"Napping" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... of him!" Banks snorted. "He's here. Twenty-four hours a day. Eating sandwiches and cat-napping on chairs in the lobby. All you have to do is unseal ...
— The Galaxy Primes • Edward Elmer Smith
... "there is no such serious danger as you imagine. Last time the cuttle caught me napping. He will not do so again. Those rifles I must have. If it will serve to reassure you, I will ...
— The Wings of the Morning • Louis Tracy
... napping, Doc," answered Burke gratefully. "You're a good friend of mine, and I appreciate your advice. But I don't expect ...
— Traffic in Souls - A Novel of Crime and Its Cure • Eustace Hale Ball
... and turned to obey, as Jack, as silently as he could, crept on toward the hut, his revolver clasped ready for use at the slightest alarm. The Border Boy did not mean to be caught napping. In this manner he reached the wall of the hut nearest to the river, in which there was a small, unglazed window. Cautiously raising himself on tiptoe, ...
— The Border Boys Across the Frontier • Fremont B. Deering
... Murray. "There were voices, and creaking of blocks, and the splash of oars. It is just to windward, and sounds travel a long distance in a dark night. Our friends, the pirates, are about some mischief. Perhaps they expect to find us napping, ...
— The Three Midshipmen • W.H.G. Kingston
... was too experienced an aviator to be caught napping. As soon as his engine began to miss fire and to smoke, he had set his guiding planes at a sharp angle and dropped in the ...
— The Boy Aviators' Treasure Quest • Captain Wilbur Lawton
... bats. The wings of some of them are three feet across. Ladies use their fur to decorate gowns. The bats live on fruit, just as monkeys do; only the bats eat at dusk, and sleep during the day. That is why we caught them napping, by going to the ...
— Fil and Filippa - Story of Child Life in the Philippines • John Stuart Thomson
... cropping the grass and herbs, which were a mat of green, rising so fast with the daily showers that only flocks could keep it shorn. On the verandas and on the turf idle men and women were gazing at the sky, talking, humming the newest air, plaiting hats, or napping. No one was reading. There was no book-store in Tahiti. I had not read a line since I came. I had not stepped up to the genial dentist's to see an American journal. After years of the newspaper habit, reading and writing them, it had fallen away ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien
... time Alva was not idle. On the 30th April, he wrote to Groesbeck, that he must take care not to be taken napping; that he must keep his eyes well open until the arrival of succor, which was already on the way. He then immediately ordered Count Aremberg, who had just returned from France on conclusion of hostilities, to hasten to the seat of war. Five vanderas of his own regiment; a small body of cavalry, ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... coming down upon me with his lightning wit. What? You DID sleep over it? And a very good thing too. These eyes have more than once seen a friend dozing over pages which this hand has written. There is a vignette somewhere in one of my books of a friend so caught napping with "Pendennis," or the "Newcomes," in his lap and if a writer can give you a sweet soothing, harmless sleep, has he not done you a kindness? So is the author who excites and interests you worthy of ...
— Roundabout Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray
... landed and I have the satisfaction of knowing that it did good work. I had not caught them napping however. I had seized the wire much more firmly the second time and at the same instant when I threw my missile the bell rang violently; much ...
— Fighting in France • Ross Kay
... than ten of them,' said Ringan. 'I have seen the same faces too often for there to be many. And what there be we shall take napping.' ...
— Two Penniless Princesses • Charlotte M. Yonge
... it was unwise to go farther until the whole army came up, as they heard other trumpets calling now, and they were not their own but those of their enemies. Early had not been caught napping. The dark lines of his infantry were advancing to retake the little fort. The cavalry was reduced in an instant from the offensive to the defensive, and dismounting and sending their horses to the rear, where they were held by every tenth ...
— The Tree of Appomattox • Joseph A. Altsheler
... servilely attends. More slaves must then be fed, more horses too, And chariots bought. Now have I nought to do, If I would even to Tarentum ride, But mount my bobtailed mule, my wallets tied Across his flanks, which, napping as we go, With my ungainly ankles to and fro, Work his unhappy sides a world ...
— Horace • Theodore Martin
... But why don't he meet me fore this time? It's pesky strange he should hang back in a woman affair so! Why, he would go—like enough has gone—but then how could he miss me? O Lord, Bart, what a stupid pup! He passed you when you was napping it in the bushes at that cool spring! I'll bet my old hat on't! Well, we shan't see much more of him to-night, likely, seeing it is love he's doing, and such a moon as this holds the candle; and we may as well be trying to find out this ...
— The Rangers - [Subtitle: The Tory's Daughter] • D. P. Thompson
... that," answered Archie; "we Highlanders are not men to be found napping in the face of ...
— The Three Commanders • W.H.G. Kingston
... still lay along the pinon limb, every sense on the alert. He was not sure that it was not a trick to draw him out. He already was too good a woodsman to be caught napping thus easily. ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in Montana • Frank Gee Patchin
... Maggot—'the Doctor's too much for you; you've only got one hand now, and you'd be no match for him, for he's the devil's pup at a tussle. Let them both slide this time; you may catch them napping before long. As it is, they've got but a devilish small chance of escape, for it rains terribly overhead, which will fill up the sewers, and ...
— City Crimes - or Life in New York and Boston • Greenhorn
... and paralyzed my courage. Of the qualities that have contributed to what success I may have had, I put in the first rank a disposition to see the gloomiest side of the future. But it has not helped to make my life happier, invaluable though it has been in preventing misadventure from catching me napping. ...
