THE SPEECH OF THE MOUNTAINS 179 
gwine," although this is not common in the higher 
mountains. "Mighty," "powerful," and "plumb" 
universally take the place of "very." When you find 
the road all but impassable, you may be informed 
that the recent rains "undermined it mightily." 
" I can't hear mighty good," one woman says, while 
another, whose little chickens you are admiring, 
informs you that the hawks catch them "power- 
fully." Again you are told that "you-all will have a 
powerful hunt to find any blackberries now," while 
one neighbor says of another that he is "a reg'lar 
wash-foot Babdist, the powerfulest you ever saw in 
the world." "Now the truth's the truth," says a 
woman apologetically of her worn calico dress. ' ' This 
is all I've got but what's so hot it plumb swelters 
me to death." 
Without the various forms of "mighty," "power- 
ful," and "plumb," the speech of the mountaineer 
would be "powerful" weak, and illy could be spared 
the convenient "smart" and "right smart" that so 
freely adorns his remarks. "He holp her a right 
smart," some one says, joining the discarded form of 
yesterday to the invention of to-day. "Is it far?" 
you ask. "Yes, a right smart," is the reply. The 
variety of uses to which "right smart" can be put is 
both bewildering and wonderful. 
"Trick" is also of general application. "That's a 
right smart of a trick," a mountain woman says ad- 
miringly of your opera-glass. ' ' They ' ve got a plumb 
cute little trick over yonder," a woman tells you of 
a neighbor's baby. But perhaps the best thing we 
