"Tain" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... weddin'. Jenny Ann was our onliest child. All but one of our eight grandchillun is all livin' now, and I'se got 24 great grandchillun. Atter Edwin died, I married dis here Charlie Hudson what I'se livin' wid now. Us didn't have no big weddin' and tain't long since us got married. Me and Charlie ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - Volume II. Arkansas Narratives. Part I • Work Projects Administration
... "Gorblimy, 'tain't 'alf-past four—what the bleed'n' 'ell d'they want to wake us this time of a mornin' for? Some ...
— Combed Out • Fritz August Voigt
... would not have known him, with the sweat and dust of battle, did as he was bid; and then pushing his trumpet pettishly aside, adjusted his weary legs for the hundredth time to the horse which was a world too big for him, and muttering, "'Tain't a pretty tune," tried to see something of this, his first engagement, before it came to ...
— Jackanapes, Daddy Darwin's Dovecot and Other Stories • Juliana Horatio Ewing
... But—see heah, Ma'y 'Ouise—we-all ain' s'pose to know nuth'n' bout dat git-away. Ef some imper'nent puss'n' ask us, we ain' gwine t' know how dey go, nohow. De Kun'l say tell Ma'y 'Ouise she ain' gwine know noth'n' a-tall, 'bout nuth'n', 'cause 'tain't nobody's business." ...
— Mary Louise • Edith van Dyne (one of L. Frank Baum's pen names)
... the way," muttered Rachel; "shut the stable door after the horse is stolen. Folks never learn from experience till it's too late to be of any use. I don't see what the world was made for, for my part. Everything goes topsy-turvy, and all sorts of ways except the right way. I sometimes think 'tain't ...
— Jack's Ward • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... reassuring boldness, "he won't come this far. Yer just lay down in the grass, under this here tree, 'til yer catch yer wind; then we'll make it on down to the Interpreter's —'tain't far to the stairs. You just ...
— Helen of the Old House • Harold Bell Wright
... softly; "it's wonderful, sir. To do that with just a touch of your hands. But what is it, sir? One of those horrible African fevers? 'Tain't catching, is ...
— In the Mahdi's Grasp • George Manville Fenn
... beaming up delightedly at me. "You've 'it it! Done it in one, you 'ave. 'Fine ear for the haspirate'—that's what my darter Maria 'ave and what I, for one, 'ave not. I'm not above confessing of it; 'tain't given to all of us to 'ave everything, as the ant said to the helephant when 'e was boasting about 'is trunk. Some there is as ain't got no ear for music—same as Joe Mangles, the grocer down the street, as 'as caught a heavy cold in 'is 'ead with taking 'is 'at off every time as 'e 'ears 'It's ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, Jan. 29, 1919 • Various
... slugs smell their way with soft noses, an' they'll spread like flapjacks against the coming out beyand. An' when'll I have the pleasure of waitin' on ye? The waterhole's a strikin' locality.' ''Tain't bad. Jest be there in an hour, and you won't set long on my coming.' Both men mittened and left the Post, their ears closed to the remonstrances of their comrades. It was such a little thing; yet with such men, little ...
— The Son of the Wolf • Jack London
... said Sandy Stone, a mason, who had been the first to be called to the scene of the accident. "'Tain't outside so much as it's in. Wait till we ...
— Richard Dare's Venture • Edward Stratemeyer
... some thirty years ago to make room for sheep. I made only eleven miles this day on account of the rain, and was glad to find cheery and comfortable quarters in an excellent inn kept by a widow and her three daughters in Tain. Nothing could exceed their kindness and attention, which evidently flowed more from a disposition than from a professional habit of making their guests at home for a pecuniary or business consideration. I reached their house about the middle of the afternoon, ...
— A Walk from London to John O'Groat's • Elihu Burritt
... forward) Well, sir! (Takes bone in both hands and looks up and down the length of it) If 'tain't my ole mule! This sho was one hell of a mule, too. He'd fight every inch in front of de plow ... he'd turn over de mowing machine ... run away wid de wagon ... and you better not look like ...
— The Mule-Bone: - A Comedy of Negro Life in Three Acts • Zora Hurston and Langston Hughes
... kinds of business out here this time of year. Tain't healthy for either of them." Dan's words were measured and clipped. "You've damned the West and all that's in it good and plenty. Now I say, damn the people anywhere in the whole country that won't pay their debts ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various
... was our friend lies here. We loved him.' We thank him for them words. Better nor more, they cl'ar it all up on this side twixt him and us. No need ter tell o' what he was, or what he done. 'Tain't likely we'll forgit. He didn't say ter praise him. He wanted none o' that, but jest we knowed ...
— Cape Cod Folks • Sarah P. McLean Greene
... the Elder, lowering his gun deliberately. "That's so, I guess. You hev your duty—p'r'aps I hev mine. 'Tain't my business ...
— Elder Conklin and Other Stories • Frank Harris
... Thompson, one of Wolfe's comrades—"a big giant," as our old friend, the late Judge Henry Black, who knew him well, used to style him, awakens many memories of the past. Sergeant James Thompson, of Fraser's Highlanders, at Louisbourg in 1758, and at Quebec in 1759, came from Tain, Scotland, to Canada, as a volunteer to accompany a friend-Capt. David Baillie, of the 78th. His athletic frame, courage, integrity and intelligence, during the seventy-two years of his Canadian career, brought him employment, honour, trust and attention from every Governor of the ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine
... the Turks at Navarino, noble Jack, yet you came off yourself with only the loss of a splinter, it seems," said a top-man, glancing at our cap-tain's maimed hand. ...
