"Nimble" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... cheese, while a red handkerchief covered his knees. William leant against a third tree consuming a little heap of scraps collected from the larder, while on his knees also reposed what was apparently a red handkerchief. Jumble sat in the middle catching with nimble, snapping jaws dainties flung to him from time to time by ...
— More William • Richmal Crompton
... seemed silenced by the spell of summer noon magic. The girl was looking out across the sun-kissed gardens. Frederik was eyeing her in complacent satisfaction, his nimble brain busy with the tidings that might mean ...
— The Return of Peter Grimm - Novelised From the Play • David Belasco
... moor, where the autumn sun was burnishing the furze and purpling the heather, Morva sat knitting, her nimble fingers outrun by her ...
— Garthowen - A Story of a Welsh Homestead • Allen Raine
... hither, perhaps, by a Spanish Army of occupation. Also it has a tea-room which is the trysting-place of all the officers in billets, and the chatelaine of which answers your lame and halting French in nimble English. On the road to Locre it has those Baths and Wash-houses which have become so justly famous, and whence hosts of British soldiers come forth like Naaman white as snow, but infinitely more companionable. ...
— Leaves from a Field Note-Book • J. H. Morgan
... believe I have said, soon set up with the smallest spice of encouragement. He was, moreover, as light and nimble as a grasshopper, and, in his whole appearance, much such an animal, could it be made to stand on end. His dream, therefore, was enough. He vowed a vow of unconquerable might, and to it he went. Springing upon his board, he ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 4, September, 1850 • Various
... see him mounted once again Upon his nimble steed, Full slowly pacing o'er the stones, With caution and ...
— The Diverting History of John Gilpin • William Cowper
... magic. They bowed and smiled, and commenced to play. Every one sprang up. "Dance," cried they all, and flew for their partners. Mae found herself in the midst of the crowd, and having the most willing and nimble of feet, she soon toned and coaxed the fashionable waltz on which she had started into accord with the more elastic footsteps of her companion. There was something in the serpentine, winding and unwinding ...
— Mae Madden • Mary Murdoch Mason
... unheeding, "that we were engaged, and it was just going to be announced. When he heard that, he lost his head. I really think he was mad for the moment. He sprang straight at me like a wild beast, and I—I simply turned and fled. I'm pretty nimble, you know, when—when there are mad bulls about." Her quick smile flashed across her face and was gone. "That's all," she said. "I tore up to my room, and scribbled that paragraph straight away. I dared not wait for anything. And then ...
— The Swindler and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell
... the vocoder circuit with which he had terminated his link, originated because a teletype system similar to that used at the control console would have been too obvious; and his nimble fingers got all tangled up on ...
— Where I Wasn't Going • Walt Richmond
... that this gentle girl could be so jubilant? The young fellow was delighted to hear her, and stood quite still and smiled down on her as she with nimble fingers stuck a violet and a leaf into the top button-hole of his coat. He very nearly gave her a kiss—nobody was looking on, and her shining parting was ...
— Absolution • Clara Viebig
... blossoms, and prettily tinted leaves. "See, Tulee," said she, "what a many flowers! I'm going to make haste and dress the table, before Gerald and Rosa come to breakfast." They took graceful shape under her nimble fingers, and, feeling happy in her work, she ...
— A Romance of the Republic • Lydia Maria Francis Child
... which looks like an island of feathers in the plain; behind it several pointed roofs appear half hidden. So they all made for it, their feet slipping or sinking into the soaked soil. Sylvestre runs foremost, on his longer, more nimble legs. ...
— An Iceland Fisherman • Pierre Loti
... and its mighty problems. All the broad and spacious corridors of his mind were closed and hermetically sealed. The echoing chamber of his soul was a narrow room, a conning tower, whence were directed his arm and shoulder muscles, his ten nimble fingers, and the swift-moving iron along its steaming path in broad, sweeping strokes, just so many strokes and no more, just so far with each stroke and not a fraction of an inch farther, rushing along interminable ...
— Martin Eden • Jack London
... nearest cottage to borrow some eggs, and to gather vegetables in the garden, whilst she herself made the pigeon pie with the standing crust, much wishing that the soldiers were out of the way. It was a pretty thing to see her in her white apron, with her neat dexterous fingers, and nimble quiet step, doing everything in so short a time, and so well, without ...
— The Pigeon Pie • Charlotte M. Yonge
... remnant of mine honour! Thou hast taken a player's part like a man, and thou art a good fellow, Nicholas Attwood, and I love thee. So thou art going to Coventry to see the players act? Surely thine is a nimble wit to follow fancy nineteen miles. Come; I am going to Coventry to join my fellows. Wilt thou go with me, Nick, and dine with us this night at the best inn in all Coventry—the Blue Boar? Thou hast ...
— Master Skylark • John Bennett
... established on so firm a basis of mutual confidence that when he rose and walked to the table she didn't lift her eyes from the paper on which she was drawing a diagram of her father's house. He stood watching her nimble fingers, fascinated by the boldness of her plan for restoring amity between Shaver's grandfathers, and filled ...