— The Plum Tree • David Graham Phillips
... for the temporary pain I inflicted, and many a hearty laugh since. New things come up so rapidly that it is almost impossible to keep the run of them, and it is not at all surprising that those who are content to go along in the good old way should now and then be caught napping. I own ...
— Off-Hand Sketches - a Little Dashed with Humor • T. S. Arthur
... look for them. You see, I have passed a good many years on the Plains, and I have learned that eternal vigilance is the price of a cowboy's life and liberty. When his scalp depends upon the correct reading of such signs as those which I have just described to you, he is not often caught napping. My long association with Zeke, whose eyes seemed to be everywhere, has got me into the habit of keeping my own eyes open. Probably there were other things there that would have been perfectly plain to Zeke or Mountain Mose ...
— George at the Fort - Life Among the Soldiers • Harry Castlemon
... breeze that piped from out the north caught the sensitive vane napping, and before the dawn broke had quite tired it out, shifting from point to point, now west, now east, now nor'east-by-east, and now back to north again. By the time Morgan had boiled his coffee and had cut his bacon into slivers ready for the frying-pan the ...
— The Tides of Barnegat • F. Hopkinson Smith
... indeed, and even in her dream she seemed to wonder at herself and say: "I have never slept in the daytime before. What can it mean? What will Hans think of me if he should come home and find me napping in the doorway and his supper not ready for him, nor ...
— Dreamland • Julie M. Lippmann
... When it was ended the buttered-roll expression had faded from the Canon's face, and his "our young friend" expression was ready for the chairman's remarks. Londonderry's sitting down awakened a few sad echoes that were no doubt hand-clappings, but seemed like the napping of the wings of night-birds frightened by a light. But the Lit-and-Phils were not frightened; they were entirely bewildered and rather indignant, that was all. It was characteristic of their incapacity to grasp the humanity ...
— The Romance of Zion Chapel [3d ed.] • Richard Le Gallienne
... want to begin a friendship with her—a share in her bed, for one night only, will be requested. Who knows, but on that very Monday night I may be so unhappy as to give mortal offence to my beloved? The shyest birds may be caught napping. Should she attempt to fly me upon it, cannot I detain her? Should she actually fly, cannot I bring her back, by authority civil or uncivil, if I have evidence upon evidence that she acknowledged, though but ...
— Clarissa, Volume 4 (of 9) - History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson
... you much trouble." Pryor sipped at his glass with a relish. "If, of course, you contemplate a try at the Tennessee—that will be a different matter. I trust your commander will be amply prepared for difficulties there. But General Morgan is not to be easily caught napping, or so his reputation stands. I wish you ...
— Ride Proud, Rebel! • Andre Alice Norton
... discussed Charles's plight with him fully. Amzi had spent an enjoyable afternoon cruising in the neighborhood among his farmer friends, and was in the best of humor. Lois, who had taken her ease, reading and napping, declared that she must cultivate a closer acquaintance with farm life. She pronounced it immensely interesting, feigning to ignore the ironical glances exchanged by Phil and Amzi. She exclaimed in a mockery of rapture over a bowl of ...
— Otherwise Phyllis • Meredith Nicholson
... going, but you know I never could feel comfortable in getting my living off somebody else. It doesn't seem fair to the other fellow. You see they've got a right to the things they own and I haven't; and because I might be smart enough to catch them napping and sneak away with what they prize doesn't make it right either. Now that girl probably thinks a lot of her diamonds, you see, and it doesn't seem quite the manly thing for a big strong fellow like me to get them away from ...
— Lo, Michael! • Grace Livingston Hill
... least. With a sweep of her bare arm she had put the tiller hard aport, intending to tack back to Peel, but the wind had freshened and the sea was rising, and by the swift leap of the boat the boom was snapped, and the helpless sail came napping down upon the mast. Then they tumbled into the trough, and Glory had not strength to pull them out of it, and the boy was of no more use than a tripper. She was in her white muslin dress, and he was nursing his dog, and the night was ...
— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine
... we didn't stop at the first one. The mine caught the Boches napping there and stood them on their heads. But in the second it was an out and out stand up fight, man to man, ...
— Army Boys in the French Trenches • Homer Randall
... exasperating as the real thing, for each time Daylight was fooled into tightening his leg grip and into a general muscular tensing of all his body. And then, after a few make-believe attempts, Bob actually did whirl and caught Daylight napping again and landed him in the old position with clasped arms ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London
... he said, as they sat in the park, that she had a weak face. Her thoughts were far away; he had caught her face, as it were, napping, and had seen through it to the root of her being. The conclusion at which he had arrived was that she was not capable of leading an ...
— Evelyn Innes • George Moore
... disgrace this intruder from Hudson's Bay by exhibiting a greater compass and volume of voice in a native, and boo-hoo him out of Concord horizon. "What do you mean by alarming the citadel at this time of night consecrated to me? Do you think I am ever caught napping at such an hour, and that I have not got lungs and a larynx as well as yourself? Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, boo-hoo!" It was one of the most thrilling discords I ever heard. And yet, if you had a discriminating ear, there were in it the elements of a concord such as ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7 • Charles H. Sylvester
... in. He arranged to have the Southern attorney identify the man he had served the paper on. For this purpose he was engaged in conversation with one of his own clerks when the lawyer was due to appear. Kimmel appeared to act confused, as if he had been caught napping. The Southern lawyer, who had seen Thurston only once, fell squarely into the trap and identified the clerk as Thurston. There were plenty of witnesses to it, and it was point number two for the great Mose Kimmel. Papers were drawn up to set aside ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds
... like all tyrants and oppressors, Captain Fishley was a revengeful person. He would wait till he caught me napping, and then spring some trap upon me. He would delay his vengeance till some circumstances conspired against me, and then come down upon me with the whole weight of his malignity. I determined to keep a sharp lookout upon all his movements, ...
