"Cooing" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... simply. They understood him; there were French soldiers among them, and they took him, without question or comment, across the court to the little square stone cell within one of the towers, where they had laid the corpse, with nothing to break the quiet and the solitude except the low, soft cooing of some doves that had their homes in its dark corners, and flew in and out at pleasure through the oval ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]
... Mrs. Bank, it must be; This paying in cash plays the devil with wooing: We've both had our swing, but I plainly foresee There must soon be a stop to our billing and cooing. ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al
... a-cooing! A-cooing and a-billing, as I'm a tanner true!" exclaimed a hoarse voice. Up started Jocelyn, fierce-eyed and with hand on dagger-hilt, to behold a man with shock of red hair, a man squat and burly who, leaning on bow-stave, peered at them ...
— The Geste of Duke Jocelyn • Jeffery Farnol
... renewed life and vigour to sing a morning hymn of praise to their Maker—involuntarily or voluntarily, who can tell which, and what right has man to say dogmatically that it cannot be the latter? Thousands of cooing doves, legions of chattering parrots, made the air vocal; millions of little birds of every size and hue twittered an accompaniment, and myriads of mosquitoes and other insects filled up the orchestra with a high pitched drone, while alligators and ...
— The Rover of the Andes - A Tale of Adventure on South America • R.M. Ballantyne
... can gain their end they must first reach Toroczko. There, high up in the mountains, lies the dove-cote where they hope to do their billing and cooing. But the surrounding woods are at present full of birds ...
— Manasseh - A Romance of Transylvania • Maurus Jokai
... bent my shoulders, and passed down the carriage-drive, by the dining-room windows, into the stable-yard. The rays of sunset struck the lantern-panes in the light-house, and gave the atmosphere a yellow stain. The pigeons were skimming up and down the roof of the wood-house, and cooing round the horses that were in the yard. A boy was driving cows into the shed, whistling a lively air; he suspended it when he saw me, but I shook my finger at him, and ran in. Slipping into the side ...
— The Morgesons • Elizabeth Stoddard
... paces from the figure in white, crouched and hid himself behind one of the bushes. He could not distinguish the outlines of the two figures clearly, but he heard whispering. First, in low tones, he made out the voice of Frau Kahle, cooing like a turtle, and next it was the basso profundo of Lieutenant Pommer, vainly endeavoring to compress its volume into ...
— A Little Garrison - A Realistic Novel of German Army Life of To-day • Fritz von der Kyrburg
... resounding within it from morning till night; swallows and martins skimmed twittering about the eaves; and rows of pigeons, some with one eye turned up, as if watching the weather, some with their heads under their wings, or buried in their bosoms, and others swelling and cooing and bowing about their dames, were enjoying the sunshine on the roof. Sleek, unwieldy porkers were grunting in the repose and abundance of their pens, whence sallied forth, now and then, troops of sucking pigs, as if to snuff the air. ...
— Washington Irving • Charles Dudley Warner
... Elizabeth Madden had played her part of duenna with such discretion as to give the young people plenty of opportunity for sweet, half-whispered converse, for murmured confidences, soft and low as the cooing of turtle-doves. But in all these conversations no word hinting at an offer of marriage had dropped from the lips of ...
— Henry Dunbar - A Novel • M. E. Braddon
... club of black-birds that had been holding an indignation meeting in the top of a walnut tree near the gate, adjourned to the sycamore grove that overshadowed the barn in the rear of the house; and Stanley's pigeons, which had been cooing and strutting in the avenue, went to roost in the pretty painted pagoda Dr. Grey had erected for their comfort. Finally, the low-swung, heavy carriage, with its stout dappled horses, gladdened Salome's strained eyes; and, ...
— Vashti - or, Until Death Us Do Part • Augusta J. Evans Wilson
... clinging way even in sleep, and his speech, though very direct for his age, is soft and cooing; he says "mother" in a lingering tone that might belong to a girl, and there are what are called feminine ...
— People of the Whirlpool • Mabel Osgood Wright
... terrace twice, treading the gravel with the step of a conqueror, making it feel the full weight of his foot. He finally seated himself on a bench; he had the nonchalant attitude of a man who is at home. Five or six doves were billing and cooing on the ledge of the roof; he could readily understand that they were talking of him, and that they were saying, "Here he is—we have been waiting for him." A beautiful Angora cat, white as snow, with delicate ...