— A Reversible Santa Claus • Meredith Nicholson
... is fixed—away— Away, thou heedless boy! prepare the spear: Now is thy time, to perish, or display The skill that yet may check his mad career! With well-timed croupe[91] the nimble coursers veer; On foams the Bull, but not unscathed he goes; Streams from his flank the crimson torrent clear: He flies, he wheels, distracted with his throes; Dart follows dart—lance, lance—loud bellowings ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 2 • George Gordon Byron
... of an English custom house, the travellers passed out to the waiting train. A nimble little theatrical agent of some kind, sent from London, dashed forward to receive Miss Black. He had a first-class compartment engaged for her and he bundled her and her maid into it in an exuberance of enthusiasm and admiration.. Coleman ...
— Active Service • Stephen Crane
... and main! They that will have Heaven must run for it, because the devil will follow them. There is never a poor soul that is gone to it, but he is after that soul. And I assure them the devil is nimble; he is light of foot, and can run apace. He hath overtaken many, tripped up their heels, and given them an everlasting ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... drawing-room for a cup of tea. One or two friends are dropping in presently, and the Beechers and one or two more are upstairs now. You know the Beechers, don't you, Rosalind? Here, Miss Peel, let me help you to unburden yourself. Little Rose is so nimble in her ways that she doesn't ...
— A Sweet Girl Graduate • Mrs. L.T. Meade
... so This way the Chamois leapt: her nimble feet Have baffled me; my gains to-day will scarce Repay my break-neck travail.—What is here? Who seems not of my trade, and yet hath reached 60 A height which none even of our mountaineers, Save our best hunters, may attain: his garb Is goodly, his mien manly, and his ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron
... This consisted of a volume of Mr. ——, but perhaps I had better not mention names; it might be liable to misconstruction. I hope I have said enough to show what a fascinating and delightful game it is. No appliances are required (as with dominoes), except one's own nimble brain; and I think Platitudes will soon sweep the country. Signs are not wanting that Clumps and Dumb Crambo are already becoming back ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 8, 1914 • Various
... nothing, but fell to a more diligent search, while Percy bewailed his loss, watching eagerly David's nimble fingers moving in and out of the ...
— Five Little Peppers Grown Up • Margaret Sidney
... caught one backward slanting glimpse of him and fled just as the wolf's teeth clashed a bare inch short of his hamstring, and Breed was off in pursuit of an animal whose speed matched his own. This prey was no awkwardly galloping steer but a nimble beast that swept ahead in twenty-foot bounds, and after fifty yards Breed was still ten feet behind. Then a yellow streak darted over a windfall jam and Peg flashed at the buck. The deer turned almost at right angles ...
— The Yellow Horde • Hal G. Evarts
... something with its surplus energy; and as political opposition is sure to prove futile, there is nothing left to do but to talk—not only politics, but art, poetry, religion, in fact, everything under the sun. At the time, however, when Albrecht, the hero of "Without a Centre," plied his nimble tongue, the country had a more liberal Government, and criticism of the Ministry was not yet high treason. But centuries of repression and the practical exclusion of the bourgeoisie from public life were undoubtedly the fundamental causes of this ...
— Essays on Scandinavian Literature • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
... some contiguous jungle and make after him like a locomotive engine too late for the train. Then poor Juniper would streak it for the nearest crowd of people, diving and dodging amongst their shins with nimble skill, shrieking all the time like a panther. He was as earnest about it as if he had made a bet upon the result of the race. Of course everybody was too busy to stop, but in his blind terror the ...
— Cobwebs From an Empty Skull • Ambrose Bierce (AKA: Dod Grile)
... the Dutch physician Lemnius (1505-1568), music is a chief antidote against melancholy; it revives the languishing soul, affecting not only the ears, but the vital and animal spirits. It erects the mind, and makes it nimble. ...
— Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery • Robert Means Lawrence
... in this case that love lit the girl's mind to good purpose. She'd laugh with her father sometimes, that Sam hadn't no dazzling sense of fun himself, and it entertained her a lot to see Sam plodding in his mind after her nimble-witted father and trying in vain to see a joke. But what delighted her most was Sam's own dark forebodings about Mr. Green's manner of life, and his high-minded hopes that some day, come he was Chawner's son-in-law, he would save ...
— The Torch and Other Tales • Eden Phillpotts
... had not always commanded his own assent;—"continued reform in Parliament, to which I have, with my whole heart, given my poor assistance." The Duke remembered how the bathers' clothes were stolen, and that Sir Orlando had been one of the most nimble-fingered of the thieves. "No popery, Irish grievances, the ballot, retrenchment, efficiency of the public service, all have ...
— The Prime Minister • Anthony Trollope
... sounds his note, playing sweet and low on his pipes of reed: not even she could excel him in melody—that bird who in flower-laden spring pouring forth her lament utters honey-voiced song amid the leaves. At that hour the clear-voiced nymphs are with him and move with nimble feet, singing by some spring of dark water, while Echo wails about the mountain-top, and the god on this side or on that of the choirs, or at times sidling into the midst, plies it nimbly with his feet. On his back he wears a spotted lynx-pelt, and he delights in high-pitched songs in a ...
— Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica • Homer and Hesiod
... he came back to the scenery, and described it, detail by detail, from the Thousand Islands to St. Paul; naming its names with such facility, tripping along his theme with such nimble and confident ease, slamming in a three-ton word, here and there, with such a complacent air of 't isn't-anything,-I-can-do-it-any-time-I- want-to, and letting off fine surprises of lurid eloquence at such judicious intervals, that I ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... glad, my friend, thy nimble pen has got so far upon its journey. What remains of my story may be despatched in a trice. I have just now some vacant hours, which might possibly be more usefully employed, but not in an easier manner or more pleasant. So, let me ...