— Down The River - Buck Bradford and His Tyrants • Oliver Optic
... would be justly angry with me, give me a little insight into your plan; but if I am kept ignorant of every contrivance, I must always be caught napping. ...
— The Blunderer • Moliere
... whole hall full of people, who were wildly applauding the governor as he stepped forward on the platform. Hurriedly straightening my drooping head and looking guiltily around to see if I had been caught napping, I discovered Matthew Berry at my side in a broad chuckle, and I immediately suspected his stalwart right arm of being ...
— The Golden Bird • Maria Thompson Daviess
... around the corner of the house from his napping in the shade, and sat looking up in adoration at his divinity, inquiring mutely whether that divinity would permit a common warrior like himself to come and kiss her hand. She saw him finally and extended one hand idly; ...
— The Law of the Land • Emerson Hough
... the session, before the voting had begun, Stephen Eaton, who was a State senator from Mesa, moved that a committee be appointed to investigate the rumors of bribery that were so common. The motion caught the Consolidated leaders napping, for this was the last man they had expected to propose such a course, and it went through with little opposition, as a similar motion did in the House at the same time. The lieutenant-governor and the speaker of the House were both opposed to Warner, and the joint committee had on it the names ...
— Ridgway of Montana - (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain) • William MacLeod Raine
... only garment the walrus wears to protect him from the cold. He also wears under-flannels of thick fat and a top-coat of close hair, so that he can take a siesta on an iceberg without the least inconvenience. Talking of siestas, by the way, the walrus is sometimes "caught napping." Occasionally, when the weather is intensely cold, the hole through which he crawls upon the ice gets frozen over so solidly that, on waking, he finds it beyond even his enormous power to break it. In this extremity there is no alternative ...
— The World of Ice • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... she began cautiously to rise; but before she had stolen a foot from the bed, he would start up and stare at her in amazement, exclaiming, "Where going, sister?" and then he seemed to learn by experience, and to determine that he wouldn't be "caught napping" ...
— Lewie - Or, The Bended Twig • Cousin Cicely
... clatter Over such a small matter! I was peacefully napping When you came with your tapping; You are vastly mistaken If you think I've forsaken My official position Because no physician Could give me a cranium Like a pot of geranium. And these are my orders— No one passes these borders Unless ...
— All the Way to Fairyland - Fairy Stories • Evelyn Sharp
... thick timber made by a bullet, which, after passing through two inches of wood, had pierced a lancer's breast and killed him, besides shattering the wrist of yet another lancer. Those trains had just been fired at by a mounted Boer patrol which had caught our men literally napping. Most of them were lying fast asleep in the bottom of the trucks, with their unloaded carbines beside or under them, so that not a solitary reply shot was fired as the trains sped past the point ...
— With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back • Edward P. Lowry
... thrush!" "Fly away, pigeon!" "Fly away, butterfly!" should cause all the fingers to spring up. But of "Fly away, omnibus!" "Fly away, cat!" "Fly away, pig!" no notice should be taken. The game is, of course, to catch players napping. ...
— What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes • Dorothy Canfield Fisher
... It's no good. That darned 'gator has got my jaguar safe down there in the mud, and we shall never see him again. Well, never mind, I daresay we shall get plenty of other chances. But I'll watch out and not be caught napping next time." ...
— In Search of El Dorado • Harry Collingwood
... magistrate and his myrmidons) were basking in the sunshine, the very effigies of languor and repose. It was a perfect picture of justice retired from business for want of customers; her sword and scales sold off; napping comfortably with her legs upon ...
— American Notes for General Circulation • Charles Dickens
... Filipino introduced himself as Quentin Salas, and owned that he possessed a slight advantage in having viewed the officer in propria persona, while he, Salas, was in disguise. He confessed that the American had caught him napping on that day, and that he had been forced to assume hurriedly the garb and mien of an aged pauper. The American owned himself outwitted, and shakes his head to this day to think how near he came ...
— A Woman's Impression of the Philippines • Mary Helen Fee
... dead weight around his neck. In the sixth, when the Tigers made a determined attack, Weaver and Schalk came to Benz's assistance with a remarkable play, which pinched Cobb off second base and wrecked what looked like sure runs. And it is no small honor to have caught the honorable Tyrus napping in ...
— News Writing - The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories • M. Lyle Spencer
... up the bay, and even anchored with the flotilla at a point above the "Constellation." The enemy, finding the Americans constantly on the watch, abandoned their designs on the ship, and vowed that Capt. Stewart must be a Scotchman, as he could never be caught napping. Some days later, an officer, sent with a flag of truce to the British fleet, vastly chagrined the officers there by repeating their remarks overheard by the guard-boat officers who joined the British flotilla in the dark. These three escapes confirmed the reputation ...
— The Naval History of the United States - Volume 1 (of 2) • Willis J. Abbot
... fox and a swan took place at Sherborne Park. Master Reynard seems to have caught the old swan napping, and to have seized him by the throat. The bird defended himself with his wings so powerfully that its assailant was done to death in no time, and a workman going past the lake above the bridge next morning found both fox and swan lying ...
