"Spoil" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... it in the world. With a rifle they will shoot off a turkey's head at a hundred yards (this is a common amusement) and as boys, when they go after squirrels, they are taught to hit the animals' noses only so as not to spoil the skins. It was such natural fighters as these that George Washington led against the French and the Indians, when he saved the wreck of ...
— The Conquest of America - A Romance of Disaster and Victory • Cleveland Moffett
... record of an attempt at the reclamation of coal mine spoil is here in Indiana. In 1918, the Rowland Power Company, now owned by the Maumee Collieries Company, planted peach, apple and pear trees on mined land in Owen county. The records show that for a period of years the trees thrived and were good producers. Then, because the ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 43rd Annual Meeting - Rockport, Indiana, August 25, 26 and 27, 1952 • Various
... notice of this speech, probably because he saw that matters were progressing much to his liking between the Prince and his daughter; but Duke Barnim exclaimed, "How now, dearest cousin, are you going to spoil all by your prudery? You brought the girl here to cure him, and what other answer could she give? Bend thee down, Sidonia, and give him one little kiss upon the lips—I, the Prince, command thee; ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V1 • William Mienhold
... major waxed more and more wrathful. It would seem that there were at least fifty well-armed and perfectly-mounted warriors in the party, many of them having extra ponies with them, either to carry the spoil or to serve as change-mounts when their own chargers tired. It was next to impossible that such a force should get away from the reservation without it being a matter of common talk among the old men ...
— 'Laramie;' - or, The Queen of Bedlam. • Charles King
... can find Lord Bedford alone I will put him on his guard," thought Carl. "I shall spoil Mr. ...
— Driven From Home - Carl Crawford's Experience • Horatio Alger
... as one historian of Trinidad says, 'acted like a tiger, lest he should savour of the ass,' went his way to find El Dorado, and be filled with the fruit of his own devices: and may God have mercy on him; and on all who, like him, spoil the noblest instincts, and the noblest plans, for ...
— At Last • Charles Kingsley
... and if by any chance they did happen to get in, they wouldn't find Sarah Manvers. Please understand, you're to remain Sara Manwaring for some time to come—for good, if I think best. Don't imagine I'm going to permit you to resume your right name and spoil everything. I ...
— Nobody • Louis Joseph Vance
... to retain the rest of the spoil, with an injunction, however, never to touch a card again, unless he wished to end his days among ...
— The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims - Volume II (of II) • Andrew Steinmetz
... escape him, sent forward Prospero Colonna, with a corps of light horse, to annoy and retard their march until he could come up. Keeping the right bank of the river with the main body, he marched rapidly through the deserted camp of the enemy, leaving little leisure for his men to glean the rich spoil, which lay tempting them on every side. It was not long before he came up with the French, whose movements were greatly retarded by the difficulty of dragging their guns over the ground completely ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V3 • William H. Prescott
... see it from the first. You've got courage, and you're shrewd, and you know the world—and you've got what's worth all the rest put together. I mean that you're a fine-looking woman, and you've never let the fact spoil you!" ...
— Phantom Wires - A Novel • Arthur Stringer
... you think, considering what an amazing number of people there are in the world, besides all the animals—for all creatures that breathe, spoil the air just as we do—there can hardly be trees and plants enough to set all the air ...
— New National Fourth Reader • Charles J. Barnes and J. Marshall Hawkes
... devise, to spoil paper with! Trade is a racer, gentlemen, and merchants the jockeys who ride. He who carries most weight may lose; but then nature does not give all men the same dimensions, and judges are as necessary to the struggles of the mart as to those of the course. Go, mount your gelding, if you ...
— The Water-Witch or, The Skimmer of the Seas • James Fenimore Cooper
... you got to railing again for nothing? Pray who has most discretion to tell a bus'ness, You, or I? But you, forsooth, are grown so proud of late Because you hope to Marry Don Gerardo; That there's no speaking to you: Marry gip. 'Faith I shall spoil ...
— The Fatal Jealousie (1673) • Henry Nevil Payne
... Conflict certainly, where Conscience takes the foil, And is constrained by the flesh to yield to deadly sin, Whereby the grace and love of God from him his sin doeth spoil, Then (wretch accurs'd) small power hath repentance to begin. This history here example shows of one fast wrapp'd therein, As in discourse before your eyes shall plainly proved be; Yet (at the last) God him restor'd, ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VI • Robert Dodsley
... lad,' said Black Thompson, clapping him on the back; 'we'll spoil his sport for him. Come thy ways with us; it'll be dark dusk afore we gain the spinny, and Jones is off to the Whitehurst woods to-night. We'll have as rare sport as the lord of the manor himself. Thee art a sharp one. ...
— Fern's Hollow • Hesba Stretton
... it askance, and harked back to the sundial and education. "It's 'cute enough," he said. "But it won't do, boss. She should have been taught how to tell the time by the sun. Don't you let 'em spoil your chances of education, missus. You were in luck when you struck this place; never saw luck to equal it. And if it holds good, something'll happen to stop you from ever having a house, so as ...
— We of the Never-Never • Jeanie "Mrs. Aeneas" Gunn
... dressed myself slowly, revelling in the sensation of being once more in clean garments of my own. I was determined not to spoil my evening by allowing any bitter or unpleasant thoughts to disturb me until I had dined; after that, I reflected, it would be quite time enough to map out my dealings ...
