She was always—not exactly proud like, but what I calls gumptious.” “I never heard that word before,” said the Parson, laying down his knife and fork. “Bumptious, indeed, though I believe it is not in the dictionary, has crept into familiar parlance, especially amongst young folks at school and college.” “Bumptious is bumptious, and gumptious is gumptious,” said the landlord, delighted to puzzle a parson. “Now, the town beadle is bumptious, and Mrs. Avenel is gumptious.” “She is a very respectable woman,” said Mr. Dale, somewhat rebukingly. . “In course, sir; all gumptious folks are; they value themselves on their respectability, and looks down on their neighbours.” PARSON (still, philologically occupied):-Gumptious—gumptious. I think I remember the substantive at school—not that my master taught it to me. “Gumption,”—it means cleverness. LANDLORD (doggedly).-There's gumption and gumptious! Gumption is knowing; but when I say that sum un is gumptious, I meanthough that’s more vulgar like—sum un who does not think small beer of hisself You take me, sir?”

Even the coming of the New York Thruway and the connections for the Garden State Parkway had failed to alter the setting as an heirloom of troop movements of long ago, of the rattle of early stagecoaches, and of the "bockeys” —these were mountain people who continued to weave baskets of oak splints and bring them down to sell in Ladentown, Rockland County, New York, and perhaps elsewhere.

In a matter of time it would slip from my mind / In and out of my life, you would slip from my mind / In a matter of time

The finny trophies he brought back in the form of numerous fat pickerel were ample evidence of his fishermanship.