— Chatterbox Stories of Natural History • Anonymous
... another story. It was no flowers that Steele now brought me, but stern peremptory command to "get out!" He was unusually irate, first at having been wakened out of his sleep, and secondly at having in probably unique circumstances been caught napping at the post of duty. I went forth disconsolate, and there was a great hubbub in the dark little room outside. My friend and co-conspirator fled in affright when he saw me actually enter the gallery. Now he dropped in in a casual way, and stood ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 25, January 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various
... days to get fit again. You see, I couldn't say anything to anybody! And one heard such absurd rumours—rumours that the Government didn't mean to send any troops to the Continent—that they had been caught napping—that the transport arrangements had broken down, and so on. However, it's all right now! I report myself to-night; rejoin my old regiment to-morrow; and—well, in three or four days, please God, I shall be in France, and in a ...
— Good Old Anna • Marie Belloc Lowndes
... passed without trouble. Then eleven and finally midnight passed. Sergeant Hal, however, was not to be caught napping. He resolved to be vigilant until Lieutenant Prescott ...
— Uncle Sam's Boys in the Philippines - or, Following the Flag against the Moros • H. Irving Hancock
... become of Burke, Petrie! We were both caught napping in the establishment of the amiable Shen-Yan, where, amid a very mixed company of poker players, we were ...
— The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu • Sax Rohmer
... won't talk about yet awhile," was the grave reply. "We've got at least twelve hours before us, providing they don't catch us napping, and at such a time as this it is a much longer lease of life ...
— The Search for the Silver City - A Tale of Adventure in Yucatan • James Otis
... of France and the glory of France. It is the duty of all honest and courageous pens to make strenuous opposition to these foreign importations. And with that you flatter your readers. Shrewd French mother-wit is not easily caught napping. If publishers, by ways which you do not choose to specify, have stolen a success, the reading public very soon judges for itself, and corrects the mistakes made by some five hundred fools, who always rush to ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac
... these ginger cakes—they call 'em stage planks. My brother Jimmie would sell them. The men used to take pleasure in trying to cheat him. He was so clever they couldn't. They never did catch him napping. ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - Volume II. Arkansas Narratives. Part I • Work Projects Administration
... could catch me. I certainly wouldn't have watched out for him way up here, for I didn't think he ever came up to the Old Pasture. But now I know he does, Mr. Hooty'll have to be smarter than he's ever been before to catch me napping again. My, how I do smart and ache! I know now just how Danny Meadow Mouse felt that time Hooty caught him and dropped him into the Old Briar-patch. Ouch! Well, as my mother used ...
— Mrs. Peter Rabbit • Thornton W. Burgess
... wrapped in thought; rapt, in the clouds, bemused; dreaming on other things, musing on other things; preoccupied, engrossed &c (attentive) 457; daydreaming, in a reverie &c n.; off one's guard &c (inexpectant) 508 [Obs.]; napping; dreamy; caught napping. disconcerted, distracted, put out &c v.. Adv. inattentively, inadvertently, absent-mindedly &c adj.^; per incuriam [Lat.], sub silentio [Lat.]. Int. stand at ease, stand easy!, Phr. the attention wanders; one's wits gone a woolgathering, one's wits gone ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... figure in a long over-coat—kept his weapon aimed at someone out of the girl's sight, but he jerked his head aside for a glance down at her. It was a brief glance, for the man who dreaded burglars would not be caught napping. He turned again instantly to face a possible antagonist, eyes ...
— The Second Latchkey • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson
... which he decided should be not less than eight or nine million dollars, for he feared financial storms as well as financial reprisal, and where so much was at stake he did not propose to be caught napping. ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser
... hats with diamond loops and a few feathers before, began; then the Henri Quatres and Quatresses, who were Lady Craven, Miss Minching, the two Misses Vernons, Mr. Storer, Mr. Hanger, the Duc de Lauzun, and George Damer, all in white, the men with black hats and white feathers napping behind, danced another quadrille, and then both quadrilles joined; after which Mrs. Hobart, all in gauze and spangles, like a spangle-pudding, a Miss I forget, Lord Edward Bentinck, and a Mr. Corbet, danced a pas-de-quatre, in which Mrs. ...
— Selected English Letters (XV - XIX Centuries) • Various
... sunk in lethargy at that small hour; the traditional milk-wagon itself seemed to have been caught napping. With one consent residence and shop and sky-scraping hotel blinked apathetically at the flying car; then once more turned and slept. Even the Bizarre had forgotten P. Sybarite—showed at least no sign of recognition ...
— The Day of Days - An Extravaganza • Louis Joseph Vance
... irony: how that on the fifteenth of the first moon, he had shown ignorance of the allusion to the green wax; and the three of them then indulged in that room in mutual poignant satire, for the sake of fun. Pao-y had been giving way to solicitude lest Tai-y should, by being bent upon napping soon after her meal, be shortly getting an indigestion, or lest sleep should, at night, be completely dispelled, as neither of these things were conducive to the preservation of good health, when luckily Pao-ch'ai walked in, and they chatted and laughed together; and when Lin Tai-y at ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... swept again and again the trail leading up the gulch. He did not intend to be caught napping by the officers ...
— The Highgrader • William MacLeod Raine
... not," and then she smiled wistfully. "But I thought you told me last night we were all going together? At any rate, I am not going to tell them anything. If it must be it must be, and I shall slip off quietly, when the children are napping, and ...
