Note 26 — Chapter XXVIII

I have already mentioned the absence of pail and pare from the ancient Hoosier folk-speech. Brook is likewise absent. The illiterate Indiana countryman before the Civil War, let us say, had no pails, pared no apples, husked no corn, crossed no brooks. The same is true, I believe, of the South generally. As the first settlers on the Southern coast entered the land by the rivers, each smaller stream was regarded as a branch of the larger one. A small stream was therefore called a branch. The word brook was probably lost in the first generation. But a small stream is often called a run in the Middle and Southern belt. Halliwell gives rundel as used with the same signification in England, and he gives ryn in the same sense from an old manuscript.