"Mum" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... larger children, over on the right, there was a general waving of hands, and whispering and tittering; but the eight small beginners held their mouths shut tight and not a sound came from them. Glory Goldie was as mum as the rest. ...
— The Emperor of Portugalia • Selma Lagerlof
... get me out of this," the tramp told himself. "Maybe their folks will pay me handsomely to keep mum and take what's coming to me. That's their way ...
— Guns And Snowshoes • Captain Ralph Bonehill
... Mount Wilson, fellows. Don't forget that," he warned his passengers. "Stick to it. If they got our number back there we can bluff them into thinking they got it wrong. I'll let yuh out here and you can walk home. Mum's ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower
... you every where! Nor play with costarmongers, at mum-chance, tray-trip, God make you rich; (when as your aunt has done it); But keep The gallant'st ...
— The Alchemist • Ben Jonson
... at this date are very ordinary; his early precocity seemed, rather to the delight of his parents, to have vanished. He was not a prig, though rather exclusive; not ungenial, though retiring. "A dreadful boy," he writes of himself, "who is as mum as a mouse with his elders, and then makes his school friends roar with laughter in the passage: dumb at ...
— Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton, B. A. Of Trinity College, Cambridge • Arthur Christopher Benson
... said the cheerful soldier, "mum's the word. But, Miss Flora, tell me this: How on ...
— Kincaid's Battery • George W. Cable
... scarce an instance in history of so sudden a rise to so dizzy an eminence as Byron reached." In a few years he stood by the side of such men as Scott, Southey and Campbell. Many an orator like "stuttering Jack Curran," or "Orator Mum," as he was once called, has been spurred into eloquence by ridicule ...
— How to Succeed - or, Stepping-Stones to Fame and Fortune • Orison Swett Marden
... said Mrs. Lake. "My husband's father's father built this mill where we now stands. It cost him a deal of money, and he died with a debt upon it. My husband's father paid un off; and he meant to have built a house, mum, but he never did, worse luck for us. He allus says, says he,—that's my husband's father, mum,—'I'll leave that to Abel,'—that's my maester, mum. But nine year ago come ...
— Jan of the Windmill • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... time, at the sight of a score of his fat beeves; a little bit of choice roguery played off upon him by honest Anthony of the tender conscience! Look to it, comrade, he shall know of this before thou canst convey thy cowardly carcase out of his clutches. An' it be thou goest forward—mum!—backward! Ha! have I caught ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... "It's mum with me so long as I see you living on the straight," said the captain. "But, by the Lord! if you get off after this, it's another story! So ...
— The Valley of Fear • Arthur Conan Doyle
... need. You know what they are. Bring the bill to me. Have it made out in your name, though, I'll settle the account. Mum's the word, Paul. I won't have snobs laughing at the learned shoemaker. The ...
— The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... him hold his peace, and his disgrace will be the less: what! shall we proclaim where we were furnish'd? Mum! mum! a'peace! be ...
— In The Yule-Log Glow, Vol. IV (of IV) • Harrison S. Morris
... knows how long. And they say there are seven fellows down with it in the hospital now. What do you suppose they will do if it gets to be an epidemic in the school? I saw old Nealum just now, and he was mum as an oyster: looked bad, because he always loves to give out information, you know. We are to go to chapel in half an hour for instructions and new rules. Wish they would send us home! I don't ...
— Battling the Clouds - or, For a Comrade's Honor • Captain Frank Cobb
... And pounds, the law; And not for the love of our Lord Unclose their lips once. Thou mightest better meet mist On Malvern hills Than get a mum of their ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866 • Various
... boots, and a red corset on a chair, and my chum's sister's best black silk dress on another chair, and a hat with a white feather on, on the bureau, and some frizzes on the gas bracket, and everything we could find that belonged to a girl in my mum's sister's room. O, we got a red parasol too, and left it right in the middle of the floor. Well, when I looked at the lay-out, and heard Pa snoring, I thought I should die. You see, Ma knows Pa is, a darn good feller, but she is easily excited. My ...
— Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa - 1883 • George W. Peck
... I'm sailing but remember the Atlantic Ocean isn't a one way street. Just chalk that up on the wall, and speaking about oceans don't forget about the water by the woodshed and do what I told you. So now good-bye dear old Mum and don't worry, and I won't go near Paris like you said. Hicksville is good enough ...
