th is the employer. "Master" Smith is the man he employs. The old
custom of the wife speaking of her husband as her "master" still lingers
among elderly people; but both the word and the reasonableness of its
use are rapidly disappearing in the present generation. It may be
mentioned here that they say in Sussex that the rosemary will never
blossom except where "the mistus" is master.

May be and Mayhap (Perhaps). "May be you knows Mass Pilbeam? No!
d[dot above o][dot above a]n't ye? Well, he was a very sing'lar marn was
Mass Pilbeam, a very sing'lar marn! He says to he's mistus one day, he
says, 'tis a long time, says he, sence I've took a holiday--so cardenly,
nex marnin' he laid abed till purty nigh seven o'clock, and then he
brackfustes, and then he goos down to the shop and buys fower ounces of
barca, and he sets hisself down on the maxon, and there he set, and
there he smoked and smoked and smoked all the whole day long, for, says
he, 'tis a long time sence I've had a holiday! Ah, he was a very
sing'lar marn--a very sing'lar marn indeed."

Queer (To puzzle): "It has queered me for a long time to find out who
that man is; and my mistus she's been quite in a quirk over it. He
d[dot above o][dot above a]nt seem to be quaint with nobody, and he
d[dot above o][dot above a]nt seem to have no business, and for all that
he's always to and thro', to and thro', for everlastin'."

[Sidenote: "MUS REYNOLDS"]

Reynolds ("Mus Reynolds" is the name given to the fox): When I was first
told that "Muss Reynolds come along last night" he was spoken of so
intimately that I supposed he must be some old friend, and expressed a
hope that he had been hospitably received. "He helped hisself," was the
reply; and thereupon followed the explanation, illustrated by an
exhibition of mutilated poultry.

Short (Tender): A rat-catcher once told me that he knew many people who
were in the habit of eating barn-fed rats, and he added, "When they're
in a pudding you could not tell them from a chick, they eat so short and
purty."

Shruck (Shrieked): An old woman who was accidentally locked up in a
church where she was slumbering in a high pew, said, "I shruck till I
could shruck no longer, but no one comed, so I up and tolled upon the
bell."

Spannel (To make dirty foot-marks about a floor, as a spaniel dog
does): "I goos into the kitchen and I says to my mistus, I says ('twas
of a Saddaday), 'the old sow's hem ornary,' I says. 'Well,' says sh