— Samuel Brohl & Company • Victor Cherbuliez
... a small pasteboard box which he opened guardedly, mindful of the numberless bright little eyes that were watching every move. All about him now sounded the whir and flutter of wings, the cooing of doves, the saucy twitter of the sparrows. Sir Lancelot, alert and eager, occupied one arm of the wheel chair. Another bushy-tailed little fellow, less venturesome, sat back on his haunches five feet away. A third squirrel chattered noisily ...
— Pollyanna Grows Up • Eleanor H. Porter
... with equal surprise, 'know ye not that this is the Palace of Illusion, where everything is inverted and appears the reverse of itself? Intense indeed must be the affection which can thus drive you to fisticuffs! Had I beheld you billing and cooing, truly I ...
— The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales • Richard Garnett
... heart would weep when I pictured those fond hearts torn asunder by the slave trader. I could see the boy far away, in some lonely cornfield in Georgia, pause, lean upon his plow and sigh for his lost love as he listened to the cooing of the dove, while she, far away in Tennessee or in some Virginia cornfield mournfully sang as she dropped the ...
— Hanover; Or The Persecution of the Lowly - A Story of the Wilmington Massacre. • David Bryant Fulton
... yet sacredly solemn strains rolled through the long room, hallowed associations of the old parsonage life floated up, clustering like familiar faces around her. Once more she heard the cooing of ring-doves in the honeysuckle, and the loved voices, now silent in death, or far, far away among the ...
— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson
... though he has hid himself again," and the girl affected to shade her eyes and scan the sparkling waters, while Alden strode moodily away. Priscilla glanced after his retreating figure, and spoke again to her brother in a voice whose cooing softness ...
— Standish of Standish - A story of the Pilgrims • Jane G. Austin
... that she does upon the stage is, in sheer effectiveness, superb. But in her work she has no soul; she lacks the sensitive sweet lure of Duse, the serene and starlit poetry of Modjeska. Three things she does supremely well. She can be seductive, with a cooing voice; she can be vindictive, with a cawing voice; and, voiceless, she can die. Hence the formula of ...
— The Theory of the Theatre • Clayton Hamilton
... [Expression of affection or love.] Endearment. — N. endearment, caress; blandishment, blandiment|; panchement, fondling, billing and cooing, dalliance, necking, petting, sporting, sparking, hanky-panky; caressing. embrace, salute, kiss, buss, smack, osculation, deosculation|; amorous glances. courtship, wooing, suit, addresses, the soft impeachment; lovemaking; serenading; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... father," he said, "these doves are already cooing! And it is very far to the place where I ...
— IT and Other Stories • Gouverneur Morris
... old son!" The frightful programme which his friend had mapped out stunned Archie. "I simply can't! Anything to oblige and all that sort of thing, but when it comes to cooing, distinctly Napoo!" ...
— Indiscretions of Archie • P. G. Wodehouse
... is up; the anchor spring, And man the sails, my merry men; I must not lose the carolling Of ocean in a hurricane; My soul mates with the mountain storm, The cooing gale disdains. Bring Ocean in his wildest form, All booming thunder-strains; I'll bid him welcome, clap his mane; I'll dip my temples in his yeast, And hug his breakers to my breast; And bid them hail! all hail, I cry, My younger ...
— The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer - With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.]
... of fortune; Greetings to thee, Moon of good-luck; Welcome sunshine, welcome moonlight; Golden is the dawn of morning! Free art thou, O Sun of silver, Free again, O Moon beloved, As the sacred cuckoo's singing, As the ring-dove's liquid cooing. Rise, thou silver Sun, each morning, Source of light and life hereafter, Bring us daily joyful greetings, Fill our homes with peace and plenty, That our sowing, fishing, hunting, May be prospered by thy coming. Travel on thy daily ...
— The Book of the Epic • Helene A. Guerber
... firing on our horses in rear. The horses knew it, though, and shewed it in their eyes. The sun came watery through the clouds just before sunset; I remember during the lulls in the wicked coughs of rifle fire hearing doves cooing gently ...
— With Botha in the Field • Eric Moore Ritchie
... notes of the warblers, the cooing of the doves, the hooting of the crow-pheasants, the wailing of the kites, the cawing of the crows, the screaming of the green parrots, the chattering of the mynas and the seven sisters, the trumpeting of the sarus cranes and the clamouring of the lapwings, almost the ...
