[Here, patient reader, we take leave of each other, I trust with some mutual satisfaction. I say patient, for I love not that kind which skims dippingly over the surface of the page, as swallows over a pool before rain. By such no pearls shall be gathered. But if no pearls there be (as, indeed, the world is not without example of books wherefrom the longest-winded diver shall bring up no more than his proper handful of mud), yet let us hope that an oyster or two may reward adequate perseverance. If neither pearls nor oysters, yet is patience itself a gem worth diving deeply for.

It may seem to some that too much space has been usurped by my own private lucubrations, and some may be fain to bring against me that old jest of him who preached all his hearers out of the meetinghouse save only the sexton, who, remaining for yet a little space, from a sense of official duty, at last gave out also, and, presenting the keys, humbly requested our preacher to lock the doors, when he should have wholly relieved himself of his testimony. I confess to a satisfaction in the self act of preaching, nor do I esteem a discourse to be wholly thrown away even upon a sleeping or unintelligent auditory. I cannot easily believe that the Gospel of Saint John, which Jacques Cartier ordered to be read in the Latin tongue to the Canadian savages, upon his first meeting with them, fell altogether upon stony ground. For the earnestness of the preacher is a sermon appreciable by dullest intellects and most alien ears. In this wise did Episcopius convert many to his opinions, who yet understood not the language in which he discoursed. The chief thing is that the messenger believe that he has an authentic message to deliver. For counterfeit messengers that mode of treatment which Father John de Plano Carpini relates to have prevailed among the Tartars would seem effectual, and, perhaps, deserved enough. For my own part, I may lay claim to so much of the spirit of martyrdom as would have led me to go into banishment with those clergymen whom Alphonso the Sixth of Portugal drave out of his kingdom for refusing to shorten their public eloquence. It is possible, that, having been invited into my brother Biglow's desk, I may have been too little scrupulous in using it for the venting of my own peculiar doctrines to a congregation drawn together in the expectation and with the desire of hearing him.

I am not wholly unconscious of a peculiarity of mental organization which impels me, like the railroad-engine with its train of cars, to run backward for a short distance in order to obtain a fairer start. I may compare myself to one fishing from the rocks when the sea runs high, who, misinterpreting the suction of the undertow for the biting of some larger fish, jerks suddenly, and finds that he has caught bottom, hauling in upon the end of his line a trail of various algæ, among which, nevertheless, the naturalist may haply find something to repay the disappointment of the 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.]

GLOSSARY. A.
Act'lly, actually.
Air, are.
Airth, earth.
Airy, area.
Aree, area.
Arter, after.
Ax, ask.
B.
Beller, bellow.
Bellowses, lungs.
Ben, been.
Bile, boil.
Bimeby, by and by.
Blurt out, to speak bluntly.
Bust, burst.
Buster, a roistering blade; used also as a general superlative.
C.
Caird, carried.
Cairn, carrying.
Caleb, a turncoat.
Cal'late, calculate.
Cass, a person with two lives.
Close, clothes.
Cockerel, a young cock.
Cocktail, a kind of drink; also, an ornament peculiar to soldiers.
Convention, a place where people are imposed on; a juggler's show.
Coons, a cant term for a now defunct party; derived, perhaps, from the fact of their being commonly up a tree.
Cornwallis, a sort of muster in 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; derived from a custom, once universal, but now extinct, in our New England Congregational churches. An important part of the office of deacon was to read aloud the hymns given out by the minister, one line at a time, the congregation singing each line as soon as read.
Demmercrat, leadin', one in favor of extending slavery; a free-trade lecturer maintained in the custom-house.
Desput, desperate.
Doos, does.
Doughface, a contented lickspittle; a common variety of Northern politician.
Dror, draw.
Du, do.
Dunno, dno, do not, or does not know.
Dut, dirt.
E.
Eend, end.
Ef, if.
Emptins, yeast.
Env'y, envoy.
Everlasting, an intensive, without reference to duration.
Ev'y, every.
Ez, as.
F.
Fence, On the, said of one who halts between two opinions; a trimmer.
Fer, for.
Ferfle, ferful, fearful; also an intensive.
Fin', find.

