‘And beg of Heaven to charge the bill on me!’
And there I leave the matter, being willing to believe that the Saint, the Martyr, and even the Poet, were as careful of God’s honor as my critics are ever likely to be.
II. GLOSSARY TO THE BIGLOW PAPERS
Act’lly, actually.
Air, are.
Airth, earth.
Airy, area.
Aree, area.
Arter, after.
Ax, ask.
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.
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.