— A Bird Calendar for Northern India • Douglas Dewar
... dragged Susan by the throat and one arm to the bed, flung her down. "I saw you were a high stepper the minute I looked at you," said he, in a pleasant, cooing voice that sent the chills up and down her spine. "I knew you'd have to be broke. Well, the sooner it's done, the sooner we'll get along nicely." His blue eyes were laughing into hers. With the utmost deliberation he gripped her throat with one hand and with the other began to slap ...
— Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise • David Graham Phillips
... I do not believe that I could live a single year with only the sound of cooing in the house. A wood-pigeon would be ...
— A Kentucky Cardinal • James Lane Allen
... halidome," said the king, "there be two doves whose cooing would be the better for a little honest speech. Poor hearts! it were a pity their tongues had bewrayed their desire. Fitz-Walter, summon ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... merchant man. 70 One had a cat's face, One whisked a tail, One tramped at a rat's pace, One crawled like a snail, One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry, One like a ratel tumbled hurry skurry. She heard a voice like voice of doves Cooing all together: They sounded kind and full of loves ...
— Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems • Christina Rossetti
... to thee, one day, My dust will show, congealed in death; And, cooing wearily, they'll say: 'In grief and loneliness ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
... upon the down-stream side, one hand on mane, or knees upgathered, and carbine held high, squatting in the saddle on the crossed stirrups, kept up a stream of encouragement—soft words, pet names, cooing mention of sugar (little enough in the commissariat!) and of apples. The steed responded. The god above or beside him wished it thus, and certainly should be obeyed, and that with love. The rough torrent, the eddies, the violent current were nothing—at least, ...
— The Long Roll • Mary Johnston
... and said I had done nicely, gave me the ten dollars and a box of chocolates and we were as happy as cooing doves the ...
— Sunny Slopes • Ethel Hueston
... in for it again this afternoon, you poor dear thing,' she murmured, in a cooing voice. 'I wish I had been there. It would have been "Up, guards, and at 'em!" if I had. I'm sure I should have said something cheeky to old Pew. The idea of overhauling your locker! I should just like her to see the inside of mine. It would make ...
— The Golden Calf • M. E. Braddon
... dull. One time her wheel was corked up so that she could not go inside. She became quite angry and ran in and out of her bed-box, hardly knowing what to do. Her rage did not last long, however, and she was soon frolicking about the cage and singing. The song sounded at first like the cooing of a dove; then it changed to quick notes more like the cuckoo; and, after that, the noise was like the tapping of ...
— Dew Drops, Vol. 37, No. 8, February 22, 1914 • Various
... you'll shun the scorching beams; While from yon willow-fence, thy picture's bound, The bees that suck their flow'ry stores around, Shall sweetly mingle with the whispering boughs Their lulling murmurs, and invite repose: While from steep rocks the pruner's song is heard; Nor the soft-cooing dove, thy fav'rite bird, Meanwhile shall cease to breathe her melting strain, Nor turtles from th' ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume IV: The Adventurer; The Idler • Samuel Johnson
... bid her to be of good heart; and I presently felt that to unburden herself of all that had weighed upon her these last few weeks, did her as much good as a bath. For it still was a pain to her to see her mother cooing like a pigeon round her new mate. She herself was full of his praises, albeit this man, well brought up and trained to good manners, would ever abide by the old customs of the old craftsmen, and his venerable mother likewise held fast by them, so that his wife had striven ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... sunlight, and standing out above a grove of stunted cork-trees, thickly laden and discoloured with dust, looked like the sleeping palace of the legend. The court, in particular, seemed the very home of slumber. A hoarse cooing of doves haunted about the eaves; the winds were excluded, but when they blew outside, the mountain dust fell here as thick as rain, and veiled the red bloom of the pomegranates; shuttered windows and the closed doors of numerous cellars, and the vacant arches of the ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XXI • Robert Louis Stevenson
... think 'cause I'm free with my money, Which others would hoard and lock up in their chest, All your billing and cooing, and words sweet as honey, Are as gospel to me while you hang on my breast; But no, Polly, no;—you may take every guinea, They'd burn in my pocket, if I took them to sea; But as for your love, Poll, I indeed were a ninny,— D'ye think I don't know you cheat ...
