"Mum" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... man and wife; Strange are th' effects, the qualities divine, 'Tis water called, but worth its weight in wine. If in his sullen airs Sir John should come, Three spoonfuls take, hold in your mouth—then mum: Smile, and look pleased, when he shall rage and scold, Still in your mouth the healing cordial hold; One month this sympathetic medecine tried, He'll grow a lover, you a happy bride. But, dearest niece, keep this grand secret ...
— The Tatler, Volume 1, 1899 • George A. Aitken
... Sir Feeb. Mum—no words on't, unless you'll have the Ghost about your Ears; part with your Wife, I say, or else the Devil will ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. III • Aphra Behn
... answered Mr. Softly Bishop. "But before we go any further I'd perhaps better tell you a secret." His voice and his gaze dropped still lower. "She's a particularly fine girl, and it won't be my fault if I don't marry her. Not a word of course! Mum!" He turned away, while Mr. Prohack was devising ...
— Mr. Prohack • E. Arnold Bennett
... "No, mum," he replied. "It's yours all right. I found it at the shore where a freightin' team left it. I don't generally carry such things. But says I to myself, 'That's fer Widder Bean, and she's goin' to have it to-night if Tim Harking knows anything.' ...
— Under Sealed Orders • H. A. Cody
... a letter until tomorrow, maybe," objected Don. "One of us had better beat it over to his place as soon as possible and ask him to keep mum." ...
— Left Guard Gilbert • Ralph Henry Barbour
... have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word how to know one another: I come to her 5 in white, and cry, 'mum;' she cries 'budget;' and by that we know ...
— The Merry Wives of Windsor - The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] • William Shakespeare
... suppose it will be best to keep mum about it. I'll go home with you, you might fall into the hands of the ...
— The Garies and Their Friends • Frank J. Webb
... sit down, an I'll perceed ter divest myself uv w'at little information I've got stored up in my noddle. Ye see, mum, my name's Walsingham Nix, at yer sarvice—Walsingham bein' my great, great grandad's fronticepiece, while Nix war ther hind-wheeler, like nor w'at a he-mule ar' w'en hitched ter a 'schooner.' Ther Nix family were a great one, bet yer false teeth; originated about ther ...
— Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road - or, The Black Rider of the Black Hills • Edward L. Wheeler
... "Oh mum, your eyes will be so red to-morrow," remonstrated Pauline, coming into the room with another dainty little box, newly-arrived from the nearest railway-station, and surprising her mistress in tears. "Do have some red lavender. Or let me make ...
— Vixen, Volume II. • M. E. Braddon
... mystery as his tip-toe movement, "a great deal is being done—but in the strictest secrecy! Most important investigations, my dear!—the police, the detective police, you know. The word at present—to put it into one word, vulgar, but expressive—the word is 'Mum'! Silence, my dear—the policy of the mole—underground working, you know. From what I am aware of, and from what our good friend Halfpenny tells me, and believes, I gather that a result will be attained which will ...
— The Herapath Property • J. S. Fletcher
... one who suspects the real truth. If it came to be generally known all human motives would be lacking, all human activities would be paralyzed—the whole world would come to a standstill. Mum's the word. For if the problem is insoluble and meant to be, just as sure is it that we were not intended to ...
— Under the Skylights • Henry Blake Fuller
... white whisky, thinkin' it was water. The old feller was temp'rence, an' the boys put up a job on him one hot day at gen'ral trainin'. Somebody ast him afterwuds how it made him feel, an' he said he felt as if he was sittin' straddle the meetin' house, an' ev'ry shingle was a Jew's-harp. So I kep' mum fer a while. But jest before we fin'ly got through, an' I hadn't said nothin' fer a spell, Mis' Price turned to me an' says, 'Did you have a ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott
... exception of those who used to slink off during such discussions; and swore that they would not any more submit to being ruled by Jackson. But when the time came to make good their oaths, they were mum again, and let every thing go on the old way; so that those who had put them up to it, had to bear all the brunt of Jackson's wrath by themselves. And though these last would stick up a little at ...
— Redburn. His First Voyage • Herman Melville
... can well comprehend the husband's caution, with the necessity of compliance; and the two retire to rest, in the midst of their black olive branches, with a mutual promise to be "mum." ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid
... further orders from mum superiors, and put his legionnaires to work on bigger and better gun emplacements, trenches and pillboxes surrounding Fort Laperinne ...
— Border, Breed Nor Birth • Dallas McCord Reynolds
... time enough for that. I've a little account with you in horses, I know; but that's between you and me, you know—mum. ...
— The Parent's Assistant • Maria Edgeworth
... let up he remained convinced that "Da" had done a dreadful thing. Though he did not wish to bear witness against her, he had been compelled, by fear of repetition, to seek his mother and say: "Mum, don't let 'Da' hold me down ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... I'll wager you would. Well, now—come closer. Mum's the word, eh? I like you, Harry Brooks; and the boys in this town "—he broke off and cursed horribly—"they're not fit to carry slops to a bear, not one of 'em. But you're different. And, see here: any time you're in trouble, just pay a call on me. Understand? ...
