What would an educated foreigner—Kossuth, for instance, who learned English by the study of Shakspeare—make of the following specimens of colloquial American language?
"Do tell, Jul," exclaimed a young lady, "where have you been marvelling to? You look like Time in the primer!"
"No you don't," returned the young lady addressed, "you can't come it over dis chil'!"
"No, no," chimed in a youth of the party, "you can't come it quite, Miss Lib! Don't try to poke fun at us!"
"You've all been sparking in the woods, I guess!"
"Oh, ho," laughed one of the speakers, "I thought you'd get it through your hair, at last—that's rich!"
"Why!" retorted the interlocutor, tartly, "do you think I don't know tother from which?"
"I think you 'know beans' as well as most Hoosiers," replied her particular admirer, in a tone of unmistakable blandishment.
"Everybody knows Jul's some pumpkins," admitted one of her fair companions.