— Snarleyyow • Captain Frederick Marryat
... seemed actually to have begun, three or four of these birds might be seen, on almost any bright morning, gamboling and courting amid its decayed branches. Sometimes you would hear only a gentle persuasive cooing, or a quiet confidential chattering; then that long, loud call, taken up by first one, then another, as they sat about upon the naked limbs; anon, a sort of wild, rollicking laughter, intermingled with ...
— Bird Stories from Burroughs - Sketches of Bird Life Taken from the Works of John Burroughs • John Burroughs
... is a sight all hearts beguiling— A youthful mother to her infant smiling, Who, with spread arms and dancing feet, And cooing ...
— The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought • Alexander F. Chamberlain
... arriero muleteer. arrimar to draw near. arrodillar vr. to kneel. arrojar to throw. arrollar to roll up. arroyo brook, rivulet, stream. arroyuelo (dim.) brooklet. arruga wrinkle. arruinar to ruin, demolish. arrullo cooing. arte m. f. art, artfulness; malas artes evil practices. articular to articulate. artista m. artist. asador m. turnspit. asalto assault, storm. ascendiente forefather. ascetico ascetic. asco nausea. ...
— Novelas Cortas • Pedro Antonio de Alarcon
... Was it not the trees whispering to the summer air, or the birds cooing beneath the eaves? Or had an angel borne the message from that heaven which to-day was so ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... Green, Our bonny Lasses Cooing; And dancing there I've seen, Who seem'd alone worth Wooing: Her Skin like driven Snow, Her Hair brown as a Berry: Her Eyes black as a Slow, Her Lips red as ...
— Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, Vol. 5 of 6 • Various
... major at last, as a low cooing noise fell upon their ears. "Now for something for dinner! You go first, Mark, and let them have both barrels sharply—one after ...
— Mother Carey's Chicken - Her Voyage to the Unknown Isle • George Manville Fenn
... foolish brains, Billing and cooing is all your cheer, Sighing and singing of midnight strains Under Bonnybells' window-panes. Wait till ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray
... composed of several hundred trees, well kept, as evenly matched as might be, out of weedless ground. From some hidden bough, a robin voiced his happiness, and yellowbirds flew hither and thither, and there was billing and cooing and nesting. Along the low stone wall a wee ...
— A Splendid Hazard • Harold MacGrath
... steps, and—It was beautifully dressed in one piece of yellow and brown that reached almost to its feet, with a bit left at the top to form a hood, out of which its pert face peeped impudently; oho, so they came in their Sunday clothes. He drew so near that he could hear it cooing: thought itself as good as upstairs, ...
— Sentimental Tommy - The Story of His Boyhood • J. M. Barrie
... heard in the grove, The blackbird and linnet and thrush, And goldfinch and sweet cooing dove, Sat pensively mute in the bush: The leaves that once wove a green shade Lay withered in heaps on the ground: Chill Winter through grove, wood, and glade Spread ...
— Cottage Poems • Patrick Bronte
... spot. Minnie pushes it over about two every morning. The result is that we have to mount guard over the breach all day. We build everything up again at night, and Minnie sits there as good as gold, and never dreams of interfering. You can almost hear her cooing over us. Then, as I say, at two o'clock, just as the working party comes in and gets under cover, she lets slip one of her disgusting bombs, and undoes the work of about four hours. It was a joke at first, but we are getting fed up now. That's the worst of the Bosche. He starts ...
— The First Hundred Thousand • Ian Hay
... There was a beautiful wedding cake, frosted over and almond-iced underneath, and ornaments on it, too—cupids and doves and such-like. A pair of little doves sat as perky as you please on the top of the cake, billing and cooing like anything. It made my eyes water even to look at 'em. You may be sure I didn't think of Mary Dugdale, the bride that was, nor of poor Jones, neither; although he is a good looking man enough—I never said ...
— Girls of the Forest • L. T. Meade
... (especially the pupae of ants) small snails, and various fallen seeds and fruits. Although a great number of the Nicobar pigeons had left, many yet remained, and the whole island resounded with their cry mixed up with the cooing of the Nutmeg pigeon. Little skill is required in shooting these birds, for they generally admit of very close approach, as if trusting to the chance of being overlooked among the ...
— Voyage Of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Vol. 2 (of 2) • John MacGillivray
... footy game too far, my man!' exclaimed Vine, with the air of a friend who has 'always told you so.' 'You ought to have dropped it several days ago, when she would have come to 'ee like a cooing dove. Now ...
