"Crumb" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... about the size of a large apple tree; the fruit is round, and has a thick tough rind. It is gathered when it is full-grown, and while it is still green and hard; it is then baked in an oven until the rind is black and scorched. This is scraped off, and the inside is soft and white like the crumb of a penny loaf.' ...
— The Red True Story Book • Various
... to wait?" and Agraphena Petrovna took a crumb brush which was not in its place, put it away, and sailed ...
— Resurrection • Count Leo Tolstoy
... lined with decorative chairs and sofas, and in the center of the hotel is a spacious dining room. The Spaniard doesn't want breakfast. He wants coffee and fruit—maybe a small banana—something sweet, and a crumb of bread. The necessity of the hour is a few cigarettes. His refined system does not require food until later. At 12 o'clock he lunches, and eats an abundance of hot stuff—fish, flesh and fowl—fiery stews and other condolences for the stomach. This ...
— The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions, • Murat Halstead
... ignorant to wish to comprehend her husband lest she should meddle in his pursuits, and who should find her crumb of the happiness that human life and family compact ought to yield, in "acting as a breakwater" to protect him, and "never disturb his peace," was a great artist's view of the education needed by a woman! To this I would oppose my more humble experience, ...
— The Education of American Girls • Anna Callender Brackett
... or the sea;" as if it more fully expressed the following advice,—He that would make his fortune, ought either to dedicate his time to the church, go to sea as a merchant, or attach himself to the court: for it is commonly observed, that "the king's crumb ...
— Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
... said the laird of Loughlinter. "By such a one I will send no message. From the first moment that I saw you I knew you for a child of Apollyon. But the sin was my own. Why did I ask to my house an idolater, one who pretends to believe that a crumb of bread is my God, a Papist, untrue alike to his country and to his Saviour? When she desired it of me I knew that I was wrong to yield. Yes;—it is you who have done it all, you, you, you;—and if she be a castaway, the weight ...
— Phineas Redux • Anthony Trollope
... Cornelius, grimly, from the depths of a big towel. "I spent the whole day in a little hole of a room at the top of an empty building, with just ten trips down the stairs to the ground floor to get envelopes at certain minutes. I had not a crumb to eat nor a thing to do, and could not even snatch a nap for fear I'd oversleep one of ...
— Stories Worth Rereading • Various
... but for that, you would love the Latin names, because they are so fine sounding, and can express so many things. For example, formica; can you guess? O, no, you will never guess," added he, with a knowing tone. "Very well! formica means crumb carriers, because the little cunning beasts carry ...
— Piccolissima • Eliza Lee Follen
... but he doesn't mean any harm," she told her brother. "It is only his way; a hard crust, but a good wholesome crumb." ...
— Grey Town - An Australian Story • Gerald Baldwin
... one infant will not agree with another. (1) The one that I have found the most generally useful, is made as follows—Boil the crumb of bread for two hours in water, taking particular care that it does not burn, then add only a little lump-sugar (or brown sugar, if the bowels be costive), to make it palatable. When he is six or seven months old, mix a little new milk—the milk of ONE cow—with it gradually as he becomes older, ...
— Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children • Pye Henry Chavasse
... young [people] knotting together and crying out Porridge often and seditiously in the church, and took the Common Prayer Book, they say, away.' There is a four leaved pamphlet, 4to 1642, by Gyles Calsine, entitled 'A Messe of Pottage, very well seasoned and crumb'd with bread of life, and easie to be digested against the contumelious slanderers of the Divine Service, terming ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. II • Aphra Behn
... that there was to learn; that took the sequel. Well, I hung there, as I say, revolving slowly; centrifugal force, you understand; I was really exemplifying the workings of natural forces; interesting demonstration, if there had been any one there to see. My crumb of comfort was that there was no one. I must get down before those men came back from dinner; that was the one thing necessary in the world at that moment. I measured the space of the trap as I swung; I prided myself on my correct eye; you see I was a most complete ass: ...
— The Merryweathers • Laura E. Richards
... spends this devoted Money in a Bawdy-House in the next Town: Then he goes back, and tells Balbinus that he had great Hope that all would succeed according to their Mind, the Virgin Mary seem'd so to favour their Endeavours. When he had laboured a long Time, and not one Crumb of Gold appearing, Balbinus reasoning the Matter with him, he answered, that nothing like this had ever happened all his Days to him, tho' he had so many Times had Experience of his Method; nor could he so much as imagine what should be the Reason of this Failing. After they ...
— Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. • Erasmus
... finished. He rose deliberately, taking time to brush every crumb from his lap. At the door he reached for a whisk broom and wielded it conspicuously. He could not have said whether bravado or contempt was moving him to such flamboyant dawdling. Or was he merely trying to persuade ...
— Broken to the Plow • Charles Caldwell Dobie
... all the seasoning to the crab flake, mix the two together, and fill at once into the shells. The shells must be quite full, so that there will be no danger of the fat being held in the shell. Dip the shells in egg, then cover them thickly with bread crumbs. It is well to egg and bread crumb the upper side again; in fact both dippings may be on the upper sides, leaving the shells red underneath. Put these in a frying basket and fry for a minute in hot, deep fat. Serve one to ...
