lent Sunday."--_Webster's
Dict., w. Mothering._ "Which we may find when we come _a fishing_
here."--_Wotton._ "They go _a begging_ to a bankrupt's door."--_Dryden._
"_A hunting_ Chloe went."--_Prior._ "They burst out _a laughing_."--_M.
Edgeworth._ In the last six sentences, _a_ seems more suitable than any
other preposition would be: all it needs, is an accent to distinguish it
from the article; as, _a_.

OBS. 24.--Dr. Alexander Murray says, "To be _a_-seeking, is the relic of
the Saxon to be _on_ or _an_ seeking. What are you a-seeking? is
_different_ from, What are you seeking? It means more fully _the going on_
with the process."--_Hist. Europ. Lang_,, Vol. ii, p. 149. I disapprove of
the hyphen in such terms as "_a_ seeking," because it converts the
preposition and participle into I know not what; and it may be observed, in
passing, that the want of it, in such as "_the going on_," leaves us a
loose and questionable word, which, by the conversion of the participle
into a noun, becomes a nondescript in grammar. I dissent also from Dr.
Murray, concerning the use of the preposition or prefix _a_, in examples
like that which he has here chosen. After a _neuter verb_, this particle is
unnecessary to the sense, and, I think, injurious to the construction.
Except in poetry, which is measured by syllables, it may be omitted without
any substitute; as, "I am _a walking_."--_Johnson's Dict., w. A_. "He had
one only daughter, and she lay _a_ dying."--_Luke_, viii, 42. "In the days
of Noah, while the ark was _a_ preparing."--_1 Pet._, iii, 20. "Though his
unattentive thoughts be elsewhere _a_ wandering."--_Locke's Essay_, p. 284.
Say--"be wandering elsewhere;" and omit the _a_, in all such cases.

"And--when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is _a_ ripening--nips his root."--_Shak_.

OBS. 25.--"_A_ has a peculiar signification, denoting the proportion of one
thing to an other. Thus we say, The landlord hath a hundred _a_ year; the
ship's crew gained a thousand pounds _a_ man."--_Johnson's Dict._ "After
the rate of twenty leagues _a_ day."--_Addison_. "And corn was at two
sesterces _a_ bushel."--_Duncan's Cicero_, p. 82. Whether _a_ in this
construction is the article or the preposition, seems to be questionable.
Merchants are very much in the habit of supplying its place by the Latin
preposition _per_, by; as, "Board, at $2 _per_ week."--_Preston's
Book-Keeping_, p. 44. "Long lawn, at $12 _per_ piece.