— A Rogue by Compulsion • Victor Bridges
... your head high, and gabble as loud as you can, and you'll preserve the respect of the Goose Green to a peaceful old age. Why should you struggle and get hurt, if you can lower your head and swerve, and not lose a feather? Why in the world should any one spoil the pleasure of life, or risk his skin, if he can ...
— Jackanapes, Daddy Darwin's Dovecot and Other Stories • Juliana Horatio Ewing
... he pulls out his pipe, lights it, and commences smoking, apparently without, further thought of the form at his feet. That spoil is ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid
... in building and occupying spaces with painted buildings and houses, in cultivating the fields and ploughing the land into pictures and sketches, in navigating the seas with sails, in fighting and dividing the spoil, and finally in the 'firmamentos' and burials and in all other operations, movements and actions. I leave out all the handicrafts and arts, of which painting is the principal fount, of which some are rivers which spring from it, such as sculpture and ...
— Michael Angelo Buonarroti • Charles Holroyd
... I won't do that. I don't promise to tell him all the truth, or even that what I do tell him shall be exactly true; but I won't let him think ill of my little puritan; that would spoil your ...
— Mary Marston • George MacDonald
... in love with Captain Foster, but I'm not. I suppose you'll say that I needn't be, but that isn't the point. The utter absurdity is that all Daphne wants of him she could see now. No one minds her seeing him. But why should she break up her life and spoil her future for it? Of course, that part is his idea. He is so selfish that he isn't satisfied with the harmless fun they have now, but wants her to live all her life in a sort of workman's cottage or tenement building just for the sake of the joy, privilege, ...
— The Limit • Ada Leverson
... answered Ted. "They've had men going among the people from the country and the cow-punchers, telling them that it is a put-up job on our part, and that we're sure to win. In that way they have got a lot of people to bet on Hatrack. I've a good mind to draw out of it altogether and spoil ...
— Ted Strong's Motor Car • Edward C. Taylor
... curve across the upper part of the figure, and this curve is repeated a little lower down by the creases in the drapery across the lap. Such are the few strong, simple lines which compose the picture, producing an effect of grandeur which a confusion of many lines would entirely spoil. ...
— Michelangelo - A Collection Of Fifteen Pictures And A Portrait Of The - Master, With Introduction And Interpretation • Estelle M. Hurll
... estate to be preserved, no poacher to be punished, and no wretches to be tormented; here are solid grounds for preference. Whatever you do, you cannot torment men for ever without experiencing some amount of discomfort; and sooner or later the muttered curses of the people will spoil the flavour of ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
... fellow, as his great read nose, full of pimples, did give testimony." Perhaps he exaggerated, or it was but one of his "merry discourses." Yet I think he told the truth in this instance. To "wreck" was the habit of the day, and by all coastal peoples the spoil of wrecks was regarded as not less their just due than was the actual food obtained by them from the sea. On our own coasts and in our islands until quite recent times such was undoubtedly the case, just as in savage lands it continues to be the case to this day; and the distinction ...
— Stories of the Border Marches • John Lang and Jean Lang
... a willow branch.[95] All individuals do not exhibit the same skill in fabricating their dwelling; some are more careful and clever than others who are less experienced. Some also are obliged by circumstances to hasten their work. It frequently happens that Magpies spoil or even altogether destroy with blows of their beaks one of these pretty nests. The unfortunate couple are obliged to recommence their task, and if this accident happens two or three times to the same household, it can easily be imagined that, discouraged and depressed by ...
— The Industries of Animals • Frederic Houssay
... Torgau Country which Quintus Icilius's people, Saldern having refused the job, willingly undertook spoiling; and, as is well known, did it, January 22d, 1761; a thing Quintus never heard the end of. What the amount of profit, or the degree of spoil and mischief, Quintus's people made of it, I could not learn; but infer from this new event that the wreck had not been so considerable as the noise was; at any rate, that the Schloss had soon been restored to its pristine state of brilliancy. The Plenipotentiaries,—for Saxony, ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XX. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle
... to go, if you will row. Mamma made me promise not to go sailing without a man to take care of me. Would it spoil your fun to ...
— Jack and Jill • Louisa May Alcott
... further. Jesus continued: "Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house." Christ had attacked the stronghold of Satan, had driven his evil spirits from the human tabernacles of which they had unwarrantably taken possession; ...
— Jesus the Christ - A Study of the Messiah and His Mission According to Holy - Scriptures Both Ancient and Modern • James Edward Talmage
... look a good deal like a quite uneatable old watercress); not salvian, for there's no look of warmth or comfort in them; not cauline, for there's no juice in them; not dryad, for there's no strength in them, nor apparent use: they seem only there, as far as I can make out, to spoil the flower, and take the good out of my garden bed. Nobody in the world could draw them, they are so mixed up together, and crumpled and hacked about, as if some ill-natured child had snipped them with blunt scissors, ...
— Proserpina, Volume 2 - Studies Of Wayside Flowers • John Ruskin
... see that they really wanted Verena immensely, and it was impossible for her to believe that if they were to get her they would not treat her well. It came to her that they would even overindulge her, flatter her, spoil her; she was perfectly capable, for the moment, of assuming that Verena was susceptible of deterioration and that her own treatment of her had been discriminatingly severe. She had a hundred protests, objections, replies; her only embarrassment could be as to which ...
— The Bostonians, Vol. II (of II) • Henry James
... the mountains, on the other side park-like country, model towns, and broad, fruitful plains. Hard-bitten, bookless Serbs, and softened bookish Croats. As a responsibility of the peace Serbia has taken over large tracts of smitten Austria. Looking at the new territory, one might reckon it a rich spoil of war. But comparing Serbia as she is with this ex-Austria, one cannot but be struck with ...
