etty substantial man, and no mistake. He has got a
heart as big as an ox, and everything else in proportion, I've a notion.
He loves Sal, the worst kind; and if she gets up there, she'll think
she has got to Palestine (Paradise); ain't she a screamer? I were
thinking of Sal myself, for I feel lonesome, and when I am thrown into
my store promiscuous alone, I can tell you I have the blues, the worst
kind, no mistake--I can tell you that. I always feel a kind o' queer
when I sees Sal, but when I meet any of the other gals I am as calm and
cool as the milky way," etcetera, etcetera.

The verb "to fix" is universal. It means to do anything.

"Shall I _fix_ your coat or your breakfast first?" That is--"Shall I
brush your coat, or _get ready_ your breakfast first!"

_Right away_, for immediately or at once, is very general.

"Shall I fix it right away?"--i.e. "Shall I do it immediately?"

In the West, when you stop at an inn, they say--

"What will you have? Brown meal and common doings, or white wheat and
chicken _fixings_;"--that is, "Will you have pork and brown bread, or
white bread and fried chicken?"

Also, "Will you have a _feed_ or a _check_?"--A dinner, or a luncheon?

In _full blast_--something in the extreme.

"When she came to meeting, with her yellow hat and feathers, wasn't she
_in fall blast_?"

But for more specimens of genuine Yankee, I must refer the reader to Sam
Slick and Major Downing, and shall now proceed to some farther
peculiarities.

There are two syllables--um, hu--which are very generally used by the
Americans as a sort of reply, intimating that they are attentive, and
that the party may proceed with his narrative; but, by inflection and
intonation, these two syllables are made to express dissent or assent,
surprise, disdain, and (like Lord Burleigh's nod in the play) a great
deal more. The reason why these two syllables have been selected is,
that they can be pronounced without the trouble of opening your mouth,
and you may be in a state of listlessness and repose while others talk.
I myself found them very convenient at times, and gradually got into the
habit of using them.

The Americans are very local in their phrases, and borrow their similes
very much from the nature of their occupations and pursuits. If you ask
a Virginian or Kentuckian where he was born, he will invariably tell you
that he was _raised_ in such a county--the term applied to horses, and,
in breeding stat