"Awkward squad" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the awkward squad this morning, colonel! Let me see if I can manage them better. Now, men! Hold your tool higher there, you to the left. Bless your heart, man, it's a carbine you've got in your hand, not a frying-pan! Are you all straight? ...
— The Gadfly • E. L. Voynich
... magnificence and power of his position. We rose and saluted. When he metaphorically told us to "stand easy", we all sat down. I do not know what the feelings of the others were, but I had an impression that we were rather an awkward squad, neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. The General gave us a heart to heart talk. He told us he was going to send us with "the boys." From his manner I inferred that he looked upon us a kind of auxiliary and quite dispensable ...
— The Great War As I Saw It • Frederick George Scott
... more or less fantastically, as well as he remembered, evolutions on the parade-grounds, where he accompanied his father, all was amusing. But he terminated his first steps in the school of "Hardee's Tactics," the standard text-book of the period, by bringing his awkward squad from the servants' hall, and, relieving the sentries, replaced the genuine with these tyros. For the sake of the vacation they, the regulars, bowed to the commission with its potent Stanton and Lincoln, and United States Army seal. His brother, startled, ...
— The Lincoln Story Book • Henry L. Williams
... understands better than any others, unless it be Higginson and Phillips, just what we need. Give my love and best wishes to the household of faith." Channing, when she wanted him to preside at a meeting, answered facetiously: "Napoleon will not be surprised that a corporal of an awkward squad hesitates to appear in command ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper
... and Ram," said Rooney, sitting down on a stool and making the two men stand before him like a small awkward squad, "I'm goin' to taich you about pumps an' pumpin', so pay attintion av ye plaze. Hids up an' ears on full ...
— Under the Waves - Diving in Deep Waters • R M Ballantyne
... to keep up a peace establishment of sixty thousand troops. These troops were disciplined in such a manner, that, placed beside them, the household regiments of Versailles and St. James's would have appeared an awkward squad. The master of such a force could not but be regarded by all his neighbours as a formidable ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... touch the air in flight. Well had he won and kept from harm The honor'd stripes upon his arm. Such men as he have been the stay Of Britain in her darkest day! And Sergeant Johnston who, with skill, The raw and awkward squad could drill— A warrior in air and tone, Who had his country service done— Straight as a ramrod, and his might Of voice would Lambkin's soul delight. And brave John Murphy—champion John! I can't ...
— Recollections of Bytown and Its Old Inhabitants • William Pittman Lett
... Piddie?" says I. "Why do I get one of your awkward squad who'll probably spell 'such' with a t in it and punctuate by the ...
— Torchy and Vee • Sewell Ford
... Cumberback (a name in which he said his horse would have concurred), it seems strange that, in such stirring times, his regiment should not have been ordered off on foreign service. In such case that pre-eminent member of the awkward squad would assuredly have been the very first man killed. Should we have been more the gainers by his patriotism or the losers by his poetry? The very last man killed in the last sortie from Paris during the Prussian siege (he would go behind ...
— Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 1883 • T. Hall Caine
... with a military step and catching his humor the boys did likewise. Then, the girls laughed and marched, Herbert gallantly escorting Mrs. Ford, as the eighth of the little "Company A," as Leslie immediately named the new "awkward squad." ...
— Dorothy on a Ranch • Evelyn Raymond
... you see that that is another reason why we need you in that berth? We all belong to the awkward squad now. You'll have to take it. We need a drill-master, and must have some one who knows enough to keep the company's books; and that's more than that friend of Randolph's can do. I want nothing for myself, for I am ...
— Rodney The Partisan • Harry Castlemon |
