"Quill pen" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... countenance, on the contrary, was all puckered up in the most comical way; while his brows were knit as he chewed the feather end of his quill pen trying to get inspiration from that source how to properly write some long ...
— Crown and Anchor - Under the Pen'ant • John Conroy Hutcheson
... of sixteen who is sitting there astride of a chair, in the middle of the floor, biting the end of a quill pen, is the redoubtable Horace Wraysford, the gentleman, it will be remembered, who is in want of a fag. Wraysford is one of the best "all-round men" in the Fifth, or indeed in the school. He is certain to be in the School Eleven against the County, certain to win the mile race and the ...
— The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's - A School Story • Talbot Baines Reed
... "You are a wise child," he said. "My writing isn't the plainest in the world, but I'll do my best. I have some sheets of good smooth paper in my sea-chest, and a good quill pen, too. Elder Haven fixed the pen for me from the feather of a wild goose I killed on the marshes last spring. But I do not think there is such a thing as ink in the house; but I can make a fair ink with the juice of the elderberry and a fair ...
— A Little Maid of Province Town • Alice Turner Curtis
... as if he had been called, and looked with intentness at a fallen book and upset inkstand. There was a quill pen balancing itself in an absurd manner with its nib stuck in the cane bottom of an overturned chair. He took it out and laid it on the table. He saw his hat in a corner, stooped for it, missed it several times, and then got hold of it, and put it on. There was a little glass ...
— Prisoners - Fast Bound In Misery And Iron • Mary Cholmondeley
... long gallery in which the Crown valuables were stored. In one compartment there was a great display of emeralds, and diamonds, and rubies, and I know not what, that had been looted from some Indian rajah or other. And in the next case there lay a common quill pen, and beside it a little bit of discoloured coarse serge. The pen had signed some important treaty, and the serge was a fragment of a flag that had been borne triumphant from a field where a nation's destinies had been sealed. ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers • Alexander Maclaren
... he thus expressed his commiseration was sitting with his high chair tilted back, with his knees against the edge of his desk, with his hat almost down upon his nose as he looked at his visitors from under it, and he amused himself by cutting up a quill pen into small pieces with his penknife. It was not pleasant to be pitied by such a man as that, and so ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope
... drachm of clean rain water, put into it, in a clean vial, 10 or 12 drops of pure, clean sulphuric acid, and it is ready for use; write with this using a clean quill pen on letter paper, and when dry you can see no mark at all, then hold it to a strong heat and the writing becomes as black as jet. If you want to write to a young lady or gentleman, as the case may be, and fearing that the letter might ...
— Young's Demonstrative Translation of Scientific Secrets • Daniel Young
... silvery because the bell was of silver. Bones looked up, pulled down his waistcoat, smoothed back his hair, fixed his eye-glass, and took up a long quill pen with ...
— Bones in London • Edgar Wallace
... owing to the use of a quill pen and the neglect of blotting-paper, was hopelessly illegible. Every one tried, and every one failed to decipher an important word on which the interest of one whole clause (and the letter ...
— Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson - Volume 2 • Robert Louis Stevenson
... watch Captain Solomon writing up the log for the day. He always wrote it just after dinner. And when he had finished dinner, he would get out the book and clear a place on the table to put it; and then he took a quill pen in his great fist and wrote, very slowly, and with flourishes. And when he had it done he always passed the book over ...
— The Sandman: His Sea Stories • William J. Hopkins
... the brisk little man, with the aid of his two clerks, pushed a table into place, arranged writing materials, and, seating himself with a great air of formality, investigated a quill pen, spread out his contract, and surveyed the company with the air of one who should say: "I have done, and done well, all that it becometh me to do; it is now for you to play ...
— The Duke's Motto - A Melodrama • Justin Huntly McCarthy
... Douglas learned the alphabet and numbers. In some way Mrs. Matair learned that Douglas was learning to read and write. One morning after breakfast she called her son Willie to the dining room where she was seated and then sent for Douglas to come there too. She then took a quill pen the kind used at that time, and began writing the alphabet and numerals as far as ten. Holding the paper up to Douglas, she asked him if he knew what they were; he proudly answered in the affirmative, not suspecting anything. She then asked him to name the ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Florida Narratives • Works Projects Administration
... to Judy. "We'll put him in a special carriage with his horse, and I'll make out a label for the window, so that every one will know." He went over to the table and wrote "BEAST" in capital letters on a half-sheet of paper. The cumbersome quill pen ...