— Arthur Mervyn - Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 • Charles Brockden Brown
... creaked in complaining pulleys, blocks rattled, hoisting-engines coughed and strangled, while all the air was redolent of oakum, of pitch, of paint, of spices, of ripe fruit, of clean cool lumber, of coffee, of tar, of bilge, and the brisk, nimble ...
— Blix • Frank Norris
... his sandals bound, And lifted from the deck his glitt'ring spear. Then, as Telemachus had bidden them, Son of divine Ulysses, casting loose 670 The hawsers, forth they push'd into the Deep And sought the city, while with nimble pace Proceeding thence, Telemachus attain'd The cottage soon where good Eumaeus slept, The swine-herd, faithful ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer
... threads, which are always moving, and which are of a lighter color at the ends; the corselet is smaller, rounder, and more brilliant than that of the flies; and the belly is covered with black scales. But these little beasts trot away, scamper away so fast with their nimble legs, that one cannot see them. What delicate forms they have! they must have worn corsets when they were young. Ah! there is a sort of knot in this thread which fastens the corselet to the belly. Wait, little fellow, wait while I look at you a little nearer!" The small, ...
— Piccolissima • Eliza Lee Follen
... next point, I heard their pipings and the sharp, up-sliding Cheeeep! which was the mother's signal to swoop. Paddling up under the point in my canoe, I found them all wheeling and diving over a shoal, where I knew the fish were smaller and more nimble, and where there were lily pads for a haven of refuge, whither no hawk could follow them. Twenty times I saw them swoop only to miss, while the mother circled above or beside them, whistling advice and encouragement. And when at last they struck their fish and bore away towards ...
— Wood Folk at School • William J. Long
... in shepherds' cells), And too-too well the fair vermillion knew And silver tincture of her cheeks that drew The love of every swain. On her this god Enamour'd was, and with his snaky rod Did charm her nimble feet, and made her stay, The while upon a hillock down he lay, 400 And sweetly on his pipe began to play, And with smooth speech her fancy to assay, Till in his twining arms he lock'd her fast, And then he woo'd with kisses; and at last, As shepherds do, her on the ground he laid, ...
— The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Christopher Marlowe
... ran swiftly through the woods, The nimble deer to take, That with their cries the hills and dales An ...
— English Songs and Ballads • Various
... the voweling of her name, and because she was so nimble with youth could dance away from these moods of his rather ...
— The Vertical City • Fannie Hurst
... he." The objector's principle of interpretation is a philosopher's stone! Its miracle touch transmutes five feet eight inches of flesh and bones into solid silver! Quite a permanent servant, if not so nimble withal—reasoning against "forever," is forestalled henceforth, and, Deut. xxiii. 15, quite outwitted. The obvious meaning of the phrase, "He is his money," is, he is worth money to his master, and since, if the master had killed ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... said old Nokomis: "Bring not here an idle maiden, Bring not here a useless woman, Hands unskilful, feet unwilling; Bring a wife with nimble fingers, Heart and hand that move together, Feet that ...
— The Song Of Hiawatha • Henry W. Longfellow
... satisfying only half of himself. The other half he had tried to quiet with man-made things, with the artificial products of civilization. He had thought to allay that deep, undefined hunger in him with travel and sports and the attentions of hirelings. It had been easy at first; but, keen as nimble wits had been to keep pace with his desires with an ever-increasing variety of luxuries, he had exhausted them all within a decade and been ...
— The Triflers • Frederick Orin Bartlett
... 21 O his nimble finger, his gnarled grip! Leagues, leagues of seamanship Slumber in these forsaken Bones, this sinew, ...
— Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins - Now First Published • Gerard Manley Hopkins
... layers of dirt and cobwebs, lovely countenances flowered from the walls. The scenes depicted differed indeed from those of Pontesordo, being less animated and homely and more difficult for a child to interpret; for here were naked laurel-crowned knights on prancing horses, nimble goat-faced creatures grouped in adoration round a smoking altar and youths piping to saffron-haired damsels on grass-banks set with poplars. The very strangeness of the fable set forth perhaps engaged the child's fancy; or the benignant mildness of the countenances, so unlike the ...
— The Valley of Decision • Edith Wharton
... was Hermod, his special attendant, a bright and beautiful young god, who was gifted with great rapidity of motion and was therefore designated as the swift or nimble god. ...
— Myths of the Norsemen - From the Eddas and Sagas • H. A. Guerber
... suddenly cut him short, crying, "Come, come, no more of this; an alarm is given, and we must save ourselves." With that he seized him firmly by the arm, and in a manner harled him out of the house and into the lane between the dykes, along which they ran with nimble heels. On reaching the Showgate they slackened their speed, still, however, walking as fast as they could till they came near the port, when they again drew in the bridle of their haste, going through among the guards that were loitering around the door of the wardroom, and passed out into the ...
— Ringan Gilhaize - or The Covenanters • John Galt
... venturing himself with us. Accordingly he promised, if such was the case, that the next time we went and found it safe, if we would return back and call him, he would certainly accompany us. 'In the mean time, do pray, Nimble,' said he, addressing himself to me, 'come with me to some other place, for I long to taste some more delicate food than our mother has provided for us: besides, as perhaps it may be a long while before we shall be strong enough to bring anything away with us, we had better leave that, in case we ...
