"Mum" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... "Yes, mum," Florrie whispered. She seemed to be incapable of speaking beyond a whisper. But the whisper was delicate and agreeable; and perhaps it was a mysterious sign of her ...
— Hilda Lessways • Arnold Bennett
... a parish adjoining mine, having lost a child, received the condolences of a visitor with, "Yes, mum; we seems to be regular unlucky, for only a few weeks ago ...
— Grain and Chaff from an English Manor • Arthur H. Savory
... 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 go ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann
... mum,' I made bold to say, thinking to take her down a peg. But, lor'! she didn't care a rush for that, but 'Which o' my husbands?' says she, and laughed fit to bust, and poked the horse-dealer in the side. He looked as if he'd like to throttle ...
— The Nebuly Coat • John Meade Falkner
... the best wines from Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Grecia, there are sold in London above twenty sorts of other drinks: as brandy, coffee, chocolate, tea, aromatick, mum, sider, perry, beer, ale; many sorts of ales very different, as cock, stepony, stickback, Hull, North-Down, Sambidge, Betony, scurvy-grass, sage-ale, &c. A piece of wantonness whereof none of our ancestors were ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 47, Saturday, September 21, 1850 • Various
... belonged to them. Occasionally, after dropping one of these convalescents, Jim would find jobs waiting to his hand about the bush homestead; cows to milk, a fence to be mended, wood waiting to be chopped. He used to do them vigorously, while in the house "mum" fussed over her restored man and tried to keep him from going out to run the farm immediately. There were generally two or three astonished children to show him where tools were kept—milk buckets, being always up-ended on a fence post, needed no introduction, and the pump, for a sluice ...
— Back To Billabong • Mary Grant Bruce
... 'Yes, mum,' said Jack Adamson; 'we've been fellow-workmen when the work was hard enough. 'T young squire seems to have got over his difficulties pretty tidy!' Then she smiled again, and nodded to them, and retreated back to ...
— John Caldigate • Anthony Trollope
... sandy hair standing upright on his head, so that he looked as if he had just been all but choked, and had that moment come to, "I have brought you as the compliments of the season—I have brought you, Mum, a bottle of sherry wine—and I have brought you, Mum, a bottle ...
— Great Expectations • Charles Dickens
... 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
... there," returned Hal. "He can be as mum as an oyster when he wants to. Well, old boy, I'll leave you alone now and go out and look around a bit. Maybe I can stumble on ...
— The Boy Allies At Verdun • Clair W. Hayes
... this was the governor's room, and we should be put through our first examination. My head was too stupid to think, and I made up my mind to keep perfectly mum. Yes, even if they tried thumbscrews. I had no kind of story, but I resolved not to give anything away. As I turned the handle I wondered idly what kind of sallow Turk or bulging-necked German we ...
— Greenmantle • John Buchan
... here, if you want to keep out of trouble, you must keep 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 the word.' ...
— Against Odds - A Detective Story • Lawrence L. Lynch
... "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 give ...
— Daisy Ashford: Her Book • Daisy Ashford
... withstand him, and let him know his place. Two or three times nearly all hands agreed to it, with the exception of those who used to slink off during such discussions; and swore that they would not any more submit to being ruled by Jackson. But when the time came to make good their oaths, they were mum again, and let every thing go on the old way; so that those who had put them up to it, had to bear all the brunt of Jackson's wrath by themselves. And though these last would stick up a little at first, and even mutter ...
— Redburn. His First Voyage • Herman Melville
... wheels, and elbowing himself past the people who have been standing patiently there for hours). By your leave—'ere, just allow me to pass, please. Thenk you. One moment, Mum. "No right to push in 'ere," 'aven't I? I've as much right as what you 'ave. Think the ole Park b'longs to you, I suppose? You orter 'ave a space roped in a-purpose for you, you ought! ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, May 20, 1893 • Various
... gone, and the crazy quilt and the doll-baby with him. John, the servant-man, searched everywhere, but not a trace of them could he find. "They must have all blown away, mum," he said ...
— The Children's Book of Christmas Stories • Various
... "Well, mum, it'd be difficult to take it from her now. She's that wrapped in it." ... And so she was.... Rose stood to Angelina for so ...
