"Robin" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Tiny; Golden it is, I know: Gold is the air around us, The crocus is gold below; Red as the golden sunset Is robin's breast, on the wing— But, come, come, come, little Tiny, This isn't the half ...
— Our Boys - Entertaining Stories by Popular Authors • Various
... was, of course, Plato himself (427-347 B. C.). It is not possible to give even an outline of Plato's philosophy here. Indeed the time has hardly come for that yet, though much admirable work is now being done, especially by a French professor, M. Robin, which promises more certain conclusions than have yet been possible. All that can be attempted here is to indicate the attitude of Plato to some of the problems we have been discussing. His very great contributions to the theory of knowledge will be passed ...
— The Legacy of Greece • Various
... Elizabeth's Grace danceth right well!" said Bertram sarcastically. "Marry, Robin Falconer, of my Lord's Grace of York's following, which bare hither certain letters this last month, told me they had dances at Court in Epiphany octave, when we rade for our lives from Oxford; and that ...
— The White Rose of Langley - A Story of the Olden Time • Emily Sarah Holt
... blew, and there came a noise of laughter. The child pressed close to her brother's side. "Oh, Robin, maybe 't is ...
— Audrey • Mary Johnston
... "Worst of a', Robin," retorted the Bailie. "I mean ye disloyal traitor—worst of a'! Ye had better stick to your auld trade o' theft-boot and blackmail than ruining nations. And wha the deevil's this?" he continued, ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VIII • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... there was almost as much stone-throwing as there was in Florence in the good old times. There was a great abundance of the finest kind of pebbles, from the size of a robin's egg upward, smooth and shapely, which the boys called rocks. They were always stoning something, birds, or dogs, or mere inanimate marks, but most of the time they were stoning one another. They came out of their houses, or front-yards, and began ...
— A Boy's Town • W. D. Howells
... pints, or wak-Robin, and are found in dry ditches, overgrown with Brambles; they are about the bigness of Pease, and in July and August, are of a lovely transparent Red, and are excellent baits for Roaches, and Chubs; and for the first, two will serve, but for the latter, you may put four or five at a time ...
— The School of Recreation (1696 edition) • Robert Howlett
... me. Out on Long Island there is, in a suburban cemetery, a lovely shaded spot where I sometimes sit by our child's grave. The green hillside slopes gently under the chestnuts, violets and buttercups spring from the sod, and the robin sings its jubilant note in the long June twilights. Halfway down the slope, six or eight green mounds cluster about a granite block in which are hewn ...
— Children of the Tenements • Jacob A. Riis
... home, occupied with literature and art, perfecting their dainty cities; while their tougher neighbors are dominating the globe, imposing their language and customs on the conquered peoples or the earth. One feels this on the Riviera. It reminds you of the cuckoo who, once installed in a robin's nest, that seems to him convenient and warmly located in the sunshine, ends by kicking out all ...
— Worldly Ways and Byways • Eliot Gregory
... chorus of spring, but yet sufficiently to give cheerfulness to the otherwise silent woods. It is a calumny on the feathered tribes of Canada to assert that they have no song; the blackbird can sing when he is inclined, as sweetly as his brother in England, and the Canadian robin's notes are as full of glee as those of his smaller ...
— The Log House by the Lake - A Tale of Canada • William H. G. Kingston
... proposal to mortgage my inheritance for a flying broomstick took no account of the working-model of the whole Rock and Castle of Edinburgh, which I dragged about by an ankle chain. Anon I was pelting with Rowley in a claret-coloured chaise through a cloud of robin-redbreasts; and with that I awoke to the veritable chatter of birds and the white light of dawn upon ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 20 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... was partly gratified, and partly incapable, and underwent a long course of questions about the Duke and the poisoning. Lady Gertrude, whose father seemed to have owned half the coverts in Ireland, had never before heard of such enormity. She suggested a round robin and would not be at all ashamed to put her own name to it. "Oh, for the matter of that," said Spooner, "Chiltern can be round enough himself without any robin." "He can't be too round," said Lady Gertrude, with a very ...