— The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid • Thomas Hardy
... Now it is past 8 P.M., and the mutton broth for Clement and Mary is come. I must feed my chicks. Excellent patients they are, as good as can be. They don't make the fuss that I did in my low fever when I was so savage with your doves that would go on cooing at my window, don't ...
— Life of John Coleridge Patteson • Charlotte M. Yonge
... The breath came swiftly between the red lips and the eyes were turned away. They rested on the facade of a tall building opposite, where a flock of doves, billing and cooing in the warm air, strutted and preened themselves. Their plump and iridescent ...
— Unfinished Portraits - Stories of Musicians and Artists • Jennette Lee
... is a sort of drumming or whizzing note, like the hum of a spinning-wheel. The male commences this performance about dusk, and continues it at intervals during a great part of the night. It is effected while the breast is inflated with air, like that of a cooing Dove. The Piramidig has the power of inflating himself in the same manner, and he utters this whizzing note ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 • Various
... breathes back upon the kind, willing, breeze-puffs, through all the summer, sweet-scented love messages, tidings of a matrimony as delicious as that of the angels." She stood up, and raised her arms above her head yearningly. The autumn wind was cooing in her hair, and softly swaying its ...
— The Story of Louis Riel: The Rebel Chief • Joseph Edmund Collins
... often difficult to conjecture whether the many strange cries and notes uttered by male birds during the breeding-season serve as a charm or merely as a call to the female. The soft cooing of the turtle-dove and of many pigeons, it may be presumed, pleases the female. When the female of the wild turkey utters her call in the morning, the male answers by a note which differs from the gobbling noise ...
— The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin
... the fathomless depths of love. Man is the rugged and wrinkled oak, And woman the trusting and tender vine That clasps and climbs till its arms entwine The brawny arms of the sturdy stock. The dimpled babes are the flowers divine That the blessing of God on the vine and oak With their cooing ...
— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon
... pinching, management and contrivance on the pittance that had come to her from the estate of her impecunious father. They lived in a palace, it is true—but who does not live in a palace in Rome?—high up, where the cooing doves built their nests under the leaden eaves, and where the cold winds ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 • Various
... professing herself a sorely injured woman because compelled at last to part with her maid, angered him beyond the point of toleration. Tossing his saber to the China boy, he went straightway aloft, failing to note in the dim light that two soft-hearted sympathizers were cooing ...
— An Apache Princess - A Tale of the Indian Frontier • Charles King
... manners and reserve had put the girl at her ease. She looked perfect that afternoon and he yearned to begin painting her; but his scheme of action demanded time for its perfect fulfillment and ultimate success. He let the little timorous chatterbox talk. Her voice was soft and musical as the cooing of a wood-dove, and the sweet full notes chimed in striking contrast to her uncouth speech. But Joan's diction gave pleasure to the listener. It had freedom and wildness, and was almost wholly innocent of ...
— Lying Prophets • Eden Phillpotts
... I depend, As my guest; Thou wilt bring to me the friend I love best; Friendship is the wine of love; Angels dwell with it above, Cooing like the turtle-dove Lovely Bacchus, god ...
— Revised Edition of Poems • William Wright
... it on the sand likewise for that purpose. So sensitive to outside impressions is this child that he quickly responds to the least suggestion and with the least effort. Early in the morning, when the chill of night is still on the sands, he toddles into Khalid's tent cooing and warbling his joy. A walking jasmine flower, a singing ray of sunshine, Khalid calls him. And the mother, on seeing her child thus develop, begins to recuperate. In this little garden of happiness, her hope begins ...
— The Book of Khalid • Ameen Rihani
... a path round this copse, and through it here and there, and we walked slowly round the outer edge on the soft grass, with the song of the birds and the cooing of the wood doves pleasant to listen to in the last evening sunlight. And then we met the Lady Hilda walking, idly as we walked, by herself, and her face grew bright ...
— A King's Comrade - A Story of Old Hereford • Charles Whistler
... among the paling stars. The little grey clouds blushed pink against the azure sky. Blossoming boughs of peach and apricot hung over the gates of heaven, and rosy spirals curled upward from two chimneys. Pink-footed pigeons strutted, rooketty-cooing along the roofs. They nodded their heads as though to affirm the consummation of a miracle. "It is so—" they seemed to say—"It is indeed so—" One of them hopped upon the cobbler's chimney, peering earnestly ...