— White Jacket - or, the World on a Man-of-War • Herman Melville
... the way old Natur acts When bald folks go a-sparkin'; The skyentists can't alter facts With all their hard work larkin', A sparkin man will look his best— That's Natur—tain't no silly jest! ...
— Old Spookses' Pass • Isabella Valancy Crawford
... reached the room and sank into a chair. "Did you ever hear anything like it in all your life? You had one, too, didn't you?" she cried, her eyes falling on the letter in her brother's hand. "But 'tain't true, of course!" ...
— Oh, Money! Money! • Eleanor Hodgman Porter
... long since yo' mammy whipped you," she rejoined. "An' I reckon 'tain't so long since you ...
— The Battle Ground • Ellen Glasgow
... nothin', Mis' Innes," he said, with his hand on the door-knob, "but there's been goin's-on here this las' few months as ain't natchal. 'Tain't one thing an' 'tain't another—it's jest a door squealin' here, an' a winder closin' there, but when doors an' winders gets to cuttin' up capers and there's nobody nigh 'em, it's time Thomas ...
— The Circular Staircase • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... And then to Johnson's consternation she broke down completely, burying her face in her hands and sobbing out: "Oh, 'tain't no use, I'm rotten, I'm ignorant, I don't know nothin' an' I never knowed it 'till to-night! The boys always tol' me I knowed so much, but they're such ...
— The Girl of the Golden West • David Belasco
... two hours' job,' said Christopher. ''Tain't much more. That's Miss Esther. Sarah there, she wouldn't ha' knowed which was her head and which was her heels, and other things according, if she hadn't another head to help her. What o'clock ...
— A Red Wallflower • Susan Warner
... 'tain't no use; she won't let yeh. I ast her oncet didn't she want me to write him to come an' make her a little visit just to chirk her up, and she shook her head and looked real frightened, and she says: ''Meelia Ellen, don't ...
— The Man of the Desert • Grace Livingston Hill
... "No, 'tain't, miss—that it ain't. I gets nothink for all I does, and when I goes hoam at night I gets a good ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - April 1843 • Various
... a shrug down the length of him, "yer know what I mean, lady. 'Tain't a turn, it's wind. He told me to tell yer he's got his collars and cuffs in dat grip for a scoot clean out to 'Frisco. Den he's goin' to shoot snow-birds in de Klondike. He says yer told him not to send 'round ...
— The Four Million • O. Henry
... in silence, then arose and turned toward the house. "Yes, sir, there was a girl; she's buried under that biggest pine you see off there a little to one side. We—we—don't never talk about her. Mr. Matthews can't stand it. Seems like he ain't never been the same since—since—it happened. 'Tain't natural for him to be so rough and short; he's just as good and kind inside as any man ever was or could be. He's real taken with you, Mr. Howitt, and I'm mighty glad you're goin' to stop a spell, for it will do him good. If it hadn't been for Sammy ...
— The Shepherd of the Hills • Harold Bell Wright
... they made him serve. He would go there and run away and come back home. One day after he had been took away and had come back, he was settin' down talkin' to old mis', and I was huddled up in the corner listenin', and I heered him tell her, 'Tain't no use to do all them things. The niggers'll soon be free.' And she said, 'I'll be dead before that happens, I hope.' And she died just one year before the slaves was freed. They ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - Volume II. Arkansas Narratives. Part I • Work Projects Administration
... could quit if I had anybody to help me. Oh! I heard to night that Charley Vanderhuyn had been elected president of the Hasheesh. And I saw him an hour ago on a Second Avenue car. I wish Charley would come and talk to me. He'd give me money, but 'tain't money. I could make money if I could let whisky alone. I used to love to hear Charley talk better than to live. I believe it was the ruin of me. But he don't seem to care for a fellow when his clothes get shabby. See there!" and he picked up a piece of wood ...
— Duffels • Edward Eggleston
... "Tain't over lively at this time o' day," permitting his blue eyes to wander up the silent street, but instantly bringing them back to Keith's face, "but I reckon ...
— Keith of the Border • Randall Parrish
... great," said she, as simultaneously with her arrival at Mrs. Mason's door, she arrived at the sum of twenty-one dollars. "'Tain't no great, and I wouldn't wonder if Miss Mason fixed over some of ...
— The English Orphans • Mary Jane Holmes
... ben sech a storm to-day, the gals couldn't go for the vittles, though tain't a great way. We'r on his plantation; ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol I, Issue I, January 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... dy ce sel i a now si zed the weep on and all though the boor ly vil ly an re tain ed his vy gor ous hold she drew the blade through his fin gers and hoorl ed it far be hind ...
— Rudder Grange • Frank R. Stockton
... Plates.—Glasgow, Aberdeen, Aberdeen (from the South), Cromarty, Falkirk, Dumbarton, Forfar, Gretna Green, Dunkeld, Greenock, Hamilton, Dingwall, Inverness, Jedburgh, Renfrew, Tain, Edinburgh, Elgin, Dundee, Lanark, Inveraray, Montrose, Linlithgow, Melrose, Peebles, Perth, Port-Glasgow, Peterhead, St. Andrews, Stirling, ...
— Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories - A Book for Bairns and Big Folk • Robert Ford
... old feller had talked to the miller or what, but finally he said, "'Tain't likely you'll find any treasure here. It's all been taken away long ago. Every place is like a mine, it produces a certain amount and that's all. This place produced great riches, boys, but it's a worked out place now. It's a dead ...
— Mitch Miller • Edgar Lee Masters
... "Ah," said the boy at once, "that's Jesus an' his Mother: I allus knows them when I sees 'em." "Yes," said Miss R——, "there is a purity and grandeur of expression about them, isn't there—" "Tain't that," interrupted the boy, "it's the rims round their heads as ...
