not know that
Dr. Daries pronounced his _pert_ as though it were _peart_, but he uses
it in the sense it has in the text, viz., bright-witted, intelligent.
The general sense of _peart_ is lively, either in body or mind.]

[Footnote 15: Mr. Lowell suggested to me in 1869 that this word _'low_
has no kinship with _allow_, but is an independent word for which he
gave a Low Latin original of similar sound. I have not been able to
trace any such word, but Mr. Lowell had so much linguistic knowledge of
the out-of-the-way sort that it may be worth while to record his
impression. Bartlett is wrong in defining this word, as he is usually in
his attempts to explain dialect outside of New England. It does not mean
"to declare, assert, maintain," etc. It is nearly the equivalent of
_guess_ in the Northern and Middle States, and of _reckon_ in the South.
It agrees precisely with the New England _calk'late_. Like all the rest
of these words it may have a strong sense by irony. When a man says, "I
'low that is a purty peart sort of a hoss," he understates for the sake
of emphasis. It is rarely or never _allow_, but simply _'low_. In common
with _calk'late_, it has sometimes a sense of purpose or expectation, as
when a man says, "I 'low to go to town to-morry."]

[Footnote 16: No phrase of the Hoosier and South-western dialect is such
a stumbling-block to the outsider as _right smart_. The writer from the
North or East will generally use it wrongly. Mrs. Stowe says, "I sold
right smart of eggs," but the Hoosier woman as I knew her would have
said "a right smart lot of eggs" or "a right smart of eggs," using the
article and understanding the noun. A farmer omitting the preposition
boasts of having "raised right smart corn" this year. No expression
could have a more vague sense than this. In the early settlement of
Minnesota it was a custom of the land officers to require a residence of
about ten days on "a claim" in order to the establishment of a
pre-emption right. One of the receivers at a land office under
Buchanan's administration was a German of much intelligence who was very
sensitive regarding his knowledge of English. "How long has the claimant
lived on his claim?" he demanded of a Hoosier witness. "Oh, a right
smart while," was the reply. The receiver had not the faintest notion of
the meaning of the answer, but fearing to betray his ignorance of
English he allowed the land to be entered, though the claimant had spent
but abou