SHEW, for _showed_. Mr. Bartlett calls this the "shibboleth of Bostonians." However this may be, it is simply an archaism, not a vulgarism. _Show_, like _blow, crow, grow,_ seems formerly to have had what is called a strong preterite. _Shew_ is used by Lord Cromwell and Hector Boece. SLASHES. "Swampy or wet lands overgrown with bushes. Southern and Western." Used also in New York. SPAN of horses is Dutch (High or Low). TO WALK SPANISH; to "walk" a boy out of any place by the waistband of his trousers, or by any lower part easily prehensible. N.E. This is, perhaps, as old as Philip and Mary. TO SPREAD ONE'S SELF is defined by Mr. Bartlett "to exert one's self." It means rather to exert one's self ostentatiously. It is a capital metaphor, derived, we fancy, from the turkey-cock or peacock,--like the Italian _pavoneggiarsi_. We find in the _Tatler_ "spreading her graces in assemblies." This last, however, may be a Gallicism, from _étaler_. STRAW BAIL. "Worthless bail, bail given by 'men of straw.'" This is surely no Americanism, and we have seen its origin very differently explained, namely, that men willing for a fee to become bail walked in the neighborhood of the courts with straws stuck in their shoes,--though Mr. Bartlett's explanation is ingenious. SUNFISH. Mr. Bartlett thinks this a corruption; but the resemblance of the fish, as seen in the water, to the ordinary portraits of the sun in almanacs and on tavern-signs seems to us enough to account for the name. A few phrases occur to us that have escaped Mr. Bartlett. A CARRY: portage. _Passim_. CAT-NAP: a short doze. New England. CHOWDER-HEAD: muddle-brain. New England. COHEES (accent on the last syllable): term applied to the people of certain settlements in Western Pennsylvania, from their use of the archaic form, _Quo' he_. TO COTTON TO. DON' KNOW AS I KNOW: the nearest your true Yankee ever comes to acknowledging ignorance. GANDER-PARTY: a social gathering of men only. New England. LAP-TEA: where the guests are too many to sit at table. Massachusetts. LAST OF PEA-TIME: day after fair. LOSE-LAID (loose-laid): weaver's term, and probably English; means weak-willed. Massachusetts. MOONGLADE: a beautiful word for the track of moonlight on the water. Massachusetts. OFF-OX: an unmanageable fellow. New England. OLD DRIVER: } euphemistic for the OLD SPLIT-FOOT: } Devil. ONHITCH (unhitch): to pull trigger. ROTE: sound of the surf before a storm. Used also in England. New England. SEEM: I can't _seem_ to see, for I can't see. She couldn't _seem_ to be suited, for couldn't be suited. STATE-HOUSE. This seems an Americanism. Did we invent it, or borrow it from the _Stad-huys_ (town-hall) of New Amsterdam? As an instance of the tendency to uniformity in American usage, we notice that in Massachusetts what has always been the _State-House_ is beginning to be called the _Capitol_. We are sorry for it. STRIKE: } terms of the game of STRING: } nine-pins.