— The Primrose Ring • Ruth Sawyer
... Dreadnought had been purchased by the Ulster loyalists, and would shortly make her appearance off the coast of Ireland disguised as an outrigger. Urgent instructions were in consequence issued to the coastguards not to be caught napping. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, May 6, 1914 • Various
... the more welcome for its rarity, came to the British arms on this first day. Dundonald's men had been thrown out to cover the left of the infantry advance and to feel for the right of the Boer position. A strong Boer patrol, caught napping for once, rode into an ambuscade of the irregulars. Some escaped, some held out most gallantly in a kopje, but the final result was a surrender of twenty-four unwounded prisoners, and the finding ...
— The Great Boer War • Arthur Conan Doyle
... in Chiltistan. We keep a close watch on that country, I can tell you. I don't think we shall be caught napping there again." ...
— The Broken Road • A. E. W. Mason
... even during the dominie's discourse, for Indians might take a fancy to scalp the congregation if it could be taken unawares. Luckily the lord of the manor, and his friends, and the sturdy farmers with their families, were not to be caught napping, even if the sermon were dull and the weather hot. Besides, in case of emergency, they could turn their church into a fort at a few minutes' notice. The walls were nearly three feet thick; the seven windows were barred with iron, and so high up that, if the Indians wanted to peep, they had ...
— The Lightning Conductor Discovers America • C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson and A. M. (Alice Muriel)
... high, whenever he heard of the victories of De Ruyter—and his countenance lower, and his eyebrows knit, when fortune turned in favor of the English. At length, as on a certain day he had just smoke his fifth pipe, and was napping after dinner in his arm-chair, conquering the whole British nation in his dreams, he was suddenly aroused by a ringing of bells, rattling of drums, and roaring of cannon, that put all his blood in a ferment. But when ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving
... instead of being localized as heretofore. Men were men and kings were kings and war was war. Gisela sometimes wondered if the hideous upheaval were anybody's fault, if the desire to fight had not been more or less simultaneous in spite of the fact that Germany was caught napping and permitted Russia and France to sneak over ...
— The White Morning • Gertrude Atherton
... conspirators, not a single musket goes off. Perhaps gunpowder was expensive in the reign of George the First. Jack Ketch ends the act with a dream—an apropos finale, for we caught several of our neighbours napping. The scene in which this vision takes place is the crowning result of the painter's researches amongst the "best authorities;" it being no less than "a garret in Grub-street, in which the great Daniel De Foe composed his romance of ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... of menacing or afrighting me with his swoord, or his frounes for my superlatiue presumption, hee burst out into a laughter aboue Ela, to thinke how brauely napping hee had tooke vs, and how notablie wee were dampt & stroke dead in the neast, with the vnexpected ...
— The Vnfortunate Traveller, or The Life Of Jack Wilton - With An Essay On The Life And Writings Of Thomas Nash By Edmund Gosse • Thomas Nash
... upon a midnight dreary while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "'T is some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door— Only ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick
... we must reflect, we must puzzle our brains, for the gods have been napping this morning, and we must be doubly wide-awake. Irene—our little Irene—and who would have thought it yesterday! It is a good-for-nothing, unspeakably base knave's trick—and now, what can we do to snatch the prey from the gluttonous monster, the savage wild beast, before he can ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... expedient!" he exclaimed. "Are two such men as the duke and his accomplice likely to be caught napping? They are prepared for such a visit, and we should only have our ...
— The Honor of the Name • Emile Gaboriau
... with which a fox stalks his game is one of the most remarkable things about him. Stupid chickens are not the only birds captured. Once I read in the snow the story of his hunt after a crow—wary game to be caught napping! The tracks showed that quite a flock of crows had been walking about an old field, bordered by pine and birch thickets. From the rock where he was sleeping away the afternoon the fox saw or heard them, and crept down. How cautious he was about it! ...
— Ways of Wood Folk • William J. Long
... always faith in the invincible Australasians. Early in October, 1915, had come the news of the British advance at Loos. The report that reached us said that the enemy on the entire Western front had begun to retreat. The Australians, catching the Turks napping, took two ...
— World's War Events, Vol. I • Various
... a shot left in his belt," said Blake. "And Ray is officer-of-the-day. There'll be no napping on guard this night." ...
— A Daughter of the Sioux - A Tale of the Indian frontier • Charles King
... confessed that they had been caught napping. The British gunfire they had believed was simply the usual morning salutation, and remained in their dugouts until it was over. They said they would have put up a fight if they had had any kind of chance, but taken by surprise they ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume VI (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various
... the Abbe Hauey, a French mineralogist, born at St. Just; propounded the theory of crystallisation founded on geometrical principles; absorbed in study, was caught napping during the Revolution; got consequently into trouble, but was extricated out of it by his friend and pupil, Geoffrey St.-Hilaire; was appointed professor of Mineralogy by ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood
... its way. M. Reybaud, in my opinion, belongs rather to the category of dupes, which includes in its bosom so many honest people and people of so much brains. M. Reybaud will remain, then, in my eyes, the vir probus dicendi peritus, the conscientious and skilful writer, who may easily be caught napping, but who never expresses anything that he does not see or feel. Moreover, M. Reybaud, once placed on the ground of economic ideas, would find the more difficulty in being consistent with himself because of the clearness of his mind and the accuracy of his reasoning. I am going ...