— America To-day, Observations and Reflections • William Archer
... "Tain't worth while for you to play off on me," replied the farmer, leading the way along the fence and motioning to Rodney to follow. "I know the whole story from beginning to end, but I can't take you where he is tonight. You'll have to stop with me till morning, ...
— Rodney The Partisan • Harry Castlemon
... hists a couple of cents on the gallon you know Andy carried his valises home empty an' if railroad rates jumps—the senators got nicked a little, an' vicy versy. Now you an' me ain't captains of industry, nor nothin' else but our own soul, as the piece goes, but 'tain't no harm we should try a law-abidin' recreation, same as these others, an' mebbe after some practice we'll get to where the Guggenhimers will be figgerin' how to get the western hemisphere of ...
— The Texan - A Story of the Cattle Country • James B. Hendryx
... "Dunno; 'tain't our business to go nosing and poking around after scientific truth. We depend on the meter. If that says you burned six million feet, why, you must have burned it, even if we never made a foot of gas ...
— Elbow-Room - A Novel Without a Plot • Charles Heber Clark (AKA Max Adeler)
... one somewhar on board, and Ah done ain't seed it fer mor 'n a yare, Ah reckon. 'Tain't no use enyhow. Whut we steer by is landmarks. Ah sure does know de Chesapeake. Yer ...
— Wolves of the Sea • Randall Parrish
... Nanny, drowsily. "The keep o' man and beast is heavy in the town, and he'll be tain to look on his ain house, and greet the folk at home after these mony months beyond the seas. Preserve him and ilka kindly Scot from fell Popish ...
— Girlhood and Womanhood - The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes • Sarah Tytler
... addressed him with great firmness. "Now see yere, Massa Job," he said, "tain't no use yoh puttin' on yoh high and mighty airs to-night. I'se come to ...
— Uncle Noah's Christmas Inspiration • Leona Dalrymple
... "'Tain't more'n three mile," he said consolingly. "The roads ain't none too good this season, an' Kittie—that's her" (pointing to his mare)—"don't feel over-skittish; she's nigh onter fourteen year, an' right smart, too, fur her age, but sorter broken-winded ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 • Various
... "Hit tain't nothin' ter fret about, Sally," he assured her. He spoke awkwardly, for he had been trained to regard emotion as ...
— The Call of the Cumberlands • Charles Neville Buck
... he cried. "I'm with Miss Kate. Charlie's done right in fixing on red pine lining. Art's art, an' if you're goin' to be artistic, why, you just got to match things same as you'd match a team of horses, same as a woman does her fixings. 'Tain't good to mix anything. Not even drinks. Red pine goes with raw logs. Say, there's art in everything. Beans goes with pork; cabbage with corned beef. But you don't never eat ice cream with sowbelly. Everybody hates winter. Why for do folks ...
— The Law-Breakers • Ridgwell Cullum
... on, Cindy," he said to the partner of his joys and sorrows the evening after his ride over the mountain. "Oh, no, 'tain't airs, it's somethin' more curi's than that!" And he bent over the fire in a comfortable lounging way, rubbing his hands a little, and blinked at the ...
— In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... stick right up for your rights," Katy advised her. "Ye're a great big girl. 'Tain't going to be long till ye're eighteen. But mind your old Katy about going too far. If ye lose your temper and cat-spit, it won't get ye anywhere. The fellow that keeps the coolest can ...
— Her Father's Daughter • Gene Stratton-Porter
... notes could be justified by argument. He would not establish any fixed proportion between the notes under L5, or above; but he would, as in the case of the English banks, restrict the future issues of the banks to the amount of the average issues for a ces tain time past; namely, the period of the 27th of April, 1844, thirteen lunar months. In Ireland it was necessary to take an extended time, because there had been a greater increase on the issues within the last three or four months. He would solve ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... he still said it "wa'n't right" for him to go, and paid for a substitute. But three months later his father-in-law died, up in the country somewhere, and left his wife some three thousand dollars, and 'Lige enlisted the next, day, saying "'Tain't right for any man to stay that can be spared; slavery ain't right; it must be stopped." He served as a private until it ...
— Danger Signals • John A. Hill and Jasper Ewing Brady
... "'Tain't nothing of the kind or I'm a lubber—fifty cents is all I'll pay. I'll be horn-swoggled if you get a cent more, yer deep-sea pirate," was the indignant ...
— The Boy Aviators in Africa • Captain Wilbur Lawton
... just the same," he said, in more grumbling tones than before. "'Tain't every married women'd tackle a strange horse that way, especially if she'd never ben on one. An' I ain't forgot that you're goin' to have a saddle animal all to yourself some ...
— The Valley of the Moon • Jack London
... that were so generous with their machines," dutifully said the victim of benevolence. "Oh, no, 'tain't a question of generosity, hardly. Fact, I always feel—I was saying to my son just the other night—it's a fellow's duty to share the good things of this world with his neighbors, and it gets my goat when a fellow gets stuck on himself and goes around tooting his horn ...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis
... agree to what you say, Professor," drawled Abner, "unless the other side has got some sort of an explanation to make. 'Tain't quite fair to judge a man without ...
— Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks - A Picture of New England Home Life • Charles Felton Pidgin
... grunted. "So you've come to see old Jake Shluker, have you? 'Tain't often you come! And what's ...
— The White Moll • Frank L. Packard
... key to one of the doors of the hall, but when she had tried the key in each lock, she found the locks were too large or the key was too small—it did not fit one of them. But when she went round the hall once more she came to a low cur-tain which she had not seen at first, and when she drew this back she found a small door, not much more than a foot high; she tried the key in the lock, and to ...