— Phineas Redux • Anthony Trollope
... by ocular demonstration. A case occurred in Williamsburgh, Massachussets, one mile south of the house of public worship, by the way-side, in July last. As I was walking in the road at noon-day, my attention was drawn to the fence by the fluttering and hopping of a robin red-breast, and a cat-bird, which, upon my approach, flew up, and perched on a sapling two or three rods distant; at this instant a large black snake reared his head from the ground near the fence. I immediately stepped back a little, and ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, - Issue 282, November 10, 1827 • Various
... that outlawry took the form of deer killing and robust archery became the national sport. In these days the legendary hero, the demi-myth, Robin Hood, was born. What boy has not thrilled at the tales of Greenwood men, the well-sped shaft, the arrow's low whispering flight, and the willow wand split ...
— Hunting with the Bow and Arrow • Saxton Pope
... very long ever, for he was a busy fellow. But once he swung on a twig for a little while. They saw that he was almost as big as a robin, with head and shoulders of black, the wings black too, and most of his tail. But the rest of his body was like the prettiest orange-coloured velvet they had ever seen. He was singing ...
— Seven O'Clock Stories • Robert Gordon Anderson
... of flowers,' he said Suddenly, 'and she helped me with my garden; it was she who told me to plant roses in that corner, and to cover the wall with rambling robin. Was it not a very pretty idea to cover that end of the garden with ...
— The Lake • George Moore
... will be at the corner watching! I sent them word that I should come to-night: The birds all know it, for they crowd around, Twittering their welcome with a wild delight; And that old robin, with a halting wing— I saved her life, three years ago ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various
... the robin-redbreast and the wren, Since o'er shady groves they hover, And with leaves and flowers do cover The friendless bodies of unburied men. 1066 JOHN WEBSTER: The White Devil, Act v., ...
— Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations • Various
... Matthews, a member of the editorial board of The New York Times (whose articles on Castro as the Robin Hood of Cuba built that communist hoodlum a worldwide reputation and helped him conquer Cuba) spoke to the Council twice, once on "A Political Appraisal of Latin American Affairs," and once ...
— The Invisible Government • Dan Smoot
... morning. Joyce, romping around the lawn chased by Dodo, and much wound up with the cocker spaniel, Robin, did not see George Dalton as he entered her grounds from the front entrance, opposite the park. There was no reason why he should not mount the front steps and ring the doorbell, but a carriage-way led to a side entrance, and he felt certain that the gay laughter he could hear belonged to the ...
— Joyce's Investments - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry
... been pre-arranged in this fashion, without a hint of such an intention having been given to me, that the officers should sign a round-robin to their lieutenant-colonels; the latter should support and forward the petition, together with a letter from themselves; the colonel should then forward this general and irresistible expression of public opinion to me, together with a long epistle from himself, explaining ...
— Ismailia • Samuel W. Baker
... of the cave folk are the following: Perthichoaren, Denbighshire, wherein were found the remains of Platycnemic man—so named from his having sharp shin-bones; Cefn, St. Asaph; Uphill, Somerset; King's Scar and the Victoria Cave, Settle; Robin Hood's Cave and Pinhole Cave, Derbyshire; Black Rock, Caldy Island, Coygan Caves, Pembrokeshire; King Arthur's Cave, Monmouth; Durdham Downs, Bristol; and sundry others, near Oban, in the valleys of the Trent, Dove, and Nore, and of the Irish ...
— English Villages • P. H. Ditchfield
... others—Specimens of Early Printing, comprising Twenty Leaves of the Ballad of Robin Hood, &c. &c., taken from the cover of ...
— The Book-Collector • William Carew Hazlitt
... peg in the wall, lifted a cedar waterpail from a shelf supported by other long pegs, poured its contents into a large cast-iron teakettle swinging over the fire, and whisked out of the door. Presently the notes of her hymn mingled in plaintive harmony with the sparkling but no sweeter song of a robin redbreast, twittering his delight in the warm sunshine amid the crimson apples of the ...