— Europe—Whither Bound? - Being Letters of Travel from the Capitals of Europe in the Year 1921 • Stephen Graham
... but we can't none of us help it if he won't be kept!—There, I must be gettin' home. I've had considerable many reminders the last half-hour that it's about time! It's none o' my business, Mandy, but you do spoil that cat, an' the time's not far off when he won't be a mite o' comfort to you. Of course, I'm too intimate here to take offense, but if the minister should happen to set in this chair when he calls, an' see that ...
— Ladies-In-Waiting • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... so different from boys! It wouldn't be so bad if she were a boy. A boy could change his name and emigrate, go on a ranch and forget all about it. But it is different for a girl. Leaving the shock out of the question, this thing would spoil Sisily's life and ruin her chances of a good marriage if it was allowed to come out. People will talk. It is inevitable that they should, in the circumstances. I fancy the matter could be arranged in a way to satisfy Robert—so as ...
— The Moon Rock • Arthur J. Rees
... twelve years of age, walked straight into the house of a Jew and stripped him of his property before his face, and in the presence of his whole family. {43} When the insurrection was put down some of the Mussulmans (most probably those who had got no spoil wherewith they might buy immunity) were punished, but the greater part of them escaped. None of the booty was restored, and the pecuniary redress which the Pasha had undertaken to enforce for them had been hitherto so carefully delayed, that the hope of ever obtaining it had grown ...
— Eothen • A. W. Kinglake
... mother is something sacred. To wound her heart is to throw a stone at her. You have committed a sort of sacrilege. And you are married. No entreaties can prevent, and no repentance can avail. Oh, what a sorrow to darken all the rest of father's and mother's days! What right have you to spoil their lives, in order to give yourself a little pleasure? O Harry! I never knew that you were ...
— The Squire of Sandal-Side - A Pastoral Romance • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
... coat one side of a glass plate with silver chloride, just as we might put a coat of varnish on a chair. We must be very careful to coat the plate in the dark room,[B] otherwise the sunlight will separate the silver chloride and spoil our plan. Then lay a horseshoe on the plate for good luck, and carry the plate out into the light for a second. The light will separate the silver chloride into chlorine and silver, the latter of which will remain on the plate as a thin film. All of the plate was affected by the sun ...
— General Science • Bertha M. Clark
... Burning, ignited by her the blue-eyed Goddess Athena Thrice then o'er the deep trench loud shouted god-like Achilles, Thrice were the Trojans confus'd and all their illustrious aiders; Already round that trench had twice six champions fallen, Spoil'd of their chariots and arms, so that gladly now the Achaians Out of the tempest of darts the slain Patroclus dragging Plac'd on the sorrowful couch; his comrades round it arrang'd them Loudly lamenting, ...
— Targum • George Borrow
... ship was growing very foul, and it was high time we should make for our port de carenage, which was in the estuary of a river among swamps. It was openly understood that we should then break up and go and squander our proportions of the spoil; and this made every man greedy of a little more, so that our decision was delayed from day to day. What finally decided matters was a trifling accident, such as an ignorant person might suppose incidental to our way of life. But here I must explain: ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. XII (of 25) - The Master of Ballantrae • Robert Louis Stevenson
... rains of several days continuance would damage the peanuts more or less. It is best therefore, on this account, and because of the numerous depredators that prey upon the crop while it remains in the field, to house it as soon as sufficiently cured to render it certain the pods will not heat and spoil when in bulk. ...
— The Peanut Plant - Its Cultivation And Uses • B. W. Jones
... Method of applying proper Expressions to proper Thoughts. The Bishop of St. Asaph hath shewn his Skill in Antiquities, by more Instances than one; yet do I not find, that even in the Opinion of this Gentleman, it hath spoil'd his Stile. I shall add to these the late and present Bishops of Worcester, the former, Dr. Stillingfleet, is allow'd by all to have been one of the most learned Men and greatest Antiquaries of his Age; and for the present Bishop, who is also a learned Antiquary, take ...
— An Apology For The Study of Northern Antiquities • Elizabeth Elstob
... 'ave bin angry with her, for we'd always kept ourselves respectable; and I know if you spare the rod you spoil the child, and I felt I ought to tell her I didn't 'old with such wickedness; so one night when 'er father, 'e was up at the Rose and Crown, and she, a-settin' on the bank with 'er elbows on 'er knees and 'er chin in 'er 'ands, I says to 'er, 'You can't 'ide it no longer, my girl: I know all about ...
— In Homespun • Edith Nesbit
... about her decisions! Frau Bismarck's irritability had been growing of late; Karl was too soft with Otto. She was angered to think that her husband might spoil Otto, by too much coddling. The ...
— Blood and Iron - Origin of German Empire As Revealed by Character of Its - Founder, Bismarck • John Hubert Greusel
... girl with whom he was skating; "if it storms 'twill be sure to be more snow, and spoil the ice. It's too bad, for we get so little skating out here, and it's almost time to go home now. Just see how low ...
— In Blue Creek Canon • Anna Chapin Ray
... with me ma'am," Logan began, "I can't remember so good. And I want to get it all right. I don't want to spoil my record now. I been honest all my life, always stood up and told the truth, done what was right. I don't want to spoil things and lie in my mouth now. Give ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Arkansas Narratives, Part 4 • Works Projects Administration
... then if she sails and leaves your father and Ben Greenway, it will be a good thing. These fellows are rascals, and no honest person should have to do with them. But now I must get out of sight, or somebody will come and spoil everything." ...