— The Golden Scarecrow • Hugh Walpole
... is a perfect sphinx. Never before has he opened his mouth so widely, and only an occasion like this could have moved him. You must have unconsciously revealed a hidden law, or else he would have been as mum as ...
— Nature's Serial Story • E. P. Roe
... Mum for that; I shall be silent as to that. As mute as Mumchance, who was hanged for saying nothing; a friendly reproach to any one who ...
— 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue • Captain Grose et al.
... forefinger backwards and forwards before my face, he said, with a 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 ...
— Wild Wales - Its People, Language and Scenery • George Borrow
... then, for there is no time to lose. That drunken fool, Furness, proposed throwing me over the bridge. It was lucky for them that they did not try it, or I should have been obliged to settle them both, that they might tell no tales. Where's Mum?" ...
— The Poacher - Joseph Rushbrook • Frederick Marryat
... we shall like it when we git used to it, only at first one don't fancy being took—well, taken up, at all. She is going to give our balls for us; and wants to invite all our dinners. But I won't stand that. I will have my old friends and I won't let her send all the cards out, and sit mum at the head of my own table. You must come to me, Arthur and Major—come, let me see, on the 14th.—It ain't one of our grand dinners, Blanche," she said, looking round at her daughter, who bit her lips and frowned very ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray
... rhymer, And now, at least, a merry one, Mr. Mum's Eudesheimer, And the church of St. Geryon, Are the two things alone, That deserve to be known, In ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton
... do you bite, you men of fangs (That is, of teeth that forward hangs), And charge my dear Ephestion With want of meat? you want digestion. We poets use not so to do, To find men meat and stomach too. You have the book, you have the house, And mum, good Jack, and ...
— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli
... struck dumb, And never answered her a mum: The humble reptile fand some pain, Thus to be bantered wi' disdain. But tent neist time the Ant came by, The worm was grown a Butterfly; Transparent were his wings and fair, Which bare him flight'ring through the air. Upon a flower he stapt ...
— An Elementary Study of Insects • Leonard Haseman
... '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 ...
— Animal Ghosts - Or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter • Elliott O'Donnell
... "Mum!" whispered the Cripple to Frank, pretending to adjust his clothes, "not a word of what they are going to do to ...
— Mysteries of Paris, V3 • Eugene Sue
... replied Anderson, earnestly. "We're all worried. I'm goin' to let you read over the laws of that I.W.W. organization. You're to keep mum now, mind you. I belong to the Chamber of Commerce in Spokane. Somebody got hold of these by-laws of this so-called labor union. We've had copies made, an' every honest farmer in the Northwest is goin' to ...
— The Desert of Wheat • Zane Grey
... to men and women, have an affection for their parents somewhat childish. A young Gipsey man known to the author, when his mother stays longer from the camp than usual, expresses his anxiety for her return, by saying—Where is my mum? I wish my mum would come home. ...
— The Gipsies' Advocate - or, Observations on the Origin, Character, Manners, and Habits of - The English Gipsies • James Crabb
... what he said about them takeing me in the intelligents dept. So it looks like I was about through being a doughboy Al and pretty soon I will probably be writeing to you from Paris but I don't suppose I will be able to tell you what I am doing because that's the kind of a job where mum is the word. ...
— The Real Dope • Ring Lardner
... this treacherous contract, 'tis said, Such terms are agreed to, such promises made, That his Owners must soon feeble beggars become- "Hold!" cries the crown office, "'twere scandal-so, mum!" ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole
... were the little clerk who sat so mum in the corner, and then cried fy on the gleeman. What hast in ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle
... crow's-nest with the chief, when I noticed a ship to windward of us alter her course, keeping away three or four points on an angle that would presently bring her across our bows a good way ahead. I was getting pretty well versed in the tricks of the trade now, so I kept mum, but strained my eyes in the direction for which the other ship was steering. The chief was looking astern at some finbacks, the look-out men forward were both staring to leeward, thus for a minute or so I had a small arc of the ...