— Ice Creams, Water Ices, Frozen Puddings Together with - Refreshments for all Social Affairs • Mrs. S. T. Rorer
... fruit is round and as large as a good penny-loaf,[191] growing on the boughs like apples. When ripe it turns yellow, with a soft and sweet pulp; but the natives pull it green, and bake it in an oven till the rind grows black. They scrape off the rind, and the inside is soft and white, like the crumb of new-baked bread, having neither seed nor stone; but it grows harsh if kept twenty-four hours. As this fruit is in season for eight months in the year, the natives use no other bread in all that time, and they told us there was plenty of it in ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr
... the sea, or the king's house;' as much as to say, in plainer language, whoever wants to flourish and become rich, let him follow the church, or go to sea, adopting commerce as his calling, or go into the king's service in his household, for they say, 'Better a king's crumb than a lord's favour.' I say so because it is my will and pleasure that one of you should follow letters, another trade, and the third serve the king in the wars, for it is a difficult matter to gain admission to his ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
... willing, as soon as it is night thou shalt be with thy beloved." But I paid no heed to her and ceased not looking for the approach of darkness, saying, "O Lord, hasten the coming of the night!" And when night set in, the daughter of my uncle wept with sore weeping and gave me a crumb of pure musk, and said to me, "O my cousin, put this crumb in thy mouth, and when thou hast won union with thy beloved and hast taken thy will of her and she hath granted thee thy desire, ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton
... birdies, darling, When the snow is here, When there are no berries On the bushes, dear;— Scatter food out for them, And they'll quickly come, Hopping, singing, chirping "Thank you for the crumb." ...
— Mother Truth's Melodies - Common Sense For Children • Mrs. E. P. Miller
... impressed upon Lin Chih-hsiao to insert the two hundred taels in the accounts for the current year, by making such additions to various items here and there as would suffice to clear them off, and presented Pao Erh with money out of his own pocket as a crumb of comfort, adding, "By and bye, I'll choose a nice wife for you." When Pao Erh, therefore, came in for a share of credit as well as of hard cash, he could not possibly do otherwise than practise contentment; and forthwith, ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book II • Cao Xueqin
... Daughtry did not try to guess. He was too occupied with his own vision, and vividly burned before him the sordid barrenness of a poor-house ward, where an ancient, very like what he himself would become, maundered and gibbered and drooled for a crumb of tobacco for his old clay pipe, and where, of all horrors, no sip of beer ever obtained, much less six quarts ...
— Michael, Brother of Jerry • Jack London
... of tousled-headed students going down the stairway before him tossed him his first and only crumb of comfort. "It won't go, of course," said one, in a tone of conviction, "but it's a ...
— The Light of the Star - A Novel • Hamlin Garland
... was left of it on his own plate. Since there was nothing else for the children to do, they sat and watched the two mates eat, all of them feeling decidedly cross, especially Peter. When every drop was finished and every crumb licked up, Growler said to Prowler, "Time for a nap, old boy," and without so much as a look in the children's direction the two rude fellows turned tail and marched off arm in ...
— The Wonderful Bed • Gertrude Knevels
... half hour feasting was in order. Juniors and sophomores shared cups; as the supply of these were limited. At the end of that time the last crumb of food had disappeared and the girls stood in groups or walked about the field, discussing the ...
— Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School • Jessie Graham Flower
... said Martin, twirling a buttercup as he swallowed his last crumb, "but I also like butter. ...
— Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard • Eleanor Farjeon
... been trying to make me marry an old goat of a prince and I finally told her to go roll her hoop—to get a divorce and marry the foul old beast herself. And to consolidate two empires, he's been wanting me to marry a multi-billionaire—who is also a louse and a crumb and a heel. Last week he insisted on it and I blew up like an atomic bomb. I told him if I got married a thousand times I'd pick every one of my husbands myself, without the least bit of help from either him or her. I'd keep on finding ...
— Subspace Survivors • E. E. Smith
... remains of the fire, and the piece of paper pinned to a stake beside it—untouched. The cache, poorly contrived by inexperienced hands, however, had been discovered and opened—by musk rats, mink and squirrel. The matches lay scattered about the opening, but the food had been taken to the last crumb. ...
— The Wendigo • Algernon Blackwood
... Monsieur Bertan," she uttered in a quivering voice. "You have known us long enough to be aware that we know nothing of our father's business, and that we have nothing ourselves. All we can do is to give up to our creditors our very last crumb. Thus it shall be done. And ...
— Other People's Money • Emile Gaboriau
... give her some o' them cold biscuit and butter and cheese and a pitcher of milk—sot a good enough meal for anybody—but she didn't take but a crumb, and she turned up her nose at that. Come, go!—you've slicked up enough—you're handsome enough to shew yourself to her any time o' ...
— Queechy • Susan Warner
... the morning the stepmother came and pulled them out of bed, and gave them each a slice of bread, which was still smaller than the one they had last time. On the way Hansel broke his in his pocket, and, stooping every now and then, dropped a crumb upon the path. ...
— Favorite Fairy Tales • Logan Marshall
... have his bread-card now, with coupons entitling him to so many grams a day—about four pounds a week—which the waiter or baker tears off when the customer gets his bread. Without these cards not so much as a crumb can be had for love or money. Yet with all this stiff and not unamusing red tape your morning coffee and bread and butter costs from thirty pfennigs (seven and one-half cents) in one of the Berlin "automats" to one ...
— Antwerp to Gallipoli - A Year of the War on Many Fronts—and Behind Them • Arthur Ruhl
... they were to succeed the sick Lady Tristram and to marry the new Lord. Yet a single garden-party in the year would represent pretty accurately their personal stake in the matter. If you live on crumbs, a good big crumb ...
— Tristram of Blent - An Episode in the Story of an Ancient House • Anthony Hope
... and away she sped, While May sat munching her crumb. But after the cake there came an ache, Though May cried: "Come, Sleep, come, And it's oh! my! let us by-lo-by"— All save the ...
— The Kingdom of Love - and Other Poems • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... was called bread and 1 pound of fresh meat, when any was killed; otherwise we had to be content with bully beef. As to the "staff of life," it became by degrees abominable and full of foreign substances, which were apt to bring on fits of choking. In spite of this drawback, there was never a crumb left, and it was remarkable how little the 6 ounces seemed to represent, especially to a hungry man ...
