do tell!

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

A vulgar exclamation common tn New England, and synonymous with really! indeed! is it possible!


A bright-eyed little demoiselle from Virginia came running into the dairy of a country house in New Hampshire, at which her mother was spending the summer, with a long story about a most beautiful butterfly site had been chasing; and the dairy maid, after hearing the story through, exclaimed, "Do tell!" The child immediately repeated the story, and the good-natured maid, after hearing it through a second time, exclaimed again, in a tone of still greater wonder, "Do tell!" A third time the story was told, and the third time came the exclamation of wonder, "Do tell!" The child's spirits were dashed, and she went to her mother with a sad tale about Ruth's teasing her; while poor Ruth said that 'those daown country gals were so strange; keep telling me the same thing over and over,--I never see anything like!"--N. Y. Com. Adv.

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