— The Life and Perambulations of a Mouse • Dorothy Kilner
... just about to——" She stopped at sight of his lugubrious face, relented, and laughed. "Never mind! Don't take it to heart, and—are those violets for me? You are a dear, after all! I love them." She took them from his outstretched hand and buried her face in them, whilst he, usually so nimble of tongue and ready of word, was striving to overcome this alarming confusion and embarrassment that rendered him about as quick of wit as a soft-shelled clam. In fact, he felt like a jelly fish save that he was ...
— Mixed Faces • Roy Norton
... that king of soldiers, was the first that I have ever observed found the advantage of mixing small bodies of musketeers among his horse; and, had he had such nimble strong fellows as these, he would have prized them above all the rest of his men. These were those they call Highlanders. They would run on foot with their arms and all their accoutrements, and keep very good order too, and ...
— Memoirs of a Cavalier • Daniel Defoe
... out my handkerchief from my pocket, and hurriedly began to untie the knot. But my usually nimble fingers were provokingly slow to act now; and I pulled and pulled away, but to no purpose. The knot obstinately refused to yield. The man with the box had nearly reached our pew, and I began to fear I should lose ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various
... countenance, which carried in it something of magnanimity and majesty mixt with sweetnesse, that at the same time bespoke love and awe in all that saw him; his skin was smooth and white, his legs and feete excellently well made, he was quick in his pace and turnes, nimble and active and gracefull in all his motions, he was apt for any bodily exercise, and any that he did became him, he could dance admirably well, but neither in youth nor riper yeares made any practise of it, he had skill in fencing such as became a gentleman, he had a greate love of musick, and ...
— Characters from 17th Century Histories and Chronicles • Various
... King's ship, which was sent from England to Jamaica at the earnest request of Governor Modyford, for a "nimble frigate," to help keep control over the increasingly turbulent buccaneers. Collier's first act was to seize a French man-of-war, a privateer called the Cour Volent, of La Rochelle, commanded by M. la Vivon, his excuse being that the Frenchmen had robbed an English vessel of provisions. ...
— The Pirates' Who's Who - Giving Particulars Of The Lives and Deaths Of The Pirates And Buccaneers • Philip Gosse
... of sickness, were left behind by their relatives. One old gentleman, whose excessive corpulence rendered retreat on his part impossible, made a virtue of necessity; and, seating himself in his doorway with his loaded king's arm, upbraided his more nimble neighbors, advising them to do as he did, and "stop and shoot the devils." Many ludicrous instances of the intensity of the terror might be related. One man got his family into a boat to go to Ram Island for safety. He imagined he was pursued by the enemy through the dusk of the ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier
... Here, also, they lost sight of one another; for it was a part of the King's appointment, that each one must pass that dark part alone—it was called "the shadow of death." Gehulfe, I saw, walked through it easily; his feet were nimble and active, his lamp was bright, his golden vial ever in his hand, his staff firm to lean upon, and the book of light close before his eyes: he was still reading it aloud, and I heard him speak of his King as giving "songs in the night,"—and so, with a glad heart, he passed through ...
— The Rocky Island - and Other Similitudes • Samuel Wilberforce
... Lydia Vail had lived and died in her plump and pleasant creed, Jane and Sarah spent the night together, and this time there was no sprightly talk of Michael Daragh or Rodney Harrison and no pungent comparisons of them and their feelings for her; she was not talking now, the nimble-tongued Miss Vail, but the friend of her youth looked long at her glowing face, her deeply joyful eyes, and wondered, and sighed a little, and went back to talk of her most brilliant pupils and the worrying way her mother had of taking hard colds ...
— Jane Journeys On • Ruth Comfort Mitchell
... his rifle. His eye and piece, however, were too quick for them; for, bringing his piece into position and without dwelling upon his aim, he sped a bullet after the largest and the fattest of the noble game before him. He had wisely allowed for the first leap, for his shot caught the nimble animal in mid air and brought him to the earth, writhing in his death agony with a fearful wound through the heart and lungs, from which there was no escape. One quiver ran through the frame of the beautiful animal, when, he breathed his last. The echoing sound of the rifle ...
— The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself • De Witt C. Peters
... those soaring shapes gave an abrupt jerk backward and fell among the houses. The others swooped down exactly like great birds upon the roof of the power-house. They caught upon it, and from each sprang a nimble little figure ...
— The War in the Air • Herbert George Wells
... of despised workingmen's meetings, or in the writings or speeches of a few intellectual protestors, the dictum was proclaimed and instilled that conditions were just and good. In a thousand disingenuous ways, backed by nimble sophistry, the whole ruling class, with its clouds of retainers, turned out either an increasing flood of praise of these conditions, or masses of misinforming matter which tended to reconcile or blind the victim to ...
— History of the Great American Fortunes, Vol. I - Conditions in Settlement and Colonial Times • Myers Gustavus
... shining day; and, being young, they forgot their cares and rode gaily. For the most part the trail lay in a straight and lofty nave of aspen trees, rearing their slender, snowy pillars sixty, eighty—even a hundred feet aloft; and mingling their clusters of nimble, chattering leaves high overhead in the sun. There was nothing gloomy about this cathedral; the sun found a thousand apertures through which to launch his rays against the white pillars; while the green and mutable roof was bathed in almost intolerable radiance—it ...
— Two on the Trail - A Story of the Far Northwest • Hulbert Footner
... stepped off the towboat at Whitehall, near the Battery, that sunny morning in August, 1831, with only the experience of a score of years in life, a stout heart, quick brain, nimble fingers, and an abiding faith in God as his capital, his prospects certainly were not ...