— The Cruise of the Cachalot - Round the World After Sperm Whales • Frank T. Bullen
... 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, though he ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810 • Various
... quickened public thought, animated the friends of the Negro, and provoked many people to good works. Slavery had ceased to exist in Massachusetts. Several suits, entered by slaves against their masters for restraining their liberty, had been won. The case of Elizabeth Freeman, better known as "Mum Bet," was regarded as the first-fruits of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights in the new Constitution of 1780. The Duke de la Rochefoucault Laincort gives the following interesting account of the extinction of ...
— History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George W. Williams
... That was rather a curious case, Mr. Artist. Some men might be shy of mentioning it; I never was shy in my life and I mention it right and left everywhere—the whole case, just as it happened, except the names. Catch me ever committing myself to mentioning names! Mum's the word, sir, with yours to ...
— After Dark • Wilkie Collins
... Finally some of the officers grabbed him, got a rope and tied him, for they all thought he was crazy; and I commenced to think so myself, as all he would say was, "Where is he? Where did he go?" No one had seen the game but the barber, and I slipped him a twenty-dollar bill and told him to keep mum. They kept the man tied for about one hour, until he promised he would behave if they let him loose, which they did. He sat perfectly still and did not have a word to say. I knew he was not broke, ...
— Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi • George H. Devol
... book, without any invitation from him at all. However, since Woggs is there, we must make the best of her. I fancy that she was a year or two younger than Wiggs and of rather inferior education. Witness her low innuendo about the Lady Belvane, and the fact that she called a Countess "Mum." ...
— Once on a Time • A. A. Milne
... at once, and announced "a lady to see you, mum," to an elderly lady in black satin and gold spectacles, who was surrounded by several blooming daughters and a young gentleman stretched lazily upon the sofa. Clemence again made known ...
— Clemence - The Schoolmistress of Waveland • Retta Babcock
... worshipped the earth on which the dear girl trod!—"She never indulges in professions, and likes to take people by surprise, when she contemplates doing them a service—" this was just as far from Lucy's natural and honest mode of dealing, as it was possible to be—"and, so, she has been as mum as one who has lost the faculty of speech. However, she never speaks of her affairs to others; that is a good sign, and indicates an intention to consider herself as my trustee; and, what is better still, and more plainly denotes what her conscience ...
— Afloat And Ashore • James Fenimore Cooper
... didn't know as there were a lady here," he said in a husky whisper, and snatching off his battered Panama hat, sticking out a leg behind, and making a bow like a school-boy. I beg your pardon for intruding like, mum, but I only come to say that the schooner's warped out, and that youngster here and Mr Grant must come aboard first thing in ...
— Bunyip Land - A Story of Adventure in New Guinea • George Manville Fenn
... shall be no more reference between us to this money, and that we shall go on being good friends as before. Leave it to me to make arrangements to acquit myself honourably of my obligations towards you. I need say no more; till a year's up, mum's the word." ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... "Please, mum, I'se Ophelia. I'se de washerwoman's little girl, an' mama, she sent me to say, would you please to len' her a dime. She got to pay ...
— Jokes For All Occasions - Selected and Edited by One of America's Foremost Public Speakers • Anonymous
... He was very shaky. I had some coffee that mornin', so I gave him some in a pint pot; he drank it, and then he stood on his head till he tumbled over, and then he stood up on his feet and said, "Thenk yer, mum." ...
— Joe Wilson and His Mates • Henry Lawson
... The Owner of the Hat on the shoulder.) Excuse me, Mum, but might I take the liberty of asking you to kindly remove your 'at? [The Owner of ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., Jan. 31, 1891 • Various
... all settin', an' the water tank's near empty, so I'll wish ye good-morning, anyhow, mum!' And this valiant man ...
— The Record of Nicholas Freydon - An Autobiography • A. J. (Alec John) Dawson
... why do they 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
... other, clapping his hand, with an air of ridicule and contempt upon the miser's mouth; "that will do now; be off, and depend upon——mum, you understand mo! Ha, ha, ha!—that's not a bad move, father," he added; "however, I think we must give ...
