Some notes I made:
Various kinds of horse-drawn vehicles mentioned on page 195:
brougham A light, four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage
surrey (with a fringe!) A horse-drawn, four-wheeled, two-seated pleasure carriage with an open spindle seat.
two-wheeled cart It's a two-wheeled cart, for cryin' out loud!
victoria The victoria was an elegant French carriage.
pony cart Seems to be a smaller cart. Can have two or four wheels.
tally-ho (coach and four) A four-in-hand (the Tally-ho was the name of a coach that once plied between London and Birmingham)
A Chronology And An Observation
Dirk was nine when his father died. see page 133. I figure this was 1900.
Selina and Dirk ride in a red automobile back to the farm after the trip to Chicago to sell vegetables after the father died. See page 162. Again, I figure this was 1900.
Dirk starts college in 1909. See page 179. He is eighteen or nineteen, by my figuring.
Dirk graduates college in 1913 when he is twenty-two years old. See page 199.
There were only 2,475 automobiles built in the United States during 1899-1901. It seems fortuitous that Selina and Dirk got to in that red automobile.<
matutinal bathing (pg. 36) -- Pertaining to or occurring in the morning.
none too knowledgeous herself (pg. 53) -- I think it means "knowledgeable".
always a dado of washing (pg. 118) -- Cannot find a suitible definition.
the Cinderellas and the Smikes of this temple (pg. 180) -- A charactor in Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby.
bosky paths (pg. 205) -- Covered with or consisting of bushes or thickets.
Do you suppose they will ever get rid of this terrible Rush Street bridge? (pg. 210) -- Yes, around 1920 they tore the sucker down!
Their eyes were wide apart, empty, knowledgeous.. (pg. 239) -- There is that word again! Still not much on the web!
their names were burbankian monstrosities...hence Loretta, Imogene, Nadine (pg. 241) -- I get the Luther Burbank reference, but not how it applies to these particular names. Marjon, from parents Mary and John, that I understand. I wonder what the author would think of the girl's name Howard Allen O'Brien?
with pompons on them (pg. 255) -- Yes, that IS how it is spelled.
meet the gamin of the rumpled smock (pg. 259) -- An often homeless boy who roams about the streets; an urchin.
Sairey Gamipish ladies smelling unpleasantly of peppermint and perspiration and poverty (pg. 267) -- Sairey Gamp is a charactor in Charles Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit.
Sped by one of those over-dramatic ladies who, armed with horsewhip or pistol in tardy defence of their honour, ... it had been meant for a well-known newspaper publisher usually mentioned ... as a bonvivant. The lady's leaden remonstrance was to have been proof of the fact that he had been more vivacious than bon. (pg. 19)
and a cubby-hole for the Jap. (pg. 242) -- nice.
"You know, I'm suddenly feeling much better" -- pg. 216
bête noire (pg. 78)-- A person or thing strongly detested or avoided