— Kate Bonnet - The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter • Frank R. Stockton
... can athletic games injure it? Do they spoil woman's usefulness as a woman? Do they damage her specific excellence? Do they tend to give her less endurance and nerve at critical times? I do not think so. Certainly lawn tennis does not. It is undoubtedly a strenuous game. There is more energy of physical frame, more ...
— Lawn Tennis for Ladies • Mrs. Lambert Chambers
... quietly. If we can only persuade Mrs Nutt to come with us to speak to him while we open the door, depend upon it we shall trap him; but she's in a terrible way, poor soul! she wants me to let her call out murder, and I am afraid now she'll spoil it all. But she has the servant with her, who seems rather a plucky girl, and I hope she can manage her. Now, come on quickly, Chesterton, and hide the light when you get into the long passage, because there are no shutters to the windows. The women will ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 350, December 1844 • Various
... "The Friend Wholesome was, as you may never yet know, an officer of the navy, and when your war being done he comes here. There is a beautiful woman whom he must fall to loving, and this with some men being a grave disorder, he must go and spoil a good natural man with the clothes of a Quaker, seeing that what the woman did was good ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - Vol. XVII, No. 102. June, 1876. • Various
... from Ferragut, and he would have immediately proposed other recreations whose announcement appeared to be fluttering around his lips. But the sailor repelled all such amiability, glowering with displeasure. This vulgar fellow was going to spoil with his presence the longed-for meeting. Perhaps he was hanging around just to see and to know.... And taking advantage of one of his brief absences, Ulysses went off down the long Via Partenope, following ...
— Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) - A Novel • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... wasn't my intention to find fault with you because you don't act thoughtlessly. Of course we mustn't give up the victory out of sympathy with those who fight. It was only a momentary weakness, but a weakness that might spoil everything—that I must admit! But it's not so easy to be a passive spectator of these topsy-turvy conditions. It's affirmed that the workmen prefer to receive a starvation allowance to doing any work; ...
— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo
... intoxicating delights those who contribute to the fulfilment of his designs. What should we say to the favourite of a King from whom he had received a beautiful house, and fine estates, and who chose to spoil the house, to let it fall in ruins, to abandon the cultivation of the land, and let it become sterile, and covered with thorns? Such is the conduct of the faquirs of India, who condemn themselves to the most melancholy privations, and to the most severe sufferings. ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI., Volume 1 • Madame du Hausset, and of an Unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe
... ruin—yet what ruin! from its mass Walls, palaces, half-cities, have been reared; Yet oft the enormous skeleton ye pass, And marvel where the spoil could have appeared. Hath it indeed been plundered, or but cleared? Alas! developed, opens the decay, When the colossal fabric's form is neared: It will not bear the brightness of the day, Which streams too much on all years, man, have ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 • Various
... "Did I not surprise you? Cato scoured the armor for me; it is the same armor she wore, they say—the Maid-at-Arms. And it fits me like my leather clothes, limb and body. Hark!... They are applauding yet! But I do not mean to spoil the magic picture by a senseless repetition.... And some are sure to say a ghost appeared.... Why are you so silent?... ...
— The Maid-At-Arms • Robert W. Chambers
... throw away a great number of his dried fish. Some had become fly-blown, and some mildewed. The north wind does so much damage in moistening things, and so causing food to spoil. ...
— Three Years in Tristan da Cunha • K. M. Barrow
... [61] and is the ordinary bread of the whole country—boiled fish (which is very abundant), the flesh of swine, deer, and wild buffaloes (which they call carabaos). Meat and fish they relish better when it has begun to spoil and when it stinks. [62] They also eat boiled camotes (which are sweet potatoes), beans, quilites [63] and other vegetables; all kinds of bananas, guavas, pineapples, custard apples, many varieties of oranges, and other varieties of fruits and herbs, with which the ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVI, 1609 • H.E. Blair
... go with me, and you will see your young missis," says M'Carstrow, shrugging his shoulders. He is half inclined to let his better feelings give way to sympathy. But custom and commerce forbid it; they carry off the spoil, just as the sagacious pumpkin philosopher of England admits slavery a great evil, while delivering an essay for ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams
... trance, and, hearing the angelic choir sing aloud, I wondered what it might be. Now, when they had ascended on high, behold, there came after them a phalanx of terrible ones, like warriors returning from the spoil, bearing their prey. Presently I inquired of one of them what it meant, and was answered, "We are bearing the soul of Marsir to hell, but yonder is Michael bearing the Horn-winder to heaven." When mass was over, I told the King what I had seen; and whilst I was yet speaking, behold ...
— Mediaeval Tales • Various
... damage light On flock or field. Take heed; and as these words By me are utter'd, teach them even so To those who live that life, which is a race To death: and when thou writ'st them, keep in mind Not to conceal how thou hast seen the plant, That twice hath now been spoil'd. This whoso robs, This whoso plucks, with blasphemy of deed Sins against God, who for his use alone Creating hallow'd it. For taste of this, In pain and in desire, five thousand years And upward, the first soul did yearn ...
— The Divine Comedy, Complete - The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell • Dante Alighieri
... way in which it was set out that the schoolmistress was one of those ethereal souls who soar above terrestrial things. Chipped plates, unmatched glasses, knives with loose handles, forks with yellow prongs—there was absolutely nothing wanting to spoil the appetite of an ...