— The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine • William Carleton
... been pretty fair for a girl,' admitted her brother, 'and I hope you'll remember that mum must be the word still. And mind, if you hear about this, you don't know anything, but just tell the pater to ask me about it. I don't want you to go and give your opinion about the school and the fellows, though Curtis and one or two more may be a poor lot. The thing ...
— That Scholarship Boy • Emma Leslie
... Democrat (in front, over his shoulder). Pity yer didn't send word you was coming, Mum, and then they'd ha' kep' the place clear of us common people for yer! [Mrs. L.S. is sorry ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Volume 102, January 30, 1892 • Various
... a uncle, mum," said the thoughtless Mr. Legge. "Gave 'im a passage on the ship and fairly spoilt 'im. We was all surprised at the fuss 'e made of 'im; wasn't ...
— Light Freights • W. W. Jacobs
... a horrid night. I couldn't sleep a bit. I feel so mum-mum- miserable!" wailed the patient dolefully. "I'm so ...
— More about Pixie • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... with the importance and pleasure of his secret. "You go down to your tea, may dears; Ay ain't going to be a selfish old uncle. No, no, go along with you, both of you, and send old Finch up to me. But look here!" he called after them, in a hoarse whisper, "mum's the word!" ...
— By Berwen Banks • Allen Raine
... 'ee be angry wi' him, mum," said Jupp appealingly, as the somewhat flustered female advanced towards the mite, laying hands on his collar ...
— Teddy - The Story of a Little Pickle • J. C. Hutcheson
... a certain room, I contend we had a right to expect that that fire should be kept in. It was not so, however, and when the lady inquired, 'Why did you not look to it, as I told you?' the girl replied, 'Well, I did, mum; the door was open and I looked at the fire every time I passed.' She appeared to attach some sort of igneous power to ...
— Some Private Views • James Payn
... mum.' And indeed, after scraping the dish all round with his knife and carrying the choice brown morsels to his mouth, and after taking such a scientific pull at the stone bottle that, by degrees almost imperceptible to the sight, ...
— The Old Curiosity Shop • Charles Dickens
... once and for all take them for granted. [Footnote: They have their uses, to be sure. Says Kircher: Cunices lectularii potens remedium contra quartanum est, si ab inscio aegro cum vehiculo congrua potentur; mulierum morbis medentur et uterum prolapsum solo odore in mum locum restituunt.] Let him note that most of the inns of this region are quite uninhabitable, for this and other reasons, unless he takes the most elaborate precautions. ...
— Old Calabria • Norman Douglas
... "Little Mum! little Mum! here they are with lots of goodies! Come down and see the fun right away! Quick!" bawled Will and Geordie amidst a general ripping off of papers and a reckless cutting of strings that soon turned the tidy ...
— Eight Cousins • Louisa M. Alcott
... it, when he was carrying you, bent down like he was, with that queer shako of his. When I was behind he looked something like a bear, and I couldn't help having a good grin. Mum, ...
— !Tention - A Story of Boy-Life during the Peninsular War • George Manville Fenn
... probably have taken no notice of Mr. Pickup, if it had not occurred to me that the old wretch must know her father's name and address. I at once put the question. The Jew grinned, and shook his grisly head. "Her father'sh in difficultiesh, and mum's the word, my dear." To that answer he adhered, in spite of all that I could say ...
— A Rogue's Life • Wilkie Collins
... to subdue the flesh, You snap me of the sudden. Ah, I see! 75 Though your eye twinkles still, you shake your head— Mine's shaved—a monk, you say—the sting's in that! If Master Cosimo announced himself, Mum's the word naturally; but a monk! Come, what am I a beast for? tell us, now! 80 I was a baby when my mother died And father died and left me in the street. I starved there, God knows how, a year or two On fig-skins, melon-parings, rinds and ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning
... can be mum when the occasion needs. Can you tell me farther, when the bands now gathering are ...
— Winning His Spurs - A Tale of the Crusades • George Alfred Henty
... let you into this stunt on the ground floor," went on Logan. "But I will as soon as the turn's over. For all sakes, keep mum while ...
— Winnie Childs - The Shop Girl • C. N. Williamson
... 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 ...
— Chanticleer - A Thanksgiving Story of the Peabody Family • Cornelius Mathews
... morning," 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 been ...