— Explorers of the Dawn • Mazo de la Roche
... is still; there is no sound but the churring of a grasshopper on the river bank, and somewhere the timid cooing of a turtle-dove. Feathery clouds stand motionless in the sky, looking like snow scattered about. . . . Gerassim, the carpenter, a tall gaunt peasant, with a curly red head and a face overgrown with hair, is floundering about in the water under the green willow branches ...
— The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov
... of Ormiston and La Masque—no doubt they were billing and cooing in most approved fashion just then, and never thinking of him; though, but for La Masque and his own folly, he might have been half married by this time. He thought of Count L'Estrange and Master Hubert, and become firmly convinced, if one did not find Leoline the other ...
— The Midnight Queen • May Agnes Fleming
... lattices to those arched windows, through the diamonds of one of which I saw two of the most beautiful, enormous, ogling black eyes in the world, looking down upon the interesting stranger. Pigeons were flapping, and hopping, and fluttering, and cooing about. Happy pigeons, you are, no doubt, fed with crumbs from the henne-tipped fingers of Zuleika! All this court, cheerful in the sunshine, cheerful with the astonishing brilliancy of the eyes peering out from the lattice-bars, was as mouldy, ancient, and ruinous—as ...
— Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo • William Makepeace Thackeray
... they always are," she said in grateful tones. "Oh!" for the first time perceiving that Violet stood near her with the baby in her arms, "mamma and baby too! and how pleased baby looks at the tree!" for the little one was stretching her arms toward it, and cooing and smiling, her pretty blue eyes ...
— Elsie's Kith and Kin • Martha Finley
... chose—always in the same tone, till the bird learnt to recognize it and to come at her summons. And oh the delight of the first time this happened! Hoodie was holding out her hand, the forefinger outstretched to the open door of the cage, half-cooing, half-whistling, in the pretty way Magdalen had taught her, when birdie, its head cocked on one side as if half in timidity, half in coquetry, at last mustered up courage and hopped on to the fat little ...
— Hoodie • Mary Louisa Stewart Molesworth
... her hanging cradle that rocked in the wind. I heard the twitter of skimming swallows and the scattered covey's piping call; I heard the robin's gay whistle, the croaking of crows, the scolding of blue-jays, and the melancholy cooing of a dove. The swaying tree-tops seemed vocal with bird-song while he played, and the labyrinths of leafy shade echoed back the chorus. Then the violin sounded the hunter's horn, and the deep-mouthed pack of fox hounds opened ...
— Gov. Bob. Taylor's Tales • Robert L. Taylor
... in Alcala, the beauty of the town, in spite of his mother's wounded pride. It was a love-match of stolen wooing and secret wedding,—but, ha! ha! we saw it all, knew it all, before even they did themselves. Many an evening have I met them on these roads, billing and cooing like the doves on La Fonda's eaves. They were made by nature for each other, though, and even the rage of the proud Donna Isabella could ...
— In the Yule-Log Glow, Book II - Christmas Tales from 'Round the World • Various
... vowels that flow and murmur, each after its kind; the peremptory b and p, the brittle k, the vibrating r, the insinuating s, the feathery f, the velvety v, the bell-voiced m, the tranquil broad a, the penetrating e, the cooing u, the emotional o, and the beautiful combinations of alternate rock and stream, as it were, that they give to the rippling flow of speech,—there is a fascination in the skilful handling of these, which the great poets and even prose-writers have not disdained ...
— The Poet at the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... we were talking of Vavaoo tooa Licoo, the women said to us, let us repair to the back of the island to contemplate the setting sun: there let us listen to the warbling of the birds and the cooing of the wood-pigeon. We will gather flowers ... and partake of refreshments ... we will then bathe in the sea and ... anoint our skins in the sun with sweet-scented oil, and will plait in wreaths the flowers gathered at ...
— Primitive Love and Love-Stories • Henry Theophilus Finck
... Each cooing dove, each sighing bough, That makes the eve so blest to me, Has something far diviner now, It ...
— The Story of the Hymns and Tunes • Theron Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth
... in that gentler community, nor was the Kildare blood what she would have chosen to mix with her own. But there is among this type of women always the rather touching belief that it needs only matrimony to tame the wildest of eagles into a cooing dove. Kildare, moreover, was one of the great landowners of the State, a man of singular force and determination, and, when he chose to exert it, of a certain virile charm. When Mrs. Leigh realized that, ever since her daughter had been old enough to exhibit ...