— The Extra Day • Algernon Blackwood
... a good deal more elated than I was by the letter I received from Mr. Sylvanus Creed, the well-known connoisseur and arbiter of literary taste, who presided over the fortunes of the publishing house that bore his name. This letter—written with distinction and a quill pen upon beautifully embossed deckle-edged paper, which seemed to me to have a subtle perfume about it—requested the pleasure of my company at luncheon with the great Sylvanus; the place his ...
— The Record of Nicholas Freydon - An Autobiography • A. J. (Alec John) Dawson
... frequently observed, Watson, the impression usually goes through—a fact which has dissolved many a happy marriage. However, I can find no trace here. I rejoice, however, to perceive that he wrote with a broad-pointed quill pen, and I can hardly doubt that we will find some impression upon this blotting-pad. Ah, yes, surely ...
— The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Magazine Edition • Arthur Conan Doyle
... muttered the stockbroker, as he recognised traces of his brother's sprawling penmanship upon the pad. The message had been written with a heavy hand and a spongy quill pen, and had left a tolerably clear impression of its ...
— Birds of Prey • M. E. Braddon
... wall at either side, and over the fire-place itself two doors opened and there were shelves inside, broader at the top as the chimney sloped back. I saw some writing on one of these doors and went nearer to read it. There was a date at the top, some time in 1802, and his reverence had had a good quill pen and ink which bravely stood the test of time; he must have been a tall man to have written so high. I thought it might be some record of a great storm or other notable event in his house or parish, but I was amused to find that he had written ...
— Deephaven and Selected Stories & Sketches • Sarah Orne Jewett
... Thus he secures a letter from her, but learns that the artful minx had written it before he entered. Her ink-stained fingers, the disappearance of a sheet of paper from his writing desk, and the condition of his quill pen convince Bartolo on his return that he is being deceived, and he resolves that henceforth his ward shall be more closely confined than ever. And so he informs her, while she mimics his angry gestures behind his back. In another moment there is a boisterous knocking and shouting ...
— A Book of Operas - Their Histories, Their Plots, and Their Music • Henry Edward Krehbiel
... flickered at the corners of Shangois's mouth, and he said, with a dry inflection, as he dipped and redipped his quill pen in the inkhorn: ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... order. For instance, where mention is made of money spent on behalf of one person in his house, he puts at the side of the page a clay pipe, rudely drawn; an entry of the payment of wages to another servant has a jug of ale; another a quill pen; another a couple of brooms, as the housemaid; a fiddle for the dancing master for his daughter; payment made to the sexton or parish-clerk has a representation of the village church by its side, and the window-tax a small lattice-window; and on the days that ...
— Notes & Queries 1850.01.26 • Various
... 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to cheer me up, but by bed-time I had reasoned myself out of the whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a quill pen and seven sheets of foolscap paper I ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Stories • Various
... the room. There was no sound for a moment but the scratching of Sir Alfred's quill pen across the paper. Presently Harrison returned with the whiskey and soda. Sir Alfred handed him ...
— The Kingdom of the Blind • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... supplies three respectable newspapers with the terms of abuse and vituperation they use, and she has herself been at Amack as an invited guest; but she was carried out thither, for she does not own a quill pen, nor can she ride. She has told me all about it. Half of what she said is not true, but the other half gives us information enough. When she was out there, the festivities began with a song; each of the guests had written his own song, and each one sang his own song, for he thought ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen
... of mine, remarkable for its size, its shape, and its coloration, legitimately attracted the attention of the fairy; for she seized my goose-quill pen, which was sticking up from the ink- bottle like a plume, and she began to pass the feather-end of that pen over my nose. I had had more than once, in company, occasion to suffer cheerfully from the innocent ...
— The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard • Anatole France
... an old quill pen. There was nothing remarkable about her except that she had been dipped too deeply into the ink. But she was ...
