Mark Twain again

[karitaru]

Hi there,

What does Twain mean by the following sentence, taken from "The Story of the Old Ram."


"When Sile Hawkins come a browsing around her, she let him know that for all his tin he couldn’t trot in harness alongside of her."

and does heifer stand for a girl? I know it is a young female cow.

[riverkid]

Originally Posted by karitaru

Hi there,
What does Twain mean by the following sentence, taken from "The Story of the Old Ram."
"When Sile Hawkins come a browsing around her, she let him know that for all his tin he couldn’t trot in harness alongside of her."

"When Sile Hawkins came looking around her, she let him know that for all his tin [I suspect this means 'showiness', 'shiny cleanness'] he couldn’t walk beside her as a boyfriend/suitor.[trot in harness alongside of her]."

and does heifer stand for a girl? I know it is a young female cow.

Yup, Karitaru, in some circles, young women are referred to as 'filly' or 'heifer'.

#

[karitaru]

Thanks alot.
It is almost as I suspected

[karitaru]

After a second thought, I might disagree about the boyfriend/suitor part.
The narrator states--not far before this statement--that she is married. Do you think this Sile Hawkins incident is a thing of the past, for instance?
Are you aware of any different interpretation of walking along him in harness?
Maybe something like, he would not be able to outrun her in a race or something?

[mykwyner]

Twain means he can't be her "social equal."

[riverkid]

That seems eminently reasonable. I go with what Mike says.