— Roy Blakeley in the Haunted Camp • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... boarded an up-town car, our man paid fare to the same conductor. He wired me from the Hotel Brunswick a few minutes ago. There is some sort of a caucus going on in Hendricks' office in the capitol, and mum-messengers are flying in ...
— The Grafters • Francis Lynde
... be that way," drawled the Whipper-in—"we must wu'ck together. You know me, an' that Jud Carpenter's motto is, 'mum, an' keep ...
— The Bishop of Cottontown - A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills • John Trotwood Moore
... better than that! Hut!" I cried, at last utterly abandoned to my imagination, "I'd have more things than potatoes grow in the ground an' more things than berries grow on bushes. What would I have grow in the ground, says you? Is you thinkin' I don't know? Oh, ay, mum," I protested, somewhat at a loss, but very knowingly, "I knows!" I was now getting rapidly beyond my depth; but I plunged bravely on, wondering like lightning, the while, what else could grow in the ...
— Doctor Luke of the Labrador • Norman Duncan
... Bud expansively. "If it was any safer you'd hav ter send fer ther perlice. Jes becos we're rough and ain't got on full evenin' dress you musn't think we're dangerous, mum," he went on more gravely. "I'll warrant you'll fin' better fellers right here on ther alkali than on Fit' ...
— The Girl Aviators on Golden Wings • Margaret Burnham
... split your lungs for him! What d'ye think of that now, Flask? ain't there a small drop .. of something queer about that, eh? a white whale—did ye mark that, man? Look ye—there's something special in the wind. Stand by for it, Flask. Ahab has that that's bloody on his mind. But, mum; he ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville
... Mum's the word! I gotta be careful. I can't say nothin'; I don't pretend to know nothin'. But I kept my eyes open pretty wide, I tell you. There's detectives workin', too. I been to Wehrhahn, too, an' he told me to ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann
... they went shooting past the lower end of the island as fast as they could row, they were chattering like a lot of old crows. We kept as mum as oysters, and let the lot go. It was a good riddance of bad rubbish anyhow, and we didn't want to hold 'em ...
— The Strange Cabin on Catamount Island • Lawrence J. Leslie
... no doubt. We has to see a deal of this sort of thing. Just a little air, if you please, mum,—and as much water as'd go to christen a ...
— The Eustace Diamonds • Anthony Trollope
... gets me!" muttered Buck, who found it hard to understand how a fellow could hide his light under a bushel, and not "blow his own horn," when he had jumped into the river, and pulled out a drowning boy. "Say, is that so too, Fenton; did you keep mum just because Billy here ...
— Fred Fenton on the Track - or, The Athletes of Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... emphatically. "You should just see the pile of men that came in to lunch here today—just to have a look at her. The story of her glory has gone forth. She came over to our table and asked if we minded if she sat with us, and then she wound her lovely manners all around mother so that mum thinks she's a dream and an angel. But I don't cotton to her much, Gay—and I can feel she doesn't like me, either, though she was as sweet as honey. My dear, she will nobble all our men—I feel ...
— Blue Aloes - Stories of South Africa • Cynthia Stockley
... can do it justice. And it's filling up, every day—people coming from everywhere. I've got the biggest scheme on earth—and I'll take you in; I'll take in every friend I've got that's ever stood by me, for there's enough for all, and to spare. Mum's the word—don't whisper—keep yourself to yourself. You'll see! Come! ...
— The Gilded Age, Complete • Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner
... "Mum!" said Peter. "I forgot; but don't it look as if the river was boiling hot and the steam rising, and the fire that hots it was shining up through the cloud? I say, nobody could hear me say that," ...
— Trapped by Malays - A Tale of Bayonet and Kris • George Manville Fenn
... kep' mum and dressed the fish myself and fried 'em in butter, only hopin' I wouldn't lose 'em in the fryin' pan, but Josiah didn't seem to relish 'em no better than he would side pork, and agin I felt baffled, and rememberin' the fruit can, a element of guilt also ...
— Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition • Marietta Holley
... trousers are dressed with the hair on, the fleshy membranes, or "mum'-me," being cut off with an oodloo before they are washed, stretched, and dried. One good warm spring day is sufficient to dry a seal-skin, which for this purpose is stretched over the ground or snow by means of long wooden ...
— Schwatka's Search • William H. Gilder
... 'Very sorry, mum, but it's clean agin' the law of England. Give me a warrant, and in I come. If you will bring her to the doorstep, I will be answerable for ...
— A Duet • A. Conan Doyle
... accepting you, for a day and a half he held on his course, close-hauled. Is that so? But he was suspicious, as deaf men are. He took a notion that you—you, keeping mum as a cat, having to pass for somebody else and avoid questions—were just lying low, meaning to slip cable at Valparaiso and hurry in with a prior claim. I am sorry to say it, Foe: but altogether you did not create good impression on board the I'll Away. To the crew you ...
— Foe-Farrell • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... John!" said the little man. "Good evening, mum! Good evening, Tilly! Good evening, Unbeknown! How's Baby, mum? Boxer's pretty well ...
— The Cricket on the Hearth • Charles Dickens
... 'Lor, mum,' said the apothecary, 'his brain ain't in working order just at present, and as for his spirit apart from his body, that's an unknown quantity we ...
— A Dozen Ways Of Love • Lily Dougall
... mut'ter mur'mur fru'gal tu'mor rud'der tur'ban tru'ly stu'por shut'ter tur'nip tru'ant tu'tor suf'fer tur'key cru'et cu'rate sup'per pur'port bru'in lu'cid mum'my curl'y dru'id stu'dent mus'ket fur'ry ru'in stu'pid num'ber fur'nish ru'by lu'nar nut'meg cur'vet bru'tal ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey
... brat," as he called him—with peculiar exasperation. Tim gathered that he never expected or desired to see his son, whatever the future held, and that, having arranged for food and shelter, he meant to wash his hands of the whole transaction. The honest guardian's sole instructions were to keep mum as the grave; to provide the necessaries of life as long as the boy was dependent upon him; not to interfere with him in any way; but if he left, always to keep an eye on him, and stand ready to produce him on demand. ...
— Queed • Henry Sydnor Harrison
... that Grandma's makin' Loads of mince and pun'kin pies? Don't you smell those goodies cookin'? Can't you see 'em? Where's your eyes? Tell that rooster there that's crowin', Cute folks now are keepin' mum; They don't show how fat they 're growin' When ...
— Cape Cod Ballads, and Other Verse • Joseph C. Lincoln
... refused us was flabbergasted. "Excuse me a minute, mum!" he muttered, and darted off to return with a young officer before "the Great Somerled" had time to remonstrate. But, instead of devoting undivided attention to the celebrity who must be appeased, the officer looked at me, and we recognized ...
— The Heather-Moon • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... a half-tumbler of the whiskey, and took a sip of water and cleared his throat. "No, I kept mum, Dick. I said I would, and I did. It wasn't anything to me, nohow. I ain't no gossiper. That was your game, and I saw no reason to spoil it. Shucks! you needn't worry; you are deader back there than a door-nail. Where is that old ...
— Dixie Hart • Will N. Harben
... and fire, Approve thy schemes, thy wit admire, Thee with immortal honours crown, While, patriot-like, thou'lt strut and frown. What though by enemies 'tis said, The laurel, which adorns thy head, Must one day come in competition, By virtue of some sly petition: Yet mum for that; hope still the best, Nor let such cares disturb thy rest. Methinks I hear thee loud as trumpet, As bagpipe shrill or oyster-strumpet; Methinks I see thee, spruce and fine, With coat embroider'd richly shine, And dazzle all the idol faces, As through the hall ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift
... was as mum as a rundown clock; just set in his chair and looked at Mrs. Badger. She got nervous and fidgety after a spell, and fin'lly bu'sts out with: "What are you staring at me like ...
