, a contented lick-spit- Dunno, dno, do not or does not know. Dut, Dirt. Gum, to impose on. Lawth, loath. L. Let day-light into, to shoot. Let on, to hint, to confess, to own. Lick, to beat, to overcome. Lights, the bowels. Gump, a foolish fellow, a dul- Lily-pads, leaves of the water-lily. lard. Gut, got. H. Long-sweetening, molasses. Pint, point. men in the savage state. Pocket full of rocks, plenty of Som'ers, somewhere. So 'st, so as that. Sot, set, obstinate, resolute. Spiles, spoils; objects of political ambition. Spry, active. Staddles, stout stakes driven into salt marshes, on which the hayricks are set, and thus raised out of the reach of high tides. Streaked, uncomfortable, discomfited. Suckle, circle. Sutthin', something. Suttin, certain. Row, a long row to hoe, a diffi- Tell, till. cult task. Rugged, robust. Tetch, touch. Tetch tu, to be able; used always after a negative in this sense. Tollable, tolerable. Toot, used derisively for playing on any wind instrument. Thru, through. Thundering, a euphemism common in New England, for the profane English expression devilish. Perhaps derived from the belief, common formerly, that thunder was caused by the Prince of the Air, for some of whose accomplishments consult Cotton Mather. |