— South African Memories - Social, Warlike & Sporting From Diaries Written At The Time • Lady Sarah Wilson
... set of sun he reached a little town, And asked for shelter and a crumb of food; But every face repelled him with a frown, And so he sought a ...
— Sanders' Union Fourth Reader • Charles W. Sanders
... was jammed hard across where the stern should have been, the hawsers parted, and, after leave asked of lawful authority, across all that waste of waters, they sank Shaitan by gun-fire, having first taken all the proper steps about the confidential books. Yet Shaitan had had her little crumb of comfort ere the end. While she lay crippled she saw quite close to her a German cruiser that was trailing homeward in the dawn gradually heel ...
— Sea Warfare • Rudyard Kipling
... distinct, the one will seem to be no more than padding to the other. And so it was in The Way We Live Now. The interest of the story lies among the wicked and foolish people,—with Melmotte and his daughter, with Dolly and his family, with the American woman, Mrs. Hurtle, and with John Crumb and the girl of his heart. But Roger Carbury, Paul Montague, and Henrietta Carbury are uninteresting. Upon the whole, I by no means look upon the book as one of my failures; nor was it taken as a failure by ...
— Autobiography of Anthony Trollope • Anthony Trollope
... other; all was glitter and splendour wherever they looked; but that did not satisfy their hunger. The captain and the lieutenant went round rattling their money, and wanted to buy some food; but they saw no people nor could they find a crumb of anything in the house, so the soldier offered them some food from his wallet, which they were not too proud to accept, nor did they want any pressing. They helped themselves of what he had as if they had never ...
— East of the Sun and West of the Moon - Old Tales from the North • Peter Christen Asbjornsen
... broad hand on the table and the other on his hip, and stood over the guest until the last crumb of the duff was gone, although Mr. Brackett clucked hiccups like an overfed hen. The Cap'n felt some of his choler evaporate, indulging in this ...
— The Skipper and the Skipped - Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul • Holman Day
... them to; don't we?" asked the captain of the Go-Aheads, good-naturedly. "We're going to lunch together, and if we make the poor boys work too hard they'll eat every crumb we've got and leave nothing for poor ...
— Wyn's Camping Days - or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club • Amy Bell Marlowe
... of a tame goldfish at Overdene, which used to rise to the surface when the duchess dropped crumbs. He closed it without uttering a word, and turned again to Deryck's letter; and Jane felt herself to be the crumb, or rather the camel, which he was finding it ...
— The Rosary • Florence L. Barclay
... will see then where the crumb is," she said; and as Desire came near and looked over her upon the page, she read ...
— Real Folks • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... Knowing Nothing, who is as deaf as a post, and the Luxury of Understanding Nothing, who is as blind as a bat. Here are the Luxury of Doing Nothing and the Luxury of Sleeping more than Necessary: their hands are made of bread-crumb and their eyes of peach-jelly. Lastly, here is Fat Laughter: his mouth is split from ear to ear and he ...
— The Blue Bird: A Fairy Play in Six Acts • Maurice Maeterlinck
... by-path, they there left them. Little Thumb was not very uneasy at it; for he thought he could easily find the way again, by means of his bread which he had scattered all along as he came. But he was very much surprised when he could not find so much as one crumb; the birds had come and eaten it up every bit. They were now in great affliction, for the farther they went, the more they were out of their way, and were more and more bewildered ...
— The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault • Charles Perrault
... remembered the girl's name," he announced, wiping a crumb from his moist lips. "It was Felicia something or other—sort of ...
— Little Miss By-The-Day • Lucille Van Slyke
... that they can be gradually accustomed to feed on what is known as "insectivorous" or "insectile" food, a composition of which the principal ingredients generally consist of dried ants' cocoons, dried flies, dried powdered meat, preserved yolk of egg,[1] and crumb of bread or biscuit. This is moistened with water or mixed with mashed boiled potato, and forms a diet upon which most of the insectivorous birds thrive. The various ingredients, or the food ready made, can be obtained at almost any bird-fancier's shop. Although it is a good staple ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 - "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" • Various
... to a property, the extent of which, if wise, you will tell to no one! Are you so young, Godolphin, as to imagine that it signifies one crumb of this bread what be the rent-roll of your estate, so long as you can obtain credit for any sum to which you are pleased to extend it? Credit! beautiful invention!—the moral new world to which we fly when banished from the old. Credit!—the true charity of Providence, by which they who ...
— Godolphin, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... certainly acceptable to him, in his otherwise penniless situation; and, stiffly as he acknowledged the receipt of young Frol's check, de Windt perceived that he was deeply sensible of the kindliness and friendly feeling that had inspired the act. This was at least a crumb of comfort to the unhappy Vladimir; who had been overwhelmed by bitter regret at the series of misfortunes which now ended forever his friendship with the one intimate companion of his life. For de Windt, ...
— The Genius • Margaret Horton Potter
... gleam; touch, cast; grain, scruple, granule, globule, minim, sup, sip, sop, spice, drop, droplet, sprinkling, dash, morceau^, screed, smack, tinge, tincture; inch, patch, scantling, tatter, cantlet^, flitter, gobbet^, mite, bit, morsel, crumb, seed, fritter, shive^; snip, snippet; snick^, snack, snatch, slip, scrag^; chip, chipping; shiver, sliver, driblet, clipping, paring, shaving, hair. nutshell; thimbleful, spoonful, handful, capful, mouthful; fragment; fraction &c (part) 51; drop in ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... Before nailing down a carpet after the floor has been washed, be certain that the floor is quite dry, or the nails will rust and injure the carpet. Fuller's earth is used for cleaning carpets, and weak solutions of alum or soda are used for reviving the colours. The crumb of a hot wheaten loaf rubbed over a ...