— Cape Cod Stories - The Old Home House • Joseph C. Lincoln
... I told you there would be something eventually in the Quincy water-front improvement if it ever worked out. Well, here it is. Ed Truesdale was in town yesterday." (This with a knowing eye, as much as to say, "Mum's the word.") "Here's five ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser
... understanding, all heads popped up like so many frisking fish. They darted from bed and commenced in the middle of the chamber, a great pillow-fight amicable and hurtless, but furiously waged, till the approach of a broad footstep sent them scampering back to their couches, mum as mice. Mopsey, well aware of these frisks, tarried till they were blown over, in her own chamber hard by, a dark room, mysterious to the fancy of the children, with spinning wheels, dried gourd-shells hung against the wall, a lady's riding-saddle, now ...
— Chanticleer - A Thanksgiving Story of the Peabody Family • Cornelius Mathews
... This was very infra dig. indeed for a student, and one of my comrades said to me that, as I was a foreigner, I was probably not aware of what a fault I had committed, but that in future I must not be seen talking to a soldier. To which I, with a terrible wink, replied, "Mum's the word; that soldier is lieutenant of police in my ward, and I have squared it with him all right, so that if there should be a Bierkrawall (a drunken row) in our quarter he will let me go." This, which appeared as a grand flight of genial genius to ...
— Memoirs • Charles Godfrey Leland
... that way. I've been keeping mum just on that account. Norvallis was apparently satisfied with a statement that Copley is temporarily absent and that we are trying to get in ...
— The Monk of Hambleton • Armstrong Livingston
... can I," he answered, with a smile; "it sounds to me like 'The first news is um mum, and the second news is mum um mum, and the third ...
— Elsie at Nantucket • Martha Finley
... enough for that. I've a little account with you in horses, I know; but that's between you and me, you know—mum. ...
— The Parent's Assistant • Maria Edgeworth
... Wise Ones grow impatient for my song; I hear them calling from the trees, and must begone. But hearkee! they have told me your name, Barnabas? yes, yes; Barn—, Barnabas; for the other, no matter—mum for that! Barnabas, aha! that minds me—at Barnaby Bright we shall meet again, all three of us, under an orbed ...
— The Amateur Gentleman • Jeffery Farnol et al
... changed on the sudden In my opinion——Mum! my passion is great! I fry like a burnt marrowbone—Come nearer, rascal. And now I view him better, did you e'er see One look so like an arch knave? his very countenance, Should an understanding judge but look upon him, Would hang him, ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810 • Various
... asked La Force, half asleep. "He says," repeated the King of Navarre, who had heard all, that I am a regular miser, and the most ungrateful mortal on the face of the earth." D'Aubigne, somewhat disconcerted, was mum. "But," he adds, "when daylight appeared, this prince, who liked neither rewarding nor punishing, did not for all that look any the more black at me, or give me a quarter-crown more." Thirty years later, in 1617, after the collapse of the ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume V. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... black beer, brewed from malted wheat instead of barley, known as "Mumme"—heavy, unpalatable stuff. If any one will take the trouble to consult Whitaker's Almanac, and turn to "Customs Tariff of the United Kingdom," they will find the very first article on the list is "Mum." "Berlin white beer" follows this. One of the few occasions when I have ever known Mr. Gladstone nonplussed for an answer, was in a debate on the Budget (I think in 1886) on a proposed increase of excise duties. Mr. Gladstone was asked what "Mum" was, and confessed ...
— The Days Before Yesterday • Lord Frederick Hamilton
... broad grin: "Nice gentleman—will do anything for him but answer questions, and let him hear my discourse. Love to listen to his pleasant stories of foreign lands, ghosts and tylwith teg; but before him, deem it wise to be mum, quite mum. Know what he comes about. Wants to hear discourse of poor man, that he may learn from it poor man's little ways and infirmities, and mark them down in one small, little book to serve for fun to Lord Palmerston and the other great gentlefolks ...
— Wild Wales - Its People, Language and Scenery • George Borrow
... sitting at her sewing, some one knocked at the door, and who should come in, but the fat cook, with a great goose, fatter than she was; who cried out: 'Only see what a big goost, mum; and only you and Miss Edith to eat it; besides a beef-steak to brile, and peas ...
— The Little Nightcap Letters. • Frances Elizabeth Barrow
... 'I've no fault to find with you, mum,' she condescendingly explained to Delia. 'It's not you, nor the children, nor the food. It's the noises at night—screeches outside my door, which sound like a cat, but which I know can't be a cat, as there is no cat in the house. This morning, mum, shortly after the clock struck ...
