. In a state of boiling indignation he rushed to the street, and on
the way to the office of publication called the attention of various
acquaintances to the wrongful statement, which, it appeared, no one had
observed. Entering the office, he inquired, with much feeling, how Mr.
Mycall could have published such a paragraph. "Did you not promise me,"
said the editor, "that my chaise should be sent home, on such a day, if
you were alive?" "Well, supposing I did?" "Why, then, of course, you must
be dead!" Taking up a copy of the paper from his desk, and examining the
obituary notices, "But," said the editor, "there is no such statement
here." The bewildered chaise-maker hastened home to examine his paper
anew; and it appeared, on inquiry, that the account of his decease was
printed only in his own copy; a gloomy jest, which was soon much relished
by the community.

Indeed, the town became for a time a noted place for the publication of
standard works, and books of various descriptions. It was here that the
well-known Mr. Edmund M. Blunt, who subsequently removed to the city of
New York, published his valuable and famous "American Coast Pilot," and,
afterwards, the no less useful "Practical Navigator."

XIII.

In attestation of the remark, on page 144 of the text, that an antiquated
pronunciation of many English words prevailed long in New England, after
it was disused in Old England, and was brought by the colonists from the
Mother Country, see the criticism of "Holofernes" upon innovations in
pronunciation, in Act V., Sc. 1, of "Love's Labor Lost," showing the
state of the case in Shakespeare's time.

XIV.

In closing this Appendix, which might be extended to almost any length,
as recollections which did not occur to me in writing the body of the
work come up, I cannot omit a remarkable use of the American language,
let us say, since the Czar once so denominated the English tongue. It was
upon the part of a town constable, perhaps as nearly of the Dogberry type
as could be imagined. I was standing in the town hall, at a moment
preliminary to a public meeting. A knot of youngsters had been joking one
another, when this authoritative official approached. All but one
speedily retired before the awful presence. "Master Constable" addressed
the lingerer: "_Disperge_,"--a difficult operation for an
individual,--"_disperge_, I say; we can't have no _burlash_ here!"

Even Shakespeare might have been glad of