The others of the Means family hurried on, while Hannah, the champion, stayed behind a minute to speak to Shocky.
Perhaps it was because Ralph saw that Hannah must go alone that he suddenly remembered having left something which was of no consequence, and resolved to go round by Mr.Means's and get it.
FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 14: _Peart_ or peert is only another form of the old word _pert_--probably an older form.

Bartlett cites an example of _peart_ as far back as Sir Philip Sidney; and Halliwell finds it in various English dialects.

Davies, afterward president of Princeton College, describes Dr.Lardner, in 1754, as "a little pert old gent." I do not know that Dr.Daries pronounced his _pert_ as though it were _peart_, but he uses it in the sense it has in the text, viz., bright-witted, intelligent.
The general sense of _peart_ is lively, either in body or mind.] [Footnote 15: Mr.Lowell suggested to me in 1869 that this word _'low_ has no kinship with _allow_, but is an independent word for which he gave a Low Latin original of similar sound.

I have not been able to trace any such word, but Mr.Lowell had so much linguistic knowledge of the out-of-the-way sort that it may be worth while to record his impression.

Bartlett is wrong in defining this word, as he is usually in his attempts to explain dialect outside of New England.