— Eclectic School Readings: Stories from Life • Orison Swett Marden
... that he treated religious questions in a spirit of levity as the weak defence of those who know that irony and sarcasm are the deadliest enemies of their faith. Superstition dislikes argument, but it hates laughter. Nimble and far-flashing wit is more potent against error than the slow dull logic of the schools; and the great humorists and wits of the world have done far more to clear its head and sweeten its heart than all its sober philosophers ...
— Prisoner for Blasphemy • G. W. [George William] Foote
... toil'd the busy train, From morn to eve, till Drury Lane Leap'd like a roebuck from the plain? Ropes rose and sunk, and rose again, And nimble workmen trod; To realise bold Wyatt's plan Rush'd many a howling Irishman; Loud clatter'd many a porter-can, And many a ragamuffin clan With trowel ...
— Rejected Addresses: or, The New Theatrum Poetarum • James and Horace Smith
... prayers which David prays: "Lord, lead me in Thy path, and let me not walk in my own ways," and many like prayers, which are all summed up in the prayer, "Thy kingdom come." For the desires are so many, so various, and besides at times so nimble, so subtile and specious, through the suggestions of the evil one, that it is not possible for a man to control himself in his own ways. He must let hands and feet go, commend himself to God's governance, and entrust nothing to his reason, as Jeremiah ...
— A Treatise on Good Works • Dr. Martin Luther
... the mouth of the great Wadi Ghuzzeh, down which flowed for the last mile or so of its course clear fresh water. This attracted a great variety of birds, including flamingoes and storks, and on the bushes near the wadi were found these wonderfully nimble little green tree frogs. Small fish abounded in the pools; but pools were not popular with the malaria experts and attempts were being made to drain all casual water into one channel, put a little paraffin in the pools that could not be emptied by draining, and so either remove or render ineffective ...
— The Fifth Battalion Highland Light Infantry in the War 1914-1918 • F.L. Morrison
... cat is cunning, The long, lean cat is fleet, The nimble one is made for fun, The fluff-ball one is sweet, The Persian pussy's splendid, The Maltese kitty, too, But the special kind I have in mind Is best of all the crew. He's not too quick and frisky, Nor is he slow and fat; He's soft and warm and ...
— Zodiac Town - The Rhymes of Amos and Ann • Nancy Byrd Turner
... seem, indeed, that these large and agile creatures, living in the middle depths of the sea, must, to a large extent, for ever remain unknown to us, since under water they are too nimble for nets, and it is only by such rare, unlooked-for accidents that specimens can be obtained. In the case of Haploteuthis ferox, for instance, we are still altogether ignorant of its habitat, as ignorant as we are of the breeding-ground of the herring or the sea-ways of the salmon. And ...
— The Country of the Blind, And Other Stories • H. G. Wells
... savin' your presence, enough to knock you down; and, faith, the Waiver seen he had no time to lose, and so he threw himself off the horse, and made to a three that was growin' nigh hand, and away he clambered up into it as nimble as a cat; and not a minit had he to spare, for the dhraggin kem up in a powerful rage, and he devoured the horse, body and bones, in less than no time; and thin he began to sniffle and scent about for the Waiver, and at last he clapt his eye on him, ...
— Half-Hours with Great Story-Tellers • Various
... night a little child go singing 'Neath Casa Guidi windows, by the church, O bella liberta, O bella!—stringing The same words still on notes he went in search So high for, you concluded the upspringing Of such a nimble bird to sky from perch Must leave the whole bush in a tremble green, And that the heart of Italy must beat, While such a voice had leave to rise serene 'Twixt church and palace of a Florence street; A little child, too, who not long had been ...
— Poems Every Child Should Know - The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library • Various
... bacheler, With lockes crulle* as they were laid in press. *curled Of twenty year of age he was I guess. Of his stature he was of even length, And *wonderly deliver*, and great of strength. *wonderfully nimble* And he had been some time in chevachie*, *cavalry raids In Flanders, in Artois, and Picardie, And borne him well, *as of so little space*, *in such a short time* In hope to standen in his lady's grace. Embroider'd was he, as it were a mead ...
— The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems • Geoffrey Chaucer
... staid quietly at home in the cottage. Be that as it may, poor little Redbreast fell a victim to her hunger, and yet she considered him but a very poor supper, after all. He was the best she could get that night, however; for the other birds proved too nimble for her: so, weary and hungry, puss climbed up her tree again, and was soon asleep—for she was very tired indeed, with all she had done that day. The next morning, when she awoke, her limbs felt quite stiff; for the ...
— Tales From Catland, for Little Kittens • Tabitha Grimalkin
... experience the unknown joy of play of mind. According to their observation the tongue and mind are used only when needed for serious service: to keep them active, to allow them to perform whatever nimble feats their owners ...
— The Business of Being a Woman • Ida M. Tarbell
... his Bible, as one would imagine he ought to have done, instead of even taking up a psalm-book, and indulging in a spiritual song, he absolutely commenced whistling the Swaggering Jig, which he accompanied with as nimble a foot, and in as good time as if he had been a ...
— Valentine M'Clutchy, The Irish Agent - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton
... toward the sea, water soon after making its appearance in a mere thread, which suddenly leaped down from a crack in the side and found its way to the bottom: while as they were hurried on by their more nimble captors, the stream kept on increasing in volume by the help of the many ...
