"Close at hand" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the king's lieutenant at our house procured us the advantage of seeing by degrees all the distinguished persons in the French army, and especially of beholding close at hand the leaders whose names had already been made known to us by reputation. Thus we looked from stairs and landing-places, as if from galleries, very conveniently upon the generals who passed by. More than all the rest ...
— Autobiography • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
... dark, unknown place; it was to intrude on a sacred region. But the breeze hurried her along while she thought, and the next moment the keel was buried in the sand. There was no time to lose; she left the boat, ascended a flight of stone steps close at hand, and was in the garden. Low, ripe greenery was waving over her here, deep alluring shadows opening around, full fresh fragrance fanning idly to and fro and stealing her soul away. Beyond, the lake gleamed darkly, the water lapped gently, the wind sighed and fell like a fluttering breath. ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 37, November, 1860 • Various
... one's attention been distracted by the eccentric performances of the kreta, one might well have admired the scenery. Close at hand, the road teems with fascinating pictures of native life. Only occasionally does one see a really beautiful face, but there is a pretty shyness such as one seldom sees on the roads of a European country. Although we read of the thirty ...
— Across the Equator - A Holiday Trip in Java • Thomas H. Reid
... fire, I desiring to let the enemy suppose that we suspected nothing of his ambuscade so close at hand; and around this we lay, munching our meagre meal of green corn roasted on the coals, ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers
... is never to be commanded. I think she means to oppose him to the Captain Pacha, on the Black Sea. He is by this time, probably, at St. Petersburg. The circumstances did not permit his awaiting the permission of Congress, because the season was close at hand for opening the campaign. But he has made it a condition, that he shall be free at all times to return to the orders of Congress, whenever they shall please to call for him; and also, that he shall not in any case be expected to bear arms against France. I believe ...
— The Writings of Thomas Jefferson - Library Edition - Vol. 6 (of 20) • Thomas Jefferson
... She had been strong enough as she smiled her farewell; but, when the train had dwindled into a mere speck in the distance, her eyes were dropping tears thick and fast upon the horse's mane. So in the first heaviness of her loneliness she rode as if pursued by enemies close at hand. ...
— The Girl from Montana • Grace Livingston Hill
... shyer than his relative, for the latter is a familiar figure at the border of our eastern woodlands, about our country homes, and even in the neighborhood of our town dwellings, when there are bushes and trees close at hand. My saunterings among the mountains took me into the haunts of the lazulis, but I regret to have to confess that all my alertness was of so little avail that I saw only three males and one female. One day, while rambling among the cottonwoods that broidered the creek flowing south of Colorado ...
— Birds of the Rockies • Leander Sylvester Keyser
... canoes to keep close watch, not to let the chain be broken, that the messengers were close at hand, that they would soon be taken, and that their comrade who did not come back would be avenged. Robert bent a little lower over his paddle. His whole body prickled, and the roaring in ...
— The Lords of the Wild - A Story of the Old New York Border • Joseph A. Altsheler
... Murano, low-lying, scattered, was close at hand, the smoke of its daily activities tremulous over it, dimming the beauty of ...
— A Golden Book of Venice • Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull
... be children to play with up there—hundreds of children like myself, and all close at hand. I should not any longer have to sit up aloft in the Red Tower with none to speak to me—all alone on the top of a wall—just because I had a crimson patch sewn on my blue-corded blouse, on my little white shirt, embroidered in red wool on each of my warm winter wristlets, ...
— Red Axe • Samuel Rutherford Crockett
... we are the Arch-imp and the Tenant of the Pool of Hell! We would remain so, even if every stone in Louvain and in Malines were replaced by its equivalent in gold. That rage can be overcome only after the race, praised by Schiller's fiery breath, sees its neighbors close at hand and draws advantage from intimate relations with them. Antwerp not pitted against, but working with, Hamburg and Bremen; Liege, side by side with Essen's, Berlin's, and Swabia's gun factories—Cockerill in combination with Krupp; iron, coal, woven stuff ...
— New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various
... the privileges of having little confabs, and whispering secrets to each other without having Miss Good and Miss Danesbury forever at their elbows. They talked of many things—of the near approach of the holidays, of the prize day which was now so close at hand, of Annie's ...
— A World of Girls - The Story of a School • L. T. Meade
... side. Doubtless there is a charm about the lofty pride that brooks no superior on earth, and almost without knowing it, treats other nations as mere ministers to its comfort: but the nemesis was close at hand; those who could not stoop to assist as seconds in the work of government must lie as victims beneath the assassin's knife or the heel ...
— A History of Roman Literature - From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius • Charles Thomas Cruttwell
... with ice. His scanty clothing scarcely afforded any protection from the cold, and his hands soon became so numb that he could scarcely use them; but, if he stopped one moment to rap them, or breathe upon them, in the hope of imparting some warmth, the farmer who was close at hand, in warm woollen clothes and thick husking gloves, would ...
