Grammar
The passing lady mistakenly supposed that the woman shouting from a
window down the street was calling to the little girl minding baby
brother close by on the curb.
"Your mother is calling you," she said kindly.
The little girl corrected the lady:
"Her ain't a-callin' we. Us don't belong to she."
* * *
"No, I ain't going," was the reply.
The teacher corrected the child:
"You must not say, 'I ain't going,' you must say, 'I am not going.'"
And she added to impress the point: "I am not going. He is not going. We
are not going. You are not going. They are not going. Now, dear, can you
say all that?"
The little girl nodded and smiled brightly.
"Sure!" she replied. "They ain't nobody going."
* * *
The witness, in answer to the lawyer's question, said:
"Them hain't the boots what was stole."
The judge rebuked the witness sternly:
"Speak grammatic, young man--speak grammatic! You shouldn't ought to
say, 'them boots what was stole,' you should ought to say, 'them boots
as was stealed.'"
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