— The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard • Anatole France
... of Lord Hailes's Annals of Scotland, and wrote a few notes on the margin with red ink, which he bade me tell his Lordship did not sink into the paper, and might be wiped off with a wet sponge, so that he did not spoil his manuscript. I observed to him that there were very few of his friends so accurate as that I could venture to put down in writing what they told me as his sayings. Johnson. 'Why should you write down my sayings?' Boswell. 'I write ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill
... served to these young princes of their breed each day was four. The object in all this was threefold. First, the Master held it necessary that these pups should have as much nourishment as they were capable of assimilating with advantage; secondly, he was anxious never to spoil their appetites by permitting them at any time to experience surfeit; and, in the third place, he believed strongly in light meals for young hounds, as distinguished from the sort of meal often given, which leaves the puppy fit for nothing but the heavy sleep of ...
— Finn The Wolfhound • A. J. Dawson
... and dangerous fault. All I ask now is, that each and every one of us should try and find it out, and feel it, and keep it in mind; that we may be of a humble spirit with the lowly, which is better than dividing the spoil with the proud. ...
— Town and Country Sermons • Charles Kingsley
... accuse? Caesar. Caesar, and that hauing in Cicilie Sextus Pompeius spoil'd, we had not rated him His part o'th' Isle. Then does he say, he lent me Some shipping vnrestor'd. Lastly, he frets That Lepidus of the Triumpherate, should be depos'd, And being that, we detaine ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare
... scene for those who had no finery to spoil, and who ran only the risk of taking cold, to see these poor women drenched with the rain, running in every direction, with or without a cavalier, and hunting for shelter which could ...
— The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Constant
... relieving force of greatly superior numbers, prodigies of valour being performed during the battle. But the capture of the citadel was unimportant; and the wind improving, the expedition proceeded—with many prizes and much spoil—to operate against Lisbon. On the way, for some not very intelligible reason, Peniche, some fifty miles from Lisbon, was stormed by the soldiers—as it would seem, against Drake's will. The whole army was here disembarked, to ...
— England Under the Tudors • Arthur D. Innes
... vagrants of the forest. The slightest hint of a bee tree will entice Silas Ashburn and his sons from the most profitable job of the season, even though the defection is sure to result in entire loss of the offered advantage; and if the hunt prove successful, the luscious spoil is generally too tempting to allow of any care for the future, so long as the "sweet'nin" can be persuaded to last. "It costs nothing," will poor Mrs. Ashburn observe; "let 'em enjoy it. It isn't often we ...
— Choice Specimens of American Literature, And Literary Reader - Being Selections from the Chief American Writers • Benj. N. Martin
... for myself, I would far rather die at once than attempt a return journey just at present. So now, Soa, perhaps you will stop croaking and tell us definitely what we must do to conciliate these charming countrymen of yours, whom we have come so far to spoil. Remember," she added with a flash of her grey eyes, "I am not to be played with by you, Soa. In this matter the Deliverer's interests are my interests, and his ends my ends. Together we stand or fall, together we live or die, and that shall be an unhappy ...
— The People Of The Mist • H. Rider Haggard
... floor with our hands, but the priestess said, 'Don't be so silly! It's the place where they come to do the gas. The board's loose. Dig an you value your lives, for ere sundown the dragon who guards this spoil will return in his fiery fury and make you ...
— The Story of the Treasure Seekers • E. Nesbit
... unable to cope with the Turkish armada, having on board fifteen thousand disciplined troops. Canaris advised a combat on the sea, but was overruled; and the consequences were fatal. The island was taken and sacked, and all the inhabitants were put to the sword. In addition to this great calamity, the spoil made by the victors was immense, including two hundred pieces of artillery and ninety vessels. Canaris, however, contrived to escape in a boat, to pursue a victorious career with his fire-ships. The Turkish and Egyptian ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume IX • John Lord
... their high prows at either end, the women in their black dresses and faldettas, and black-robed priests, all helped to carry the imagination over the Mediterranean and up the Adriatic to lovely Venice. At this hour in the morning there were not many English soldiers or sailors to spoil the illusion. ...
— A Voyage in the 'Sunbeam' • Annie Allnut Brassey
... of Joy. While wrapped as yet in swaddling clothes, father and mother, both alas! will depart, and dwell though you will in that mass of gauze, who is there who will know how to spoil you with any fond attention? Born you will be fortunately with ample moral courage, and high-minded and boundless resources, for your parents will not have, in the least, their child's secret feelings at heart! ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... easily penetrated by rain, as, for instance, blue grass obtained from fence corners, or slough hay obtained from marshes. The last-named is better put on green. If the clover is not thus protected, a considerable quantity will spoil on the top of the stacks. It is not a good hay to turn rain. The shape of the stack should in a considerable degree be determined by its size. It is probably preferable to make small stacks round, since they are more easily kept in shape, but large stacks should be long rather than ...
— Clovers and How to Grow Them • Thomas Shaw
... which prompts a man to repel an attack fearlessly and at once. In short, he was one of those who lie still and wait, like the crafty pointer dogs that creep along the grass, hunting out game for others to shoot down for them, and devouring the spoil with a keener relish than the noble hound that makes the forest ring as he plunges ...
— The Old Homestead • Ann S. Stephens
... spirit to up and do it like a man! You want to let it lag along, and lag along, and see 'f something won't happen to get you out of it! You waitin' for her to die? Well, you won't have to wait long! But if I was a man, I'd spoil your ...