— Friends and Neighbors - or Two Ways of Living in the World • Anonymous
... hour was close at hand before Hawkins reluctantly and tenderly laid "Bleak House" on the library table, stretched himself and prepared for bed. The blizzard had not lost any of its fury. Indeed, it seemed to have grown more vicious, more ...
— Her Weight in Gold • George Barr McCutcheon
... had grasped a hatchet, the housewife an axe, they themselves scarcely knew. They were dashing forward to deal death and ruin and had had no occasion to search for weapons—they had been close at hand. ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... chancel at the east end of the building, on either side of which are little dwellings. Each of these is occupied by a nice little old woman, who has two rooms, very minute and cosy, with a little supply of faggots close at hand, and all the dignity of a householder, although the occupant only of an infinitesimal toy house within a house. How do they agree, one wonders, these little old ladies of a touchy age under ...
— Highways & Byways in Sussex • E.V. Lucas
... Austrians were close at hand, it was necessary to bury the Prince in a trench dug in the snow, at the foot ...
— Prince Zilah, Complete • Jules Claretie
... Donnybrook which is now closed. On the night after the funeral one of the city police, or "Charlies" as they were then called, passed through the churchyard on his rounds. When nearing the centre he was alarmed to hear a sound coming from a grave close at hand, and turning, saw a white apparition sit up and address him. This was all he waited for; with a shriek he dropped his lantern and staff and made off as fast as his legs would carry him. The apparition thereupon ...
— True Irish Ghost Stories • St John D Seymour
... capacity, lined with zinc and furnished with a cover. Heat is applied by the introduction of steam through a series of perforated pipes arranged in the bottom of the tank. The steam is generated in an ordinary boiler standing close at hand. The lobsters are not thrown directly into the vat, as the operation of removing them after cooking would in such an event be an exceedingly tedious one; but an iron framework basket, of rather slender bars is made to fit the tank loosely, and is lowered ...
— The Lobster Fishery of Maine - Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Vol. 19, Pages 241-265, 1899 • John N. Cobb
... the place repeatedly, went poking and prying into such tents as she chanced to find empty, nor considered this an essential requisite to the conferring of this honor. When less sociably inclined, she established herself outside, close at hand, and in this way made those valuable observations and spirited drawings which subsequently enriched her diary and delighted a discerning British public. But this is anticipating. When she tired of New York, she wrote to Sir Robert that she wished to give as much time as possible to ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1885 • Various
... were drawn in the insanity of the moment, and two Chinamen were taken to the morgue, stabbed to death for no other reason than pure madness. Here on one side dwelt 20,000 Chinese, and on the other thousands of Italians, Spaniards and Mexicans, while close at hand lived the ...
— The San Francisco Calamity • Various
... heavens were a mass of coruscating electricity, and they could feel the air alive with it. They were shocked by the very atmosphere, said Steve, and feared for their lives every moment. The sea piled up, the wind blew a gale, and death was close at hand. They wished they had not left Easter Island, and envied those who ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien
... carriage thus provided for him was close at hand, the almost breathless Zilda actually proposed to exert her strength to carry Gilby up to it. He insisted upon hopping on one foot supported by her arm; he did not feel the slightest inclination to lean upon her more than was needful, ...
— A Dozen Ways Of Love • Lily Dougall
... quite delighted with the change that had been made; and, oh! what a joyous party helped to make the splendid wreath for the decoration of Mr. Norton's church, at Christmas time; plenty of laurels, we know, they had close at hand, so that though there were other kind workers in this delightful employ, I think we may say that none excelled in design or quantity the productions of ...
— Aunt Mary • Mrs. Perring
... its sage, buff with intervening grass, hay-cocked with the smoky, mellow-stained, meerschaum-like canvas tepees of the Indians, quiet as a painting; far eastward lay long, low, rose-red hills, half dissolved in the trembling mystery of sun and distance; and westward, close at hand and high, shone the great pale-blue serene mountains through the vaster serenity of the air. The sounding hoofs of the troops brought the Indians out of their tepees to see. When Albumblatt reached the Agency, there waited the agent and his two chiefs, who pointed to one lodge standing apart some ...
— The Jimmyjohn Boss and Other Stories • Owen Wister
... dosed off when a sound very close at hand, within the walls of canvas he thought, started him again into wakefulness. His arm ready and free for action, he lay still. His breathing well regulated and even, as in sleep, he watched through ...
— Triple Spies • Roy J. Snell
... was close at hand, and Arthur Rushton, though immediate danger was over, was still in too delicate and precarious a state to be informed of the true position of affairs when the final day of trial arrived. The case had excited ...
— The Experiences of a Barrister, and Confessions of an Attorney • Samuel Warren
... sleeveless tunic girded in at the waist, his arms and legs were bare; his head was uncovered, and his hair fell in masses on his shoulders. In his hand he held a short spear, and leaning against the wall of the hut close at hand was a bow and quiver of arrows. The lad looked at the sun, which was sinking towards ...
