Steve,

All the analysis I've done of the spelling topic is in that _American Speech_ article I sent to you. I'm not sure why you'd think the S spelling is significant in those two pieces you mentioned, based only on surveying the titles of selected works cited in _Boxing the Compass_ (since those selected works cited are not coterminous with the data for the orthographic analysis). If you think establishing a clearer picture between Once a Week and Chambers's, beyond whatever I say about that in _Boxing_, will reveal some insight, then I think you should go for it. But I have nothing additional to offer and I'm not inclined to spend time on that because I don't suspect it will add significant insight and I've got bigger fish to fry.

I think you've got my point about Lloyd's renditions a little twisted, Steve, and now here comes The Sandman again to use that as an opening to twist it more. I would never offer such a mundane "point" as "Lloyd wasn't authentic" or "Lloyd's scholarship shouldn't be taken seriously." My interests are in other, much more specific things that I'm curious about, and performances of Lloyd are just pieces of data that combine with others to help form a picture of the big question that interests me. I'm not interested in assessing the legacy of Lloyd or debates of authenticity. I am interested in answering bigger historical and cultural questions.

The data of Lloyd's total performances gives us insight to his likely process for the Wild Goose performance. That in turn gives us some ability to assess to what degree and in what ways we might want to use it as part of contemplating how Huckleberry Hunting might have been approached by various actors in their (unheard) performances.