— Jack at Sea - All Work and no Play made him a Dull Boy • George Manville Fenn
... noble stranger slipped off the driving seat without troubling the cabman to stop his jerking crawl, and he did it so well that I had no chance of observing his nimble face or form. "You are disappointed," said the Major, which was the last thing I would have confessed. "You may see that man ten thousand times, and never be able to swear to him. Ha! ...
— Erema - My Father's Sin • R. D. Blackmore
... many Ladies have bedecked with favours Of rich esteeme, oh proud he deignd to weare them, Yet guiftes and givers hee did slight esteeme; For why? the purpose of his thoughts were bent To seek the love of faire Terentia. The cho[i]ce is such as choiser cannot bee Even with a nimble eye; his vertues through His smile is like the Meridian Sol Discern'd a dauncing in the burbling brook; His frowne out-dares the Austerest face Of warre or Tyranny to sease upon; His shape might force the Virgine huntresse ...
— A Collection Of Old English Plays, Vol. IV. • Editor: A.H. Bullen
... proceedings by the screams with which Miss Patty had now begun to shrilly echo Mr. Roarer's deep-mouthed bellowings - waited for his approach, and then, as the bull rushed on him - like a massive rock hurled forward by an avalanche - he leaped aside, nimble as a doubling hare. As he did so, he threw down his wide-awake, which the irate Mr. Roarer forthwith fell upon, and tossed, and tossed, and tore into shreds. By this time, Verdant had reached the bank of the Swirl; but before he could ...
— The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green • Cuthbert Bede
... it stood motionless against the cliff. Then it flung its arms wildly above its head, and with a nimble spring disappeared—upward. ...
— The Young Mountaineers - Short Stories • Charles Egbert Craddock
... nimble-fingered French soldiers had not been idle, and the camp was full of articles of value or interest, silks and curios, many of them rare prizes, watches, pencil-cases set with diamonds, jewelled vases, and a ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 12 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris
... enough to find that the nimble-footed dogs had got into the mountains, and that if we wanted to keep our ha'r, we'd only got to undertake to foller 'em thar. So we just tramped back agin, havin' our ...
— The Lost Trail - I • Edward S. Ellis
... puzzled Pepys, three years after the Restoration, "of great business and yet of pleasure and dissipation too." His rivals were as envious of the ease and mastery with which he dealt with questions of finance as of the "nimble wit" which won the favour of the king. Even in later years his industry earned the grudging praise of his enemies. Dryden owned that as Chancellor he was "swift to despatch and easy of access," and ...
— History of the English People, Volume VI (of 8) - Puritan England, 1642-1660; The Revolution, 1660-1683 • John Richard Green
... captain's little cottage on the Wem road, and spent an hour with him in mastering the principles and practice of what he called the noble arts of self defense. He was pleased to say that I was quick of eye and nimble of body, and, being on my side very eager to learn, I was speedily in his good books, and he seemed to take a special ...
— Humphrey Bold - A Story of the Times of Benbow • Herbert Strang
... regular order, with the beasts and mob of the army in the middle. They had not advanced far on their route when Mithridates made his appearance again, with about a couple of hundred horsemen at his back, and bowmen and slingers twice as many, as nimble fellows as a man might hope to see. He approached the Hellenes as if he were friendly; but when they had got fairly to close quarters, all of a sudden some of them, whether mounted or on foot, began shooting with their bows and arrows, and another ...
— Anabasis • Xenophon
... crowd below His chin, did dreve his nimble bow In tuens vor to meaeke us spring A-reelen, or in zongs to zing, An' there, between the dark an' light, Zot Poll by Willy's zide at night A-whisp'ren, while her eyes did zwim In jay avore the twilight dim; An' when (to know if she wer near) ...
— Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect • William Barnes
... from the fold, and five or six common fellows are sitting round the blazing wood. One might fancy they had stepped straight from the church floor to the stage, so natural do they look. Besides, they call themselves by common names—Colin, and Tom Lie-a-bed, and nimble Dick. Many a round laugh wakes echoes in the church when these shepherds stand up, and hold debate about a stolen sheep. Tom Lie-a-bed has nothing to remark but that he is very sleepy, and does not want to go in ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds
... Martha, the "Siren of the Kitchen," dance her way into Russian history, little dreaming, we may be sure, to what dizzy heights her nimble feet were to carry her. For a time she found her pleasure in the attentions of a non-commissioned officer, sharing the life of camp and barracks and making friends by the good-nature which bubbled in her, ...
— Love affairs of the Courts of Europe • Thornton Hall
... legs in nimble trip Lifts up, and makes a clearance! The crooked jump, the heavy skip, Nor ...
— Faust • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
... understanding of the difficulty of her task, and took pity upon the consort of the god of Love; and he ran deftly hither and thither, and called together the whole army of his fellows. "Have pity," he cried, "nimble scholars of the Earth, Mother of all things!—have pity upon the wife of Love, and hasten to help her in her perilous effort." Then, one upon the other, the hosts of the insect people hurried together; and they sorted asunder the whole heap ...
— Marius the Epicurean, Volume One • Walter Horatio Pater
... Meg and Jo, the pattern was chosen, the materials bought, and the slippers begun. A cluster of grave yet cheerful pansies on a deeper purple ground was pronounced very appropriate and pretty, and Beth worked away early and late, with occasional lifts over hard parts. She was a nimble little needlewoman, and they were finished before anyone got tired of them. Then she wrote a short, simple note, and with Laurie's help, got them smuggled onto the study table one morning before the ...