— Alice in Wonderland - Retold in Words of One Syllable • J.C. Gorham
... ''Tain't no ways likely,' says father. 'They're the sleepiest lot of chaps in this frontage I ever saw. It's hardly worth while "touching" them. There's no fun in it. It's like shooting pheasants when they ain't preserved. There's no risk, ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood
... "'Tain't noways what ye'd call much o' a story, but it 'lustrates ther intelligence o' ther hawg, which in my 'pinion ez almost ez great ez thet o' some collidge gradooates ...
— Ted Strong's Motor Car • Edward C. Taylor
... cried the squat man. "Didn't I tell yeh? Give him a show! 'Tain't no fault of his that he's a tenderfoot. He'll ...
— A Mountain Woman and Others • (AKA Elia Wilkinson) Elia W. Peattie
... "Tain't no use; they won't wait; I know them—what does Grinder Bros care if I'm ill? Never mind, mother, I'll rise above 'em all yet. Give me the ...
— While the Billy Boils • Henry Lawson
... irritating, rasping voice]. I'm sure I wish I did. An' I'd tell ye quick, an' git ye out of here. 'Tain't no fun fer me to have ye prowlin' all over my house. Ye ain't got no right t' torment me like this. Lord knows how I'll git my day's work done, if I can't ...
— Washington Square Plays - Volume XX, The Drama League Series of Plays • Various
... think you've been and done with Bill. You got 'im in there and you done 'im in. That's what I think. And I tell yer it ain't the cheese. When a cove goes into an 'ouse for to do an 'armless crack he stands for to be lagged if so be as he 'appens to git copped. But 'e don't stand for to be done in. 'Tain't playin' the game, and I ...
— The Uttermost Farthing - A Savant's Vendetta • R. Austin Freeman
... "'Tain't nothin'," he said stoutly, and he grinned his admiration openly for Marjorie, who looked such anxiety for him. "You ain't afeerd o' nothin', air ye, an' I reckon this rabbit tail is a- goin' to you," and he handed it to her and turned to his horse. The boy ...
— The Heart Of The Hills • John Fox, Jr.
... over!" exclaimed Charity; "but if she's disagreeable, I'll tell you what, girls, I'd rather scrub floors. 'Tain't my vocation ...
— Nobody • Susan Warner
... and likely never will, though I ain't no doubt myself there's a reason. It ain't a pretty story or easy to understand but it's common enough, and you'll find that mother never means to be found, an' in as big a city as this 'n', tain't no use to try." ...
— The Angel of the Tenement • George Madden Martin
... bad of him as all that,' said the man who had attended the meeting. ''Tain't for himself as he wants the money. What do you think o' ...
— Demos • George Gissing
... the accidents and the trouble. It was us as went out of the light into the dark. If we'd kep' in the light all the time, an' thought about it, an' talked about it, we'd never 'ad nothin' else. 'Tain't punishment neither. 'T ain't nothin' but the dark—an' the dark ain't nothin' but the light bein' away. 'Keep in the light,' she ses, 'never think of nothin' else, an' then you'll begin an' see things. Everybody's been afraid. There ain't ...
— The Dawn of a To-morrow • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... matter," said Mrs. Bascom kindly, catching sight of Polly's discomfited face; "tain't a mite of matter; you'll sweep better next time; now let's go to the cake;" and putting the broom into the corner, she waddled back again to the table, followed by Polly, and proceeded to turn out the contents of the teapot, in search of just ...
— Five Little Peppers And How They Grew • Margaret Sidney
... "'Tain't likely. He only got in one shot. When they seen him wrigglin' on the ground, all doubled up—you know, Jim—they jumped their horses and put across ...
— Laramie Holds the Range • Frank H. Spearman
... "'Tain't for me to say it ain't yourn," responded the shop-keeper; "but the times is bad times and there 's roguery of all sorts going on in the city." He looked it over again, and demanded, "Who does 'W. ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford
... yourself along," advised the sheriff, good-naturedly. "Just get right along, an' 'tend to your little old illuminated knife-throwin' trick. 'Tain't ten minutes till that's due, an' you've got a crowd that's good for five hundred dollars if it's good for a cent, when you pass the hat. And," he added, delight in the scheme he was working getting the better of his natural instinct for literal truth, "and luck—just ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VIII (of X) • Various
... see the sense o' bringin' her here!" answered the man sleepily. "We ain't out o' the hunger-wood ourselves yet!—Wife! here's a chap as says he's picked up a young 'oman a dyin' o' 'unger!—'tain't likely, be it, i' ...
— There & Back • George MacDonald
... our hosses," added old Matt, as he fired his rifle the second time. "'Tain't no use; I might as well shoot at ...
— Field and Forest - The Fortunes of a Farmer • Oliver Optic
... 'Huldy is a good girl; but I oughtn't to be a leavin' every thing to her,—it's too hard on her. I ought to be instructin' and guidin' and helpin' of her; 'cause 'tain't everybody could be expected to know and do what Mis' Carryl did;' and so at it he went; and Lordy massy! didn't Huldy hev a time on't when the minister began to come out of his study, and want to tew 'round and see to things? Huldy, you see, thought all the world of the minister, ...
— Oldtown Fireside Stories • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... don't know what to do the best thing to do is to do nothin'. 'Spose we jest wait a while. We're well kivered here, an' they'd never think o' lookin' so close by fur us, anyway. Besides, hev you noticed, Henry, that it's growin' a lot darker? 'Tain't goin' to rain, but the moon an' all the stars are goin' away, fur a rest, I s'pose, so they kin shine ...