— Enquire Within Upon Everything - The Great Victorian Domestic Standby • Anonymous
... had caught his breath from his amazement, "these are the most wonderful things that have happened to me in all of my life." And thereupon he fell to at the bread and cheese, and ate as only a hungry man can eat. When he had finished the last crumb he wiped his mouth with the napkin, and, stretching his arms, felt within him that he was like a ...
— Twilight Land • Howard Pyle
... There was a crumb of comfort for him in the thought that he could force her to claim that privilege from a decision of the Court of Queen's Bench, and that her greed would be exposed should she do so. And she could be prevented from selling the diamonds. Mr. Dove seemed to make that quite clear. But ...
— The Eustace Diamonds • Anthony Trollope
... me a good deal of her society, even though she might not have forgiven me for bolting to haul down the Cook ensign, in the midst of her confidences. But in truth I have not guessed the secret! My wits go wheeling round it, like screaming swallows who see a crumb. I get a glimpse of the crumb, and lose it again. In my present mood I almost regret that Bedr and his supposed Germans have not dumped themselves down in our field. It would have been like them to do so, judging by the aggressive ...
— It Happened in Egypt • C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson
... Crumb a stale loaf of bread to make 2 cupfuls and soak in 1 quart of milk. Beat the yolks of 4 eggs with 1 cup of powdered sugar; add the bread, a small cup of raisins and the grated peel of a lemon. Mix all well. Put in a well-buttered pudding-dish ...
— 365 Foreign Dishes • Unknown
... final angry flick at an imaginary crumb and flounced off in the direction of the kitchen. The next moment her shrill voice was heard ...
— The Hound From The North • Ridgwell Cullum
... discovering her mistake, the little portrait painter exchanged it for a mother-of-pearl fruit knife, wherewith, in proof of her desperate thoughts, she made a lunge as she spoke, which would have scarcely disturbed the crumb of ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens
... with you even for speech?" she asked satirically. "Has it come to this? Will you not smile and throw a crumb of comfort to ...
— Madcap • George Gibbs
... day—which would probably see the departure of Margaret French—one more wrestle with Lady Tranmore, and all the links with the old life would be torn away. A bare, stripped soul, dependent henceforth on Geoffrey Cliffe for every crumb of happiness, treading in unknown paths, suffering unknown things, probing unknown passions and excitements—it was so she saw herself; not without that corroding double consciousness of the modern, that it was all very interesting, and as such to ...
— The Marriage of William Ashe • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... munching pie. And it was a very good pie, and would have brought credit to any cook. He regretfully ate the last crumb, and rolled a cigarette. He felt fairly full and at utter peace with the world. Why not? Wasn't it a good old world, and a mighty friendly world despite the Harpes and Tweezys and Joneses that infested it? ...
— The Heart of the Range • William Patterson White
... did not give Hop-o'-my-thumb any concern, for he thought himself quite sure of getting back by means of the crumbs that he had dropped by the way; but when he came to look for them he found that not a crumb was left, for the birds had ...
— The Fairy Book - The Best Popular Stories Selected and Rendered Anew • Dinah Maria Mulock (AKA Miss Mulock)
... about carrying the trays of fruit for sale. According to her lights, which are not hygienic, she is a good housekeeper and a genuine helpmeet. She keeps every ounce of food under lock and key, and measures each crumb that is used in cooking. She keeps the housekeeping accounts, handles the money, never pries into her husband's affairs, bears him a child every year, and is content, in return for all this devotion, ...
— A Woman's Impression of the Philippines • Mary Helen Fee
... three thousand, and they firmly rely on "sharing with each other the wealth of Lyons. This huge cake belongs to them; they do not allow that strangers, Parisians, should have a slice,[33130] and they intend to eat the whole of it, at discretion, without control, even to the last crumb. As to their mode of operations, it consists in "selling justice, in trading on denunciations, in holding under sequestration at least four thousand households," in putting seals everywhere on dwellings and warehouses, in not summoning interested parties who might watch their proceedings, ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 3 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine
... and tidy officers who so love to see a ship kept spick and span clean; who institute vigorous search after the man who chances to drop the crumb of a biscuit on deck, when the ship is rolling in a sea-way; let all such swing their hammocks with the sailors; and they would soon get sick of this ...
— White Jacket - or, the World on a Man-of-War • Herman Melville
... the simple truth, when I say, I have often been so pinched with hunger, that I have fought with the dog—"Old Nep"—for the smallest crumbs that fell from the kitchen table, and have been glad when I won a single crumb in the combat. Many times have I followed, with eager step, the waiting-girl when she went out to shake the table cloth, to get the crumbs and small bones flung out for the cats. The water, in which meat had been boiled, was as eagerly ...
— My Bondage and My Freedom • Frederick Douglass
... captain quickly, with a good-humoured laugh; "I feel for you, lad. Had it been myself I fear I should have been even more exasperated. I would not sell a crumb of my portion ...
— The Red Eric • R.M. Ballantyne
... eat Tomatoes with pepper and oil. We take them as a salad, or stewed with butter, after slicing and stuffing them with bread crumb, and a ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie
... was, was the result of a double and unheard-of choice. It was the point of intersection of two rays—one from below and one from above—a black and a white ray. To the same crumb, perhaps pecked at at once by the beaks of evil and good, one gave the bite, the other the kiss. Gwynplaine was this crumb—an atom, wounded and caressed. Gwynplaine was the product of fatality combined with Providence. Misfortune ...