— Little Women • Louisa May Alcott
... countering,—little man's head not off yet. You might as well try to jump upon your own shadow as to hit the little man's intellectual features. He needn't have taken off the gold-bowed spectacles at all. Quick, cautious, shifty, nimble, cool, he catches all the fierce lunges or gets out of their reach, till his turn comes, and then, whack goes one of the batter puddings against the big one's ribs, and bang goes the other into the big one's face, and, staggering, shuffling, slipping, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 7, May, 1858 • Various
... Rapid ablutions would wake me up thoroughly. Horror! The water in the jug was frozen. Oh! not very deeply, no doubt; but all the same I had to break a coating of ice that had formed on the surface. However, I was happy to feel more nimble after having washed my face. Quick! Two warm waistcoats under my jacket, my large cloak with its cape, my fur gloves, my campaigning cap pulled over my ears, and there I was, with a candle in my hand, going down the grand staircase of ...
— In the Field (1914-1915) - The Impressions of an Officer of Light Cavalry • Marcel Dupont
... bright, pleasant day, and Nat was up betimes, clothed and fed for a start. With a light heart and nimble feet, he made rapid progress on his way, and the forenoon was not far gone when he reached Cornhill. He was not long in finding the bookstores, caring, apparently, for little else. Most boys of his age, in going to the city, would be attracted by other sights and scenes. The Museum, ...
— The Bobbin Boy - or, How Nat Got His learning • William M. Thayer
... Cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasance, Age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, Age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave, Age like winter bare: Youth is full of sport, Age's breath is short, Youth is nimble, Age is lame: Youth is hot and bold, Age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, and Age is tame:— Age, I do abhor thee, Youth, I do adore thee; O! my Love, my Love is young! Age, I do defy thee— O, sweet shepherd, hie thee, For methinks thou ...
— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various
... incident in Robert's home life fell suddenly into place under suspicion's nimble fingers. Up to that time he had been reasonably sure of the integrity of his hearthstone. Only within those eight weeks had these new symptoms been developing in the conduct of the wife of his bosom, the mother of his little daughter, Betty. ...
— Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 5, June 1905 • Various
... moved across the room to do so. Prudence looked after him. When he returned he sat himself in Alice's chair, having brought it nearer to the machine. Then followed a long silence while the machine rattled down a seam. The man watched the nimble fingers intently as they guided the material under the needle. The bent head prevented him seeing more than the barest outline of the girl's cheek, but he seemed content. Now that the moment had arrived for him to speak, he was ...
— The Hound From The North • Ridgwell Cullum
... robbing me." "What kind of thief may it be, lord, that thou couldst put into thy glove?" said she. "Behold I will tell thee," he answered. Then he showed her how his fields had been wasted and destroyed, and how the mice came to the last of the fields in his sight. "And one of them was less nimble than the rest, and is now in my glove; to-morrow I will hang it, and before Heaven, if I had them, I would hang them all." "My lord," said she, "this is marvellous; but yet it would be unseemly for a man of dignity like thee to be hanging such ...
— The Mabinogion • Lady Charlotte Guest
... gravely seated himself on the floor, and implored Katie and Dolores to help him. This they did, and their united efforts succeeded in loosening Mrs. Russell's grasp. The stricken lady gave a gasp and raised her head, but "His Majesty" was too nimble for her. By a desperate movement he withdrew from her reach, and stood for a ...
— A Castle in Spain - A Novel • James De Mille
... Vinsaf.] He was tall of stature, and well proportioned, faire and comelie of face, so as in his countenance appeared much fauour and grauitie, of haire bright aborne, as it were betwixt red and yellow, with long armes, and nimble in all his ioints his thighes and legs were of due proportion, and answerable to the other parts of ...
— Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (6 of 12) - Richard the First • Raphael Holinshed
... neither of us used to such an idle, useless life, and it will be the death of us, citizen doctor. My wife, Jeanne Marie, whom you see lying there so pale and still, used to be the liveliest and most nimble woman about, and could do as much with her strong arms and brown hands as four other women. And then she was the bravest and most outrageous republican that ever was, when it came to battling for the people. We both helped to storm the Bastile, both ...
— Marie Antoinette And Her Son • Louise Muhlbach
... not think so, for by this the young lord had several advantages; first, by the wholesome, though not delicate or too palatable diet he prescribed to him and used him with, he began to have a wholesome complexion, so nimble and strong, that he was able to endure Stress and fatigue, labour and travel, which proved very useful to him in his after life; secondly, he did not only learn the language but became thoroughly acquainted with and learned the genius of his several tribes ...
— History Of The Mackenzies • Alexander Mackenzie
... prettiest fellow At football or at cricket: At hunting chase or nimble race How featly he ...
— Old English Sports • Peter Hampson Ditchfield
... a large class of persons who are often of acute and nimble intelligence, in general ability equal to or above the average, of an active, bustling disposition, but who are utterly devoid of industry. For by industry we mean steady persistence in a continuous employment in spite of monotony and distastefulness; an ...
— Epilepsy, Hysteria, and Neurasthenia • Isaac G. Briggs
... the gas on the pavement is streaming, And young Love is watching, and old Love is dreaming, And Beauty is whirl'd off to conquest, where shrilly Cremona makes nimble thy toes, Piccadilly! ...