— The Philosophy of Misery • Joseph-Pierre Proudhon
... GLEICH," she answered soothingly, and whisked about her work again, with the air of one caught napping. ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson
... it branched. I followed one of these ways till it divided. I began to be embarrassed and hindered by the accumulations of loose soil. Evidently this weasel had foreseen just such an assault upon his castle as I was making, and had planned it accordingly. He was not to be caught napping. I found several enlargements in the various tunnels, breathing spaces, or spaces to turn around in, or to meet and chat with a companion, but nothing that looked like a terminus, a permanent living-room. I tried removing ...
— Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers • John Burroughs
... when the Captain comes to port With barrels of oil from whales caught napping, He'll pace the deck, and loudly snort, "This land air is ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume II. (of X.) • Various
... before Desroches expected it. Lucien's creditor was pushing on the proceedings against him. A second execution was put in, and again Coralie's pilasters were gilded with placards. Desroches felt rather foolish; a colleague had "caught him napping," to use his own expression. He demurred, not without reason, that the furniture belonged to Mlle. Coralie, with whom Lucien was living, and demanded an order for inquiry. Thereupon the judge referred the matter ...
— Eve and David • Honore de Balzac
... Hohono Plantation, on Ysabel," said the manager. "The niggers killed the five white men ashore, captured the schooner, killed the captain and mate, and escaped in a body to Malaita. But I always said they were careless on Hohono. They won't catch us napping here. Come along, Mr. Arkwright, and see our view ...
— South Sea Tales • Jack London
... an inch alone divides us, I use Cinna's, as e'en my own possession. But you're really a bore, a very tiresome Dame unmannerly, thus to take me napping.' ...
— The Poems and Fragments of Catullus • Catullus
... young folk well over the North and West to claim forfeit in the game of "Catching the weasel asleep." There had been communities, indeed, and before co-education became a fad at certain of our great universities, wherein the maid caught napping could hold it no sin against watchful swain, or even against her, that he then and there imprinted on her lips a kiss. On the other hand, the swain found sleeping might not always expect a kiss, but must pay ...
— An Apache Princess - A Tale of the Indian Frontier • Charles King
... strange things. We also saw something strange while you were napping. A little yellow butterfly was fluttering over your face for a moment or two; and we watched it. Then it alighted on the ground beside you, close to the tree; and almost as soon as it alighted there, a big, big ant came out of a hole and seized it and pulling it down into the ...
— Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things • Lafcadio Hearn
... on whether Martin is caught napping," she replied in a most casual manner. "By the way, has Isaac Stain ...
— Viola Gwyn • George Barr McCutcheon
... gray-white clouds floating all around me; and it was so very still; my voice, the only sound to be heard, and that was strange and muffled. But though the fluffy clouds were so silent, they were gay companions and full of fun; let them find me napping once, and, puff! Down they would send the feathery snow, choking and blinding me, then would come a wild chase; once in a mad frolic my breath parted the clouds and I saw down the mountain side! Never shall I forget the picture I saw that day, framed by the silvery clouds. I, who had known nothing ...
— Holiday Stories for Young People • Various
... double Macarthy gin are used in India, and five thousand of the single roller-gin in Egypt. It is understood that the saw-gin is used in but a single district in India. While the saw-gin injures any variety of cotton by cutting, tearing, napping and tangling the fibres, its action upon the long and fine staple called "sea island" is ruinous, and the roller-gin alone is suitable for working it. The slow action of the single roller-gin, cleaning about one hundred and fifty pounds of lint per day, made its cultivation ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, December 1878 • Various
... case. I will see to it at once. I will examine the will, and if there is a chance you may depend that I will seize on it. But remember this: Nicholas Tresidder is a clever fellow, and when he sets his mind on a thing it's a difficult thing to find him napping." ...
— The Birthright • Joseph Hocking
... napping. Suppose he should go to sleep. The idea was not to be entertained for a moment. He sat up in the bed and listened, listened, listened, until at length the welcome strokes greeted his ear. He was tired and sleepy and stupid and very warm. He opened his door ...
— Tiger and Tom and Other Stories for Boys • Various
... sofa-crib, and Velours was rolled in a torpid circle on the hearth. The fire burned low, casting a faint and fitful gleam through the room. The hermit occupied his usual seat in the leather chair at one corner of the chimney. Whether he had been napping or musing it were difficult to say, but it was with a quiet, almost stealthy movement that he walked to the door which he opened, and looked out into the night. Returning, he placed a large log on the fire, stirring it with his foot till ...
— The Bastonnais - Tale of the American Invasion of Canada in 1775-76 • John Lesperance
... 'wrought' at the stranded schooner on the high water,—some five hours out of the twenty-four,—he had plenty of opportunity to dangle after his dearie, and did so unremittingly. While the rest of us were either napping, dancing the lively 'straight four,' hunting herns' eggs among the sand-hills, and so on, according to our inclination, he, in far more romantic mood, seized all possible opportunities to quickly ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... a fine leopard lying on a rocky ledge basking in the morning sun. But he was too quick for me, and made off before I could get a shot; I had not approached noiselessly enough, and a leopard is too wary a beast to be caught napping. Unfortunately I had no more time at my disposal in which to explore these hills, as I was anxious to resume work at Tsavo as soon as possible; so after breakfast we packed up the zebra skin and began to retrace our steps through the jungle. It was an intensely ...