— Kildares of Storm • Eleanor Mercein Kelly
... Doss. You know it, too. I think of our own billing and cooing, sir—his and mine. I was not a draw in those days; the last turn in the bill at the "Middlesex" was about my mark, and Doss, he hadn't risen, neither. We used to walk 'ome that lovin' up Drury Lane, and Doss, he would say, 'fish, Tilda,' and I would say, 'if you could fancy ...
— If Only etc. • Francis Clement Philips and Augustus Harris
... and cooing when you got me where you want me," he jeered. "Well, I just as soon tell you ...
— Alice Adams • Booth Tarkington
... clasped her beloved burden the closer, Bonny Angel set this decision at naught by kicking herself free from the girl too small and weary to prevent; and once upon the ground, off she set along a particularly shining track, cooing and shrieking her ...
— A Sunny Little Lass • Evelyn Raymond
... cooing of a dove, leaped up from her throat. Her head fell back, she was going to faint, when he held her up. And his virtuous scruples were futile. At the sight of this maiden offering herself to him he was seized ...
— Sentimental Education, Volume II - The History of a Young Man • Gustave Flaubert
... she said; and she made a cooing, kissing little noise up at the bird, who responded drowsily. "Poor old Gypsum! Well, he sha'n't be disturbed. Yes, it's Gyp's delight, and Colonel Woodburn likes to write here in the morning. Think of us having a real live author in the house! ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells
... and Blue Bonnet who do all the cooing. The rest of us are still just geese." Kitty's voice had a tinge of envy that did not escape the notice ...
— Blue Bonnet's Ranch Party • C. E. Jacobs
... the elite of Cougarville, up in a canyon of the foothills, beside a creek, where were trees and turf and picturesque rocks, and were having a good time. Muggles and Molly had no doubt withdrawn from the mass of picnickers, and were billing and cooing together. His veins burned at the thought. Oh, for some means of settling them! Then came an inspiration ...
— The Wolf's Long Howl • Stanley Waterloo
... came up for one day, and came here by herself; cowering as though she were afraid of me. Poor Hermy! She has not a good time of it either. You lords of creation lead your slaves sad lives when it pleases you to change your billing and cooing for matter-of-fact masterdom and rule. I don't blame Hermy. I suppose she did all she could, and I did not utter one word of reproach of her. Nor should I to him. Indeed, if he came now the servant would deny me to him. He has insulted ...
— The Claverings • Anthony Trollope
... again reached they found the babies wide awake and cooing contentedly. Mrs. Morris had dressed them up as best she could, and she was holding one while Rodney held the other. Little Nell was dancing around the ...
— On the Trail of Pontiac • Edward Stratemeyer
... go out we hear a flutter of wings, and a flock of white doves rise from the ground and alight on the roof, cooing softly. ...
— Round the Wonderful World • G. E. Mitton
... couple bustled about the bright carpeted room, making it comfortable, and cooing over the return of their prodigal, till a heaven of homeness was ...
— The Wind Before the Dawn • Dell H. Munger
... thou, love, he mine? For I will give unto thee, my love, Gay knots and ribbons so fine. I'll woo thee, love, on my bended knee, And I'll pipe sweet songs to none but thee. Then it's hark! hark! hark! To the winged lark And it's hark to the cooing dove! And the bright daffodil Groweth down by the rill, So come thou and ...
— The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood • Howard Pyle
... blossoms of wild-plum-trees twinkled among dark evergreens, a vegetable imitation of starlight. Wide-spreading oaks and superb magnolias were lighted up with sudden flashes of color, as scarlet grosbeaks flitted from tree to tree. Sparrows were chirping, doves cooing, and mocking-birds whistling, now running up the scale, then down the scale, with an infinity of variations between. The outbursts of the birds were the same as in seasons that were gone, but the listener was changed. Rarely before had her quick musical ear failed to notice how they would ...
— A Romance of the Republic • Lydia Maria Francis Child
... on this head in my 'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. i. p. 27. On the cooing of pigeons, vol. i. ...
— The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals • Charles Darwin
... with Miss Carolina in her crib. Outside a family of lingering swallows sat on the meadow fence discussing their plans for a hurried departure on the morrow; and from the dovecot in the yard came the soft, continuous cooing of Auntie Alice's pigeons as they strutted about the flags or preened their feathers in the sun. The distant barking of Mr. Grey's collie, Scott, as he followed the sheep to the pasture, floated in through the open window; while from the next room came the soothing murmur of nurse's low, droning ...