— The Dragon and the Raven - or, The Days of King Alfred • G. A. Henty
... country and the manner of life. It was my daily business to go up to the top of a certain high mountain, and down one of its spurs on to the flat, in order to make sure that no sheep had crossed their boundaries. I was to see the sheep, not necessarily close at hand, nor to get them in a single mob, but to see enough of them here and there to feel easy that nothing had gone wrong; this was no difficult matter, for there were not above eight hundred of them; and, being all breeding ewes, they were ...
— Erewhon • Samuel Butler
... of the marsh, and on them flat cars, propelled by hand, are sent out at intervals during the picking season to bring in the berries from the hands of the pickers. Each picker is provided with a crate, holding just a bushel, which is kept close at hand. The berries are first picked into tin pans and pails, and from these emptied into the crates, in which they are carried to the warehouse, where an empty crate is given the picker in exchange for a full one. Thus equipped and improved, the Sackett ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 613, October 1, 1887 • Various
... pleasant dreams, to fly for life! I sprang from the cot with a bound to the door, where the flickering of a bright flame, reflected through the thick, misty air, gave token of fire. The roof of my house was in a blaze, and one hundred and fifty kegs of powder were close at hand beneath a thatch! They could not be removed, and a single spark from the frail and tinder-like materials might send the whole in ...
— Captain Canot - or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver • Brantz Mayer
... lively, and directly after breakfast they set to work in earnest. A large quantity of tree branches were cut down, and with these they made the sides and top of the hut or cabin as tight as possible. Around the bottom of the shelter they heaped up all the snow that was close at hand. ...
— Guns And Snowshoes • Captain Ralph Bonehill
... good spirits as to satisfy me that he was trying to tell me that we certainly would pull through. And my cat's promise of good luck fell in so exactly with my own confident hopes—which were rising strongly as the time for testing them got close at hand—that I hugged him tight to me very lovingly, and on my side promised that within another month or two he should stretch his legs in a mouse-hunt on dry land! And with that I put the lamp out and we ...
— In the Sargasso Sea - A Novel • Thomas A. Janvier
... attention. This bit of the war seen close at hand was beginning to suggest to her some new vast world, of which she was wholly ignorant, where she was the merest cypher on sufferance. The thought was disagreeable to her irritable pride, and she thrust it aside. She ...
— Missing • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... previous utterances. She began a sentence, indeed, but broke off, with her grey eyes fixed on the ground; and when at length she lifted them, Bob felt something take him by the throat. The few words he proceeded to blurt out stunned him much as if a grenade had exploded close at hand. But when Miss Ormiston burst into tears and declared she must go upstairs at once and pack her box, he recovered, and, looking about, found the aspect of the world bewilderingly changed. There were valleys where hills had stood a ...
— The Delectable Duchy • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... it chanced, Vrouw Prinsloo was close at hand. Seizing a flaming bough from the fire, that intrepid woman ran at the lion and, as it opened its huge mouth to roar or bite, thrust the burning end of the bough into its throat. The lion closed its jaws upon it, then finding the mouthful not to its taste, ...
— Marie - An Episode in The Life of the late Allan Quatermain • H. Rider Haggard
... busy doing various things along the deck. The electric lights shone in all their calm unearthly brilliance. Then slowly, very slowly, the Z-5 began to gather headway, the clear water seemed to flow past her green sides, and she rode out of the pool of light into the darkness waiting close at hand. ...
— World's War Events, Volume III • Various
... to one not acquainted with the tactics and ceremonies of this rude chivalry of the wilderness, had an air of direct hostility. They came galloping forward in a body, as if about to make a furious charge, but, when close at hand, opened to the right and left, and wheeled in wide circles round the travellers, whooping ...
— The Adventures of Captain Bonneville - Digested From His Journal • Washington Irving
... at eighty miles per hour, making it tedious work groping about and hallooing in the drift. The sea was close at hand and we realized that, as the wind was directly off shore, a man without crampons was in a dangerous situation. Two men, therefore, roped together and carefully searched round the head of the boat harbour; one anchoring himself with an ...
— The Home of the Blizzard • Douglas Mawson
... Old Man Coyote had sat down close by the log in which Peter was hiding. On a dead tree close at hand sat Ol' Mistah Buzzard, who had come up from way down south for the summer, and it was to him that Old Man ...
— Mother West Wind "Where" Stories • Thornton W. Burgess
... done, undisturbed, for generations. Behind me a long roll echoed through the woods—some young cock partridge, whom the warm sun had beguiled into drumming his spring love-call. From the mountain side a cow moose rolled back a startling answer. Close at hand, yet seeming miles away, a chipmunk was chunking sleepily in the sunshine, while a nest of young wood mice were calling their mother in the grass at my feet. And every wild sound did but deepen the vast, wondrous silence ...
— Secret of the Woods • William J. Long
... structure of the ants that they are unable to help themselves. The jaws of these ants are not adapted for work; they are carried by their slaves from an old nest to a new one; and, more extraordinary still, they require to be fed by their slaves, even with plenty of food close at hand. Out of thirty of these ants placed by Huber in a box, with some of their larvae and pupae, and a store of honey, fifteen died in less than two days of hunger and of sheer inability to help themselves. When, however, one of their slaves ...