— The Man-eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures • J. H. Patterson
... some folks false as it makes lizards wriggle," said he. "Lippo is a lizard. No dog ever caught him napping, though he looks so lazy ...
— Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida • Ouida
... gadfly. My sting pricks your conscience and arouses you when you are caught napping. Sleep not, sleep not, people of Athens; awake and ...
— Best Russian Short Stories • Various
... perfectly still when I reached it. The children were at school; Cyrus, at the factory; mother, napping, with her door closed. In her own room up-stairs, in the middle of the house, Peggy sat alone, in a loose wrapper, with her hair flying over her shoulders. An open book lay unnoticed in her lap. Her face ...
— The Whole Family - A Novel by Twelve Authors • William Dean Howells, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Mary Heaton Vorse, Mary Stewart Cutting, Elizabeth Jo
... gave seemed to content the Great Chief, who merely laughed a little, and said something about "curiosity"—"a woman napping"—"a weazel asleep." Then, calling to him the old man, who had assisted her through the crowd, he bade him bring the Pig-face and the Little Maiden before him. The old man, making a very low bow after the fashion ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 3 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones
... lost; lost in thought, wrapped in thought; rapt, in the clouds, bemused; dreaming on other things, musing on other things; preoccupied, engrossed &c. (attentive) 457; daydreaming, in a reverie &c. n.; off one's guard &c. (inexpectant) 508[obs3]; napping; dreamy; caught napping. disconcerted, distracted, put out &c. v. Adv. inattentively, inadvertently, absent-mindedly &c. adj[obs3].; per incuriam[Lat], sub silentio[Lat]. Int. stand at ease, stand easy! Phr. the attention wanders; one's wits gone a ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... around to Etaples lay a French army of 130,000 men, ready to invade us if for a few hours it could catch our fleets napping. To transport them Napoleon had collected in the ports of Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais, Ambleteuse, Vimereux, Boulogne and Etaples, 954 transports and 1339 armed vessels—gun-brigs, schooners, luggers, schuyts and prames; and all these light vessels ...
— The Mayor of Troy • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... 6th, until Friday, October 10th, there. This district abounds in duck, and the Prince and his staff had very fair sport. During his stay the weather suddenly turned colder, the rivers froze over and snow fell. So sudden was the cold snap that one of those with the Prince was caught napping. He woke up to find that his false teeth were frozen into the solid block of ice that had been water the night before. He had to take the tooth glass to the kitchen of the house where he was staying, and thaw it before he could ...
— Westward with the Prince of Wales • W. Douglas Newton
... it with our three friends upon this occasion. They were scarcely rid of the Blackfeet, who found them too watchful to be caught napping, when, about daybreak one morning, they encountered a roving band of Camanchee Indians, who wore such a warlike aspect that Joe deemed it prudent to avoid them ...
— The Dog Crusoe and His Master - A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... that any good that was to be got from human beings was to be extracted from their fears. He had so operated on Mark Wylder; and so sought to coerce his sister Rachel. He had hopes, too, of ultimately catching the good attorney napping, and leading him too, bound and docile, into his ergastulum, although he was himself just now in jeopardy from that quarter. James Dutton, too. Sooner or later he would get Master Jim into a fix, and hold him also spell-bound in the ...
— Wylder's Hand • J. Sheridan Le Fanu
... well they do," admitted the anxious one; and then, with a swift eye-shot which Blount missed: "Especially if they happen to be travelling on the quiet to catch some poor devil napping ...
— The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush • Francis Lynde
... securely would grow upon them. Then, reasoned Holt, his opportunity would come. One of the guards would take a chance. Perhaps he might even fall asleep on duty. It was not reasonable to suppose that in the next week or two he would not catch them napping once for a ...
— The Yukon Trail - A Tale of the North • William MacLeod Raine
... that I have caught a detective napping; a real private detective, one of the great infallibles of fiction. Mr. J. S. FLETCHER'S Exterior to the Evidence (HODDER AND STOUGHTON) is one of those thrills in which any of the characters might have committed the murder and there is every reason, at times, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, October 13, 1920 • Various
... the Spaniards his object was the fort of St. Thomas, commanded by the alert Ojeda; and this young man, who was not easily to be caught napping, had timely intelligence of his intention. When Caonabo, mustering ten thousand men, suddenly surrounded the fort and prepared to attack it, he found the fifty Spaniards of the garrison more than ready ...
— Christopher Columbus, Complete • Filson Young
... day dressed in a suit of broadcloth, the aged preacher alluded to his "fine apparel," and condemned it as being contrary to the spirit of the Gospel. Fighting with fists was one of the chief amusements. At a training, some young bully would mount a stump, and after imitating the napping and crowing ...
— Captains of Industry - or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money • James Parton
... as G[n]wanigista[)i] (see formulas) it is forbidden to carry the child outdoors, but this is not to procure rest for the little one, or to guard against exposure to cold air, but because the birds send this disease, and should a bird chance to be flying by overhead at the moment the napping of its wings would fan the disease back into ...
— Seventh Annual Report • Various
... Even Ugly ceased napping beside Walter, and, uttering a whining yawn, as if sleepy but uneasy, walked forward to the idle foresail, and stood there with extended nose to smell out, if he could, ...
— Captain Mugford - Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors • W.H.G. Kingston
... a near thing, too. But they weren't quite ready then. Now they are ready, and they think we're not. If I were asked, I'd say we ought to let them know we're ready for 'em. They want to fight because they think they can catch us napping; they'd think twice if they knew ...