— The Red Acorn • John McElroy
... be Friar Tuck or Much the miller's son, and lam me with a quarter-staff; or I'll be the Sheriff of Nottingham and you be Robin Hood a little ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... be supposed, however, that Hastings ventured to rob the palace of Fyzabad as a robber of the Robin Hood order. Up to the time of his wanting money for the Carnatic war, he had protected the mother and wife of Sujah Dowla, and had even written to Middleton, commanding him to take active measures for preventing Asoff-ul-Dowla from plundering them; asserting ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... my lord was all disordered with hard riding, and nearly as spent as his poor beast below. And her Grace had her arm round his neck, for I saw them through the chink; and she fondled and pinched his ear, and said over and over again, 'Robin, my sweet Robin,' and then crooned and moaned at him; and he, whenever he could fetch a breath—and oh! I promise you he did blow—murmured back, calling her his queen, which indeed she was, and his sweetheart and his moon and his star—which she was not: but 'twas all ...
— By What Authority? • Robert Hugh Benson
... rounds afresh, with a bag full of coloured tickets, all with pins attached, and all with legible inscriptions: "Old Germany," "California," "True Love," "Old Fogies," "La Belle France," "Green Erin," "The Land of Cakes," "Washington," "Blue Jay," "Robin Red-Breast,"—twenty of each denomination; for when it comes to the luncheon, we sit down by twenties. These are distributed with anxious tact—for, indeed, this is the most delicate part of my functions—but ...
— The Wrecker • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne
... protection and prosperity; one who did not need the aid of a court-suit, but carried the holiday in his eye; who exhilarated the fancy by flinging wide the doors of new modes of existence; who shook off the captivity of etiquette, with happy, spirited bearing, good-natured and free as Robin Hood; yet with the port of an emperor, if need be,—calm, serious, and fit to stand ...
— Essays, Second Series • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... in the old spirit, but are somewhat mournful echoes of the past. They remind us of the robin's winter song—"Hark to him weeping," say the country folk, as they listen to the music which retains the sweetness but has lost what Wordsworth calls the gushes of the summer strains. There is still an ode to Venus; ...
— Horace • William Tuckwell
... Chamber of Stars All matter there he mars. Clapping his rod on the board, No man dare speak a word. For he hath all the saying, Without any renaying. He rolleth in his records; He sayeth, How say ye, my Lords? Is not my reason good? Good even, good Robin Hood. Some say, Yes; and some Sit ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan
... Inflation is not a Robin Hood, taking from the rich to give to the poor. Rather, it deals most cruelly with those who can least protect themselves. It strikes hardest those millions of our citizens whose incomes do not quickly ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Dwight D. Eisenhower • Dwight D. Eisenhower
... and July inside such walls, where there is scarcely a blade of grass, hardly a cool breeze, not even the song of a bird! A great yard so cursed that the little brown wrens refuse to bless it with their feet! The sound of machinery and of the hammers of unwilling toilers, but no mellow voice of robin or chatter of gossiping chimney-swallows! To Albert they were six weeks of alternate hope ...
— The Mystery of Metropolisville • Edward Eggleston
... to me thus:—"I inclose the 'Round Robin.' This jeu d'esprit took its rise one day at dinner at our friend Sir Joshua Reynolds's. All the company present except myself were friends and acquaintances of Dr. Goldsmith. The Epitaph written for him by Dr. Johnson became the subject of conversation, and various emendations were suggested, ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 5 • Various
... them and others, unashamed; and in one particular instance, at least, as Bishop of Worcester, had directed its exercise in the county of Denbigh. These things were perfectly known, of course, even beyond the seas, to the priests who were to go on the English mission, in surprising detail. Robin knew even that this man was wholly ignorant of Greek; he looked at him carefully as he came up the stairs, and was surprised at the kindly face of him, thin-lipped, however, though with pleasant, searching eyes. His coach was waiting ...
— Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson
... we not think him happy in having a lovely wife, happy in her decorating his paper-baskets so charmingly? The colors are red and black, like Robin Goodfellow. If ever I marry, I only hope that twelve years after, my wife's embroidered baskets may still be ...
— Parisians in the Country - The Illustrious Gaudissart, and The Muse of the Department • Honore de Balzac
... that the place we had stopped at last night was Haverthwaite in Lancashire. We saw a book of poems written in the Cumberland dialect, and copied the first and last verses of one that was about a Robin Redbreast: ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor
... that as it may, the interlude seems to have had its origin in the dramatic character of minstrel entertainments and in the dramatic character of popular games, such as those, especially beloved of our English ancestors, which celebrated the memory of Robin Hood and his fellow-outlaws of Sherwood forest. The miracle plays set the example of dramatic composition, an example soon followed in the interlude, which put into dramatic forms that became more and more elaborate popular stories and episodes, both serious and ...