— Diana • Susan Warner
... "Schure mum, an' ye mustn't be afther blamin' de rist av us fur that fellow's impidence. Schure, an' there's some av us that 'ud kick him out av the ward, if we could, for the way he talks to ye afther all that you have done for 'im an' fur all ...
— Half a Century • Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm
... house was too quiet for Mr. Grierson, mum," she wound up. "Having nothing to do hisself, except just write, he seemed to think other folks couldn't be tired and want to go to bed, folks that worked." She emphasised her words with a truly British scorn for those who live by their brains. "I'm sure the hours and hours ...
— People of Position • Stanley Portal Hyatt
... and execute all your commissions, mum," declared Marjorie with a little obeisance, her spirits rising a little at the prospect of actual errands to perform. She was already tired of aimlessly wandering along the wide, well-kept streets of Sanford, feeling herself to be quite out of things. ...
— Marjorie Dean High School Freshman • Pauline Lester
... us something, mum," urged Jimmie, who loved his mother dearly, and was certain she knew more than anybody else, in part because she had been to college, but chiefly ...
— Little Busybodies - The Life of Crickets, Ants, Bees, Beetles, and Other Busybodies • Jeanette Augustus Marks and Julia Moody
... 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 ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume
... table and another on the mantel. "I vant to see vat's to be done," she continued, "because I must give yer a 'arty lift him a jiffy and be back to my children hagain." Then going to the sick woman she took her hand and felt her pulse. "'Ow do yer find yerself, mum?" she asked. ...
— Without a Home • E. P. Roe
... George answered. "I'm mum, I do assure you, Sir. And if I might make so bold, you just pop on your hat and step acrost directly minute. There's that little hole back of the shed what I told you of. You ain't only got to pop your reverend eye to that there, and you'll see ...
— The Incomplete Amorist • E. Nesbit
... "Mum's the word with me," answered Lawrence, looking very sagacious; "I love not the priest more than you do, for I believe he would not scruple to stick a dagger in the back of his brother if that brother stood in the way of any object he ...
— Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships - A Story of the Last Naval War • W.H.G. Kingston
... "Please, mum, one of the vaiters here knows all about them there places as master talks so much on; p'raps Miss Alice would like to ...
— Tales from Blackwood, Volume 7 • Various
... rang, and then the servant came into the drawing-room and remarked: "If you please, mum," at Mrs Cotterill, and Mrs Cotterill disappeared, ...
— The Card, A Story Of Adventure In The Five Towns • Arnold Bennett
... stairs and learn pitch-and-toss, for you haven't brains enough for any thing else—and recollect, you owes me a sovereign; half from master for telling, and half from the long-backed Ticket for keeping mum. You can keep the other to yourself; for the job was ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844 • Various
... who has scored today," he said to himself, "is John Christopher Drake, alias Giovanni Maselli. I must keep mum about him. By gad, I believe I've compounded ...
— The Strange Case of Mortimer Fenley • Louis Tracy
... was a great tease, pretended to think for quite a long time, until his silence had driven the children nearly desperate. "Yes," he then said, "I should, mum, provided you let me find a trustworthy man to go on with the garden. Otherwise I shouldn't dare to face Mrs. Collins ...
— The Slowcoach • E. V. Lucas
... grain of sense in your head. Don't sit there mum-chance, man! Speak up and tell your mother not to be a fool. You are no child; you know your father, and that, if given one chance in a hundred to act perversely, he'll take it as sure as fate. For heaven's sake persuade your mother to use common ...
— Hetty Wesley • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... 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 town. ...
— A Lady of Quality • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... "Wish to leave! why, I thought, Thompson, you were very comfortable with me!" Thompson (who is extremely refined). "Ho yes, mum! I don't find no fault with you, mum—nor yet with master—but the truth his, mum—the hother servants is so orrid vulgar and hignorant, and speaks so hungrammaticai, that I reely cannot live in the same 'ouse with 'em—and I should like to go this day month, if so ...
