The Origin Of "linger."

A correspondent sends the following derivation of the term "linger :" "Early in the forties there moved from Vermont to one of the then fltmrishing cotton mauufacturing villages of New Hampshire a man with a large fainily of children, to keep one of the corporation boarding houses. He was a tall, lank dyspeptic. There was bnt one shoe store in the village ; in the rear of the store was a room for making and repairing shoes. Here was a Frencbman, and a lover of mischief. One day the tavern keeper entered the shop and said : 'Helle! Are you a shoemaker?' 'Yes,' was the answer, 'and liuger at it. ' The Frenchman oaught on, and in a day or two there was htmg outside the building, with other store goods, probably the most nncouth, bunglingly made pair of shoes ever seen on the continent, labeled 'Lingers. ' There they hung until every man, woman and child in the village had looked theni over. From that day the membersof the dyspeptic 's family were known as ' lingers. ' And the word was applied to everything as a superlative, to a fine voke of osen or a bigflsh."