— Poison Island • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)
... wanted to come to its mammy, and gave its sister the slip, and came toddling across the line. And he looked up sudden, at the sound of the train coming, and seed the child, and he darted on the line and cotched it up, and his foot slipped, and the train came over him in no time. O Lord, Lord! Mum, it's quite true, and they've come over to tell his daughters. The child's safe, though, with only a bang on its shoulder as he threw it to its mammy. Poor Captain would be glad of that, mum, wouldn't ...
— Cranford • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... "Which, if you please, mum," said Martha, interrupting her excitedly, "we won't talk about a place—it is utterly useless, and I might be forgettin' myself; but I never thought," she continued, brushing away a hasty tear, "as it was Master Guy, meaning my lord, as ...
— The Cryptogram - A Novel • James De Mille
... replied Lisbeth very seriously. "You see, child, he had never seen any women but the washed out, pale things they all are in the north, and a slender, brown, youthful thing like me warmed his heart.—But, mum; you promised, you know!" ...
— Poor Relations • Honore de Balzac
... Haven't I always been in practice? Ain't I mum to what all the fine gentlemen say about the bouquets, ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Love in '76 - An Incident of the Revolution • Oliver Bell Bunce
... Pleas I yode tho, {81} Where sat one with a silken hood; I did him reverence, for I ought to do so, And told my case as well as I could, How my goods were defrauded me by falsehood. I got not a mum of his mouth for my meed, And for lack of Money I might ...
— Playful Poems • Henry Morley
... speak. I try to rouse him up a bit, and I think he likes having me with him, but still he's as gloomy and as dull as can be. 'T was only yesterday he took me to the works, and you'd ha' thought us two Quakers as the spirit hadn't moved, all the way down we were so mum. It's a place to craze a man, certainly; such a noisy black hole! There were one or two things worth looking at, the bellows for instance, or the gale they called a bellows. I could ha' stood near it a whole day; ...
— Mary Barton • Elizabeth Gaskell
... the she-guide, seating herself, "if I'd stayed an old maid as long as that, I think I'd stuck it out. But perhaps you was a widow, mum?" ...
— The Associate Hermits • Frank R. Stockton
... 'Lor, mum,' said the apothecary, 'his brain ain't in working order just at present, and as for his spirit apart from his body, that's an unknown quantity we scientific ...
— A Dozen Ways Of Love • Lily Dougall
... long-haired scout; "I have been stationed here, as marshal of the town, to warn people away from the place. You take my advice and go to the creek and plunge in with all your clothes and play for an hour in the water, then dry yourself, go back to camp, and keep mum!" This was the year of the cholera. It started somewhere down south, and many people died from it in the city of St. Louis, and it followed the railway through Kansas to the end of the track. Many soldiers died also at Fort Harker, which was farther ...
— Tales of Aztlan • George Hartmann
... his peace, and his disgrace will be the less: what! shall we proclaim where we were furnish'd? Mum! mum! a'peace! ...
— In The Yule-Log Glow, Vol. IV (of IV) • Harrison S. Morris
... followed a pleasant dreamy consciousness of warmth which had brought with it realisation of the fact that previously she had been feeling terribly cold. Then voices again—notably Maria's this time: "She'll do now, Mrs. Hilyard, mum. 'Tis only warmth ...
— The Vision of Desire • Margaret Pedler
... please, mum," said a servant, entering, "the back yard is that full of water that our kitchen will be flooded if ...
— Leslie Ross: - or, Fond of a Lark • Charles Bruce
... 15 minutes was a medley of questions, of explanations, of promises to keep mum and of expressions of heartfelt thanks from the young couple. The professor was the only one who thought it incumbent to scold them for a silly prank and to point out the serious danger in which they had been involved. It sobered them, and at the same time it made them realize what a tremendous ...
— The Mermaid of Druid Lake and Other Stories • Charles Weathers Bump
... at his poor old breast With his great round stone to subdue the flesh, You snap me of the sudden. Ah, I see! 75 Though your eye twinkles still, you shake your head— Mine's shaved—a monk, you say—the sting's in that! If Master Cosimo announced himself, Mum's the word naturally; but a monk! Come, what am I a beast for? tell us, now! 80 I was a baby when my mother died And father died and left me in the street. I starved there, God knows how, a year or two On fig-skins, melon-parings, ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning
... when he was carrying you, bent down like he was, with that queer shako of his. When I was behind he looked something like a bear, and I couldn't help having a good grin. Mum, though; ...
— !Tention - A Story of Boy-Life during the Peninsular War • George Manville Fenn
... de Valois," she replied; "his mother is always telling me he has so much mind, and yet he can't say two words; he stands planted before me as mum ...
— The Jealousies of a Country Town • Honore de Balzac
... he howled, springing from the rail, and recovering his wits instantly. "Beg pardon, mum, but you took me aback all standin' as the saying is. Christopher, didn't that ...