— The Man Who Laughs • Victor Hugo
... fragment, scrap, crumb; mite, ace, scintilla, particle, whit, iota, tittle, grain, atom, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming
... some onions with a lettuce, adding a few sweet herbs, put them all into a stewpan, with enough of good broth to moisten the whole, adding occasionally the remainder; when nearly done, put in the crumb of a French roll, and when soaked, strain the whole through a sieve, and ...
— The Jewish Manual • Judith Cohen Montefiore
... said the miller firmly. 'Thinks I, there's no knowing what I may do to shock her, so I'll take my solid victuals in the bakehouse, and only a crumb and a drop in ...
— The Trumpet-Major • Thomas Hardy
... uplift of the chin, the elder man flicked a crumb and sat back. The action was a signal. Three ...
— The Paliser case • Edgar Saltus
... had now finished the last crumb of bread and the last drop of milk, "if you like, I'll show you my very ...
— Thistle and Rose - A Story for Girls • Amy Walton
... a little, and all the faces of the court gave a sympathetic twitch. It was discovered that M. Fougas had evinced bad taste in letting a crumb of truth fall into a big plateful ...
— The Man With The Broken Ear • Edmond About
... as she remained in the yard, but as soon as she had tripped back to the house and the door closed upon her brown curls, I could see a drove of hungry snowbirds swoop from the trees, and in a minute every crumb would be picked up. I am sure they must have loved dear little Polly, for many a choice bit did they get ...
— Dickey Downy - The Autobiography of a Bird • Virginia Sharpe Patterson
... the fact that small items tend to be swept away by the outgoing tide or to sink down the slope to deep water. Apart from direct competition, e.g. between hungry hermit-crabs, it often involves hard work to get a meal. This is true even of apparently sluggish creatures. Thus the Crumb-of-Bread Sponge, or any other seashore sponge, has to lash large quantities of water through the intricate canal system of its body before it can get a sufficient supply of the microscopic organisms and organic particles ...
— The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) - A Plain Story Simply Told • J. Arthur Thomson
... mouf, but she can talk ter you, all de same; an' she 'ain't got no head, but she can reason wid you. An' while ter look at 'er she's purty nigh all belly, she don't eat a crumb. Dey ain't a ...
— Solomon Crow's Christmas Pockets and Other Tales • Ruth McEnery Stuart
... she gave me a look that set my heart beating like a trip-hammer and made me put the most hopeful construction on that speech of hers. It seemed impossible that she didn't care for Lord Ralles, and that she might care for me; but, after having had no hope whatsoever, the smallest crumb of a chance nearly lifted me off ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds
... like so many bull-dogs, ready to let them slip at every ingenious suggestion, or convenient generalization, or pleasant fancy? I allow no "facts" at this table. What! Because bread is good and wholesome and necessary and nourishing, shall you thrust a crumb into my windpipe while I am talking? Do not these muscles of mine represent a hundred loaves of bread? and is not my thought the abstract of ten thousand of these crumbs of truth with which you would choke ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various
... post, called Torna Munni. Here they found another ambuscade, but as barren as the former. They searched the neighboring woods, but could not find anything to eat, the Spaniards having been so provident, as not to leave anywhere the least crumb of sustenance, whereby the pirates were now brought to this extremity. Here again he was happy that he had reserved since noon any bit of leather to make his supper of, drinking after it a good draught of water for his comfort. Some, who never were out of their ...
— Great Pirate Stories • Various
... an extremely good appetite, but the voracity of the stranger soon obliged him to give up, for not contented with eating, or rather devouring, nearly the whole of the olla-podriga, the guest finished a large loaf of bread, without leaving a crumb. While he ate, he kept continually looking round with an expression of inquietude: he started at the slightest sound; and once, when a violent gust of wind made the door bang, he sprang to his feet, and seized his carbine, with an air which showed that, if necessary, he would sell ...
— Napoleon Bonaparte • John S. C. Abbott
... with his bread. He pulled out some of the crumb from his roll, and pressed it softly between his large fingers, and scattered the tiny fragments mechanically over the table-cloth near his plate. Hermione watched his moving hand. The Marchesino was talking now. He was telling Vere about a paper-chase at Capodimonte, which ...
— A Spirit in Prison • Robert Hichens
... whole of the body; for, besides the power of engendering, they also elaborate a spirituous humour or fluid which renders man robust, hardy, and courageous. The best application of this kind is that composed of cinnamon powder, gilliflower, ginger and rose water, together with theriac, the crumb of bread, ...
— Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction • John Davenport
... not even look at it again until she was ready to switch off the electric light, and try to sleep, after Kate had finished her ministrations. Then, once more, Mrs. May sniffed daintily at the "Parfait d'Amour," as a bird hovers near a tempting crumb thrown by a hand it fears. She wondered what flowers made up this sweetness, so different from any perfume ...
— The Port of Adventure • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson
... Fox was grumbling to himself as he hurried to the Old Pasture and his heart was very bitter. It seemed to him that everything was against him. His neighbors had food, but he had none, not so much as a crumb. It was unfair. Old Mother Nature was unjust. If he could climb he could get food. If he could fly he could get food. If he could dive he could get food. But he could neither climb, fly, nor dive. He didn't stop to think that Old Mother Nature had given him some of the ...
— Old Granny Fox • Thornton W. Burgess
... hands shrank from closing on if, and it fell to the floor. She stooped, recovered it, and slipped it within her bodice. As she rose erect again her eyes rested in wonder on the black servant who with a crumb-brush was sweeping the rest of the money off the table and catching it upon the coffee-salver. The rain and clash of the coins appeared to confuse her for a moment. Then with another curtsy and a "Thank your Honour," she moved to ...
