Heart & Liver

Day 3: I’m still reading and the convict is HUNGRY! He tells Pip that a friend of his, much younger and meaner, will cut out and eat Pip’s heart AND liver if Pip does not bring a file (for cutting off the iron shackles on the convict’s leg) and some food (whittles or vittles). This got me to wondering where the word vittles came from. No one seems to use it any more and no one seems to know whence it came. (OK, now I’m starting to talk weird after reading this book!) I did find out two things: 1) that it is slang for victuals, which means the same thing: food useful to humans (What kind of food isn’t useful to humans?!) and 2) that the Beverly Hillbillies spoke it a lot! So funny… loved that show! Jethro and his giant bowl of vittles!