Suppose in riding somewhere West A stranger found a "Hoosher's" nest, In other words, a buckeye cabin Just big enough to hold Queen Mab in, Its situation low but airy Was on the borders of a prairie, And fearing he might be benighted He hailed the house and then alighted The "Hoosher" met him at the door, Their salutations soon were o'er; He took the stranger's horse aside And to a sturdy sapling tied; Then, having stripped the saddle off, He fed him in a sugar trough. The stranger stooped to enter in, The entrance closing with a pin, And manifested strong desire To seat him by the log heap fire, Where half a dozen Hoosheroons, With mush and milk, tincups and spoons, White heads, bare feet and dirty faces, Seemed much inclined to keep their places, But Madam, anxious to display Her rough and undisputed sway, Her offspring to the ladder led And cuffed the youngsters up to bed. Invited shortly to partake Of venison, milk and johnny-cake The stranger made a hearty meal And glances round the room would steal; One side was lined with skins of "varments" The other spread with divers garments, Dried pumpkins overhead were strung Where venison hams in plenty hung, Two rifles placed above the door, Three dogs lay stretched upon the floor, In short, the domicile was rife, With specimens of "Hoosher" life. The host who centered his affections, On game, and range, and quarter sections Discoursed his weary guest for hours, Till Somnus' ever potent powers Of sublunary cares bereft them And then I came away and left them. No matter how the story ended The application I intended Is from the famous Scottish poet Who seemed to feel as well as know it "That buirdly chiels and clever hizzies Are bred in sic a way as this is." One more subject I'll barely mention To which I ask your kind attention My pockets are so shrunk of late I can not nibble "Hoosher bait." It will be noted that throughout the manuscript the word is spelled "Hoosher" and is always put in quotation marks. Mrs. Wrigley informs me that her father had no knowledge of the origin of the word, but found it in verbal use when he wrote. She is confident, however, that he coined the word "hoosheroon," and the probability of this is increased by the fact that he did not quote it in his manuscript. In later editions of the poem he used the form "Hoosier." His original spelling shows that the word was not common in print, and several years passed before the spelling became fixed in its present form.