— Lady Good-for-Nothing • A. T. Quiller-Couch
... enumerated, ten or eleven of which are found in the British isles. A portion of these inhabit fresh water, among which we may mention the river sponge (S. fluviatilis), which abounds in the Thames. Among the British sponges, too, is the stinging or crumb-of-bread sponge (S. urens), a widely-diffused species, which, when taken out of the sea is of a bright orange color, and which will, if rubbed on the hand raise blisters. This stinging quality is highly increased by drying the sponge; a process which also gives it the color and appearance ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 3, August, 1850. • Various
... Sometimes I would divide my ration into three parts and resolve to make it last all day, but invariably it would be gone before noon. Generally I would eat the whole ration at once, but that did not satisfy my hunger, and I had to go without a crumb for the next twenty-four hours. To illustrate how inadequate the ration was, I can say that I have seen officers picking potato-peelings from the large spittoons, where they were soaking in tobacco spittle, wash them off and ...
— The Black Phalanx - African American soldiers in the War of Independence, the - War of 1812, and the Civil War • Joseph T. Wilson
... hold from the westward, to reach this place, for which I at once steered. The sausages were soon gone, and then the wax candles helped out the biscuits. We should have died, I think, though, had not we caught six flying fish on one day and three another—for our last crumb of biscuit and drop of water were gone before we sighted ...
— The Two Whalers - Adventures in the Pacific • W.H.G. Kingston
... the signal smoke arose on Medicine Mountain. In that time, though they had fasted and prayed, not a crumb of hope had come to feed their languishing spirits. Truly, it seemed as if the pied buffalo were bringing them more than a generous share of ill-luck. The interpreter told them only evil news: That all but sixty ...
— The Plow-Woman • Eleanor Gates
... lacked for employment, And we never have wanted a home; We never said nay to a beggar, Or refused one that asked it a crumb. Pet grew up a dear, loving woman— "God's light in our house," John would say— And when a good man came and took her, He took us, too, the very same day. But here she comes now with the baby, And grandmother never says nay; So here's a good bye to my story, For baby has ...
— Poems of the Heart and Home • Mrs. J.C. Yule (Pamela S. Vining)
... feeds her apprentices with cakes, and we have not a crumb of bread to give to our ...
— Marie Antoinette And Her Son • Louise Muhlbach
... the Sunday hat that had the dust on its feather. From under the hem of the lowest dress, peeped the toes of all the pairs of shoes and rubbers, and the entire contents of the sliding table-cloth, down to every solitary pencil, needle, and crumb of cake, were ranged in a line on the carpet. To crown the whole, he pinned upon the image that paper placard upon which he had ...
— Gypsy Breynton • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
... that earthquake. He seems to have an exalted idea of our importance, and may be exerting himself to make things pleasant." At this point the sun sank below the horizon, and they found themselves confronted with night. "Dear, dear!" said Bearwarden, "and we haven't a crumb to eat. I'll stand the drinks and the pipes," he continued, passing around his ubiquitous flask and tobacco-pouch. "If I played such pranks with my interior on earth," said Cortlandt, helping himself to both, "as I do on this planet, it would give me ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds • J. J. Astor
... from morning till night, as they pleaded in prayer, and their petitions came evidently from the depths of the soul. Their natural love for vivid metaphor, combined with much ardor, gave great vividness to their prayers. They begged that the dog might have a single crumb from the table of his master; at another time, they were smiting their breasts by the side of the publican; at another, they were prodigals, hungry, naked, and far from their father's house; again, they sink in the sea, and cry out, "Lord save me, I perish;" ...
— History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I. • Rufus Anderson
... pleased, conscious laugh. "Well, raw-thah!" he drawled, and opened the door leading into the main office. He had been loath to lose one crumb of the savor ...
— Personality Plus - Some Experiences of Emma McChesney and Her Son, Jock • Edna Ferber
... point of the Faith?" She replied, "Pronounce Allah's name[FN32] and cry Bismillah! this is my son, the fruit of my vitals and the heir of Consul Shams al-Din, the child of the nurse and the collar and the crust and the crumb."[FN33] Quoth they, "Never in our days knew we that thou hadst a son"; and quoth she, "Verily his father feared for him the evil eye and reared him in an under-ground chamber;"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton
... busily practical demeanour. Everything eatable has to be put away in the wire-gauze cupboard in the corner, safe from these greedy creatures. So, sniffing with an irrepressible eagerness, they come nosing round and round the cupboard, trying to find some hole for entrance. If any grain or crumb has been dropped outside they are sure to find it, and, taking it between their forepaws, nibble away with great industry, turning it over and over to adjust it to their mouths. At the least movement of mine up go their tails over their backs and off they ...
— Glimpses of Bengal • Sir Rabindranath Tagore
... young gentleman from New York vanquished his last "fried in crumb," and victory perched upon his knife. Just then the gas-burners began to meander queerly before his eyes. Around and above him he beheld showers of glittering sparks,—snaky threads of light,—fantastic figures of fire,—jets of liquid lustre. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 32, June, 1860 • Various
... soul a crumb of hope that would secure silence for some time to come, Carlos, still disguised as Barker, betook himself to a bailiff whom he could depend on, and instructed him to get the bills brought home ...
— Scenes from a Courtesan's Life • Honore de Balzac
... he has business on both sides of the way, got his little hat on, bung'd his eye, been in the sun, got a spur in his head, (this is frequently used by brother Jockeys to each other) got a crumb in his beard, had a little, had enough, got more than he can carry, been among the Philistines, lost his legs, been in a storm, got his night-cap on, got his skin full, had a cup too much, had his cold tea, a red eye, ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan
... great many BREAD CRUMBS, divide your loaf (which should be two days old) into three equal parts; take the middle or crumb piece, the top and bottom will do for table: in the usual way of cutting, the ...