— London Lyrics • Frederick Locker
... in which the tender graces of a Christian heart are never unfolded; in which a prayer is never uttered! How many fathers are there whose lips are black with profanity and foul with obscenity, and whose lives are mean and unwholesome! How many mothers are there whose tongues are nimble with scandal and bitter with scolding, and whose brains are busy with vanities and jealousies! Ah! if there be any man or woman in this world who has no moral right to have a child, it is one who has not a single trait of character desirable to be reproduced in a child. Scrofula may be bad, ...
— Lessons in Life - A Series of Familiar Essays • Timothy Titcomb
... Tugwell on board of the London Trader, and heard from his own lips that he was one of her crew, it is certain that he would have made a strict search of her hold, according to his orders in suspicious cases. And if he had done this, it is probable that he never would have set his nimble feet on deck again, for Perkins (the American who passed as Sam Polwhele) had a heavy ship-pistol in his great rough pocket, ready for the back of the young officer's head if he had probed below the cheeses and firkins of butter. Only two men had ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore
... Prodigue. What a chance there would have been for him in games with the street-boys! Mlle. LEGNANI—so called, of course, from the graceful facility with which she remains for several seconds at a time on one leg—is both a pretty and nimble representative of the Dancing Princess. The Slave of the Ring does not appear in this story, as far as I could gather, only the Spirit of the Lamp, Signorina POLLINI, puts in an appearance, and a very splendid appearance it is too! Mr. JOHN HOLLINGSHEAD is to be congratulated on having ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 104, January 14, 1893 • Various
... indiscretion with my sufferings, for with the inclement night, and the wet of the ditch in which we lay, I was well nigh frozen to death; and when I could endure no longer, I jogged Ulysses who was next to me, and had a nimble ear, and made known my case to him, assuring him that I must inevitably perish. He answered in a low whisper, 'Hush, lest any Greek should hear you, and take notice of your softness.' Not a word more he said, but shewed as if he had no pity for the plight ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb
... country inhabited by a wild sort of people, of prodigious stature, fierce and barbarous, and making a strange roaring noise, more like the bellowing of bulls, than human speech. Notwithstanding their prodigious bulk, these people were so nimble that none of the Spaniards or Portuguese were swift enough to overtake them. At this place there was a fine river of fresh water, the mouth of which was fully seventeen leagues wide, in which there were seven islands, the largest of which they named the island of St Mary, where they ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr
... betwixt the mace and his head; but the violence of the blow forced the buckler down on his turban, and though that defence also contributed to deaden its violence, the Saracen was beaten from his horse. Ere the Christian could avail himself of this mishap, his nimble foeman sprung from the ground, and, calling on his steed, which instantly returned to his side, he leaped into his seat without touching the stirrup, and regained all the advantage of which the Knight of the Leopard hoped to deprive him. But the latter had in the meanwhile ...
— The Talisman • Sir Walter Scott
... have made, may I be pardoned another? There are many good cooks in the U.S.A. Why not commission these to sometimes prepare a recherche Chinese dinner, with the food served in bowls instead of plates, and with chop-sticks ("nimble lads" we call them) for show, but forks and spoons for use. I see no reason why Chinese meals should not become fashionable in America, as Western preparations are frequently favored by the Elite in China. One marked difference between the two styles is the manner ...
— America Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat • Wu Tingfang
... Dot should look upon the scene that would haunt her, as it would haunt him, to her dying day. He meant to hold her back until he could take a look inside; but her nimble feet carried her ahead, and she was on the porch before ...
— The Story of Red Feather - A Tale of the American Frontier • Edward S. (Edward Sylvester) Ellis
... somewhere overhead on the piazza roof; a rope was suddenly dropped over the edge of the eaves, and almost immediately a pair of very immodestly bare legs were lowered into view, followed by the rest of Nickey Burke's person, attired in his nightshirt. It was the work of a moment for the nimble boy to slide down the rope onto the ground. But, as he landed on his feet, finding himself in the august presence of the missionary circle, he remarked "Gee Whitaker bee's wax!" and prudently took to his ...
— Hepsey Burke • Frank Noyes Westcott
... hind they start, And after the nimble roe as well; The long day’s space endur’d the chase, Till murky night ...
— Marsk Stig - a ballad - - - Translator: George Borrow • Thomas J. Wise
... a hand at picking a pocket as a woman, and is as nimble-fingered as a juggler. If an unlucky session does not cut the rope of his life, I pronounce he will be a great ...
— The King's Own • Captain Frederick Marryat
... for ancient battles like Lepanto, but of no use against a modern fleet like Drake's. Most of them could hardly have been more nearly useless if they had been just so many elephants fighting killer whales at sea. Do what they could, they could not catch the nimble Sea-Dogs who were biting them to death. But they still fought on. Their crowded soldiers were simply targets for the English cannon-balls. Sometimes the Spanish vessels were seen to drip a horrid red, as if the very decks were bleeding. But when, at the end of the week, ...
— Flag and Fleet - How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas • William Wood
... unobtrusive piece of sleight-of-hand which she hurriedly and skilfully executed. When the needle slipped from Sebastian's hand, she leant forward even as she screamed, and caught it, unobserved, in the folds of her apron. Then her nimble fingers closed over it as if by magic, and conveyed it with a rapid movement at once to her pocket. I do not think even Sebastian himself noticed the quick forward jerk of her eager hands, which would have done honour ...
— Hilda Wade - A Woman With Tenacity Of Purpose • Grant Allen |