— The Stowaway Girl • Louis Tracy
... so mum about, bless ye!" said Sir Jeoffry. "And that is not a thing to be hid long. He is to be shortly married, they say. My lady, his mother, has found him a great fortune in a new beauty but just come to town. She hath great estates in the West Indies, ...
— A Lady of Quality • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... fire, mum," said Joseph, "in a minute. None of us would mind the trouble, seeing as it's only for once, and ...
— A Country Gentleman and his Family • Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
... to take the initiative by dropping my gloves, or pretending I couldn't pull up the window, or any other little lady-like manoeuvre which lays the foundation of a temporary intimacy, and often furnishes one with an agreeable hour's conversation. I can not see why one should sit "mum" opposite the same person for miles, merely because one ...
— Kate Coventry - An Autobiography • G. J. Whyte-Melville
... "Keep mum," he said, with a very wise shake of the head "I only wanted to have some fun with them folks above us. I swar, I'll bet the whisky they thought I was scared!" Great ...
— The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 1 • Charles Farrar Browne
... you every where! Nor play with costarmongers, at mum-chance, tray-trip, God make you rich; (when as your aunt has done it); But keep The gallant'st ...
— The Alchemist • Ben Jonson
... period of her narrative the gentlemen came into the drawing-room. "But here comes Sir Benjamin! mum, mum! not a word more for my life! You understand, Lady Cecilia! husbands must be minded. And let me whisper a favour—a whist-party I must beg; nothing keeps Sir Ben in good-humour so certainly as whist—when ...
— Helen • Maria Edgeworth
... to sing, O! [SHE] Sing me your song, O! [HE] It is sung to the moon By a love-lorn loon, Who fled from the mocking throng, O! It's the song of a merryman, moping mum, Whose soul was sad, whose glance was glum, Who sipped no sup, and who craved no crumb, As he sighed for the love of a ladye. Heighdy! heighdy! Misery me - lackadaydee! He sipped no sup, and he craved no crumb, As he sighed for the love ...
— Songs of a Savoyard • W. S. Gilbert
... 'I've no fault to find with you, mum,' she condescendingly explained to Delia. 'It's not you, nor the children, nor the food. It's the noises at night—screeches outside my door, which sound like a cat, but which I know can't be a cat, ...
— Animal Ghosts - Or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter • Elliott O'Donnell
... getten t' mopes, an' what he wants is his libbaty an' coompany like t' rest on us, wal happen a rat or two 'ud liven him oop. It's low, mum,' says I,'is rats, but it's t' nature of a dog; an' soa's cuttin' round an' meetin' another dog or two an' passin' t' time o' day. an' hevvin' a bit of a turn-up ...
— Soldiers Three • Rudyard Kipling
... wouldn't have me be taking a dinner like that and not thanking you for it," said Julie. "And neither O'Dowd nor I had an inkling! Think of our coming up here Christmas morning and all of you keeping so mum!" ...
— Carl and the Cotton Gin • Sara Ware Bassett
... "Better go in, mum," said the policeman who had spoken to Lydia first. "We must keep together, being so few, and he ain't fit ...
— Cashel Byron's Profession • George Bernard Shaw
... . Just as though she was standing on a precipice and frightened of falling over was her voice like, Mum, Miss Jill—may I call you Miss Jill? It's more familiar-like and—homely, and I know you will excuse me, Miss Jill, if I say that I can't get used to you in those clothes, pretty as they are and becoming to you. It seems to me like fancy-dress, you with a veil over ...
— The Hawk of Egypt • Joan Conquest
... 200 I thought th' hadst scorn'd to budge a step For fear. (Quoth Eccho) Marry guep. Am not I here to take thy part? Then what has quelled thy stubborn heart? Have these bones rattled, and this head 205 So often in thy quarrel bled? Nor did I ever winch or grudge it, For thy dear sake. (Quoth she) Mum budget Think'st thou 'twill not be laid i' th' dish Thou turn'dst thy back? Quoth Eccho, Fish. 210 To run from those t'hast overcome Thus cowardly? Quoth Eccho, Mum. But what a vengeance makes thee fly From me too, as thine enemy? Or if thou hast no thought of me, 215 Nor what ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler
... mum," said the plumber; "but as I was going to say, I don't think I shall have the heart to go down today, but I'll see how the air is ...
— Brownsmith's Boy - A Romance in a Garden • George Manville Fenn
... very kind of you and the colonel, mum," said Nancy, who didn't believe half her mistress was saying, but thought it might be for her interest ...
— The Tin Box - and What it Contained • Horatio Alger
... said the little man. "Good evening, mum! Good evening, Tilly! Good evening, Unbeknown! How's Baby, mum? Boxer's pretty ...
— The Cricket on the Hearth • Charles Dickens
... "Mum's the word with me," answered Lawrence, looking very sagacious; "I love not the priest more than you do, for I believe he would not scruple to stick a dagger in the back of his brother if that brother stood in the way of any object ...
— Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships - A Story of the Last Naval War • W.H.G. Kingston
... beating about the bush, the little "job" is arranged amicably, on the practical basis of "a fiver each, and mum's the word on both sides," thus evading the law, saving the Builder a few pounds, and supplementing the salary of the Surveyor. Ulterior results, unsanitary or otherwise, do not come within the compass ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., October 11, 1890 • Various
... at a little thing like me. Can't think why. Come, now, don't look so demure. We aren't all plaister saints like you. I'm not, in spite of my Madonna face. Wasn't that the truth? The Marchesa story is for the gallery. But you and I are behind the scenes. Mum's the word. But wasn't that why Carstairs was hanging about the house after everyone else had gone just for the same reason that I was—to get a word with ...
— Prisoners - Fast Bound In Misery And Iron • Mary Cholmondeley
... move that ere pail, mum, or you'll tumble over it," said the charwoman to Mrs. Colston, "and p'r'aps you won't mind steppin' on this side of the passage, 'cause that side's all wet. 'Ere, Mrs. Furze, don't you come no further, I'll open the front door"; and ...
— Catharine Furze • Mark Rutherford
... easy," said the cheerful soldier, "mum's the word. But, Miss Flora, tell me this: How on earth did ...
— Kincaid's Battery • George W. Cable
... if they had not been such inveterate home letter-writers—a habit of which we were very contemptuous—it would have saved us boys much good-humoured teasing afterwards, for the matron would have been mum and no one ...
— A Labrador Doctor - The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell
... mortal on the face of the earth." "What dost say, D'Aubigne?" asked La Force, half asleep. "He says," repeated the King of Navarre, who had heard all, that I am a regular miser, and the most ungrateful mortal on the face of the earth." D'Aubigne, somewhat disconcerted, was mum. "But," he adds, "when daylight appeared, this prince, who liked neither rewarding nor punishing, did not for all that look any the more black at me, or give me a quarter-crown more." Thirty years ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume V. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... said, "there's a cashmere for you! Feel it between your finger and thumb, Mrs. Bell, mum, there's substance, there's quality. It would make up lovely. Shall I cut a length a-piece for the ...
— The Honorable Miss - A Story of an Old-Fashioned Town • L. T. Meade
... be mum when the occasion needs. Can you tell me farther, when the bands now gathering are likely to ...
— Winning His Spurs - A Tale of the Crusades • George Alfred Henty
... the largest of the five, and forms the prominence in the front of the neck, called Po'mum A-da'mi, (Adam's apple.) It is composed of two parts, and is connected with the bone of the tongue above, and with the cricoid ...
— A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) • Calvin Cutter
... dickens are you? That's what licks me. Who the dickens are you? Howsomever, if you'll fork out another quid, the Queen of the Jokes'll tell you some'ink to your awantage, an' if you won't fork out the Queen o' the Jokes is mum.' ...
— Aylwin • Theodore Watts-Dunton
... son, doctors and nurses, were silent around him. And as Death put the last cold touch on the once passionate heart, it found him still clasping the book of the mighty magician. * Let it be also noted that no Christian priest was at his bedside. He needed not the mum-lings of a smaller soul to aid him in his last extremity. Hope he may have had, but no fear. His life ended like a long summer day, slowly ...
— Flowers of Freethought - (First Series) • George W. Foote
... mum," answered the coachman "he never once left the heels of my horses. He must have been trained to it. He's a powerful beast, and two men couldn't scare him. Look at the ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue
... "Mum!" said Peter. "I forgot; but don't it look as if the river was boiling hot and the steam rising, and the fire that hots it was shining up through the cloud? I say, nobody could hear me say that," ...
— Trapped by Malays - A Tale of Bayonet and Kris • George Manville Fenn
... am, mum. Nobody could wish for a better place. I'm sure I've no fault to find. But it's like as ...
— The Price of Love • Arnold Bennett
... we ask of you, Colon," Bristles suggested, "is that you stick mum. Let Fred run the thing. If he wants any help, he'll tell us, ...
— Fred Fenton Marathon Runner - The Great Race at Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... sitting at her sewing, some one knocked at the door, and who should come in, but the fat cook, with a great goose, fatter than she was; who cried out: 'Only see what a big goost, mum; and only you and Miss Edith to eat it; besides a beef-steak to brile, ...
— The Little Nightcap Letters. • Frances Elizabeth Barrow
... dinner crowd boarded an up-town car, our man paid fare to the same conductor. He wired me from the Hotel Brunswick a few minutes ago. There is some sort of a caucus going on in Hendricks' office in the capitol, and mum-messengers are flying ...
— The Grafters • Francis Lynde
... to Mount Wilson, fellows. Don't forget that," he warned his passengers. "Stick to it. If they got our number back there we can bluff them into thinking they got it wrong. I'll let yuh out here and you can walk home. Mum's ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower
... "It's mum with me so long as I see you living on the straight," said the captain. "But, by the Lord! if you get off after this, it's another story! So good-night to you—and ...