— Enquire Within Upon Everything - The Great Victorian Domestic Standby • Anonymous
... don't," said the long-haired scout; "I have been stationed here, as marshal of the town, to warn people away from the place. You take my advice and go to the creek and plunge in with all your clothes and play for an hour in the water, then dry yourself, go back to camp, and keep mum!" This was the year of the cholera. It started somewhere down south, and many people died from it in the city of St. Louis, and it followed the railway through Kansas to the end of the track. Many soldiers died also at Fort Harker, which was farther ...
— Tales of Aztlan • George Hartmann
... "I—I—do beg your pardon, mum!" he gasped. "I 'adn't an idea in me 'ead there was any one there, least of all you on your knees. I just come backin' out with ...
— Captain Jim • Mary Grant Bruce
... lawyer went back to the Mitre a rueful man. He 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 in ...
— The Castle Inn • Stanley John Weyman
... "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
... 'There's no letters, mum,' she said, seeing Phoebe at the parlour window—'and I doan't think this has owt to do here.' She held up a telegram, doubtfully—yet with an evident curiosity and excitement in her look. It was ...
— Fenwick's Career • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... those of the poorer Sort, from a noble Emulation of copying their betters, drink as much Wine as they can; and where their Purses or their Credit will not reach so high, they must have foreign Liquors, tho' they be only Mum or Cyder, Porter or Perry, and seem resolved to shew they are as little afraid of a Jail, ...
— A Dialogue Between Dean Swift and Tho. Prior, Esq. • Anonymous
... my life and soul!" cried the tall gentleman, shaking his head and laughing again. "Mum's the word, of course, and I swear a shaven face becomes ...
— The Broad Highway • Jeffery Farnol
... "He says, mum, as he won't go without marryin' somebody, or a gittin' his pay anyway, for it's a nice buryin' job as he's lost ...
— Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 37, December 10, 1870 • Various
... many ladies, who often asked the gardener the name of a plant that was strange to them. As no doubt he considered it infra dig. to say he did not know, and being an Irishman, he was never at a loss when asked, "What do you call this plant?" he would reply, "Oh, that, mum, is the Hibertia Canadensus, mum!" and a further inquiry would be answered in a similar manner—"That, mum, is the Catanansus Rulia, mum!" and again the lady would thank him and walk on apparently quite pleased and happy, ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor
... 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 ...
— Lahoma • John Breckenridge Ellis
... "Mum's the word for three minutes," said Dick, pointing to a huge Yankee clock which stood on the chimney-piece, with a model frigate in a glass case, and a painted sea and sky on one side of it, and a model light-vessel in a glass case, and a painted sea ...
— The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands • R.M. Ballantyne
... friends" (here he lowered his voice, and looked round the kitchen), "she was very whimsical, expensive, ill-tempered, and, I'm afraid, a little—upon the— flightly order—a little touched or so;—but mum for that—the lady is now dead; and it is my maxim, de mortuis nil nisi bonum. The young squire was even then very handsome, and looked remarkably well in his weepers; but he had an awkward air and shambling gait, stooped mortally, and was so shy and silent ...
— The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves • Tobias Smollett
... well to say 'must.' But you know what Mum is: if she thinks a thing is for our good, do it she will," said ...
— The Terrible Twins • Edgar Jepson
... TONY. Mum, you fool you. Let THEM find that out. (To them.) You have only to keep on straight forward, till you come to a large old house by the road side. You'll see a pair of large horns over the door. That's the sign. Drive up the yard, ...
— She Stoops to Conquer - or, The Mistakes of a Night. A Comedy. • Oliver Goldsmith
... been sneaking it in the back way. Welcome home, mum," said the maid, and shut the door—from the ...
— The Innocents - A Story for Lovers • Sinclair Lewis
... you meet me in the street, don't recognize me unless I'm quite alone. We've quarrelled, if anyone asks you. Pretty soon we'll make up again and be friends. Of course, you'll realize I'm working on our case, which grows interesting. So keep mum and behave." ...
— Mary Louise and the Liberty Girls • Edith Van Dyne (AKA L. Frank Baum)
... lass as gave its sister the slip came toddling across the line. He looked up sudden, see'd the child, darted on the line, cotched it up, and his foot slipped and the train came over him in no time. The child's safe. Poor captain would be glad of that, mum, wouldn't he? God ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol IV. • Editors: Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
... I have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word how to know one another: I come to her 5 in white, and cry, 'mum;' she cries 'budget;' and by that we ...