— The Eyes of the Woods - A story of the Ancient Wilderness • Joseph A. Altsheler
... "No, 'tain't lead—and 'tain't nothin'," he declared contemptuously, flinging the bit he held back into the handkerchief. "Pros Passmore—ye old fool—you come down here and work us all up over some truck that wasn't worth turnin' with ...
— The Power and the Glory • Grace MacGowan Cooke
... judge' in dulge' nan keen' de volve' be grudge' re pulse' im plead' dis solve' sub duct' suc cumb' con ceal' re solve' be numb' af front' con geal' re spond' con vulse' a mong' re frain' re print' re proach' re take' re main' re strict' en croach' re trace' re strain' re sist' pa trol' re pay' re tain' sub mit' pa role' de lay' re tail' dis ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey
... "'Tain't old Charlie. It's young Charlie," said Anderson, looking hard at the invitation. "'Charles Elias Smith, ...
— Anderson Crow, Detective • George Barr McCutcheon
... "'Tain't no use to ask a officer dressed in blue, and lookin' as spruce as you be, whar he kim from. I say, Yank, what are ...
— The Young Lieutenant - or, The Adventures of an Army Officer • Oliver Optic
... met the missis here, and I made bold to tell her what I'd noticed. That there owd brig!—lor' bless yer, gentlemen! it were black rotten i' the middle, theer where poor young maister he fell through it. 'Ye mun hev' that seen to at once, missis,' I says. 'Sartin sure, 'tain't often as it's used,' I says, 'but surely sartin 'at if it ain't mended, or closed altogether,' I says, 'summun 'll be going through and brekkin' their necks,' I says. An' reight, too, gentlemen—forty feet it is down to that road. An' a mortal hard road, an' all, paved wi' granite stone ...
— The Talleyrand Maxim • J. S. Fletcher
... buggin' out worser'n Buck's had when he ketched first sight of the feller's red shirt and the shiny tinware. 'Buck's gone,' I sez to him coaxin' like. 'You don't need to be skeert of him no more!' 'T-t-tain't B-b-buck!' the feller's teeth chattered. 'It's you, D-d-evil A-a-nse!' With that he drapped off the limb down to the ground at my feet. Swoonded ...
— Blue Ridge Country • Jean Thomas
... "'Cause 'tain't right, that's why," was his way of refusing to do a thing, and his argument against others ...
— Danger Signals • John A. Hill and Jasper Ewing Brady
... the last sort, I hope. You know my kind, and 'tain't any use talking up about any others. Any old woman can make gruel, and feed a baby with catnip tea. Don't offer me any more such work as that! If it's work that is work, ...
— Faith Gartney's Girlhood • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... that those rings are yours!" answered Melky solemnly and emphatically. "Tain't no use denying it— you're in a dangerous position. The police always goes for the straightest and easiest line. Their line was clear enough, just now—Parminter give it away! They've a theory—they always ...
— The Orange-Yellow Diamond • J. S. Fletcher
... for us of the romances omit this rhetoric entirely, owing to the difficulty in rendering it accurately, and because it does not develop the plots of the stories. Notable examples of such omissions are in Miss Faraday's translation of the Leabhar na h-Uidhri version of the "Great Tain," and in Whitley Stokes' translation of the "Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel." With all respect to these scholars, and with the full consciousness of the difficulty of the task that has naturally been felt by one who has vainly attempted to make sense ...
— Heroic Romances of Ireland Volumes 1 and 2 Combined • A. H. Leahy
... was saying, "Thar isn't much in the pond 'cept perch and sunfish, but you may take something in the creek above. Your best show for trout is to work along the trout brook as far as the hill, and then cut across to the creek, and fish down. 'Tain't far to cross. To-morrer you can try the brooks beyond the hill. Some of 'em'll give you a ...
— Harper's Young People, August 10, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... sense than to make a woman pick mail-bags outer the road," said Jo Simmons sympathetically. "'Tain't in her day's work anyhow; Guv'mont oughter hand 'em over to her like a lady; it's rich enough and ...
— Colonel Starbottle's Client and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... folks been here long as me, but don't want to admit it. They black their hair and whiten their faces, and powder and paint. 'Course it's good to look good all right. But when you start that stuff, you got to keep it up. Tain't no use to start and stop. After a while you got that same color hair and them same splotches again. Folks say, 'What's the matter, you gittin so dark?' Then you say, 'Uh, my liver is bad.' You got to keep ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Arkansas Narratives, Part 4 • Works Projects Administration
... "Why, massa, 'tain't worf while for to git mad 'bout de matter—Massa Will say noffin' at all ain't de matter wid him—but den what make him go about looking dis here way, wid he head down and he soldiers up, and as white as a gose? And den he keep a ...
— Short-Stories • Various
... her into any port, east of Block Island, Cap tain Wallingford. Though New York born, as it now turns out, I'm 'down east' edicated, and have got a 'coasting pilot' of my own ...
— Miles Wallingford - Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore" • James Fenimore Cooper
... the parcel, and finding a toy-watch of the value of one farthing sterling). 'Ere, I'll give yer this back—'tain't no good ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, December 10, 1892 • Various
... do it any more, though 'tain't easy to change one's 'abits. But how is it, sir, that that there electricity works? That's what I wants to know. Does the words ...
— The Battery and the Boiler - Adventures in Laying of Submarine Electric Cables • R.M. Ballantyne
... "Tain't a cab," Walter informed her crossly. "It's a tin Lizzie, but you don't haf' to tell her what it is till I get her ...
— Alice Adams • Booth Tarkington
... "Tain't over hyeh. Hit's mine. Ef a man don't want to tell his name over hyeh, he's a spy or a raider or a officer looking fer somebody or," he added carelessly, but with a quick covert look at his visitor—"he's got some kind o' business that he ...
