In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit:
- the Missouri negro dialect;
- the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect;
- the ordinary “Pike County” dialect;
- and four modified varieties of this last.
The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech.
I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding.
The Author.