— A Book of Natural History - Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. • Various
... you say, Father," Oswald asked; "shall we circle round, and join Glendower? We know that his army is close at hand and, were they to attack tonight, they should win an easy victory; for the king's men have suffered well nigh ...
— Both Sides the Border - A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower • G. A. Henty
... urgent calamity has possession of the mind. She will compose herself. She is unwilling to die, and the first conviction of approaching death raised great perturbation. I think she has but very lately thought death close at hand. She will compose herself to do that as well as she can, which must, at last, be done. May she ...
— Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 - The Works Of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., In Nine Volumes • Samuel Johnson
... matters worse, a hot breeze sprang up from the south, and stirred the desert into curling sand-wraiths, which blinded them and made it hard to detect sounds even close at hand. They were fully thirty miles distant from the camp, with eight hours of darkness before them, during which time they could hope to cover only half the march. The thought rose unbidden that the remaining half must be undertaken in daylight, with wornout ...
— The Wheel O' Fortune • Louis Tracy
... Monument.—Still further to the east is the tomb [C] of Sir Hugh Despenser, who died in 1349, and his widow, who died ten years later, having in the interval married Sir Guy de Brien, the tomb to whose memory is close at hand. This tomb is full of interest, and consists of a richly panelled base with trefoil arches (each of which must once have contained a statuette), in three sets of two each to correspond with the open tracery in the ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury - with some Account of the Priory Church of Deerhurst Gloucestershire • H. J. L. J. Masse
... the history of the world, which forethought and wisdom might have prevented. The French Revolution is the obvious type of figure which lies close at hand so one picks it up. The French Revolution—its Reign of Terror—the orgies of carnage—the cataclysms of agony—need not have been, but they WERE. To put it in words of ...
— The Head of the House of Coombe • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... to be seen at Buitenzorg with but little expenditure of time or trouble. Close at hand is the Campong, or Chinese town, with its quaint shops and busy market-place. Immediately beneath the hotel numberless bamboo cottages crowded with Javanese peasants can be found for the looking. They lie in the midst of groves of cocoanut palms, hidden away almost as completely as if they were ...
— A Visit to Java - With an Account of the Founding of Singapore • W. Basil Worsfold
... so much rapidity that we are unconscious of making it) between the size and color of the object as they appear at the time, and the size and color of the same or of similar objects as they appeared when close at hand, or when their degree of remoteness was known by other evidence. The perception of distance by the eye, which seems so like intuition, is thus, in reality, an inference grounded on experience; an inference, too, which we learn to make; and which we make with more and more correctness ...
— A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive • John Stuart Mill
... is close at hand—we shall not fail to know it," said Skale, pallid with excitement. "The Letters will be out upon us. They will live! But with an intense degree of exuberant life far beyond what we know as life—we, in our puny, sense-limited ...
— The Human Chord • Algernon Blackwood
... several scattered divisions of each of these two separated masses had only escaped by favour of the extent of the country, of chance, and of the usual causes of that ignorance, which always exists during war, as to what passes close at hand in ...
— History of the Expedition to Russia - Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812 • Count Philip de Segur
... not complain. It was a condition which he could not have foreseen, and, being close at hand, there was nothing for them to do but meet it with all the fortitude ...
— Ted Strong in Montana - With Lariat and Spur • Edward C. Taylor
... Ticquet, a beautiful, gallant, and bold woman, who took a very high tone in the matter. She was advised to fly, and one of my friends offered to assist her to do so, maintaining that in all such cases it is safer to be far off than close at hand. The woman would listen to no such advice, and in a few days she was no longer able. The porter and the soldier were arrested and tortured, and Madame Ticquet, who was foolish enough to allow herself to be arrested, also ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon
... alternately, and continually changing its form. It was somewhat larger than a starling, with a freer flight, and had a richer plumage, its color being deep glossy blue, or blue-black, and underneath bright chestnut. When close at hand and in the bright sunshine, the aerial gambols of a flock were beautiful to witness, as the birds wheeled about and displayed in turn, as if moved by one impulse, first the rich blue, then the bright chestnut surfaces to the eye. The charming effect was increased by the ...
— A Crystal Age • W. H. Hudson
... fall a prey to the Duc d'Enghien, but also the country bordering the Rhine. See how everything is shaken to its foundation: Philipsburg is in dire distress in ten days, in spite of the winter now close at hand; Philipsburg, which so long held the Rhine captive under our laws, and whose loss the greatest of kings so gloriously retrieved. Worms, Spire, Mayence, Landau, twenty other places I might name, open their portals: Merci is unable to defend ...
— The World's Great Sermons, Vol. 2 (of 10) • Grenville Kleiser
... tale with a thrilling introduction that set us all laughing (we smile here when still the tears are close at hand; indeed, we must smile, or we could not live): the prelude being something about a lonely castle in the heart of the Hartz Mountains, and a prattling golden-haired babe stretching its arms across a ruined moat in the direction of its absent father. ...
