THE SPEECH OF THE MOUNTAINS 173 
suffered three years in that house," another who is 
moving her household goods will tell you, but in 
your sympathetic inquiries as the cause of her misery 
you learn that she had simply been waiting there 
until her own house was built. " Some people seem to 
have a sleight at it and can chop good," says a 
woman discoursing upon the subject of firewood, 
while animals "use" certain places when they fre- 
quent them or live in them, as you learn when told 
that "there's a rat using in that hole," or "a bear 
uses on that mountain." 
A universal anachronism is the use of the personal 
pronoun "hit," instead of "it." The baby, for in- 
stance, is "hit," from one end of the mountains to 
the other. Shall one ever forget the dissertation on 
infants given by a young person of four to the visitor 
who suddenly dropped into her home one day ! She 
sat on the edge of the bed swinging her legs, her 
round black eyes shining with excitement as she 
described the advent of her baby brother. "Hit was 
the b-1-ack-est, me-an-est lookin' little thing you 
ever see, and," with unutterable scorn, "hit was a 
boy ! And," with, if possible, yet deeper disapproval, 
"hit is a boy yet!'' "Hit" is sometimes used until 
the child is several years old, particularly if there is 
no newcomer to usurp the title and " Babe," applied 
as a temporary provision pending the finding of a 
suitable name, often clings to the youngest son for 
life. 
It is not necessary to go into the remoter fastnesses 
of the mountains to hear quaint expressions. The 