— The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual • William Kitchiner
... she entreated the Infirmarian to sprinkle her bed with Holy Water, saying: "I am besieged by the devil. I do not see him, but I feel him; he torments me and holds me with a grip of iron, that I may not find one crumb of comfort; he augments my woes, that I may be driven to despair. . . . And I cannot pray. I can only look at Our Blessed Lady and say: 'Jesus!' How needful is that prayer we use at Compline: 'Procul recedant somnia et noctium phantasmata!' ('Free us from ...
— The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Ame): The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux • Therese Martin (of Lisieux)
... the Jewish calendar did not necessarily fall upon the Ansell fast days, they were an additional tax on Moses and his mother. Yet neither ever wavered in the scrupulous observance of them, not a crumb of bread nor a drop of water passing their lips. In the keen search for facts detrimental to the Ghetto it is surprising that no political economist has hitherto exposed the abundant fasts with which Israel has been endowed, and which obviously operate ...
— Children of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill
... humble shed! Courtly domes of high degree Have no room for thee and me; Pride and pleasure's fickle throng Nothing mind an idle song. Daily near my table steal, While I pick my scanty meal:— Doubt not, little though there be, But I'll cast a crumb to thee; Well rewarded, if I spy Pleasure in thy glancing eye; See thee, when thou'st eat thy fill, Plume thy breast and wipe thy bill. Come, my feathered friend, again? Well thou know'st the broken pane:— Ask of me ...
— Voices for the Speechless • Abraham Firth
... you bring me a handsome, wholesome loaf, entirely made by yourself, I shall be more pleased than if you offered me a pair of slippers embroidered in the very latest style. I don't wish to bribe you, but I'll give you my heartiest kiss, and promise to eat every crumb of ...
— Eight Cousins • Louisa M. Alcott
... It accounts for the crumb of daily bread as well as for the crown of eternal glory. But even in regard to earthly mercies, never forget the channel of grace through Christ Jesus. It is sweet thus to connect every (even the smallest and humblest) ...
— Sovereign Grace - Its Source, Its Nature and Its Effects • Dwight Moody
... all this for Archie's benefit. He had come in to glean a crumb or two of intelligence, if he could, about the Challoners' movements, and the colonel's garrulity furnished him with a ...
— Not Like Other Girls • Rosa N. Carey
... Brady. Have you been taking lessons in my absence? That orange juice was just the appetizer I needed this morning." Then he fell to on the breakfast and never stopped until he had eaten every crumb and drained the ...
— Molly Brown's Senior Days • Nell Speed
... can give no delight more lasting than itself? Even whilst we are in it, it continueth not in one stay, and we are in it for such a little while! Then comes what our text calls God's awaking, and where is it all then? Gone like a ghost at cockcrow. Why! a drop of blood on your brain or a crumb of bread in your windpipe, and as far as you are concerned the outward heavens and earth 'pass away with a great' silence, as the impalpable shadows that sweep over ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren
... of bread and butter, cheese, a bottle of white wine, and a huge basket of most luscious hothouse grapes and pears—gladdened our hungry gaze. We did not need a second invitation! We fell to with a vengeance and at the end of a quarter-hour hardly a crumb remained. ...
— My Home In The Field of Honor • Frances Wilson Huard
... alone With his great need, feeling the wondrous coins Slide through his eager fingers, one by one. So then the dream was true. The angel brought One broad piece only; should he take all these? Who would be wiser, in the blind, dumb woods? The loser, doubtless rich, would scarcely miss This dropped crumb from a table always full. Still, while he mused, he seemed to hear the cry Of a starved child; the sick face of his wife Tempted him. Heart and flesh in fierce revolt Urged the wild license of his savage youth Against his later scruples. Bitter ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier
... decided on, and Dinah took Flossie and Nan to a little private room at one end of the train, Bert went with his father to the smoking room on the other end, while the mother remained to watch Freddie. The lunch was put up so that each small sandwich could be eaten without a crumb spilling, as the little squares were each wrapped ...
— The Bobbsey Twins in the Country • Laura Lee Hope
... Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, humorously observed, that Levett used to breakfast on the crust of a roll, which Johnson, after tearing out the crumb for himself, threw to his humble friend. BOSWELL. Perhaps the word threw is here too strong. Dr. Johnson never treated Levett with contempt. MALONE. Hawkins (Life, p. 398) says that 'Dr. Johnson frequently observed that ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 3 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill
... shall know of this, and I believe will do something to improve it. Meanwhile, here is a little basket of food cooked by our old Nancy. You always praised Nancy's cooking when you came to 'The Hall' in the old days, so you are under obligations to eat every crumb of it, even if it isn't as ...
— Rodney, the Ranger - With Daniel Morgan on Trail and Battlefield • John V. Lane
... Danes are a scurvy breed. They birth dwarfs, not men. Of what use is this thing? He will never make a man. Listen you, Lingaard, grow him to be a drink-boy at Brunanbuhr. And have an eye on the dogs lest they slobber him down by mistake as a meat-crumb ...
— The Jacket (The Star-Rover) • Jack London
... summer long, Now found winter stinging, And ceased in his song. Not a morsel or crumb in his cupboard— So he shivered, ...
— Fables in Rhyme for Little Folks - From the French of La Fontaine • Jean de La Fontaine
... rich and prosperous but to the multi-millionaire—if I can find him—who does not even know the size of his income. I have no time to waste on the man who is simply earning enough to live quietly and educate his family. He cannot throw anything worth while in my direction; but a single crumb from the magnate's table may net me twenty or thirty thousand dollars. Thus, not only for social but for business reasons, successful men affiliate habitually only with rich people. I concede that is a rather sordid admission, but it is ...