— Two Little Travellers - A Story for Girls • Frances Browne Arthur
... cannot help observing the soft language used in this tender billet-doux between Mr. Middleton and Sir Elijah Impey. You would imagine that they were making love, and that you heard the voice of the turtle in the land. You hear the soft cooing, the gentle addresses,—"Oh, my hopes!" to-day, "My fears!" to-morrow,—all the language of friendship, almost heightened into love; and it comes at last to "I have got at the secret hoards of these ladies.—Let us rejoice, my dear Sir Elijah; ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. XII. (of XII.) • Edmund Burke
... from the central part of Ohio and had never been to sea before, as was the case in this particular instance, I should take my honeymoon ashore and keep it there. I most certainly should! This couple of ours came aboard billing and cooing to beat the lovebirds. They made it plain to all that they had just been married and were proud of it. Their baggage was brand-new, and the groom's shoes were shiny with that pristine shininess which, once ...
— Europe Revised • Irvin S. Cobb
... morning he slept late on a bench in a public square. Awakened by an officer, he arose to go. Hazy in head and stiff at joints, he slightly staggered. He heard behind him the cooing laugh of a child. He looked around. It was himself that had awakened the infant's mirth—or that strange something which precedes the dawn of a sense of humour in children. The smiling babe was in a child's carriage which a plainly dressed woman was pushing. He looked at the woman. ...
— Tales From Bohemia • Robert Neilson Stephens
... strangest noise up the stream; cooing, and grunting, and whining, and squeaking, as if you had put into a bag two stock-doves, nine mice, three guinea-pigs, and a blind puppy, and left them there to settle ...
— The Water-Babies - A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby • Charles Kingsley
... exasperating idiot, who played the flute, had established himself. Like all poor players, he affected the low, mournful notes, as plaintive as the distant cooing of the dove in lowering, weather. He played or rather tooted away in his "blues"-inducing strain hour after hour, despite our energetic protests, and occasionally flinging a club at him. There was no more stop to him than to a man with a hand-organ, ...
— Andersonville, complete • John McElroy
... returned to roost. They remained through the winter, which will be remembered as the most severe for many years. Even in the sharpest frost, if the sun shone out, they called to each other now and then. On the first day of the year their hollow cooing came from the copse ...
— Nature Near London • Richard Jefferies
... gay young things were here on their wedding-trip," Trelyon said carelessly. "They amused me. I like to see turtle-doves of fifty billing and cooing on the promenade, especially when one of them wears a brown wig, has an Irish accent and drinks brandy-and-water at breakfast. But he is a good billiard-player—yes, he is an uncommonly good billiard-player. He told me last night he had beaten the Irish secretary the other ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 87, March, 1875 • Various
... a visitor represented the bucket; the dining-room seemed the last place in the world where any eating or drinking was likely to occur; there was no sound through all the house but the ticking of a great clock in the hall, which made itself audible in the very garrets; and sometimes a dull cooing of young gentlemen at their lessons, like the murmurings of an assemblage of ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens
... chattering away to him as if their little tongues would never stop. What a hot day it was going to be! The sky overhead was deep blue, with scarcely a cloud, they could hear nothing in the still air but the sleepy cooing of the doves in the trees by the gate, and the trees and flowers all looked as if they were going to sleep ...
— Milly and Olly • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... "I will hear her, and I will do her pleasure if thou ask me so to do." Then Agatha cast down her eyes, and her speech was so low and sweet that it was as the cooing of a dove, as she said: "O my Lord, what is ...
— The Well at the World's End • William Morris
... sparrows Chirping, in the cold and rain, Their impatient sweet complaining, Sing out from their hearts again; Bid them set themselves to mating, Cooing love in softest words, Crowd their nests, all cold and empty, ...
— Required Poems for Reading and Memorizing - Third and Fourth Grades, Prescribed by State Courses of Study • Anonymous
... sounds employed by human beings in groaning, sighing, crying, screaming, shrieking, and laughing, by the dog in barking, growling, and whining, by the horse in snorting and neighing, by the sheep in bleating, by the cat in mewing, by the dove in cooing, by the duck in quacking, and by the goose in hissing, we sometimes attempt to represent by words; but, as written words are the ocular representatives of articulate sounds, they cannot be made clearly to denote inarticulate ...
— English Grammar in Familiar Lectures • Samuel Kirkham |
