Q: "penny-fort" (not in OED): Something new, or just a "pinafore"?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 8/18/2013 12:46 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake wrote:
>On Sun, Aug 18, 2013 at 12:39 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > We [farmhands], must be up in the morning, aye in the morning I say;
> > and not lie in bed until nigh twelve, like Capt. Dashup's girls, who
> > are thrumming and drumming and humming all night long with their
> > _penny-forts_ [italicized] and jews-harps."
> >
> > "Penny-fort" is not in the OED.  Is this merely New England farmers'
> > dialect for "pinafore"?  Was there something slightly disgraceful
> > about being up all night in a pinafore??
>
>Pianofortes?
>
>-- Bonnie

Aha!! Perhaps.  In context, I was imagining a musical instrument, to
go with "jews-harps", but hadn't thought of "pianofortes".  However,
I was imagining something small.  And does one thrum or drum or hum
on a pianoforte?

Google didn't have anything connecting "penny-fort" with
"pinafore".  Now I find that for "penny-fort" and "pianoforte" ... it
doesn't have anything either.  :-(

Joel

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