J. Q. A. We left her down to the wharf, an’ she was a talkin’ to the skipper’s son.
L. J. Yeth, and the thkipper came out, and he talked, an’ they all laughed, and he thed to John Pin, “Run along, Totty, with your log o’ wood. They’ll foller ye, an’ tell yer pa an’ ma all about it.”
J. Q. A. I guess I aint Totty! (Chewing.) I seen ’em an’ after they done it,—
L. J. Oh, John Pin Ad! you muthn’t thay ‘I theen,’ Mary theth. You can’t thay ‘theen’ nor ‘done,’ unleth you can thay have’ before it; an’ you can’t thay ‘I theed,’ at all.
J. Q. A. I guess I can too. Mary needn’t feel so big ’cause she’s ben to Bradford ’cademy three months.
L. J. Yeth, you mutht thay ‘I have thawed,’ and ‘I hain’t theen,’ and ‘I have did,’ and ‘I hain’t done it,’ and you’ll be right.
J. Q. A. Poh! you ain’t right at all! Hear me. You must say ‘I have done, I have seen,’ or ‘I saw and I did’; and you must never say ‘I seed, I sawed, I seen,’ nor ‘I done it.’ That’s what Mary says.
L. J. Father thayth ‘I theen and I done’; and I gueth what father theth ith about right.
Capt. G. O child! Yer mustn’t talk as I do. Mary knows what’s proper to say, better’n yer old dad. He never had no edication. There was no ’cademy for him.
Mrs. G. Nor me, nuther. Gals wa’n’t ’lowed to go to school in my time, daown to Plymouth, when my folks lived there. There was too many boys wanted to go; and the gals had to stay ter hum, to make room for ’em.