— Animal Ghosts - Or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter • Elliott O'Donnell
... "Good morning, mum," says Jack, quite polite-like. "Could you be so kind as to give me some breakfast." For he hadn't had anything to eat, you know, the night before and was as hungry as ...
— English Fairy Tales • Joseph Jacobs (coll. & ed.)
... to expediting our relief by forcing the Boer back to defend his own State. Against this it was maintained that Kimberley was outside the ambit of the army's high and mighty consideration. Others argued that the Colonel's policy of "mum" was mainly intended as a protest against the traffic in "Specials." We were all weary; the strain was weakening our mental faculties; the most sensible and philosophic cherished the queerest thoughts. As a cynic observed, one night at souchong, it ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan
... SKINK. Ay mum, mum fair, pray God may chance it, My lord, but that my case is desperate, I'd see your eyes out, ere I would ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VII (4th edition) • Various
... streaming eyes, but when she saw Nan she forgot about her own cold, and said that Nan must go to bed at once, and have something warm to drink, and put a nice hot-water bottle between the sheets. For a long time Nan said that nothing would make her go to bed, but at last mum, who is very sweet, and of whom Nan is really quite afraid, persuaded her to lie down, and herself brought up a dose ...
— The Empire Annual for Girls, 1911 • Various
... dreaming still, or is this bird really talking to me?—In Hermes' name then, good creature, out with your better reason; I will be mum, never fear; it shall go no further. Why, who would believe the story, when I told him that I had ...
— Works, V3 • Lucian of Samosata
... tubed John in reply. "It's on'y that little dog as comed this morning and ain't got used to its noo 'ome yet. It's a-whinin', mum; ...
— My Doggie and I • R.M. Ballantyne
... was mum as to her adventures. Having changed her clothes in her own little bower in the pines, she sought out Musq'oosis and told him ...
— The Huntress • Hulbert Footner
... mum; I did see him in the street the other day. He was in a wagon—leastwise, it looked mighty ...
— The Iron Game - A Tale of the War • Henry Francis Keenan
... unnecessary. There are plenty of men to do the talking." "But," said common sense, "I don't see why it's a bit more unladylike than the ladies' colloquy at the lyceum was last evening. There were more people present than are here tonight; and as for the men, they are perfectly mum. There seems to be plenty of opportunity for somebody." "Well," said Satan, "it isn't customary at least, and people will think strangely of you. Doubtless it would ...
— Ester Ried • Pansy (aka. Isabella M. Alden)
... had taken a lodging there with intent to dazzle the town, and not because his means were equal to it; and already the bill weighed upon him. By nature as cheerful a gossip as ever wore a scratch wig and lived to be inquisitive, he sat mum through the evening, and barely listened while the landlord talked big of his guest upstairs, his curricle and fashion, the sums he lost at White's, and the plate ...
— The Castle Inn • Stanley John Weyman
... at Amblemere. 'Ay, Miss Millikin, mum, he cooms ahn boord reglar, does that wee dug,' said the old boatman, 'and a' makes himsel' rare an' frien'ly, a' do—they coddle him oop fine, amang 'em. Eh, but he's a smart little dug, we quite look for him of a morning coomin' for his constitutionil, ...
— The Talking Horse - And Other Tales • F. Anstey
... Biddy. 'I am so glad I thought of him. I was in the kitchen one morning fetching sand for Tweetums's cage and he came in, and cook asked how was his papa, and he said, "Finely better, I thank ye, mum." I think cook said he was a Hirish boy,' Bridget hurried on in her excitement—and when she was excited I am afraid her 'h's' were apt to suffer—Mrs. Vane gasped! 'I am so glad I thought of him. Papa ...
— The Rectory Children • Mrs Molesworth
... admitted, as politely as his terror would allow, "you certingly have the advantage of me for the moment, mum." ...
— The Tinted Venus - A Farcical Romance • F. Anstey
... the gentleman it would be three dollars, mum!" said the man, civilly, touching his hat. "Three dollars is the regular price, with one trunk, and these trunks is mortal heavy. The gentleman said as it would ...