— Winds of the World • Talbot Mundy
... were inclined to resist authority, and the amount of misbehaviour was wonderfully small. There was little neglect of duty. Whatever the intelligence of the men told them was necessary for success, for safety, or for efficiency, was done without reluctance. The outposts were seldom caught napping. Digging and tree-felling—for the men had learned the value of making fortifications and good roads—were taken as a matter of course. Nor was the Southern soldier a grumbler. He accepted half-rations and muddy camping-grounds without remonstrance; if his boots wore ...
— Stonewall Jackson And The American Civil War • G. F. R. Henderson
... close, warm day for an English September, and there was the hush and heaviness of impending rain. Now and then there came sudden puffs of wind from the south-west—one of them so gusty and unexpected that it caught me napping and turned me half-round for an instant. I remember the time when gusts and whirls and air-pockets used to be things of danger—before we learned to put an overmastering power into our engines. Just as I reached the cloud-banks, with the altimeter marking three thousand, ...
— Tales of Terror and Mystery • Arthur Conan Doyle
... nasty, gloating laugh, as he rubbed his hands together after the manner of one performing an ablution. "It means, John," he answered, in a voice of oily softness, "that at last I have caught you napping. The Eureka Paper Company is my company, and the pulp-wood that you held options on is my pulp-wood. I've been waiting a long time for this day—more than twenty years. It's only fair to give the devil his due, John—you've been shrewd. Time and again ...
— The Challenge of the North • James Hendryx
... breeze had sprung up, so there was no rowing to do on the homeward voyage. Mr. Adiesen was steering, and Aunt Osla was napping, rolled up in shawls. Mr. Neeven had unbent considerably during the day, and was talking to his cousin with an unusual degree of cheerfulness. The Harrison boys were amusing themselves over a wooden puzzle which Harry Mitchell ...
— Viking Boys • Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby
... noises out-of-doors which told of busy people up and about at early morning. She had forgotten that they were not on a public highway. In the little lane there was continual quiet whether at dawn or at high noon, so that one might have thought the whole town asleep, or at least napping. ...
— Dorothy Dainty's Gay Times • Amy Brooks
... will soar above the vanity and pettiness of corporated wisdom, and that this scientific Academy bubble will end in inanity and in ridicule. I am sorry that Congress was taken in, and committed such a blunder. It was caught napping. ...
— Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863 • Adam Gurowski
... and won't be ketched napping," said Jerry. "The only way is to meet him, on his own ground. I'll fix him! You get two or three of them splinters, and light 'em, ...
— The Young Trail Hunters • Samuel Woodworth Cozzens
... indomitable. I've worked two years on her without the slightest improvement. She knows me, knows my ways, knows I am her master, knows when she has to give in, but is never satisfied. She nourishes the perennial hope that some time she'll catch me napping, and for fear she'll miss that time she never ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London
... Ann would reply. She began to feel rather uncomfortable over it. She feared people would think she had been napping and dreaming ...
— The Adventures of Ann - Stories of Colonial Times • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... less than fifteen minutes it was all over. No doubt they caught many of our men in the open, sitting smoking on their parapets and such like, and 100 or 200 may have been knocked out. We are continually being caught napping, and one shell often lands in the middle of an unsuspecting group ...
— The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde" • George Davidson
... only the embers of the fire were left on the hearth in Grandmother's room. White Owl was wide-awake with staring eyes, but the Firedogs were evidently napping and Lowboy ...
— The Cat in Grandfather's House • Carl Henry Grabo
... Where'er I have my rhymes, thence vermin fly, All, saving that foul-fac'd vermin poverty. This sucks the eggs of my invention, Evacuates my wit's full pigeon-house. Now may it please thy generous dignity To take this vermin napping, as he lies In the true trap of liberality, I'll cause the Pleiades to give thee thanks; I'll write thy name within the sixteenth sphere: I'll make th'Antarctic pole to kiss thy toe. And Cynthia to do homage ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX • Various
... a strange thing you are telling me, boy," remarked the captain. "How is it you know there is an ambuscade laid to catch us napping?" ...
— The Boy Scouts on Belgian Battlefields • Lieut. Howard Payson
... think you can catch a man like Arthur napping?" she sneered. "Is there a moment in the last four years that he has been asleep? See to it that you are not reported to him every night. But if he is in love with Honora Ledwith, there's a chance that ...
— The Art of Disappearing • John Talbot Smith
... to return to us, and we remembered that Andrew Lewis was too cool and shrewd to be caught napping. The Point was sprinkled with huge trees and it would take a big force to clear it of our reserves; and the bulk of the enemy was before us ...
— A Virginia Scout • Hugh Pendexter
... the water into the pipe," answered Johnny, in a tone that showed that he thought he had, for once, caught the school-master napping. ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, May, 1878, No. 7. - Scribner's Illustrated • Various
... general strike," he said, as we bowled along through the crowded but orderly streets. "It's a smashing body-blow. Labour caught us napping and struck at our weakest place, the stomach. I'm going to get out of San Francisco, Corf. Take my advice and get out, too. Head for the country, anywhere. You'll have more chance. Buy up a stock of supplies and get into ...
— The Strength of the Strong • Jack London
... looked narrowly at his vis a vis to see what effect his words had on him, possibly to draw him out. But Mr. Parker was too old a bird to be caught napping, even by a clever adventurer. Instantly on his guard, he ...
— The Mask - A Story of Love and Adventure • Arthur Hornblow |