— The Valley of Fear • Arthur Conan Doyle
... blistered to death. A passel of us is sorter pervadin' 'round the dance-hall, it bein' the biggest an' coolest store in camp. A monte game is strugglin' for breath in a feeble, fitful way in the corner, an' some of us is a-watchin'; an' some a-settin' 'round loose a- thinkin'; but all keepin' mum an' still, 'cause ...
— Wolfville • Alfred Henry Lewis
... explained confidentially, "a cousin of mine who was in command came in to see me and say good-by, just after I'd received my orders from the head of my department to come out here on the next steamer, and he smuggled me on board that night. Mum's the word, though, if you please. We asked nobody's leave. It would have taken about a month to have heard anything definite from ...
— The Pawns Count • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... dear to give her exercise. I am her nurse. She mustn't walk too far. No, thank you, mum, I'll carry the 'andkerchers 'ome myself; I won't trouble yer to send them to Portland Mansions.—Now, come along, my dear; we mustn't waste our time in this 'ot shop. We must be hout, ...
— Sue, A Little Heroine • L. T. Meade
... about her all the afternoon and made her very tender and forgiving when the little parlourmaid arrived with a piece of the blue and white china smashed to atoms. "I can't think 'ow it 'appened, Mum. I was ...
— Fortitude • Hugh Walpole
... her dream to a consciousness that the gentleman beside her was saying that it was sufficiently clear to every enlightened understanding that unless tum tum tum tum measures were instantly adopted mum mum mum mum would ...
— An Algonquin Maiden - A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada • G. Mercer Adam
... beat hell how a little thing will change a man like that? Now Jim's as cheerful as anything instead o' mum as a bat. An' the reason? Why, it's easy! A guy is bound to fail Of bein' a proper soldier if he don't ...
— The Stars & Stripes, Vol 1, No 1, February 8, 1918, - The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919 • American Expeditionary Forces
... the matter with my hair, mum?" Puppet stopped playing, and ran her hands through the yellow mass ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various
... wid yez! Wud I be workin' for the likes of a child like that? No, mum, I ain't no nurse; I'm a cook, and I want a mistress as has got past ...
— Patty at Home • Carolyn Wells
... girls?" inquired Mabel curiously. "When four of the liveliest girls in school become mum as the proverbial oyster, surely something ...
— Grace Harlowe's Senior Year at High School - or The Parting of the Ways • Jessie Graham Flower
... would be pleased. I've had half a mind once or twice to let the cat out of the bag, because I guessed it would be the sort of thing that would take your fancy; but somehow I've kept mum, for fear I might be taken before I'd been able to make a will. And then, too, I've been of several minds as to the form of my gift. I thought it would suit me best of all to found a college, and I was disappointed when I learned that neighbor Flagg had got the start of me with his seminary ...
— Unleavened Bread • Robert Grant
... who have we here? Our prodigal son returned, with his pockets full of nuggets from the diggings. Oh, mum's the word, is it?" as Tom laid his finger on his lips. "Come here, then, and let's have a look at you!" and he catches both Tom's hands in his, and almost shakes them off. "I knew you were coming, old boy! Mary told me—she's in all the old man's secrets. Come along, Mary, ...
— Two Years Ago, Volume II. • Charles Kingsley
... from his heart. And so he took an interest in the pale-faced little girl whom he never saw romping, or running, whose voice he hardly ever heard, who had no little friend of her own age, who was always alone, mum, quietly amusing herself with lifeless toys, a doll or a block of wood, while her lips moved as she whispered some story to herself. She was affectionate and a little offhanded in manner: there was a foreign and uneasy ...
— Jean Christophe: In Paris - The Market-Place, Antoinette, The House • Romain Rolland
... never been classified," retorted Ellen grimly. "She's neither fish, flesh nor fowl. She's taught school; laid out the dead; an' done the Lord only knows what durin' her lifetime. She can turn her hand to most anything; an' they do say she's mum as an oyster, which is a virtue out of the ...
— The Wall Between • Sara Ware Bassett
... age. Macaulay said, "There is scarce an instance in history of so sudden a rise to so dizzy an eminence as Byron reached." In a few years he stood by the side of such men as Scott, Southey and Campbell. Many an orator like "stuttering Jack Curran," or "Orator Mum," as he was once called, has been spurred into eloquence ...
— How to Succeed - or, Stepping-Stones to Fame and Fortune • Orison Swett Marden
... tongues. Well, since you've acted so handsome about that there pig, what's to be named for Stokes, I don't mind if I tells you something. Only mum's the word." ...
— New Treasure Seekers - or, The Bastable Children in Search of a Fortune • E. (Edith) Nesbit
... right, Frank, boy. No need of going into particulars, but—you know right enough. Mum's the word. Take ...
— The Boys of Bellwood School • Frank V. Webster
... gas. On the other hand, when her mistress told her to 'look to the fire' of a certain room, I contend we had a right to expect that that fire should be kept in. It was not so, however, and when the lady inquired, 'Why did you not look to it, as I told you?' the girl replied, 'Well, I did, mum; the door was open and I looked at the fire every time I passed.' She appeared to attach some sort of igneous ...