— An Introduction to Shakespeare • H. N. MacCracken
... said Miss Brown. "There were eighteen mounted policemen in here just now. I was talking to the Inspector—such a nice young man, an intimate friend of the late Sir CHRISTOPHER WREN, who, he informs me privately, did not kill Cock Robin." ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, February 18th, 1920 • Various
... author of Robin Hood's Barn, "began at the beginning" of her story, and told everything—her betrothal to Traverse Rocke; the sudden death of her father; the decision of the Orphans' Court; the departure of Traverse for the far West; her arrival ...
— Capitola the Madcap • Emma D. E. N. Southworth
... became the subject of conversation, and various emendations were suggested, which it was agreed should be submitted to the Doctor's consideration. But the question was, who should have the courage to propose them to him? At last it was hinted, that there could be no way so good as that of a Round Robin, as the sailors call it, which they make use of when they enter into a conspiracy, so as not to let it be known who puts his name first or last to the paper. This proposition was instantly assented to; and Dr. Barnard, Dean of Derry, now Bishop of Killaloe, ...
— Life of Johnson - Abridged and Edited, with an Introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood • James Boswell
... to pour water upon all the anger in Mr. Pidgen's heart. His eyes expressed scorn, but not now for Mr. Lasher—for himself. His whole figure drooped and was bowed like a robin ...
— The Golden Scarecrow • Hugh Walpole
... robin sings, And swarms of bright and happy things Flit all about with sunlit wings, But I am cheerless, Rosaline! The violets in the hillock toss, The gravestone is o'ergrown with moss; For nature feels not any loss, But ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell
... American flag merchant ship, the ROBIN MOOR, was sunk by a Nazi submarine in the middle of the South Atlantic, under circumstances violating long-established international law and violating every principle of humanity. The passengers and the crew were forced into open boats hundreds of miles from ...
— The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt • Franklin Delano Roosevelt
... throb and swing, Of a plaintive note, and long; 'Tis a note no human throat could sing, No harp with its dulcet golden string,— Nor lute, nor lyre with liquid ring, Is sweet as the robin's song. ...
— Flint and Feather • E. Pauline Johnson
... to the deck, where we examined and pronounced him of the genus Falco, species NISUS, or in plain English, a sparrow hawk. During the day we saw three varieties of small birds, one of them resembling the American robin. The sailors caught two in their hands, ...
— Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar - Life • Thomas Wallace Knox
... runs the River Trent. From Nottingham I went fourteen miles to Mansfield and attended a missionary meeting. I was in the house which was the birth-place of the great Chesterfield, and passed through Mansfield forest, the scene of Robin Hood's predatory exploits. ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson
... sea-roving Dane, the feudal baron of Normandy, each with his own language and literature reflecting the traditions of his own people. Here in these old records is a strange medley of folk heroes, Arthur and Beowulf, Cnut and Brutus, Finn and Cuchulain, Roland and Robin Hood. Older than the tales of such folk-heroes are ancient riddles, charms, invocations to ...
— Outlines of English and American Literature • William J. Long
... the eating of which the man in the South burnt his mouth. Here is a portrait of the man in the moon, when he came down too soon to inquire the way to Norwich. In one of the other gables of this house I can show you Mother Goose's cap frill. And here is the arrow with which Cock Robin was cruelly murdered by the sparrow. This is the original and genuine arrow; all others are humbugs. This is the bone that Mother Hubbard went to look for, but failed to find. Here are the skates on ...
— Queer Stories for Boys and Girls • Edward Eggleston
... mine host, "Robin will have it that some further evil is upon us—tho' methinks we have got our fill and to spare with this drought—ay, and 'twas at thy house, ...
— The Gathering of Brother Hilarius • Michael Fairless
... and Robin were two pretty men, They laid in bed till the clock struck ten; Up jumped Richard and looked at the sky; O, Brother Robin, the sun's ...
— Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor - Volume I • Various
... impressed itself sharply upon Page's mind—the fine sunlit room, with its gay open spaces and the glimpse of green leaves from the conservatory, the view of the smooth, trim lawn through the many windows, where an early robin, strayed from the park, was chirruping and feeding; her beautiful sister Laura, with her splendid, overshadowing coiffure, her pale, clear skin, her slender figure; Jadwin, the large, solid man of affairs, with his ...
— The Pit • Frank Norris
... to be destroyed. A quartermaster, one of the mutineers, was to have command. They all had been bound by an oath on the Bible, administered by the Captain's assistant cabin steward, and had also signed their names in a round-robin, so-called, but that they found no opportunity on the outward passage and intended to accomplish taking of the ship as aforesaid immediately on leaving France. But on coming out of L'Orient we lost a man overboard who was one of the ...
— The Story of Commodore John Barry • Martin Griffin
... until the next evening. When he came back he had a peaceful air, but sometimes peace is not attained without effort and we have to struggle to keep it. When he had helped to unharness Robin and had given him some hay, had changed his cassock and unpacked his box, from which he took a dozen little packages of things bought on his visit to the city, it was the very time that the birds assembled in the branches to tell each other about the day. There had been a shower ...
— International Short Stories: French • Various
... in retaliation for English treatment of German submarine crews shows the names of seven Captains and thirty-two Lieutenants, included being the names of Lieutenant Goschen, son of a former Ambassador to Berlin; Robin Grey, a nephew of Sir Edward Grey, and many ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various
... saw off the horn of his saddle, then he couldn't 'a' found it when he went to hunt leather," mournfully commented one puncher in a shirt of robin's egg blue. ...
— Wyoming, a Story of the Outdoor West • William MacLeod Raine
... It must have made a great picture. It surely was dramatic. With the rifle across my arm and my suave request still ringing in my ears, I felt like Black Bart, and Jesse James, and Jack Sheppard, and Robin Hood, and ...
— Revolution and Other Essays • Jack London
... (Child gives no less than eighteen), we do not know a single printed example before Scott's made-up copy in the 'Border Minstrelsy.' The latest ballad really in the old popular manner known to me is that of 'Rob Roy,' namely, of Robin Oig and James More, sons of Rob Roy, and about their abduction of an heiress in 1752. This is a genuine popular poem, but in style and tone and versification it is wholly unlike 'The Queen's Marie.' I scarcely ...
— The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories • Andrew Lang
... colour has greatly preoccupied the French military authorities, who have been seeking an invisible blue; and the range of their experiments is proved by the extraordinary variety of shades of blue, ranging from a sort of greyish robin's-egg to the darkest navy, in which the army is clothed. The result attained is the conviction that no blue is really inconspicuous, and that some of the harsh new slaty tints are no less striking than the deeper shades they have superseded. But to ...
— Fighting France - From Dunkerque to Belport • Edith Wharton
... man, by the mere general fact of the feebleness and the dependence of woman. I looked at him more attentively in consequence of the feeling tone in which he now spoke, and was surprised that I had not more particularly noticed him before; he was a fine-looking, youngish man, with a bold Robin-hood style of figure and appearance; and, morally speaking, he was absolutely transfigured to my eyes by the effect worked upon him for the moment, through the simple calling up of his better nature. However, he recurred ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey
... marks: first, you have learned, like Sir Proteus, to wreathe your arms, like a malecontent; to relish a love-song, like a robin-redbreast; to walk alone, like one that had the pestilence; to sigh, like a school-boy that had lost his A B C; to weep, like a young 20 wench that had buried her grandam; to fast, like one that takes diet; to watch, like one that fears robbing; to speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas. ...
— Two Gentlemen of Verona - The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] • William Shakespeare
... is, like our own native Robin, fond of woodlands, and is generally found amongst thick brush, issuing from it to perch on dead branches. Its breast is a fine bright pink; its plumage is otherwise black and white, and it has a spot of white over the ...
— Expedition into Central Australia • Charles Sturt
... and low, though it was spring, and all nature began to look gay; with more than usual brightness the sun shone, and a little robin which she had cherished during the winter sung one of his best songs. The family were particularly civil this fine morning, and tried to prevail on her to walk out. Any thing like kindness melted her; ...