Fish-skin, used in New England to clarify coffee.
Fix, a difficulty, a nonplus.
Foller, folly, to follow.
Forrerd, forward.
Frum, from.
Fur, far.
Furder, farther.
Furrer, furrow. Metaphorically, to draw a straight furrow is to live uprightly or decorously.
Fust, first.
G.
Gin, gave.
Git, get.
Gret, great.
Grit, spirit, energy, pluck.
Grout, to sulk.
Grouty, crabbed, surly.
Gum, to impose on.
Gump, a foolish fellow, a dullard.
Gut, got.
H.
Hed, had.
Heern, heard.
Hellum, helm.
Hendy, handy.
Het, heated.
Hev, have.
Hez, has.
Holl, whole.
Holt, hold.
Huf, hoof.
Hull, whole.
Hum, home.
Humbug, General Taylor's antislavery.
Hut, hurt.
I.
Idno, I do not know.
In'my, enemy.
Insines, ensigns; used to designate both the officer who carries the standard, and the standard itself.
Inter, intu, into.
J.
Jedge, judge.
Jest, just.
Jine, join.
Jint, joint.
Junk, a fragment of any solid substance.
K.
Keer, care.
Kep', kept.
Killock, a small anchor.
Kin', kin' o, kinder, kind, kind of.
L.
Lawth, loath.
Less, let's, let us.
Let daylight into, to shoot.
Let on, to hint, to confess, to own.
Lick, to beat, to overcome.
Lights, the bowels.
Lily-pads, leaves of the water-lily.
Long-sweetening, molasses.
M.
Mash, marsh.
Mean, stingy, ill-natured.
Min', mind.
N.
Nimepunce, ninepence, twelve and a half cents.
Nowers, nowhere.
O.
Offen, often.
Ole, old.
Ollers, olluz, always.
On, of; used before it or them, or at the end of a sentence, as on't, on 'em, nut ez ever I heerd on.
On'y, only.
Ossifer, officer (seldom heard).
P.
Peaked, pointed.
Peek, to peep.
Pickerel, the pike, a fish.
Pint, point.
Pocket full of rocks, plenty of money.
Pooty, pretty.
Pop'ler, conceited, popular.
Pus, purse.
Put out, troubled, vexed.
Q.
Quarter, a quarter-dollar.
Queen's arm, a musket.
R.
Resh, rush.
Revelee, the réveillé.

Rile, to trouble.
Riled, angry; disturbed, as the sediment in any liquid.
Riz, risen.
Row, a long row to hoe, a difficult task.
Rugged, robust.
S.
Sarse, abuse, impertinence.
Sartin, certain.
Saxton, sacristan, sexton.
Scaliest, worst.
Scringe, cringe.
Scrouge, to crowd.
Sech, such.
Set by, valued.
Shakes, great, of considerable consequence.
Shappoes, chapeaux, cocked-hats.
Sheer, share.
Shet, shut.
Shut, shirt.
Skeered, scared.
Skeeter, mosquito.
Skootin', running, or moving swiftly.
Slarterin', slaughtering.
Slim, contemptible.
Snaked, crawled like a snake; but to snake any one out is to track him to his hiding-place; to snake a thing out is to snatch it out.
Soffles, sofas.
Sogerin', soldiering; a barbarous amusement common among men in the savage state.
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 the salt marshes, on which the hay-ricks are set and thus raised out of the reach of high tides.
Streaked, uncomfortable, discomfited.
Suckle, circle.
Sutthin', something.
Suttin, certain.
T.
Take on, to sorrow.
Talents, talons.
Taters, potatoes.
Tell, till.
Tetch, touch.
Tetch tu, to be able; used always after a negative in this sense.
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.
Tollable, tolerable.
Toot, used derisively for playing on any wind instrument.
Tu, to, too; commonly has this sound when used emphatically, or at the end of a sentence. At other times it has the sound of t in tough, as, Ware ye goin' tu? Goin' t' Boston.
U.
Ugly, ill-tempered, intractable.
Uncle Sam, United States; the largest boaster of liberty and owner of slaves.
Unrizzest, applied to dough or bread; heavy, most unrisen, or most incapable of rising.
V.
V-spot, a five-dollar bill.
Vally, value.
W.
Wake snakes, to get into trouble.
Wal, well; spoken with great deliberation, and sometimes with the a very much flattened, sometimes (but more seldom) very much broadened.
Wannut, walnut (hickory).
Ware, where.
Ware, were.
Whopper, an uncommonly large lie; as, that General Taylor is in favor of the Wilmot Proviso.
Wig, Whig; a party now dissolved.
Wunt, will not.
Wus, worse.

Wut, what.
Wuth, worth; as, Antislavery perfessions 'fore 'lection aint wuth a Bungtown copper.
Wuz, was, sometimes were.
Y.
Yaller, yellow.
Yeller, yellow.
Yellers, a disease of peach-trees.
Z.
Zack, Ole, a second Washington, an antislavery slaveholder, a humane buyer and seller of men and women, a Christian hero generally.

INDEX.