“‘Well, Billy, my son, how’s faether?’
“‘Brave, thank ee.’
“‘How are you, Coden [Cousin] Jaan, and how’s Betty?’
“‘She’s charming, thank ee.’
“Trade is a word of special application, ‘a pa’cel o’ trade.’
“A precious mess is ‘a brave shape.’
“Of an undecided person it is said, ‘He is neither Nim nor Doll.’ Does this mean he is neither Nimrod nor Dorothy?
“A phrase descriptive of vacuity of expression is, ‘He looks like anybody that has neither got nor lost.’”
Years since it was a common custom to assign some ridiculous action to the people of a small town or village. For example, the people of one place were called “Buccas,” “because some one of them was frightened at his shadow.”
Those of another town were named “Gulls,” “because two of the townsmen threw a gull over a cliff to break its neck.”