— The Minister's Charge • William D. Howells
... charades were proposed, as usual, and the little knot of performers retired to the back drawing room, dropping the curtain behind them, and prepared for their performance, congratulating themselves that Mr. Blinks, the name of the marplot, was not on hand to spoil their sport. They selected the word catastrophe, and ...
— The Three Brides, Love in a Cottage, and Other Tales • Francis A. Durivage
... but he was well to the front, and when, as generally happened, the raid or foray resulted in a drove of English cattle finding their way over the Liddesdale hills, and down into Teviotdale, the Master of Harden had no difficulty in guarding his share of the spoil. The entrance to his glen was so narrow, and its sides so steep and rocky, that he had only to drive the tired beasts into it, and set a strong guard at the lower end, and then he and his retainers could take things easily for a time, and live in plenty, till some fine day the beef would ...
— Tales From Scottish Ballads • Elizabeth W. Grierson
... something more than that I hope. I don't mind telling you,—a friend like you,—that I will either spoil a horn or make a spoon. I won't go on in the old groove, which hardly gives any of us salt to our porridge. If I understand anything of English commerce, I think I can see my way to better things than that." Then the period of painful waiting had commenced, and he was ...
— Miss Mackenzie • Anthony Trollope
... and Ladies sans nombre. You may guess at the rest of the cheer by this scantling, that there were said to be seventeen dozen of pheasants, and twelve partridges in a dish throughout; which methinks was rather spoil than largess; yet for all the plenty of presents, the supper cost L600. Sir Thomas Edmondes undertook the providing and managing of all, so that it was much after the French. The King was exceedingly pleased, and could not be satisfied with commending ...
— Christmas: Its Origin and Associations - Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries • William Francis Dawson
... the point of leaving when the parrot cried from its corner: "O mistress, where are you going? I wished to tell you a story; but suit yourself." The wife then dismissed the coal-woman, who, not to spoil matters, promised to put off the wedding and return for her the next ...
— Italian Popular Tales • Thomas Frederick Crane
... apologizing, without learning at least the inferior practices of the trade. Of course she had all the little common arts of excuse ever ready: and instead of saying that she did not like to walk because she was afraid to spoil her shoes, she protested she was afraid of the heat, and could not walk so far. But Mr. Beaumont had jumped out of the carriage, and Mrs. Beaumont did not wish that he should walk home tete-a-tete ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. V - Tales of a Fashionable Life • Maria Edgeworth
... complains, forsooth, that the last buck we killed was killed on his ground, and by rights belonged to him. He threatens that his foresters and huntsmen will wage war with us in future if we 'trespass' upon his rights, and wrest our spoil from us! Beshrew me if I submit to much more! Patience and forbearance are useless with such a man. I would I had not conceded all I have done in the interests ...
— The Secret Chamber at Chad • Evelyn Everett-Green
... short season of life. Some day her voice is silenced, and the end of the world has come for him—the morning dead, the night dead, the air dead, the world dead. For his sake, for her sake, do not spoil their radiance with an impious regret. They will endure the thorns of life when they are stronger ...
— T. De Witt Talmage - As I Knew Him • T. De Witt Talmage
... is Sueoland[12], or Sweden, on the other side of the moors, and opposite to its northern part is Cwenland. The Cwens sometimes pass the moors and mountains to invade and plunder the country of the Normans; who likewise sometimes retaliate, by crossing over to spoil their land. In these moors, there are some very large meres or lakes of fresh water, and the Cwenas[13] sometimes carry their small light ships over land into these lakes, and employ them to facilitate their depredations on the Nordmen. Ohthere says, that the shire or district which ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 1 • Robert Kerr
... what is the best thing that can happen to you if you do wrong? To get found out. To conceal a sin is worse than you may suppose; confess to God and man, and pray for forgiveness. We get vexed with the little birds sometimes when they spoil our fruit; what do you think of Dick Raynor and Willie Abbot who robbed a poor widow's orchard, and took away the cherries that she would have sold to pay her rent? Day by day the little thieves had a feast in that orchard, and nobody guessed who stole the cherries; but there was One Who saw and ...
— Golden Moments - Bright Stories for Young Folks • Anonymous
... or you will spoil it all. Look in the Bird Room, and tell me if that isn't a prettier Princess ...
— Jack and Jill • Louisa May Alcott
... Skyrme. "Don't spoil this joke, captain. When you set the commander of the brigantine free, let him take this fellow with him; what a fine lot of talk there will be when they call him to account at home for the ...
— The Corsair King • Mor Jokai
... known, Whoso again shall deem his life his own, Or find in Ours the faintest flaw or fleck, God helping, We will hang him by the neck. Yea, he shall surely curse his impious star That dares to question Who or where We are! Worship your Caesar, and (C.V.) your God; Who spares the child may haply spoil the rod. Many Our uniforms, but We are one, And one Our empire over which the sun, Careering on his cloud-compulsive way, Sets once, but never more than once, a day. The seas are Ours: world-wide upon the oceans Our fleet commands the liveliest emotions; Go where you will, you find Our German manners ...
— The Battle of the Bays • Owen Seaman
... the convent shone glorified and beautiful in a haze of grace. The discipline of the house had ordered and inspired the associations on which memories afterwards depend, and had excluded the discordant notes that spoil the harmonies of secular life. The chapel, with its delicate windows, its oak rails, its scent of flowers and incense, its tiled floor, its single row of carved woodwork and the crosier by the Abbess's seat, was a place of silence instinct ...