— Mary - A Fiction • Mary Wollstonecraft
... finery at last, Alizon," said Elizabeth. "Your brother Jem has just run up to say that t' rush-cart has set out, and that Robin Hood and his merry men are comin' ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth
... Monsieur C.C. ROBIN, a highly intelligent French gentleman, who resided in Louisiana from 1802 to 1806, and published a volume of travels, gives the following testimony to the over-working of ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... Table Bay on April 14, and after calling at Robin Island, a Dutch convict station, she proceeded with her voyage on the 25th. On that day she lost her master, whose health had been destroyed by intemperate habits, and just before she reached England her first lieutenant, ...
— Captain Cook - His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries • W.H.G. Kingston
... the narrow oblong of the pupils of a spotty-eyed cat going stealthily under the comb of the hedge, with her stomach wired in, and her spinal column fluted, to look like a wrinkled blackthorn snag. But still worse is it for that poor thrush, or lintie, or robin, or warbler-wren, if he flutters in his bosom when he spies that cat, and sets up his feathers, and begins to hop about, making a sad little chirp to his mate, and appealing to the sky to ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore
... "Your pardon, Robin," he cried, the moment after. "But the thing's ridiculous, you know. The ritual story would be sheer rubbish. The beggars could not affect a metal casting ...
— The Sleuth of St. James's Square • Melville Davisson Post
... Serena gravely,—"master hard; but it can be done with help." They sat there on the shady doorstep for some minutes without speaking. A robin was chirping loud, as if for rain, high in one of the elms overhead, and the sun was getting low. Presently Serena was mindful of her evening duties and rose to go in, but not before Betty had put both arms round her ...
— Betty Leicester - A Story For Girls • Sarah Orne Jewett
... out and saw the fields still covered with snow, and saw the huge snowdrifts like mountains and castles along the fences and the whirling snowflakes in the air, and thought, "Robin is ...
— Bobby of Cloverfield Farm • Helen Fuller Orton
... cannot help knowing That skies are clear and grass is growing; The breeze comes whispering in our ear That dandelions are blossoming near, That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing. That the river is bluer than the sky, That the robin is plastering his house hard by: And if the breeze kept the good news back, For other couriers we should not lack; We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing,— And hark! how clear bold chanticleer, Warmed with the new wine of the year, Tells ...
— The World's Best Poetry Volume IV. • Bliss Carman
... on, and now all the world lay under a pall of white snow. Under their dazzling mantle gleamed the dark prickly leaves of the holly-trees with abundance of scarlet berries. Here and there a little robin-redbreast hopped to and fro, chiefly gathering round the latticed windows of the parsonage, where morning and evening Betty ...
— Tales from Many Sources - Vol. V • Various
... standing armies and conscription. But I can prove anything in this way. I can prove that the world has always been growing greener. Only lately men have invented absinthe and the Westminster Gazette. I could prove the world has grown less green. There are no more Robin Hood foresters, and fields are being covered with houses. I could show that the world was less red with khaki or more red with the new penny stamps. But in all cases progress means progress only in some particular thing. Have you ever noticed that strange line of Tennyson, ...
— All Things Considered • G. K. Chesterton
... names on the programme looked like a round robin sent out by a Turnverein bowling club, but I suppose if they were baked in the oven until translated they would mean something soft and ...
— The Silly Syclopedia • Noah Lott
... said the little man, cheerfully. "I never was more surprised in my life, except when my great-aunt's grandmother got into such a rage, and changed me into a robin-redbreast. I tell you, that ...
— Little Saint Elizabeth and Other Stories • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... beautiful morning: the first beams of the slowly-rising sun, stealing gently above the eastern hills, scattered the mist of the morning and bathed the river and bay in its golden light. A robin, which was perched upon a maple growing not far from where Ruth and her children were standing, was singing its lay to the morning, and the atmosphere was balmy with the breath of flowers. It was a morning to charm ...
— From Wealth to Poverty • Austin Potter
... said Mr. Trott, in his graceful manner, as I passed him on my way to the piano. I answered, "Shall I sing 'Three Little Kittens'? I think that is the least fireworky of my repertoire." But I concluded that a simple little rocket like "Robin Adair" would kill nobody; therefor I sang that, and ...