— The Trail of the Lonesome Pine • John Fox, Jr.
... timbers!" was the phrase. "Shiver my timbers! if 'tain't the little marlin-spike as boarded ...
— The Boy Tar • Mayne Reid
... experienced. "No! but there ain't another man to be found ez could do it. It cost already two hundred thousand; it'll cost five hundred thousand afore it's done; and every cent of it is got out of the yearth beneath it, or HEZ got to be out of it. 'Tain't ev'ry man, Miss Carr, ez hev got the pluck to pledge not only what he's got, but what ...
— Devil's Ford • Bret Harte
... made, and the chief, to show his "big heart," usually piles on top of a horse a heterogeneous mass of buffalo robes, pemmican, and dried meat, and hands horse and all he carries over to the trader. After such a present no man can possibly enter tain for a moment a doubt upon the subject of the big-heartedness of the donor, but if, in the trade which ensues: after this present has been made, it should happen that fifty horses are bought by the Company, not one of all the band will cost so dear as that which demonstrates ...
— The Great Lone Land - A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America • W. F. Butler
... said, "that was a spill. When ye went down ye seemed 'mos' as leggy as a spider. Next time ye go coastin', Ab, ye'd better not wear your Sunday hat. 'Tain't no better'n a kite ...
— Jimsy - The Christmas Kid • Leona Dalrymple
... "Tain't no use to talk about honor with them, Cap.; they hain't got no such thing in um; and they won't show fair fight, any way you can fix it. Don't they kill and sculp a white man when-ar they get the better on him? The mean varmints, they'll never behave themselves ...
— The Prairie Traveler - A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions • Randolph Marcy
... "'Tain't nothin'," persisted Susan, "but a May party in Cen'ral Park. Every one takes somethin' ter eat in a box, an' the boys play ball an' the girls dance round, an' the cops let you run on the grass. I knows all about it, fer my sister ...
— The Primrose Ring • Ruth Sawyer
... "I suppose so. 'Tain't likely," said Mr. Parmalee, with a sulky sense of injury, "you'll find me prancing up and down the village with this here face. I'll get the old woman to do it up in brown paper and vinegar when I go home, and I'll stay ...
— The Baronet's Bride • May Agnes Fleming
... among the horses—where some Roman-nosed, camel-backed, slant-eared nag is probably waitin' to kick daylight out'r me! Ladies, farewell!" he added, tripping up on his spurs and waving his hand vaguely. "Cav'lry's eyes 'n' ears 'f army! 'Tain't the hind legs' No—no! I'm head 'n' ears—army! 'n' I wan' t' ...
— Ailsa Paige • Robert W. Chambers
... about the amount of labour she can yet perform; and, after much manifest hesitancy, she is knocked down to Romescos for the sum of two hundred and seventy dollars. "There! 'tain't a bad price for ye, nohow!" says the vender, laconically. "Get down, old woman." Rachel moves to the steps, and is received by Romescos, who, taking his purchase by the arm, very mechanically sets it ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams
... sitting in this very parlor, in came Madge, looking scared enough. She had been to Turlock on an errand for me. So, 'Sit down,' says I, 'and take a glass, for you look as though the wind had blown your wits away, old woman.' 'Tain't that, John Trevethick,' says she; 'but I'm near frightened to death. I've seen a sight as I shall never forget to my dying day. I have just seen our life-boat men—all nine of 'em. The Lord have mercy on their souls!' 'Well, why not?' says I. 'Why shouldn't you ...
— Bred in the Bone • James Payn
... "'Tain't neither," said Captain Corbet, decidedly. "It's good English; it's 'Petticoat Jack;' an I've hearn tell a hundred times about its original deryvation. You see, in the old French war, there was an English spy among the ...
— Lost in the Fog • James De Mille
... promptly. "'Tain't of no consequence about me, never has been; and I haven't no time to waste on myself. I want to save him. 'O Lord, don't let Tode ever touch ...
— Three People • Pansy
... William[2] Phillips, the Capt[tain] of the Pyrate, was always afraid of John Baptis that he would do him some damage, That Baptis was always ready and forward to rise upon the Pyrates, when they talkt of rising, That he has seen them go Armed on board ...
— Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period - Illustrative Documents • Various
... quit us when we got the horses into the corral, and rode off up the Slide trail. If I was to make a guess, I would say that he went to meet Mary Hope. They been doing that right frequent ever since she quit coming here. 'Tain't no skin off my nose—but Lance, he's buildin' himself a mess uh trouble with old Scotty, sure as ...
— Rim o' the World • B. M. Bower
... Italian nobility took its place in the centre of social life, and not at the extremity. We find it habitually mixing with other classes on a footing of perfect equality, and seeking its natural allies in culture and intelligence. It is true that for the courtier a cer- tain rank of nobility was required, but this exigence is expressly declared to be caused by a prejudice rooted in the public mind— 'per l'opinion universale'—and never was held to imply the belief that the personal worth of one who was ...
— The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy • Jacob Burckhardt
... first right-hand turn, and I'll be up with you soon. Maybe you might make room for the trout." Room for him as well, they assured him; they were in luck to find him, they explained. "Well, I guess I'll trust my neck with you," he said to Bertie, the skillful driver; "'tain't five minutes' risk." The buggy leaned, and its springs bent as he climbed in, wedging his mature bulk between their slim shapes. The gelding looked round the shaft at them. "Protestin', are you?" he said to it. "These ...