— Some Private Views • James Payn
... sense of excitement flickers through such autumn twilights. Boys herded in little troops on wickedness intent. Whooping and whistling to disarm their elders' suspicion until the evil deed should be fairly within reach, then mum as mice, stealthily vanishing, becoming part and parcel of the earth, the hedge, the harsh dusky grasses of the sand-hills, the ...
— Deadham Hard • Lucas Malet
... young lady; and I should probably have taken no notice of Mr. Pickup, if it had not occurred to me that the old wretch must know her father's name and address. I at once put the question. The Jew grinned, and shook his grisly head. "Her father'sh in difficultiesh, and mum's the word, my dear." To that answer he adhered, in spite of all that ...
— A Rogue's Life • Wilkie Collins
... trow the bauldest stood aback, Wi' a gape an' a glow'r till their lugs did crack, As the shapeless phantom mum'ling spak, Hae ye ...
— Spare Hours • John Brown
... broached, I don't mind giving you an account of the most dangerous expedition that I ever undertook; but mum is the word, for if that d——d Brown should get hold of me, I should have to ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes
... front door to "show in" a visitor was in itself so subversive of the fundamental order of things that it had thrown her faculties into hopeless disarray, and she could only stammer out, after various panting efforts at evocation, "His hat, mum, was ...
— The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Part 2 (of 10) • Edith Wharton
... school life. His letters at this date are very ordinary; his early precocity seemed, rather to the delight of his parents, to have vanished. He was not a prig, though rather exclusive; not ungenial, though retiring. "A dreadful boy," he writes of himself, "who is as mum as a mouse with his elders, and then makes his school friends roar with laughter in the passage: dumb at ...
— Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton, B. A. Of Trinity College, Cambridge • Arthur Christopher Benson
... when we first visit Miss Honeyman's a gentleman had just applied there for rooms. "Please to speak to mistress," says Hannah, the maid, opening the parlour door with a curtsey. "A gentleman about the apartments, mum." ...
— Boys and girls from Thackeray • Kate Dickinson Sweetser
... Undaunted be th' stairs iv th' building or th' rude jeers iv th' multichood, they advanced to th' very outside dures iv th' idifice. There an overwhelmin' force iv three polismen opposed thim. 'What d'ye want, mum?' asked the polls. 'We demand th' suffrage,' says th' commander iv ...
— Mr. Dooley Says • Finley Dunne
... some little event which happens at the preacher's own gate, or which falls under his peculiar cognizance. Once, you may remember, we discoursed about a chalk-mark on the door. This morning Betsy, the housemaid, comes with a frightened look, and says, "Law, mum! there's three bricks taken out of the garden wall, and the branches broke, and all the pears taken off the pear-tree!" Poor peaceful suburban pear-tree! Gaol-birds have hopped about thy branches, and robbed them of ...
— Roundabout Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray
... his pockets). Sixpence? Sixpence, Mary? Bless your wee heart. Here. Here's a two shilling bit. But Mary, mum's the word. Don't tell John I ...
— The Drone - A Play in Three Acts • Rutherford Mayne
... changed on the sudden In my opinion——Mum! my passion is great! I fry like a burnt marrowbone—Come nearer, rascal. And now I view him better, did you e'er see One look so like an arch knave? his very countenance, Should an understanding judge but look upon him, Would hang ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810 • Various
... skipper, "get away. And it's understood that mum's the word; but mind you're not through the wood yet. What ...
— Looking Seaward Again • Walter Runciman
... "Mum! Dorothy's just behind us and she has ears all round her head! But we'll do it, yet; either with or without him. It'll be rippin' fun, but if that girl gets wind of it she'll stop ...
— Dorothy on a Ranch • Evelyn Raymond
... "Yes, mum," answered the lad promptly. "Sarah told me as how the good gentleman allers went away sharp at nine o'clock, and so I comes up as the ...
— Bob Strong's Holidays - Adrift in the Channel • John Conroy Hutcheson
... mum,' I made bold to say, thinking to take her down a peg. But, lor'! she didn't care a rush for that, but 'Which o' my husbands?' says she, and laughed fit to bust, and poked the horse-dealer in the side. He looked as if he'd like to throttle her, but she didn't mind that neither. 'What for ...
— The Nebuly Coat • John Meade Falkner
... take particular heed of what you have said, and will be mum as a mouse, until we ...
— At the Point of the Bayonet - A Tale of the Mahratta War • G. A. Henty
... going to be shut up here for goodness knows how long. And they say there are seven fellows down with it in the hospital now. What do you suppose they will do if it gets to be an epidemic in the school? I saw old Nealum just now, and he was mum as an oyster: looked bad, because he always loves to give out information, you know. We are to go to chapel in half an hour for instructions and new rules. Wish they would send us home! I don't ...
— Battling the Clouds - or, For a Comrade's Honor • Captain Frank Cobb
... expression on his face that made him look like papa. "'Twould take a bigger man than you are to do that, Jack," he said, with a faint smile, adding slowly, "but I'll tell you what you can do,—you can keep mum about this; and now help me upstairs, like a good boy: I'm almost too tired to put one foot after the other." Then, as he rose and slowly straightened himself up, he said, "After all, Phil's only gone for a walk, you know, Jack; he'll be home pretty soon, you may ...