— Margaret Montfort • Laura E. Richards
... seen him, mum," said the little figure, opening its blue eyes with wonder at the kindness ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke
... up at all," said the coastguard captain, at length. "Just sits mum all day. My wife looks after him, but she can't stir him up. If anybody could, she could." And the man walked on, looking straight in front of him with a patient eye. He spoke with unconscious feeling. "He is a gentleman, despite the clothes he came ashore in. Getting across to the Southern ...
— Tomaso's Fortune and Other Stories • Henry Seton Merriman
... all, give ear to me, I'll tell you what occurred, But of course you won't repeat it when I've told you; For with honourable gentlemen I hope that mum's the word, When a horse you've laid your money on has sold you. I presume you lost your shekels, and you think it rather low, Since you're none of you as rich as NORTH or BARING. But another time you'll get them back by being 'in ...
— Punch Among the Planets • Various
... "No, mum," said Glory, in a low, strange tone; quite white now, except where the vindictive fingers had left their crimson streaks. And she went off out of ...
— Faith Gartney's Girlhood • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... willingness that she should take her leave without shaking more dust from her feet upon an already burdened household, had become impatient desire by the time I counted out her wages. Yet, here she stands, grim as the sphinx, fixed as Fate, with the inexorable requisition, "Me refrunce, mum!" ...
— The Secret of a Happy Home (1896) • Marion Harland
... innocence, and went off jauntily, but Clo looked for developments. "Kit's mum, to put Churn off the track," she thought. "But she means to follow him. She's bought no handbag. She can't very ...
— The Lion's Mouse • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... lords for their concurrence. The number of land forces voted for the service of the current year was reduced to seventeen thousand seven hundred and four effective men. The supplies were raised by the malt-tax and land-tax at two shillings in the pound, additional duties on mum, cider, and perry, stamped vellum, parchment, and paper; and by an act empowering his majesty to borrow six hundred thousand pounds of the sinking fund. In this session the parliament repealed the old statutes of England and Scotland against ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett
... gray eye eased himself in the saddle and moistened his tongue for a fresh start. "But I'm not one o' these foolhardy idiots who have to have wooden suits made for 'em because they don't know when to stay mum. You cattlemen have lived a quiet life in the hills, but I've been right where the tough ones crowd for years. I'll tell you there's a time to talk and a time to keep still, ...
— Gunsight Pass - How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a New West • William MacLeod Raine
... London girls who had been sent by the kindness of the vicar's wife to have "a happy day in the country," narrating their experiences on their return, said, "Oh, yes, mum, we did 'ave a happy day. We saw two pigs killed and ...
— Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories - A Book for Bairns and Big Folk • Robert Ford
... she mused. "Yes, she was queer. What made her so mum? She was not like herself. Sailing round with her head in the clouds. And a little bit blue, too; what Diana never is; but she was to-day. What's up? I've been lying here long enough for plenty of things to happen; and she's had the house to herself. Knowlton has ...
— Diana • Susan Warner
... you plenty of comfort, and plenty of hope, too, mum, if you'll only cheer up and trust in me," answered the luminary of Bow Street, with that stolid calmness of manner which seemed as if it would scarcely have been disturbed by an earthquake. "You keep up your ...
— Run to Earth - A Novel • M. E. Braddon
... see, Master Amos," said the old man, "you want me to be 'mum.' Now, you look here, sir—try now if you can get a word out of me." So saying, Harry closed his lips tight together, stuck his hands in his trousers' pockets, and walked about the pantry with ...
— Amos Huntingdon • T.P. Wilson
... Virgin! yes. You were the little clerk who sat so mum in the corner, and then cried fy on the gleeman. What ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle
... 'I can't help it, mum,' said Mrs Mosk, beginning to cry. 'I'm sure we must earn our living somehow. This is an 'otel, isn't it? and Mosk's a pop'lar character, ain't he? I'm sure it's hard enough to make ends meet as it is; we owe rent for half a year and ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume
... "I dont know mum" replies the butler "she is very poor-looking and says she's tramped all the way from Huntsdown to see you, but she wont ...
— Daisy Ashford: Her Book • Daisy Ashford
... in need of some small change called down-stairs to the cook and enquired: "Mary, have you any 'coppers' down there?" "Yes, mum, I've two; but if you please, mum, they're both me cousins," was the ...