— Philosophy 4 - A Story of Harvard University • Owen Wister
... bet your head. His fodder's a-runnin' short for the hornid critters. He's bought some up to Martin's, that's a-comin' down dyrect; but 'tain't enough. He's put to't for more. Shouldn't wonder ef he had to draw from North Elby when ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn
... enough 'tain't. My name's Gabriel. Call me that— or Gabe. I don't like to be called out of my name. But ...
— Shavings • Joseph C. Lincoln
... let the old woman stay in her corner, whoever they'll be," said Karen. "Well — 'tain't fur now to the end, — and then I'll get a better place where they won't turn me out. I wish ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner
... that? tis the watch, sure; that villanous unlucky rogue, Smug, is tain, upon my life; and then all our villeny comes out; I ...
— The Merry Devil • William Shakespeare
... the other, shrilly. "They tole me nothing. What's wrong? Good God! 'tain't nothin' with the child?" She shook the other in sudden ...
— Children of the Tenements • Jacob A. Riis
... Lizzie affably. "I'll fix you fine. Don't you worry. How'd you get so awful tanned? I s'pose riding. You look like you'd been to the seashore, and lay out on the beach in the sun. But 'tain't the right time o' year quite. It must be ...
— The Girl from Montana • Grace Livingston Hill
... on whether Mrs. Haddo gives you leave. 'Tain't the custom, sure and certain, for young ladies from the Court to come a-visiting at Stoke Farm; but if so be she says yes, you'll be heartily welcome, and more than welcome. I can't say ...
— Betty Vivian - A Story of Haddo Court School • L. T. Meade
... time," said an old sailor, with a resounding oath. "Tain't likely I'll ever ship with your captain, for sech as I've come to be couldn't pass muster. Howsumever, it's kind o' comfortin' to hear one talk as if there was plenty of sea-room, even when a chap knows he's drivin' ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe
... JOHN. 'Tain't likely as you can get through courtship without parting with sommat, master. Lucky if it baint gold as you're ...
— Six Plays • Florence Henrietta Darwin
... "'Tain't reason at all," he softly responded, "it's superstition. But hold on. Watch me." He gestured for the lover's attention and their eyes met. It made a number laugh, to see Hilary's stare gradually go senseless and then blaze with intelligence. ...
— Kincaid's Battery • George W. Cable
... of 1765, of the Federal Convention of 1787, and President of Pennsylvania (1782-85), was also the founder of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The Dickinsons came from Dundee in early colonial times. John Ross, purchasing agent for the Continental Army, was born in Tain, Ross-shire. He lost about one hundred thousand dollars by his services to his adopted country, but managed to avoid financial shipwreck. John Harvie, born at Gargunnock, died 1807, was Member of the Continental Congress (1777), signer of the Articles of Confederation the following year, ...
— Scotland's Mark on America • George Fraser Black
... it 'tain't the truth, That one time's wusser than the t'other; Praps I'm a-gittin' old myself, And fare to ...
— Two Suffolk Friends • Francis Hindes Groome
... lead—and 'tain't nothin'," he declared contemptuously, flinging the bit he held back into the handkerchief. "Pros Passmore—ye old fool—you come down here and work us all up over some truck that wasn't worth turnin' with a spade! You ...
— The Power and the Glory • Grace MacGowan Cooke
... friendly to me. I like to dwell among friends, Johnnie. Lately they been makin' a sight of trouble for me. Seems like I ought to sort of return the favor. 'Tain't jest spite, Johnnie. Spite's a luxury I can't afford if there hain't a money profit in it. Seems like there might be a dollar or two in this ...
— Scattergood Baines • Clarence Budington Kelland
... leaning his arms on the fence. "Well, Jim Hobart was the name he giv' me. That's my house, which is why I happen to know what his name was. Something queer about that fellar, I reckon, but 'tain't none o' my business. You ain't a detective, or nothin' ...
— The Case and The Girl • Randall Parrish
... " 'Tain't a very secure place," he returned. "Reckon I'll have to nail down some of the windows unless you'll give me your ...
— True to Himself • Edward Stratemeyer
... see very well what he can be suspicious of," pondered Ricardo. "Yet there he was doing a think. And what could be the object of it? What made him get out of his bed in the middle of the night. 'Tain't ...
— Victory • Joseph Conrad
... been down on that air bed one whole year come Christmas, and nobody can't say what is the matter with her. Sich a heap o' calomel, and quinine, and turpentine, and doctor's stuff as she has took, and 'tain't done no good. I can't count the times I been to the tavern. I know I brung off more'n two gallons of the best whiskey, an' it's been mixed up with pine-top, an' snakeroot, an' mullein, an' I dun'no' what all, an' none of it 'ain't done no good. An' Min is dyin' ...
— Shapes that Haunt the Dusk • Various
... come to that," said he, an odd note of confidence in his voice. "'Tain't likely, old friend, that God would see us safely through all we've had to tackle and then desert us in the end. Something's bound to turn up. I've a feeling,—a queer feeling,—that we're going to pull out of this all right. I know it looks mighty ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon
... but Costigan's broad countenance did not harbor the wraith of a smile. "What kin I git for fifty chips? 'Tain't much," mused the pariah, with the prompt inclination to spend that stamps the comparative ...
— Judith Of The Plains • Marie Manning
... luck in the worl'!" plained poor Rufe, as the ill-omened cry rose again and again. "'Tain't goin' ter s'prise me none now, ef I gits my neck bruk along o' this resky foolishness in this cur'ous place whar owELS watch from the lookout ...
— Down the Ravine • Charles Egbert Craddock (real name: Murfree, Mary Noailles)
... 1917, because it is a cumulative blunder. Revolutions and mutinies generally follow a small sample of a big series of evils. [Footnote: Cf. Pierrefeu's account, op. cit., on the causes of the Soissons mutinies, and the method adopted by Ptain to deal with them. Vol. I, Part III, ...