— The King's Achievement • Robert Hugh Benson
... of folly?" Frau von Eschenhagen added for him. "Will has not done so much mischief in all his life as you have accomplished in the last three days, and you'll spoil him with your bad example and lead him into all manner ...
— The Northern Light • E. Werner
... Sclavonian, war. In his first operations he advanced with boldness and success into the centre of Bulgaria, and burnt the royal court, which was probably no more than an edifice and village of timber. But while he searched the spoil and refused all offers of treaty, his enemies collected their spirits and their forces: the passes of retreat were insuperably barred; and the trembling Nicephorus was heard to exclaim, "Alas, alas! unless we could assume the wings of birds, we cannot hope to escape." ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 5 • Edward Gibbon
... helps himself to the butter which is kept stored in a pot suspended by strings from the roof. A second cowherd boy reaches up to lift the butter down while edging in from the right, a monkey, emblematic of mischievous thieving, shares in the spoil. ...
— The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry • W. G. Archer
... piratical adventure which had actuated the Saxons, began to leave their homes for foreign conquest. "Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from the banquet, grasped their arms, sounded their horn, ascended their ships, and explored every coast that promised either spoil or settlement."[3] To England they came as Danes; to France, as Northmen or Normans. They took advantage of the Saxon wars with the British, of Saxon national feuds, and of that enervation which luxurious living had induced in the Saxon kings of the octarchy, and succeeded ...
— English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History - Designed as a Manual of Instruction • Henry Coppee
... thoughts spoil all: that the mischief began there; but that we ought to reject them, as soon as we perceived their impertinence to the matter in hand, or our salvation; and return ...
— The Practice of the Presence of God the Best Rule of a Holy Life • Herman Nicholas
... there came a thing most sweet. And they could not in three days find it out, Wherefore before the seventh came about, They said unto his wife, Thou must entice Thy husband to discover this device Lest we burn thee, and all thy father's house: Is it not so, that ye have called us To make a spoil? And Samson's wife wept sore, And said, thou dost but hate me, and no more; To put a riddle to my countrymen And not tell't me. And he reply'd again, I have not told my father or my mother, And shall I now to thee this thing discover. And she ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... whether it is or not," Barbara had answered. "All I want is for her to feel that we're the best chums in the world. And I'm not going to spoil her even if I am young and inexperienced. There are a few things that I expect to be very strict about, but making her respectful to me isn't ...
— Georgina of the Rainbows • Annie Fellows Johnston
... "Ay, you spoil your prophecy there," the doctor said, considerably relieved, "for I'm not married; my pipe's the only wife I ...
— The Little Minister • J.M. Barrie
... rubbing his hand through his hair in perplexity. This intrusion threatened to spoil his plans. It would never do to have the ...
— The Panchronicon • Harold Steele Mackaye
... sun appeared in a clear strip of sky beneath the clouds, the wind fell, as if it dared not spoil the beauty of the summer morning after the storm; drops still continued to fall, but vertically now, and all was still. The whole sun appeared on the horizon and disappeared behind a long narrow cloud that hung above it. A few minutes later it reappeared brighter ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy
... one could tell that each word had been weighed and determined beforehand. "Farewell, my dear son," he said, "and once again think over all you have seen and heard in Rome. Be as sensible as you can, and do not spoil your life." ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... a spoil-sport—remember, you have a tendency toward wavering that prevents you from being the entire ...
— This Side of Paradise • F. Scott Fitzgerald
... reaching their homes one of the party was deputed with an offering of one, two or five rupees to be presented as an offering to their god Khandoba or the goddess Bhawani in fulfilment of a vow. All the spoil was then deposited before their Naik or headman, who divided it into equal shares for members of the gang, keeping a double share ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV - Kumhar-Yemkala • R.V. Russell
... your watch to pieces, you would probably spoil it for ever; you would have perhaps broken, and certainly mislaid, some of the bits; and not even a watchmaker could put it together again. You would have analysed the watch wrongly. But if a watchmaker took it to pieces ...
— Madam How and Lady Why - or, First Lessons in Earth Lore for Children • Charles Kingsley
... of Dr. Ripley and a thunder-shower: "One August afternoon, when I was in the hayfield helping him with his man to rake up his hay, I well remember his pleading, almost reproachful looks at the sky when the thunder gust was coming up to spoil the hay. He raked very fast, then looked at the clouds and said, 'We are in the Lord's hands, mind your rake, George! we are in the Lord's hands,' and seemed to say, 'You know me, the field is mine—Dr. Ripley's—thine ...
— The Last Harvest • John Burroughs
... splendor of their public works are among the imperishable glories of the ancient republics. The roads and aqueducts of Rome have been the admiration of all after ages, and have survived thousands of years after all her conquests have been swallowed up in despotism or become the spoil of barbarians. Some diversity of opinion has prevailed with regard to the powers of Congress for legislation upon objects of this nature. The most respectful deference is due to doubts originating in pure ...
— United States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches - From Washington to George W. Bush • Various
... "The quantity of spoil gained by the victors at the battle of Bannockburn was inestimable, and the ransoms paid by the prisoners largely added to the mass of treasure. Five near relations to the Bruce—namely, his wife, her sister Christian, his daughter Marjory, the Bishop of ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 14, No. 406, Saturday, December 26, 1829. • Various
... sailor heard this question. He was about to enlighten Butler-Vinson, but Juve pushed him aside—this imbecile was going to spoil everything! ...