— Marm Lisa • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... him. He had seen the bridge of his vision; he had in truth been divinely called to his work. He felt that the sight of the bridge was both the visible seal of God upon his mission and a sign that its accomplishment was close at hand. He bowed his head involuntarily, as in the presence of the Most High. He felt that he rode to his destiny, that for him all things converged and culminated ...
— The Bridge of the Gods - A Romance of Indian Oregon. 19th Edition. • Frederic Homer Balch
... Nor had she been; not ever; not even in her first love-days with Frederick. Because always pain had been close at hand in that other happiness, ready to torture with doubts, to torture even with the very excess of her love; while this was the simple happiness of complete harmony with her surroundings, the happiness that asks for nothing, that just accepts, just ...
— The Enchanted April • Elizabeth von Arnim
... realize that, for Tommy, their meeting had been six weeks ago. It all seemed dreamlike. The closer he came to it, the less he could realize that in a few hours he'd be getting off on a strange world, with only the strange name Raynor Three as a guide. He felt terribly alone, and having Tommy close at hand helped, even though Tommy didn't ...
— The Colors of Space • Marion Zimmer Bradley
... much to talk about and discuss, that very little work was done. The weather, however, was now becoming much colder, and, for the last two days the sun had not shone. The sky was of one uniform, murky, solemn gray; and every thing announced that the winter was close at hand. Martin, who had been hunting, when he came home bid them prepare for an immediate change in the weather, and his prediction was ...
— The Settlers in Canada • Frederick Marryat
... He had become the horse of a wandering junkman. The next step in his career, as he well knew, would be the glue factory and the boneyard. Now when a horse has lived for twenty years or so, it is sad enough to face these things. But at eight years to see the glue factory close at hand is enough to make a horse wish he had ...
— Horses Nine - Stories of Harness and Saddle • Sewell Ford
... she discoursed of a beautiful young lady, with a heart as full of love as a pomegranate was full of seeds, - painting, in pretty exact colours, a lively portraiture of Miss Patty, which was no very difficult task, while the fair original was close at hand; nevertheless, the infatuated pretty gentleman was deeply impressed with the gipsy narrative, and began to think that the practice and knowledge of the occult sciences may, after all, have been handed down to the modern representatives ...
— The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green • Cuthbert Bede
... other prisoners, who stood inside the boxes, and who arranged them like double lines from a central point:—it was the many-rayed sun of death that had set upon civilization. Then, when the box was full and closely packed, they poured the liquid cement, which had been mixed close at hand, over them. It hardened at once, and the dead were entombed forever. Then the box was lifted and the ...
— Caesar's Column • Ignatius Donnelly
... be brought within the limits of their Reserve under any circumstances whatsoever.[590] The Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws found a lodgment on the Sac and Fox Reservation and the Seminoles fairly close at hand, at Neosho Falls. That was as far north as they could be ...
— The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War • Annie Heloise Abel
... were close at hand—only round the corner, in fact—and Brent went straight to them and into the bedroom. He found the cedar cabinet at once; he had, in fact, seen it the day before, but finding it locked had made no attempt to open it. He carried ...
— In the Mayor's Parlour • J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher
... day. Sometimes he would venture to the house of one who sympathized with the Covenanters, only to find that the troopers were already in possession. Sometimes, in utter weariness, he slept so long that when he awoke he would find a party searching for him quite close at hand; then there was nothing for it but to lie close like a hare in a covert till ...
— The Junior Classics • Various
... lay a course and to know at any time whether we are headed in the right direction. But while we are moving along a difficult road we need more immediate illumination to avoid the mudholes and stumbling-places close at hand. We need the humble lantern to show us where ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry
... boy flew out of his room, to tear down the long hall. He had his back to them, and there was no time to skip back into Jenkins' own room, for the two had already passed it. One wild second, and Jenkins thrust the racket into the depths of the housemaid's closet close at hand, under some cleaning-cloths on a shelf. Then he stuck his hands in ...
— Five Little Peppers at School • Margaret Sidney
... in the early mornings he is to be seen casting his eyes down the pod-laden rows of cotton plants, to see if he can count a few ripe open bolls as he stands at the head of a row. If this be so, he knows that his harvest is close at hand, and his pickers must be ready at any moment to begin what is certainly the most tedious and difficult work of the plantation, namely, picking the raw cotton ...
— The Story of the Cotton Plant • Frederick Wilkinson
... suspicion that the fugitives were so close at hand, and kept steadily onward. Hardly daring to breathe, our three friends saw the long, sharp canoe, with five of their mortal ...
— The Ranger - or The Fugitives of the Border • Edward S. Ellis
... fire, would indulge in long talks about religion or plantation gossip. That shop was indeed a typical spot; its sides were lined to the eaves with choice lumber, arranged systematically so that the green was out of reach, while that which was seasoned was close at hand. Uncle Jim would have felt disgraced had a piece of work made of unseasoned wood left his shop. The smoke from the small fire which burned in the middle of the big shop, upon the dirt floor, escaped in faint blue wreaths through the roof, leaving behind it ...