— The New Pun Book • Thomas A. Brown and Thomas Joseph Carey
... I'll keep the soldiers from the mountains. The hardest thing to arrange is the Deslow affair. I don't care a curse for the fellow but I don't want the name of giving him up. So, if I succeed in sending him, keep mum. Probably he never will come ...
— Cudjo's Cave • J. T. Trowbridge
... of God. They were squealing with delight. By the way, Shatov declares that if there's to be a rising in Russia we must begin with atheism. Maybe it's true. One grizzled old stager of a captain sat mum, not saying a word. All at once he stands up in the middle of the' room and says aloud, as though speaking to himself: 'If there's no God, how can I be a captain then?' He took up His cap and went ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... "Oh, mum dear, do let me come back now. I am sure I have learned enough, and oh! how I long for a sight of you and dad, and dear old Jack and Frenchy, and Jim Travers, and all of you in fact. Let me come, oh! do let ...
— Fifty-Two Stories For Girls • Various
... perfectly dark about this matter. It's being sifted on the quiet, and they'd take it very ill at headquarters if one of the guards was to "leak" on them, and maybe spoil their game. And if you should chance to meet this party again, remember, mum's ...
— Against Odds - A Detective Story • Lawrence L. Lynch
... the capital of the duke of Wolsenbuttle's dominions, a family (not to speak of its ancient honours) illustrious, by having its younger branch on the throne of England, and having given two empresses to Germany. I have not forgot to drink your health here in mum, which I think very well deserves its reputation of being the best in the world. This letter is the third I have writ to you during my journey; and I declare to you, that if you don't send me immediately a full and true account of all the changes ...
— Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M—y W—y M—e • Lady Mary Wortley Montague
... buys the officers off with our plunder. That's what he done— let his partners get railroaded through while he sails out slick and easy. But he made one mistake, Mr. Dunke did. He wrote me a letter and told me to keep mum and he would fix it for me to get out in a few months. I believed him, kept my mouth padlocked, and served seven years without him lifting a hand for me. Then, when I make my getaway he tries first off to shut my mouth by putting me ...
— A Texas Ranger • William MacLeod Raine
... trumpet and with tap of drum Barbaric nations pay to Mars his due, When victory crowns their arms. To him they sue For privilege to war, though Mercy's thumb Bids them as victors, rather to be mum, And show a noble spirit to the foe; To vaunt not at their fellow-creature's woe: O'er victory only doth the savage thrum! They conquer twice who from excess abstain; The gentle nation that is forced to ...
— The Transgressors - Story of a Great Sin • Francis A. Adams
... argumentatively, blusteringly, objurgatively, but all to no purpose. The deceased wife's sister kept mum, and invisible. Reluctantly, resentfully, the parish was finally obliged to face the facts, pay the expenses of the interment, and settle that a weekly dole should be afforded for the maintenance of the child, and as that deceased wife's sister did not appear, ...
— The Broom-Squire • S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
... De Barry, who had amassed a vast fortune as the American representative of "Mum's Extra Dry," and who had received numerous valuable seeds and shrubs from our generous department, took us on his palatial steamer for hundreds of miles up the lordly St. John's River, where we feasted our eyes upon acres of ...
— The Gentleman from Everywhere • James Henry Foss
... wot about the breakfast?" "Don't you worry, mum," sez I, "I'm willin' to oblige you every single blessed dye, Bar Sundays, when my young man comes; 'e's such a bloomin' toff, 'E takes me up the river, so I takes ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, April 16, 1919 • Various
... the captain of the highwaymen interposed. "Just you say another word, and I'll put daylight into you with my own hand. Stand there and keep mum, and I'll give you a little ...
— Lahoma • John Breckenridge Ellis
... he remained convinced that "Da" had done a dreadful thing. Though he did not wish to bear witness against her, he had been compelled, by fear of repetition, to seek his mother and say: "Mum, don't let 'Da' hold me ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... on the Semaphore. You stay right 'ere and mum's the word." And Captain Blashford went out on deck leaving Peter Nichols to his cigarette ...