— A Nest of Spies • Pierre Souvestre
... into India for 3000 years, and had never been exported. Firishta speaks of the enormous spoils carried off by Malik Kafur, every soldier's share amounting to 25 Lbs. of gold! Some years later Mahomed Tughlak loads 200 elephants and several thousand bullocks with the precious spoil of a single temple. We have quoted a like statement from Wassaf as to the wealth found in the treasury of this very Sundara Pandi Dewar, but the same author goes far beyond this when he tells that Kales Dewar, Raja ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... press forward. From both sides missiles whizzed like beetles, buzzed like bees, sometimes they struck one another in the air with a crack, and every minute or two on this side or that some warrior went to the rear groaning, or fell dead immediately. But this did not spoil the humor of others: they fought with malicious delight, which gradually changed to rage and ...
— The Pharaoh and the Priest - An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt • Boleslaw Prus
... him ridin' up that-a-way," he said. "Don't you think puttin' him in the book will spoil it, ma'am?" ...
— The Two-Gun Man • Charles Alden Seltzer
... white cloth. whence the expert picked them up at random and by them interpreted fate. In these slips we have the origin of the Norse kefli, the Scots kaivel, which were and are still used as lots. The fishermen of north-east Scotland, when they return after a successful haul, divide the spoil into as many shares as there are men in the boat, with one share more for the boat. Each man then procures a piece of wood or stone, on which he puts a private mark. These lots are put in a heap, and an outsider is called in who throws one lot or kaivel upon each heap of fish. Each ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... gone since Christmas! What were you to do? Why, let him go home in the rain. I don't think there was any thing about him that would spoil. Take cold, indeed! He does not look like one o' the sort to take cold. He'd better taken cold, than our only umbrella. Do you hear the rain, Caudle? I say do you hear the rain? Do you hear it against the windows? Nonsense; you can't be asleep with such a shower as that. Do you hear ...
— The Book of Anecdotes and Budget of Fun; • Various
... you might do it faithfully, not spend time for which you are paid in idleness, and crowd in rags with the buttons all on, which will be sure to spoil the machinery when they come ...
— Katie Robertson - A Girls Story of Factory Life • Margaret E. Winslow
... painters, who have undertaken to give us a beautiful and graceful figure, which may have some slight blemishes, we do not wish them to pass over such blemishes altogether, nor yet to mark them too prominently. The one would spoil the beauty, and the other destroy ...
— Pearls of Thought • Maturin M. Ballou
... profound must have been the surprise of the native princes at this surrender, how injurious to the personality of Dupleix and the influence he had gained among them, to see him, in the very hour of victory, forced, by a power they could not understand, to relinquish his spoil! They were quite right; the mysterious power which they recognized by its working, though they saw it not, was not in this or that man, king or statesman, but in that control of the sea which the French government knew forbade the ...
— The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 • A. T. Mahan
... they were directed. Novgorod was taken and plundered, though Ivan did not yet deprive it of its liberties. He had powerful princes to deal with, and did not dare to seize so rich a prey without letting them share the spoil. But he ruined the city by devastation and plunder, deprived it of its tributaries, the city and territory of Perm, and turned from Novgorod to Moscow the rich commerce of this section. Taking advantage of ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 8 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris
... everything, and I cannot take an olive that she does not miss it and come and ask me if I took it, to avert suspicion from the ice-man. Furthermore, it we both went out, she might suspect. And we had taught her too heroic a lesson to go and spoil it by ...
— At Home with the Jardines • Lilian Bell
... dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. 3. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4. For Thou hast broken the yoke of His burden, and the staff of His shoulder, the rod of His oppressor, as in the day of Midian. 5. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood: but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. 6. For unto us a Child ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren
... from him, Critias had to fly to Thessaly, (13) where he consorted with fellows better versed in lawlessness than justice. And Alcibiades fared no better. His personal beauty on the one hand incited bevies of fine ladies (14) to hunt him down as fair spoil, while on the other hand his influence in the state and among the allies exposed him to the corruption of many an adept in the arts of flattery; honoured by the democracy and stepping easily to the front rank he behaved like an athlete who in the games of the Palaestra ...
— The Memorabilia - Recollections of Socrates • Xenophon
... spoil the first joy of reunion, Dr Pendle turned aside this speech with a laugh, and postponed his explanation until a more fitting moment. In the meantime, George and Gabriel and Harry were hovering round the returned travellers with attentions and questions and frequent congratulations. Mr Cargrim, ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume
... and put on an old dress; this one is too pretty to spoil, and the house is so dusty. Do you think it ...
— A Crooked Path - A Novel • Mrs. Alexander
... children in this respect, that they interest most when they are enacting native peculiarities unconscious of beholders. Discovering themselves to be watched they attempt to be entertaining by putting on an antic, and produce disagreeable caricatures which spoil them. ...
— Desperate Remedies • Thomas Hardy
... yourself on that score, Dolly; it will not spoil your fortune, if they do. But Juliet—I am sorry that the child has taken such whimsies into her head; it may hinder her from getting ...
— Mark Hurdlestone - Or, The Two Brothers • Susanna Moodie
... 100 degrees Fahrenheit in winter, 85 degrees in summer; make a batter of the yeast and water, with two spoonfuls of the meal, and stand it on a cool place of the stove to rise; do not let it get hot, as this will spoil the yeast. Meanwhile prepare the fruit and almonds, mix the meal, fruit, butter (or oil), sugar, cinnamon and eggs; then add the yeast and as much lukewarm milk as is required to moisten the cake. ...
— The Allinson Vegetarian Cookery Book • Thomas R. Allinson |