— In the Courts of Memory 1858-1875. • L. de Hegermann-Lindencrone
... whom Man loves best, The pious Bird with the scarlet breast, Our little English Robin; The Bird that comes about our doors When Autumn winds are sobbing? Art thou the Peter of Norway Boors? Their Thomas in Finland, And Russia far inland? The Bird, whom by some name or other All men who know thee call their Brother, 10 The Darling of Children and men? Could Father ...
— Poems In Two Volumes, Vol. 1 • William Wordsworth
... stand. kick, kick against; recalcitrate[obs3], kick against the pricks; oppose &c. 708; fly in the face of; lift the hand against &c. (attack) 716; rise up in arms &c. (war) 722; strike, turn out; draw up a round robin &c. (remonstrate) 932; revolt &c. (disobey) 742; make a riot. prendre le mors aux dents [French: take the bit between the teeth]; sell one's life dearly, die hard, keep at bay; repel, repulse. Adj. resisting &c.v.; resistive, resistant; refractory &c. (disobedient) 742; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... tell this fellow from the leaf, it is such a bright, fresh green. Woe to the katydid if it were anything but this bright green! Just think how easily the birds would find them. What nice salad Katy would make for a young robin!" ...
— Little Busybodies - The Life of Crickets, Ants, Bees, Beetles, and Other Busybodies • Jeanette Augustus Marks and Julia Moody
... there would be a flow of memories—of his wife, his home, his books, his friends—to unman him. So he steeled himself to blankness, like a sleepless man imagining white sheep in a gate.... He noted a robin below the hazels, strutting impudently. And there was a tit on a bracken frond, which made the thing sway like one of the see-saws he used to play with as a boy. There was no wind in that undergrowth, and any movement must be due to bird or beast. The ...
— Huntingtower • John Buchan
... Robin Hood in Barnesdale stood, An arrow to head drew he, "How far I can shoot," quoth he, "by the rood My merry ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 470 - Volume XVII, No. 470, Saturday, January 8, 1831 • Various
... them alive; Rob took the puppy dog, then there were five. Five Christmas presents yet on the floor; Bobbin took the soldier cap, then there were four. Four Christmas presents underneath the tree; Bobbet took the writing desk, then there were three. Three Christmas presents still in full view; Robin took the checker board, then there were two. Two Christmas presents, promising fun, Bobbles took the picture book, then there was one. One Christmas present—and now the list is done; Bobbinet took the sled, and then there were none. And the same happy child received ...
— The Jingle Book • Carolyn Wells
... rather straggling, deserve to be cultivated on account of the brilliancy of their flowers. L. Chalcedonica, commonly known as Ragged Robin, is perhaps the most showy variety; but L. Viscaria Plena, or Catchfly, is a very beautiful plant. They grow freely in light, rich, loamy soil, but need dividing frequently to prevent them dwindling away. The best season for this operation is early ...
— Gardening for the Million • Alfred Pink
... sinners!" exclaimed Jamie, as soon as near enough to be heard without raising his voice on too high a key—"there are just the beds of the three Connecticut lads that were to come into the laird's guard, as empty as a robin's nest fra' which the ...
— Wyandotte • James Fenimore Cooper
... is stirring yet, If wintry birds are dreaming of a mate, If frozen snowdrops feel as yet the sun And crocus fires are kindling one by one: Sing, robin, sing; I still am sore in ...
— Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems • Christina Rossetti
... unloosed its artillery and the crisp air reechoed with the booming that proclaimed the breaking-up of the ice. Great crowds of people thronged the banks, wondering if the bridge would go out or would stand the strain of pounding icecakes. The unmistakable note of a robin sounded from somewhere. Great dark spots began to show in the white ice-ribbon that wound through the valley. The air at sundown had ...
— The Long Ago • Jacob William Wright
... flew down, and plucked away one of the thorns that pierced his brow. As it did so, the blood spurted out after the thorn, and splashed the breast of the bird. Ever since that day the bird has had a splash of red on its bosom, whence it is called robin-redbreast. Certainly the love of the Bethany home drew from the breast of Jesus many a thorn, and blessed his heart with many ...
