accidents of the wash-tub brought us in collision; "who is your boss,
pocket-handkerchief, I say?--you are so very fine, I should like to
know something of your history."

>From all I had heard and read, I was satisfied my neighbor was a
Yankee shirt, both from his curiosity and from his abrupt manner of
asking questions; still I was at a loss to know the meaning of the word
BOSS, my clairvoyance being totally at fault. It belongs to no language
known to the savans or academicians.

{savans = scholars}

"I am not certain, sir," I answered, "that I understand your meaning.
What is a BOSS?"

{boss = Cooper was annoyed by American euphemisms, such as using
the Dutch word "boss" in place of "master"--a custom he blamed largely
on New England "Yankees"}

"Oh! that's only a republican word for 'master.' Now, Judge Latitat is
MY boss, and a very good one he is, with the exception of his sitting so
late at night at his infernal circuits, by the light of miserable tallow
candles. But all the judges are alike for that, keeping a poor shirt up
sometimes until midnight, listening to cursed dull lawyers, and prosy,
caviling witnesses."

{circuits = American "circuit judges" travelled from town to town,
holding court in each and sleeping at local inns and taverns}

"I beg you to recollect, sir, that I am a female pocket-handkerchief, and