— Plantation Sketches • Margaret Devereux
... Peggy on the bank. Doubleyear and the boy were now struggling almost in the middle of the canal, with the body of the man twirling about between them. They would inevitably have been drowned, had not old Peggy caught up a long dust-rake that was close at hand—scrambled down up to her knees in the canal—clawed hold of the struggling group with the teeth of the rake, and fairly brought the whole to land. Jem was first up the bank, and helped up his two heroic companions; ...
— The International Weekly Miscellany, Volume I. No. 8 - Of Literature, Art, and Science, August 19, 1850 • Various
... a river tug was quite close at hand when the accident occurred, and its captain called through a megaphone to say that he would assist us ...
— Polly's Business Venture • Lillian Elizabeth Roy
... sadly patient as a mother with a degenerate child, kept steady watch on him, with enough other women close at hand to prevent an outbreak. He had no weapons, and well knew that all his strength was of small avail against those grim, ...
— Herland • Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman
... them again. I said, in return, I thought his Wanyambo just as superstitious, for I observed, whilst walking one day, that they had placed a gourd on the path, and on inquiry found they had done so to gain the sympathy of all passers-by to their crop close at hand, which was blighted, imagining that the voice of the sympathiser heard by the spirits would induce them to relent, and restore a ...
— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke
... and that he was watching us. I noticed his tracks some distance back, and also noticed that just before we reached this point they turned abruptly into the underbrush. As we stood looking down that hole, I heard a twig snap, and knew he was close at hand. I thought I might surprise him, but, as I said, he was too quick for me, and I only caught a flying glimpse of ...
— At War with Pontiac - The Totem of the Bear • Kirk Munroe and J. Finnemore
... rear. 10. While they were planning this manoeuvre, the king, having passed beyond them, presented his force opposite to them, in the same form in which he had at first come to battle; and when the Greeks saw their enemies close at hand, and drawn up for fight, they again sang the paean, and advanced upon them with much greater spirit than before. 11. The Barbarians, on the other hand, did not await their onset, but fled sooner[75] than at first; and the Greeks ...
— The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis • Xenophon
... land of Lleu, {149b} and Lleudvre, {149c} To the course of Gododin, And to the course of Ragno, close at hand, Even that hand which directed the splendour of battle, With the branch of Caerwys, {149d} Before it was shattered By the season of the storm,—by the storm of the season, {149e} To form a rank against a hundred thousand men, {149f} Coming from Dindovydd, ...
— Y Gododin - A Poem on the Battle of Cattraeth • Aneurin
... the Tennessee Legislature was due to the votes of both Democrats and Republicans the former claimed the credit. The general election was close at hand in which all women could take part and Republican leaders felt that some action was necessary. Governor Marcus H. Holcomb of Connecticut called a special session of the Legislature for September 14 and its first act was to ratify the Federal Amendment by unanimous vote ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V • Ida Husted Harper
... that he was dealing with a Borgia—a man who cajoled, bought and bribed, and when these failed there were noose, knife and poison close at hand. The Prior of Saint Mark's could deal with Lorenzo in Florence, but with Alexander at Rome he would be undone. The iniquities of the Borgia family far exceeded the sins of the Medici, and in his impassioned moments ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators • Elbert Hubbard
... end of the world was so close at hand and there was no hope of his getting any word from Glory Goldie, much less of his seeing her, before all was over, then he would pray for but a single grace—that it might be made clear to him what he had done to offend her, so that he could repent of it before the ...
— The Emperor of Portugalia • Selma Lagerlof
... material analogy) that you have the best view of some great rocky island when you have sailed away from it till it has turned to a blue cloud on the horizon; rather than when its granite and heather are full in view, close at hand? I am not sure that in every case the calmer thought is the right thought, the distant view the right view. You have come to think indifferently of the personal injury, of the act of foul cruelty and falsehood, ...
— The Recreations of A Country Parson • A. K. H. Boyd
... A footstep close at hand. A figure passed in the uncertain light, dimly discerned us, paused, and glanced ...
— The First Violin - A Novel • Jessie Fothergill
... enemy showed signs of giving way, the Egyptian chariots dashed upon them precipitously, and turned the retreat into a rout: the pursuit was, however, never a long One; some fortress was always to be found close at hand where the remnant of the defeated host could take refuge.* The victors, moreover, would be too eager to secure the booty, and to strip the bodies of the dead, to allow time ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) • G. Maspero
... the hyena sat up, fearing lest the jackal should reach the bell before him, for the mosque was close at hand. With the first streak of dawn he bounded away to the bell, just as the jackal, who had slept soundly all night, was rising ...
— The Orange Fairy Book • Various
... to say that Mrs. Eyrecourt had not been trusted with the secret until the wedding day was close at hand. "My wife and I agreed in wishing to be married as quietly as possible," he answered, after making the ...
— The Black Robe • Wilkie Collins
... to us, and bending down to Cynthia with great tenderness, took her hand, and said, "Will you stay here quietly a little, Cynthia, and rest? You are perfectly safe now, and no one will come near you. We two shall be close at hand; but we must have a talk together, and see ...