— We Ten - Or, The Story of the Roses • Lyda Farrington Kraus
... you!" sighed Dona dolefully. "You've been at a boarding-school before, and I haven't; and you are not shy, and you always get on with people. You know I'm a mum mouse, and I hate strangers. I shall just endure till the holidays come. It's no use telling me to brace up, for there's ...
— A Patriotic Schoolgirl • Angela Brazil
... from malted wheat instead of barley, known as "Mumme"—heavy, unpalatable stuff. If any one will take the trouble to consult Whitaker's Almanac, and turn to "Customs Tariff of the United Kingdom," they will find the very first article on the list is "Mum." "Berlin white beer" follows this. One of the few occasions when I have ever known Mr. Gladstone nonplussed for an answer, was in a debate on the Budget (I think in 1886) on a proposed increase of excise ...
— The Days Before Yesterday • Lord Frederick Hamilton
... yours by rights. And, look you, mum's the word in this case, for two reasons: there's danger that the poor little fellow there is going to croak before long, and you'd be sorry to think you'd given trouble to a dead man; and what's more, if ...
— Atlantic Monthly Vol. 6, No. 33, July, 1860 • Various
... missed connection at Savannah, and our Nations did not arrive until after supper. It used to be said by certain scoffers that if a discussion of political questions came up in the afternoon of one of those days of disappointment, we readers were mum; but in the late evening, after having digested our political pabulum, we were ready to join issue with any antagonist. Indeed, each of us might have used the words of James Russell Lowell, written while he was traveling on the Continent ...
— Historical Essays • James Ford Rhodes
... mut'ter mur'mur fru'gal tu'mor rud'der tur'ban tru'ly stu'por shut'ter tur'nip tru'ant tu'tor suf'fer tur'key cru'et cu'rate sup'per pur'port bru'in lu'cid mum'my curl'y dru'id stu'dent mus'ket fur'ry ru'in stu'pid num'ber fur'nish ru'by lu'nar nut'meg cur'vet bru'tal ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey
... with my governor, if that's your hope—you should hear him and the mum talking! 'It's all nonsense,' he says; 'I'm not going to annoy my tenants, and make myself unpopular, just to gratify a fashionable cry.' 'Well,' says mumsey, 'it is not what was thought the thing for ladies in my time; but you see, if Gussie goes along with it, ...
— The Three Brides • Charlotte M. Yonge
... wordes but mum My think I heare mast welth cum Knele downe and say sum deuout orison That they may heare vs pray Now Iesu saue ...
— The Interlude of Wealth and Health • Anonymous
... hull reputation for wisdom is built up on lookin' wise and keepin' mum.—Sayings ...
— Rolf In The Woods • Ernest Thompson Seton
... any superior to them," said Elizabeth. But she brought, as she spoke, her eye of fire to bear upon her cousin, who gave way before it and was mum. ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner
... like an epidemical Plague, on all Ranks of Men among us. Even those of the poorer Sort, from a noble Emulation of copying their betters, drink as much Wine as they can; and where their Purses or their Credit will not reach so high, they must have foreign Liquors, tho' they be only Mum or Cyder, Porter or Perry, and seem resolved to shew they are as little afraid of a Jail, as ...
— A Dialogue Between Dean Swift and Tho. Prior, Esq. • Anonymous
... was admitted at once, and announced "a lady to see you, mum," to an elderly lady in black satin and gold spectacles, who was surrounded by several blooming daughters and a young gentleman stretched lazily upon the sofa. Clemence again made known ...
— Clemence - The Schoolmistress of Waveland • Retta Babcock
... hearing it was by losing his hatchet, Ha, ha! said they, was there no more to do but to lose a hatchet to make us rich? Mum for that; 'tis as easy as pissing a bed, and will cost but little. Are then at this time the revolutions of the heavens, the constellations of the firmament, and aspects of the planets such, that whosoever shall lose a hatchet shall immediately ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais
... was the governor's room, and we should be put through our first examination. My head was too stupid to think, and I made up my mind to keep perfectly mum. Yes, even if they tried thumbscrews. I had no kind of story, but I resolved not to give anything away. As I turned the handle I wondered idly what kind of sallow Turk or bulging-necked German we should ...
— Greenmantle • John Buchan
... before her mind's eye a newspaper paragraph: "Roger Peacey, described as a clerk, fined forty shillings for being drunk and disorderly and obstructing the police in the course of their duty...." She had asked quickly, "What is he like? Does he get violent?" The woman had answered: "Oh no, mum; just silly-like," and had laughed, evidently at the recollection of ...