— The Pink Fairy Book • Various
... five years, she sent me a cheque for L50 at Christmas. It was signed by her husband! I returned it to her in a thousand pieces and in an unstamped envelope. So at least I had the satisfaction of knowing that it cost her something! She wrote back with a broad quill pen that covered a whole page with three lines, "You are evidently as cracked as ever, and rude and ungrateful into the bargain." It had always been my special terror lest the insanity in my father's family should leap across the generations and appear in me. This ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) - Ghost Stories • Various
... spare. You go into the outer office (there's only one entrance—the big one in Threadneedle Street) and find on the right-hand side of the circular counter a ledger. The ledger is open: there is blotting-paper and a quill pen beside it. Everyone's name is written in alphabetical order on the one side of the ledger and on the other side there is a blank page ruled down the middle with a red line. Having made your appearance at ten ...
— Not George Washington - An Autobiographical Novel • P. G. Wodehouse
... an eloquent silence. Then a ripple of guffaws. Then the scratch-scratch of a quill pen, and ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... turned to the table, drew a sheet of paper toward him, and picked up a quill pen, which he examined critically before dipping it into the ink. Again he turned to ...
— The King's Arrow - A Tale of the United Empire Loyalists • H. A. Cody
... he took from his table drawer some sheets of foolscap, spread the nib of a quill pen on his thumb nail, and beckoned Fitz to his side, that I noticed any difference even in ...
— Colonel Carter of Cartersville • F. Hopkinson Smith
... taking another large piece of paper, and a spluttering quill pen, wrote on it, with a ...
— St. Winifred's - The World of School • Frederic W. Farrar
... of drawers—the drawers in the bureau and the bookcases were opened and shut sharply—writing-paper was flung on the table, and he sat down to write a letter with a scratchy quill pen. The letter written was ordered to post immediately, and the poking, and stirring, and grunting recommenced. Thus there was tribulation in the house of the head ...
— Amaryllis at the Fair • Richard Jefferies
... he could tell others how. So Miss Barrett showed her poems to Mr. Kenyon, and Mr. Kenyon advised that the P's be made bolder and the tails to the Q's be lengthened. He also bought her a new kind of manuscript paper, over which a quill pen would glide with glee: it was the kind Byron used. But best of all, Mr. Kenyon brought his friends to call on Miss Barrett; and many of these friends were men with good literary instincts. The meeting with these strong minds was no doubt a great help to the little lady, shut up ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 2 of 14 - Little Journeys To the Homes of Famous Women • Elbert Hubbard
... of the last war against Great Britain "Non-Intercourse Quills" were for sale. This reminds us that most young people know but little about quills of any kind, and probably not one in a hundred knows, in these days, how to make a quill pen. Quills were in pretty general use for writing until about 1835 or 1836, when steel pens took their place to some extent, although quill pens were used by many down to a comparatively recent period, and occasionally a person ...
— The Olden Time Series, Vol. 4: Quaint and Curious Advertisements • Henry M. Brooks
... in this decision, and with the aid of a great quill pen stiffly traced the address of his eldest son, who practised as a solicitor ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson
... writing, muttering to himself, biting the end of his quill pen. He had not apparently been aware of his son's entrance, but suddenly he sprang up, pushed back his chair until it nearly fell over, and began to stride up and down the room. He was a fine figure then, throwing up his head, flinging out his ...
— The Cathedral • Hugh Walpole
... not only by jellyfish but also by the GRAPTOLITE, which takes its name from a fancied resemblance of some of its forms to a quill pen. It was a composite animal with a horny framework, the individuals of the colony living in cells strung on one or both sides along a hollow stem, and communicating by means of a common flesh in this central tube. Some graptolites were straight, and some curved or spiral; some were single stemmed, ...
— The Elements of Geology • William Harmon Norton
... business," replied Mogente quietly. As he spoke the door opened and an old man came in. He had papers and a quill pen in his hand. ...
— The Velvet Glove • Henry Seton Merriman
... he puts me on the horse's back. It is such fun! I play in the field a great deal. Grandpa lets me walk on the haycocks. I pick berries for grandma. They give us cheese with our coffee. I wish you were here with us. Baby has written you a letter. She took grandma's quill pen, and she spilled the ink. Can you read her letter? She says she wrote "How are you, papa? I ...
— Libro segundo de lectura • Ellen M. Cyr |