— The Child of the Dawn • Arthur Christopher Benson
... brought "Lorelei" through the bridge, and hove her to by the broad quay, there stood close at hand a handsome, dark-blue motor-car. ...
— The Chauffeur and the Chaperon • C. N. Williamson
... coolly reminding them of those vital things which frenzy had failed wholly to take into account. Confidence was reborn in them. They wanted to cheer this fearless young officer who seemed to forget nothing, but the island promontories were so close at hand that ...
— The Stowaway Girl • Louis Tracy
... The Spencer Mountains, east of the north end of Moosehead Lake, were now in plain sight in front of us. The kingfisher flew before us, the pigeon woodpecker was seen and heard, and nuthatches and chickadees close at hand. Joe said that they called the chickadee kecunnilessu in his language. I will not vouch for the spelling of what possibly was never spelt before, but I pronounced after him till he said it would do. We passed close to a woodcock, which stood ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. II, No. 8, June 1858 • Various
... has been close at hand And guided me, still pointing treasures rare, Thick-sown where I before saw nothing fair And finding waters ...
— Spirits in Bondage • (AKA Clive Hamilton) C. S. Lewis
... front. As the deep Cathedral-bell strikes the hour, a ripple of wind goes through these at their distance, like a ripple of the solemn sound that hums through tomb and tower, broken niche and defaced statue, in the pile close at hand. ...
— The Mystery of Edwin Drood • Charles Dickens
... the purpose, nor for steam communication with India, than which nothing could be more important, as it would render available the magnificent geographical position of the colony, and open a market close at hand for its products. I have long ago and frequently stated my willingness to give all possible Government support to ...
— Explorations in Australia • John Forrest
... later, some outriders, sent before him by the count, entered the chateau, saying that their master and mistress were close at hand. In fact, they were promptly followed by brakes and travelling-carriages, and at length the countess's litter was descried, which M. de Saint-Geran, on horse back, had never lost sight of during the journey. It was a triumphal reception: ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... over our supply trains, and the position of the Army of the Tennessee would have been very critical, although, without doubt, the result of the battle would have been in our favor, because the Armies of the Cumberland and the Ohio were close at hand, and the enemy would have been ...
— The Battle of Atlanta - and Other Campaigns, Addresses, Etc. • Grenville M. Dodge
... borne there in solemn procession, through a city stricken by terror and panic, and buried in the Chapel of the Crucified Saviour, for which his last work was ordered. The "Assumption" of his prime looked down upon him, and close at hand was the "Madonna of Casa Pesaro." His son Orazio caught the plague and died immediately after, and the painter's house was sacked by thieves and ...
— The Venetian School of Painting • Evelyn March Phillipps
... first entered the field the crop lay in broad tawny bands across the greener stubble, just as it had fallen from the scythes. The amateur harvesters had to gather the oats into great bundles and, binding them, stack the sheaves thus made together, against the day, close at hand now, when they would be carried to ...
— Secret Bread • F. Tennyson Jesse
... lounging at the door, which could be approached only through mud and filth: the former too slatternly to sweep the dirt and offal from the door, the latter too lazy to make a dry footway, though the materials were close at hand. If the mother were asked why she did not keep herself and her children clean with a stream of water running near the cabin, her answer invariably was—Sure, how can we help it? We are so poor.' The husband made the same reply, while smoking his pipe at the fire or basking in ...
— The Land-War In Ireland (1870) - A History For The Times • James Godkin
... the bushes, and saw the old walls of the castle close at hand. He was horror-stricken and filled with deadly fear. Jorinda ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers
... mood, for the exalted hours, and for the emergencies. That keynote is given in this truth: that there is no moment so dull or so hard but one can ask himself, What is the best the situation allows? and conform to that; can open his eyes to some beauty close at hand; can enter sympathetically into some ...
— The Chief End of Man • George S. Merriam
... and saw that the engine, pulled by three fiery horses, was close at hand. He started to return to the curb. As he did so the elderly gentleman slipped and went down ...
— The Missing Tin Box - or, The Stolen Railroad Bonds • Arthur M. Winfield
... succeeding day. Just before he light returned we were whirled past a large ship that was lying-to, under a single storm-stay-sail, and which I recognised as the frigate that had taken a look at us at our anchorage. The cutter was close at hand, and the fearful manner in which these two strong-handed vessels pitched and lurched, gave me some idea of what must be our situation, should we be compelled to luff to the wind. I supposed they had done so, in order to keep ...
— Miles Wallingford - Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore" • James Fenimore Cooper
... manifestation of the Divine Christ, the earlier believers in Him should make much of the promise that He said He would come again, and amid their troubles and difficulties the strong tendency would be to think that second coming was close at hand. It is a well known fact however that the near approach of a great joy or sorrow unfits men and women for the ordinary pursuits of life. Paul, in his first letter to the members of the church of Thessalonica, spoke of the second coming of Christ to relieve their minds of a worry over ...