— The "Goldfish" • Arthur Train
... and weary, did need it. She thought she could not swallow a crumb; but she was mistaken. The tea was delicious; for Mrs Stirling was a judge of tea, and would tolerate ...
— The Orphans of Glen Elder • Margaret Murray Robertson
... with. I've got an eye to wink with. I've lots of teeth to eat with, A brand new hat to bow with, A pair of fists to beat with, A rage to have a row with. No joy it brings To have indeed A lot of things One does not need. Observe my doleful-plight. For here am I without a crumb To satisfy a raging ...
— The Magic Pudding • Norman Lindsay
... very last crumb is done for," declared Judith, emphatically, putting down her parcels on the dressing-room couch. "You may not ...
— Miss Pat at School • Pemberton Ginther
... the pressure of public opinion. A proof: his message to Congress about emancipation in the Border States. Crumb No. 1 thrown—reluctantly I am sure—to the noble appetite of freemen. I hope history will not credit Mr. ...
— Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862 • Adam Gurowski
... Seasons is full of beauty, and there is a delightful poem on The Building of St. Sophia, which tells how the design of that noble building was suggested by the golden honeycomb of a bee which had flown from the king's palace with a crumb of blessed bread that had fallen from the king's hands. The story is still to be found ...
— Reviews • Oscar Wilde
... the cap down, nibbled at it, then passed it to another small sister and said, "Eat of this fruit, for it is good." The Reverend took in the situation—alas, they were playing the Expulsion from Eden! Yet he found one little crumb of comfort. He said to himself, "For once Jimmy has yielded the chief role—I have been wronging him, I did not believe there was so much modesty in him; I should have expected him to be either Adam or Eve." This ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... press many hands. I warm myself at the bivouac fire. The Quartermaster has brought me a half flask of champagne. There's red wine for the men in the baggage division. It has already been mulled. A plate of rice soup. The earth-crumb is still sticking to my lips. I swallow it down with the first draught of foaming wine: "I greet thee, Life! I greet thee, Earth!" And comrades come up and are glad to see ...
— Current History, A Monthly Magazine - The European War, March 1915 • New York Times
... didn't though!" cried Billy, triumphantly; "it pushed them towards the old blind rat. Neither the black un nor the spotted un ate up one crumb; they left 'em all for the poor blind rat! Now wasn't them ...
— The Rambles of a Rat • A. L. O. E.
... "have had enough, I think." As for Little John and the Tanner, they had by this time eaten every crumb of ...
— The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood • Howard Pyle
... found it consisted only of coffee and two small cakes called "roskears" for each of us; and we were told they had nothing else to offer us. So, munching our dry roskears, we mumbled over them as long as we could, and did not waste a crumb, wondering how our host got so fat on such fare. We were as hungry when we finished as when we began, and soon laid down on our hard couches to forget our ...
— The Naturalist in Nicaragua • Thomas Belt
... children except old Johnny Keogh, who was so bothered and deaf that he grasped new situations slowly and feebly, and had now an impression of somebody's house being on fire. "He must ha' took off wid himself the instiant me back was turned, for ne'er a crumb had ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 4 • Charles Dudley Warner
... fresh, and the herrings so good that Stanor ran across the road for more, and we made time with bread and butter until they were cooked. And we gave not a thought to the motor; it was only when the sixth plate of bread and butter had been eaten to a crumb that we remembered the miles between us and the nearest station. Five or six it was, nothing to trouble ordinary people, even if they would have preferred a comfortable car, but there was Honor! She had slipped off her shoe under the table, and when she tried to put ...
— The Love Affairs of Pixie • Mrs George de Horne Vaizey
... kitchen to see to something, then returning, pouring a cup of tea, passing some article of food, then disappearing again. It had grown on her, the belief that she must be everywhere or something would go wrong. It did annoy Chilian. And no one hustled up the dishes when you had eaten the last crumb of cake. He liked ...
— A Little Girl in Old Salem • Amanda Minnie Douglas
... appropriated to devotion, and there one might hear the voice of supplication from morning till night. Many spent several hours a day in this holy employment; and one needed only to listen to know that their prayers came from the depths of the soul. At one time, they beg that the dog may have a single crumb from the table of his master; again, they are smiting on their breasts by the side of the publican. Now they are prodigals—hungry, naked, and far from their Father's house; and now they sink in the sea, crying, ...
— Woman And Her Saviour In Persia • A Returned Missionary
... don't know anything these days except that I'm down—down; down in the mire, deep!" It was the end, the last crumb of confidence, and Armstrong leaped to his feet. "But what's the use of dissecting any more, what possible use?" His hat was in his hand and he was heading for the door. "It's all simply maddening, and I'm a fool, a visionary fool, who can't change myself or alter events; powerless—" He ...
— The Dominant Dollar • Will Lillibridge
... and I was made captive, having of my family only one poor wounded babe left. I was led from the town where my captors halted to gaze on the burning houses. Down I must sit in the snow, with my sick child, the picture of death in my lap. Not the least crumb of refreshment came within our mouths from Wednesday night until Sunday night except a little ...
— The Real America in Romance, Volume 6; A Century Too Soon (A Story - of Bacon's Rebellion) • John R. Musick
... crumb of comfort Cora's hungry heart seized greedily. The little pink-cheeked one helped out the sad meal. She knew nothing of the long trail upon which her hero was about to set foot, and took possession of the conversation by telling ...
— The Eagle's Heart • Hamlin Garland |