— Public Opinion • Walter Lippmann
... TOMMY, than the Navy Rank and File, You may chance to get promotion,—arter waiting a good while— But the tip-top of Tar luck's to be a Warrant Officer; We ain't like to get no further, if we even get as fur. 'Tain't encouraging, my hearty. As for me, I'm old and grey, 'Tis too late now for promotion if it chanced to come my way; And my knowledge, and my patter, and my manners—well I guess They mayn't be percisely fitted for a dandy ward-room ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., Jan. 31, 1891 • Various
... "'Tain't much. Short hoss soon curried. Allus ben in hospitals. Had high ole jinks with a wound on my haid. Piece o' shell, they sez, cut me yere," and he pointed to a scar across his forehead. "That's what they tole me. Lor'! I couldn't mek much out o' the gibberish ...
— Taken Alive • E. P. Roe
... "Tain't that," said the mate. "You'll be pleased to hear that 'im an' Sam has been talked over by the other two, and that all your crew now, 'cept the cook, who's still Roman Catholic, has ...
— Many Cargoes • W.W. Jacobs
... "Well, 'tain't mine but I guess yez kin take it. Don't smash it if yez can help—Jim might make a fuss about it if he comes back alive—which he sure will, seein' he ain't any good. He brung that old tureen out from England with him—said it'd always been in the family. Him and Min never used it—never had ...
— Rilla of Ingleside • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... "'Tain't gentlemanly to talk so, Elbert," said Mrs. 'Ero Edwards. "Yore mother was a woman, an' from 'er comes all you know, I'm thinkin', an' all you are. Women is pals with women, an' men is pals with men. It's only when men an' women gets ...
— This Is the End • Stella Benson
... said the woman. "Tain't riz much dis mornin'. Done all de risin' las' night. Dat tree's jist on de edge of de creek bank. If Pomp could git along dar, you kin, Mah'sr Harry! Did ye go out dar, sure 'nuff, you Pomp? Mind, if ...
— What Might Have Been Expected • Frank R. Stockton
... whom I took into my yard like a son, should have connived at this! 'Tain't the money'tis the willany that 'flicts me!" muttered Mr. Stubmore, ...
— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... "Tain't none of my business, as long as you pay me what you owe me," said the squire. "All I want is my money, ...
— Bound to Rise • Horatio Alger
... reg'lar heathen, going and getting himself called by a Christian name! I should like to give him Solomon—you'll fight with the best of them, sir. I often think about it. You'll fight with the best of them, sir. And 'tain't brag, Mr Archie Maine, sir—you let me see one of them beggars coming at you with his pisoned kris or his chuck-spear, do you mean to tell me I wouldn't let him have the bayonet? And bad soldier or no, I can ...
— Trapped by Malays - A Tale of Bayonet and Kris • George Manville Fenn
... round Watson's stove, or out on the bench at the door, an' they'll make up stories as fast as their tongues can wag. The man don't live that's smart enough to cheat Abner Simpson in a trade, and who ever heard of anybody's owin' him money? Tain't supposable that a woman like Mrs. Came would allow her husband to be in debt to a man like Abner Simpson. It's a sight likelier that she heard that Mrs. Simpson was ailin' and sent for the boy so as to help the family ...
— New Chronicles of Rebecca • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... then to learn afterwards of a dozen most exciting events, each distinctly out of the ordinary, which might have been used as excuses for two dozen calls and as many sensations! As Captain Zeb Mayo, the irreverent ex-whaler, put it, "That fog shook Didama's faith in the judgment of Providence. 'Tain't the 'all wise,' but the 'all seein'' kind she talks about in ...
— Keziah Coffin • Joseph C. Lincoln
... "'Tain't so very reckless, the way they look at it," observed the captain. "You see they think that the Indians are all far off an' ain't likely to come back for some weeks. When the redskins started on their hunt they left plenty ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... entirely overlooked, entered it, together with Aunt Chloe. The old negress was evidently playing the hostess to Densie, for she was talking quite loud, and all about "Mas'r Hugh." "Pity he wasn't thar, 'twould seem so different; 'tain't de same house without him. You'll like Mas'r Hugh," and she, too, glided ...
— Bad Hugh • Mary Jane Holmes
... detachment of scouts who were retreating through a district swarming with Prussians. We were surrounded, pursued, tired out, and half dead with fatigue and hunger, and by the next day we had to reach Bar-sur-Tain; otherwise we should be done for, cut off from the main body and killed. I do not know how we managed to escape so far. However, we had ten leagues to go during the night, ten leagues through the snow, and upon empty stomachs. I thought ...
— Selected Writings of Guy de Maupassant • Guy de Maupassant
... "'tain't freadbare, it's fine, the finest in the book. Do read it, Randy, and then I'll be willing ...
— Randy and Her Friends • Amy Brooks
... the child into a deep lake and disappeared. This lake is held by some to be the lake Linius, a wide insular water near the sea-coast, in the regions of Linius or "The Lake;" now called Martin Mere or Mar-tain-moir, "a water like ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... worth anything," he told her seriously. "I spent near a day going over 'em, and there wasn't a volume worth bringing back with me. Folks get the idea in their heads that a book's worth money just because it is old. 'Tain't so—I could fill my tables and shelves with old trash and still not have any stock. Jim Turner don't know a ...
— Betty Gordon in Washington • Alice B. Emerson
... said Calvin Parks. "Hossy's a prize package, that's a fact. Want a bite, hossy? tain't dinner time yet, but a bite won't ...
— The Wooing of Calvin Parks • Laura E. Richards |
