Aah, the joys of reading old-timey depictions of colloquial speech:
“I’d ‘a bin mighty glad if Pud yer had er took airter pa’s famerly, but frum the tip eend er her toe nails to the toppermust ha’r of her head she’s a Wornum. Hit ain’t on’y thes a streak yer an’ a stripe thar—hit’s the whole bolt.”
(a translation, in case you were born sometime more recently than the 1870s)
“I’d have been mighty glad if Pud(din) here had taken after Pa’s family, but from the tip end of her toe nails to the topmost hair of her head she’s a Wornum. It’s not just that there’s a streak here and a stripe there—it’s the whole bolt.”
It’s really not so bad, but…
“‘Oho, ma’am!’ says I; ‘things is come to a mighty purty pass when quality folks has to go frum house to house a-huntin’ up pore white trash, an’ a-astin’ airter the’r kin. Tooby shore! tooby shore! Yessum, a mighty purty pass,’ says I.”
wait
“I fully spected ‘er to flar’ up an’ fly at me; but ‘stedder that, she kep’ a- stan’in’ thar lookin’ thes like folks does when theyer runnin’ over sump’n in the’r min’. Then her eye lit on some ‘er the pictur’s what Deely had hung up on the side er the house, an’ in pertic’lar one what some ‘er the Woruum niggers had fetched ‘er, whar a great big dog was a-watehin’ by a little bit er baby.”
no
(Source: gutenberg.org)