— Personal Friendships of Jesus • J. R. Miller
... "Two robin redbreasts built their nests Within a hollow tree; The hen sat quietly at home, The male sang merrily; And all the little robins said, 'Wee, ...
— Jessie Carlton - The Story of a Girl who Fought with Little Impulse, the - Wizard, and Conquered Him • Francis Forrester
... little ones for the butter plates, bigger ones for the sass plates and some grate big ones for the meat plates and the cake basket. we had to get them becaus the old ones was woar out and i took the big one and kept a young robin in nearly a week and mother maid me let him go and never wood use the screne again. we tride to have muzlin screnes to the wiinders but the cat and the dog jumped through them if the doors was shet. mother says she dont know what she will do if ...
— Brite and Fair • Henry A. Shute
... morning the sun rose radiantly in the eastern sky, and climbed up among the golden clouds, and all the early birds joined in a glad song of welcome. The robin chanted from the lofty branches of the elm; the bluebird, with plumage brighter than the bluest sky, glided in and out among the apple-trees, and enlivened the scene by its occasional joyous song; the red linnet whistled and chattered in the shrubbery, and ...
— Golden Moments - Bright Stories for Young Folks • Anonymous
... To me the robin is a peculiarly attractive bird. It bears itself with a sort of pompous pathos which moves me to a friendly ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, February 4, 1914 • Various
... originally raised by the follies of some people who got money by it—that is to say, by printing predictions and prognostications—I know not; but certain it is, books frighted them terribly, such as Lilly's Almanack, Gadbury's Astrological Predictions, Poor Robin's Almanack, and the like; also several pretended religious books, one entitled, Come out of her, my People, lest you be Partaker of her Plagues; another called, Fair Warning; another, Britain's Remembrancer; and many such, all, or most part of which, foretold, directly ...
— A Journal of the Plague Year • Daniel Defoe
... wha first did shape [Woe to] That vile wanchancie thing—a rape! [dangerous] It maks guid fellows girn an' gape, [growl] Wi' chokin' dread; An' Robin's bonnet wave wi' ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson
... remonter les batteaux, machines pour—a great many things which you would like to see I am sure over my father's shoulder. And my aunt would like to see the new staircase, and to see a kitcat view of a robin redbreast sitting on her nest in a sawpit, discovered by Lovell, and you would both like to pick Emmeline's fine strawberries round the crowded oval table after dinner, and to see my mother look so much better in the ...
— The Life And Letters Of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 1 • Maria Edgeworth
... every old neighborhood, some one house on which is fixed, so to speak, the community gaze, and in our case it was on the Arthur Wellses'. It was a curious, not unfriendly staring, much I daresay like that of the old robin who sees two young wild canaries ...
— Sight Unseen • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... and ate her breakfast before a long window that showed a glittering, rimy world and in the foreground a plump, strutting robin. Ordinarily she would not have been amused by his red-waisted convexity, for she regarded animals with an extreme form of that indifference she felt for all living beings who were not members of her ...
— The Judge • Rebecca West
... the Saxon serf and swineherd wearing the brazen collar of his master Cedric; the pilgrim wandering from shrine to shrine, with the palm branch in his cap to show that he has visited the Holy Land; the outlaw, Robin Hood, lying in wait to strip rich churchmen and other travelers who were on their way through Sherwood Forest. He sees, too, the Norman baron in his castle torturing the aged Jew to extort his hidden gold; and the steel-clad ...
— The Leading Facts of English History • D.H. Montgomery
... MacLeod calls him—but I have an idea of a great brown full-bottomed wig and a hogshead of porter! Oh, 'twas base! to be treated everywhere with politeness and hospitality, and in return invidiously to smellfungus them all over; to go to the country of Kate of Aberdeen, of Auld Robin Gray, 'midst rural innocence and sweetness, take up their plaids, and dance. ...
— The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen • Rudolph Erich Raspe
... his eyes and doing his utmost to assume the expression of a martyr. "If anything goes wrong, put the blame on little Johnnie. Cock Robin wasn't in the same ...
— The Go Ahead Boys and Simon's Mine • Ross Kay
... old man—'auld Robin Gray'—mind you," he says, with a disagreeable laugh. "It is his business, but he does not seem to see it, does ...
— Nancy - A Novel • Rhoda Broughton |