— Bible Studies in the Life of Paul - Historical and Constructive • Henry T. Sell
... But help was close at hand. Wendot had seen the spring, and had followed close upon the charge of the maddened brute. Flinging himself fearlessly upon the struggling pair, he plunged his knife into the neck of the wolf, causing her to relax her hold of her first foe and turn ...
— The Lord of Dynevor • Evelyn Everett-Green
... equivalent to this sunbeam in the darkest circumstances; as flowers, which figuratively grew in Paradise, in the dusky room of a poor maiden in a great city; the child, with its sunny smile, is a cherub. God does not let us live anywhere or anyhow on earth without placing something of Heaven close at hand, by rightly using and considering which, the earthly darkness or trouble will ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866 • Various
... crouching in the dark beneath the broken window with Spike beside him, was presently aware of the sickening sounds of furious struggling close at hand, and of a hoarse, panting voice that cursed in fierce triumph—a voice that ended all at once in a ghastly strangling choke; and recognising this voice, the Spider hunched his great shoulders and bore Spike ...
— The Definite Object - A Romance of New York • Jeffery Farnol
... from Cuttack to shoot; their men were beating the jungle, when suddenly all the wild cry ceased, and a man came gliding to where all the Sahibs were standing to tell them that there was a tiger lying asleep in his den close at hand. A consultation was instantly held; most of the party were anxious to return to Cuttack, but Captain B—— insisted on having a shot at the animal; accordingly he advanced very quickly, until he came to the place, when he saw, not a tiger, but a large leopard, lying quite still, ...
— The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 • Various
... them at the moment, or in that place, signs of nearness or distance. Thus, purple in a violet is a sign of nearness, because the closer it is looked at the more purple is seen; but purple in a mountain is a sign of distance, because a mountain close at hand is not purple, but green or grey. It may, indeed, be generally assumed that a tender or pale colour will more or less denote distance, and a powerful or dark colour nearness; but even this is not always so. Heathery hills will usually give a pale and tender purple near, and ...
— Field's Chromatography - or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists • George Field
... Willielm Bachaus, was comfortably seated in his spacious apartments at the Ritz, New York, when this question was asked. A grand piano stood close at hand, and the pianist ran his fingers lightly over its keys from time to time, or illustrated some ...
— Piano Mastery - Talks with Master Pianists and Teachers • Harriette Brower
... Cambon, French Ambassador in Berlin before the war, for Germany's world-wide plans for stirring up strife on every continent where they might aid her in the struggle for world domination which she dreamed was close at hand. ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume VI (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various
... our day's journey, and feeling sleepy after our meal, we soon returned to the shelter of the cart for a night's rest; but before we went, we were careful enough to pack up all of our cooking apparatus, and also to place our rifles close at hand, although Smith told us that the precaution was useless, as the natives never waged ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes
... early," replied Dobrzynski; "I did not come here for food, but only because I was overpowered by curiosity to see close at hand our national army. Of this much might be said; it is neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. These gentlemen caught sight of me and brought me here by force; and you, sir, are compelling me to seat myself at your table—I thank ...
— Pan Tadeusz • Adam Mickiewicz
... tied up for a short time to cook some sort of a meal, and the rain coming on, the captain thought it best to wait. To escape the bad air of the boat, where all the mattings were down, I sat under an umbrella on the bank. A huge junk slowly pulling upstream moored close at hand, and I watched with interest the trackers making fast. They were men of all ages and sizes, but mostly young and well grown. Their naked bodies were well developed and muscular, but often cut or scarred with falling on the rocks. Having made all secure they too got ...
— A Wayfarer in China - Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia • Elizabeth Kendall
... dare-devil indifference paid no attention. He moved rapidly on without scouts and without flankers. Armstrong now warned Hardin a second time. He said that he had located the camp fires of the Indians and that they must be close at hand. Hardin rode on, swearing that the Indians ...
— The Land of the Miamis • Elmore Barce
... this fact was brought home to him. Every one in the room must have known and realised that he had not wilfully sought this quarrel, that throughout he had borne himself as any gentleman would, yet now, when the issue was so close at hand, no one came forward ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... just opposite them, and Malcom close at hand, so there was no chance of feeling too much ...
— Barbara's Heritage - Young Americans Among the Old Italian Masters • Deristhe L. Hoyt
... stood in the village of Charing in 1643. But the one which claims our attention stood on the exact spot where now towers the Nelson Monument in Trafalgar Square, and was the busiest coaching inn in the west end of London. In front of it was the King Charles statue and the ancient cross of Charing. Close at hand was Northumberland House with its famous ...
— The Inns and Taverns of "Pickwick" - With Some Observations on their Other Associations • B.W. Matz
... the place of landing does not extend to animals shipped from Ireland into Great Britain, and this is a matter of the highest importance to Irish stock-breeders, who find their best market close at hand on the east of St George's Channel. Table XXV. shows the number of cattle, sheep and pigs shipped from Ireland into Great Britain in each of the fifteen years 1891-1905, the numbers of horses similarly shipped being also indicated. On the average rather more than half the total of cattle ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia |
