December Books 23) A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, of the State of Tennessee.

[nwhyte]

I was startled to find this referenced in the bibliography for Lois McMaster Bujold's The Sharing Knife: Passage, and sufficiently intrigued to track it down on Project Gutenberg and speculate about the author's uncle. It's a book which is quite obviously a first step in a presidential election campaign that never happened, full of references to

Comments

[gareth_rees]

The OED concurs:tote, v. Forms: Also toat. colloq. (orig. U.S.). 1. a. trans. To carry as a burden or load

[nwhyte]

That may be what the OED says, but I'm not sure that that meaning really fits the context. I would have taken her up, and [carried] her, if it hadn't been that I wanted her just where I could see her all the time
Isn't "carrying" her redundant after Crockett has "taken her up"? How would Crockett carrying her prevent her from being just where he could see her all the time?

[londonkds]

Either he was on a horse and she riding behind him, or he was talking about carrying her on his back.

[nickbarnes]

Picked her up and carried her, without any doubt. On his back, I suspect. Two paragraphs previously we find he has no horse yet, and in this passage there's no indication that he was mounted (and 'I run on' suggests he was on foot).

[nwhyte]

As far as his steed is concerned, he actually says two paras earlier that he rode to the girl's house "on my horse", so it seems fairly clear that he was working off the price of the animal over a six-month period but had the use of it already!