— The Vagrant Duke • George Gibbs
... seen what has been done in a good many cases. Of course, you understand, this is all between us! I'm not giving away any of the office secrets to be used against the big fellows. But I'm willing to show that I'm a friend of yours. And I know you'll be a friend of mine, and keep mum. All is, you can get wise from what I tell you and can keep your eyes peeled from ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day
... "Well, mum, the County Club, in session down to the store, delegated me to call on you. Leastway, I done told them I reckoned no one else ...
— A Son of the Hills • Harriet T. Comstock
... not prove it so by the examples of the primitive Church, and by the fathers and councils of old times? Why lieth so ancient a cause thus long in the dust destitute of an advocate? Fire and sword they have had always ready at hand, but as for the old councils and the fathers, all mum—not a word. They did surely against all reason to begin first with these so bloody and extreme means, if they could have found other more easy and gentle ways. And if they trust so fully to antiquity, and use no dissimulation, why did John Clement, ...
— The Apology of the Church of England • John Jewel
... aggravatin'," continued Texas, unmoved by the interruption; "is that the lady was Jim Webster's daughter, an' we was thinkin' of gettin' married. But we didn't want Jim to know just then, an' she told me to keep mum, seein' that Jim was opposed. She said ...
— Golden Stories - A Selection of the Best Fiction by the Foremost Writers • Various
... "Mum! Dorothy's just behind us and she has ears all round her head! But we'll do it, yet; either with or without him. It'll be rippin' fun, but if that girl gets wind of it she'll stop ...
— Dorothy on a Ranch • Evelyn Raymond
... must be bad, but I didn't think it was as bad as that! I don't blame ye for trying to keep it mum! And ye look as though it tasted bitter coming up. I'll not poison me own mouth." He stood up and yanked the man to his feet. "So I'll call ye Bill the Bomber! Where do ye work, ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day
... did—"For my part I wish we could study or read something or other that would give us something to talk about when we meet in sewing society and other places. I'm tired going to sewing society and sitting perfectly mum by the side of my next neighbour, because I don't know what under the sun to say. After we have done up the weather and house cleaning and pickling and canning, and said what a sight of work it is, and asked whether the children took the measles and whooping-cough, ...
— Divers Women • Pansy and Mrs. C.M. Livingston
... it that way, Mum. You don't just go liking anybody. You like jolly few. We're an awful family for not liking people. Aren't ...
— The Creators - A Comedy • May Sinclair
... have revenge!" cried Will in theatrical fashion. "Mum's the word, old man," and he glanced significantly ...
— The Outdoor Girls in a Winter Camp - Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats • Laura Lee Hope
... "You're right. Mum's the word," agreed Ruth; and then both girls struck their horses sharply and started on a swift gallop for the Conroyal rancho, where we must leave them for the present and return to ...
— The Cave of Gold - A Tale of California in '49 • Everett McNeil
... scolded Winona afterwards. "What possessed you to go and say anything at all? Mr. James will never forgive me! I could see it in his eye. And Mrs. James was ice itself! I've never felt so horrible in all my life. If you'd only had the sense to keep mum, they might never have found out. You kids are the most frightful nuisance! If I'd had my choice given me when I was born, I wouldn't have been an ...
— The Luckiest Girl in the School • Angela Brazil
... t'other night, when I was in my cups at the tavern, Le Neve and the fellow who has Ware Creek parish—I forget his name—must needs come riding by. I was dicing with Paris. Hugon held the stakes. I dare say we kept not mum. And out of pure brotherly love and charity, my good, kind gentlemen ride on to Williamsburgh on a tale-bearing errand! Is that child ...
— Audrey • Mary Johnston
... marriage he is so mum about, bless ye!" said Sir Jeoffry. "And that is not a thing to be hid long. He is to be shortly married, they say. My lady, his mother, has found him a great fortune in a new beauty but just come to ...
— A Lady of Quality • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... how a little thing will change a man like that? Now Jim's as cheerful as anything instead o' mum as a bat. An' the reason? Why, it's easy! A guy is bound to fail Of bein' a proper soldier if he don't get no ...
— The Stars & Stripes, Vol 1, No 1, February 8, 1918, - The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919 • American Expeditionary Forces
... the sixteenth? She didn't tell. It was doubtless the first. Perhaps everybody knew, for no one was surprised. Even Caniveau kept mum. ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant |
