to the use of unhackneyed words and simile and metaphor; both
use a language of great flexibility;[11] for which reason we find that
after the poet himself, the poor man speaks most poetically. Witness
the beautiful description: "All to once the nor'easter springed out
from the land, an' afore us could down-haul the mainsail, the sea wer
feather-white an' skatting in over the bows." New words are eagerly
seized; hence the malapropisms and solecisms so frequently made fun of,
without appreciation of their cause. _Obsolete_ has come hereto from
the Navy, through sons who are bluejackets. Now, when Tony wishes to
sum up in one word the two facts that he is older and also less
vigorous than formerly, he says: "Tony's getting obsolete, like." A
soulless word, borrowed from official papers, has acquired for us a
poetic wealth of meaning in which the pathos of the old ship, of
declining years, and of Tony's own ageing, are all present with one
knows not what other suggestions besides. And when _obsolete_ is fully
domesticated here, the _like_ will be struck off.

[11] The flexibility and expressiveness of dialect lies largely
in its ability to change its verbal form and pronunciation from a
speech very broad indeed to something approaching standard
English. For example, "You'm a fool," is playful; "You'm a fule,"
less so. "You're a fool," asserts the fact without blame; while
"Thee't a fule," or "Thee a't a fule!" would be spoken in temper,
and the second is the more emphatic. The real differences between
"I an't got nothing," "I an't got ort," and "I an't got
nort,"--"Oo't?" "Casn'?" "Will 'ee?" and "Will you?"--"You'm
not," "You ain't," "You bain't," and "Thee a'tn't,"--are hardly
to be appreciated by those who speak only standard English.
_Thee_ and _thou_ are used between intimates, as in French.
_Thee_ is usual from a mother to her children, but is
disrespectful from children to their mother.

[Sidenote: _THOUGHTS AND MIND PICTURES_]

In short, every time Tony uses _like_, he is admitting, and explaining,
that he has expressed himself as best he could, but inadequately
notwithstanding. He has felt something more delicately, thought upon
something more accurately, than he can possibly say. He is always
pathetically eager to make himself plain, to be understood. One knows
well that touching look in the eyes of a dog when, as we say, it all