— The Judge • Rebecca West
... going to write about the Americans[861]. If you have picked up any hints among your lawyers, who are great masters of the law of nations, or if your own mind suggests any thing, let me know. But mum, it ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill
... folk." "Nay, if I've heard a tittle, may I choke!" "Will Caesar grant his veterans their estates In Italy, or t'other side of the straits?" I swear that I know nothing, and am dumb: They think me deep, miraculously mum. And so my day between my fingers slips, While fond regrets keep rising to my lips: O my dear homestead in the country! when Shall I behold your pleasant face again; And, studying now, now dozing and at ease, ...
— The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry • Horace
... lighten their burden. The descendants of them folks you driv round can stand here and poke fun at you all day and you've got to keep your mouth shet. Yes," sez he, "you've got to a place now where you can't be yellin' out your orders, you've got to be mum, ...
— Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife • Marietta Holley
... corner on High Street, mum," gasped Maggie. Then, keeping her eyes fixed uneasily on Zoie she picked up her basket and backed cautiously toward ...
— Baby Mine • Margaret Mayo
... get lots o' that sort. It's a good wash they want, both for health and comeliness; and I make 'em take it that way. The powder's nought—it's the wash does it, look you: but they'd never do it if I told 'em so. Mum, now! there's another." ...
— One Snowy Night - Long ago at Oxford • Emily Sarah Holt
... you think I do not know you by your excellent wit? Can virtue hide itself? Go to, mum, you are he: graces will appear, and there's ...
— Much Ado About Nothing • William Shakespeare [Knight edition]
... family (not to speak of its ancient honours) illustrious, by having its younger branch on the throne of England, and having given two empresses to Germany. I have not forgot to drink your health here in mum, which I think very well deserves its reputation of being the best in the world. This letter is the third I have writ to you during my journey; and I declare to you, that if you don't send me immediately a full and true account of all the changes and chances ...
— Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M—y W—y M—e • Lady Mary Wortley Montague
... the pub at the corner, my pal and me, and—(producing notes)—we'll take it off you agen for thirty pounds, and glad o' the charnce. We want it pertikler, we do, and you can 'elp us, and put ten quid in your own pocket too as easy as be blowed. Ah! here he is! Mum's the word! Round the corner by the pub! ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., December 13, 1890 • Various
... he assured her. "Of course I knew what was doing. But I kept mum—didn't want to say anything to you till I could say everything. Mildred, I'm free. We can be married ...
— The Price She Paid • David Graham Phillips
... children, and would not be comforted. "Never," such was his language twenty-eight years after his disaster, "never give up or alter a tittle unless it perfectly coincides with your own inward feelings. I can say this to my sorrow and my cost. But mum!" Soon after these words were written, his life, a life which might have been eminently useful and happy, ended in the same gloom in which, during more than a quarter of a century, it had been passed. We have thought it worth while ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... had just reached him, and he says Armitage was on his (Armitage's) ranch all that summer the noble baron was devastating our northern sea-coast. Where, may I ask, does this leave me? And what cad gave that story to the papers? And where and who is John Armitage? Keep this mum for the present—even from the governor. If Sanderson is right, Armitage will undoubtedly turn up again—he has a weakness for turning up in your neighborhood!—and sooner or later he's bound to settle accounts with Chauvenet. Now that I think of it, who in the devil is he! ...
— The Port of Missing Men • Meredith Nicholson
... say 'must.' But you know what Mum is: if she thinks a thing is for our good, do it she will," ...
— The Terrible Twins • Edgar Jepson
... yes. You were the little clerk who sat so mum in the corner, and then cried fy on the gleeman. What hast in ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle
... likes it best pure naked. I'd be thankful to 'ee, mum, if ye wouldn't call me Mr. Maine; it ...
— North, South and Over the Sea • M.E. Francis (Mrs. Francis Blundell)
... guess I'll talk to her about that part of the story," said Miss Thackeray sagely. "And as you say, mum's the word. We don't want them to get onto the fact that she's here. That's the ...
— Green Fancy • George Barr McCutcheon
... cheatin' all round up at the school! What? In course you ain't saying nice things agin me all over the place—and in course some of us wouldn't like to see you get a reg'lar good hiding, wouldn't we? Bless you, I knows all about it; but I'm mum, never ...
— The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's - A School Story • Talbot Baines Reed
... had throttled her the night she described the scene of the murder! But mum; here comes the prisoner. By Jove! how well he looks! how bravely he bears up against his fate! Does not the sight of that proud pale face ...
— Mark Hurdlestone - Or, The Two Brothers • Susanna Moodie
... and the crazy quilt and the doll-baby with him. John, the servant-man, searched everywhere, but not a trace of them could he find. "They must have all blown away, mum," he said to ...
— The Children's Book of Christmas Stories • Various
... how to begin, Miss Dorothy. I—I'm so flabbergasted by all that's happened this afternoon, mum, that I can't ...
— The Bicyclers and Three Other Farces • John Kendrick Bangs
... De Barry, who had amassed a vast fortune as the American representative of "Mum's Extra Dry," and who had received numerous valuable seeds and shrubs from our generous department, took us on his palatial steamer for hundreds of miles up the lordly St. John's River, where we feasted ...
— The Gentleman from Everywhere • James Henry Foss |
