Question

The following excerpt from Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn contains dialect, slang, and grammatical errors. Read the selection and then rewrite it in Standard English. "Kin any of you gentlemen tell me wher' Mr. Peter Wilks lives?" they give a glance at one another, and nodded their heads, as much as to say, "Whatd' I tell you?" Then one of them says, kind of soft and gentle: "I'm sorry sir, but the best we can do is to tell you where he DID live yesterday evening." Sudden as winking the ornery old cretur went an to smash, and fell up against the man, and put his chin on his shoulder, and cried down his back, and says: "Alas, alas, our poor brother--gone, and we never got to see him; oh, it's too, too hard!"

Answer 1

Can any of you gentlemen tell me where Mr. Peter Wilks lives? They give each other a glance, nod their heads, and say "What did I tell you?" Then one of them says in a gentle voice, " I'm sorry sir, but the best we can do is to tell you where he lived as of yesterday evening." Suddenly one of the old men went to hug each other, and fell and landed against the man, he then put his chin on his shoulder and cried down his back and says; Alas, alas, our poor brother is gone, we haven't seen him; oh, it's too. too hard"!