ote 12: _Congress land_ was the old designation for land owned by
the government. Under the Confederation, the Congress was the
government, and the forms of speech seem to have long retained the
notion that what belonged to the United States was the property of
Congress.]

[Footnote 13: The commonest use of the word _chunk_ in the old days was
for the ends of the sticks of cord-wood burned in the great fireplaces.
As the sticks burned in two, the chunks fell down or rolled back on the
wall side of the andirons. By putting the chunks together, a new fire
was set a-going without fresh wood. This use of the word is illustrated
in a folk-rhyme or nursery jingle of the country which has neither sense
nor elegance to recommend it:

"Old Mother Hunk
She got drunk
And fell in the fire
And kicked up a chunk."
]

CHAPTER IV.

SPELLING DOWN THE MASTER.

"I 'low," said Mrs. Means, as she stuffed the tobacco into her cob pipe
after supper on that eventful Wednesday evening: "I 'low they'll app'int
the Squire to gin out the words to-night. They mos' always do, you see,
kase he's the peartest[14] _ole_ man in this deestrick; and I 'low some
of the young fellers would have to git up and dust ef they would keep up
to him. And he uses sech remarkable smart words. He speaks so polite,
too. But laws! don't I remember when he was poarer nor Job's turkey?
Twenty year ago, when he come to these 'ere diggings, that air Squire
Hawkins was a poar Yankee school-master, that said 'pail' instid of
bucket, and that called a cow a 'caow,' and that couldn't tell to save
his gizzard what we meant by '_low_[15] and by _right smart_[16]. But
he's larnt our ways now, an' he's jest as civilized as the rest of us.
You would-n know he'd ever been a Yankee. He didn't stay poar long. Not
he. He jest married a right rich girl! He! he!" And the old woman
grinned at Ralph, and then at Mirandy, and then at the rest, until Ralph
shuddered. Nothing was so frightful to him as to be fawned on by this
grinning ogre, whose few lonesome, blackish teeth seemed ready to devour
him. "He didn't stay poar, you bet a hoss!" and with this the coal was
deposited on the pipe, and the lips began to crack like parchment as
each puff of smoke escaped. "He married rich, you see," and here another
significant look at the young master, and another fond look at Mirandy,
as she puffed away reflectively. "His wife hadn't no book-larnin'. She'd
been thr