— The Merry Wives of Windsor - The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] • William Shakespeare
... knew it, bless you, and weakened every time! And Brabant knew it. I just reminded him of it in a quiet way, and its final result, and he said in a whisper, 'You did it, Colonel, you did it, sir—but keep it mum for my sake; and I'll tell you what you do,' says he, 'you go into the law, Col. Sellers—go into the law, sir; that's your native element!' And into the law the subscriber is going. There's worlds of ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... Bitter Drops." In a handbill, the apothecary did tip his hand to the extent of asserting that his Elixir contained 22 ingredients, but added that nobody but himself knew what they were. The dosage was generous, 50 to 60 drops "in a glass of Spring water, Beer, Ale, Mum, Canary, White wine, with or without sugar, and a dram of brandy as often as you please." This, it was said, would cure any ...
— Old English Patent Medicines in America • George B. Griffenhagen
... that sort. It's a good wash they want, both for health and comeliness; and I make 'em take it that way. The powder's nought—it's the wash does it, look you: but they'd never do it if I told 'em so. Mum, ...
— One Snowy Night - Long ago at Oxford • Emily Sarah Holt
... little beating about the bush, the little "job" is arranged amicably, on the practical basis of "a fiver each, and mum's the word on both sides," thus evading the law, saving the Builder a few pounds, and supplementing the salary of the Surveyor. Ulterior results, unsanitary or otherwise, do not come within the ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., October 11, 1890 • Various
... never known any superior to them," said Elizabeth. But she brought, as she spoke, her eye of fire to bear upon her cousin, who gave way before it and was mum. ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner
... abominably as it went down. Later had followed a pleasant dreamy consciousness of warmth which had brought with it realisation of the fact that previously she had been feeling terribly cold. Then voices again—notably Maria's this time: "She'll do now, Mrs. Hilyard, mum. ...
— The Vision of Desire • Margaret Pedler
... reserved my most important bit of news till the last, as lady correspondents are said to do. Observe, I write 'are said to do,' because in this matter I have very little personal experience of my own to go upon. You, dear mum, are my solitary lady correspondent, and postscripts are a luxury in which you rarely indulge. But to proceed, as the novelists say. Some two years ago it was my good fortune to rescue a little yellow-skinned princekin from the clutches of a very fine young tiger ...
— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 5, May, 1891 • Various
... ceased abruptly. "Your innings, old chap, I think!" he said. "You're mum as a fish this afternoon. I noticed it in there—I thought you'd have lots ...
— Far to Seek - A Romance of England and India • Maud Diver
... 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, Part 1. • Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Charles Dudley Warner
... done that before. Now for maru. Mum-mum-mum. Mum shuts one's mouth up, doesn't it? We'll draw a shut mouth like ...
— Just So Stories • Rudyard Kipling
... old brown rat would only dare to face him. But while the cock is crowing still, and the pullet world admiring him, who comes up but the old turkey-cock, with all his family round him. Then the geese at the lower end begin to thrust their breasts out, and mum their down-bits, and look at the gander and scream shrill joy for the conflict; while the ducks in pond show nothing but tail, in proof of their ...
— Lorna Doone - A Romance of Exmoor • R. D. Blackmore
... mean that, mum, and you'd oughter take it back," said she, excited beyond all fear and ...
— Faith Gartney's Girlhood • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... boy. No need of going into particulars, but—you know right enough. Mum's the word. Take ...
— The Boys of Bellwood School • Frank V. Webster
... Masterton's with G. Gibson, 31 shilling. Item, to Will. Sutherland, a mark. For G. Burnet's reply and conferences, 3 shillings. To Mr. Mathew Ramsay's nurse, a dollar. For a pint of win their, 24 shilings. For copieng a paper, 40 shiling. Item, for mum and walnuts, 9 pence. Item, at the kirk door, 6 pence. Item, for win and sugar, 7 pence. Given to my wife for furniture to my cloaths and hir oune goune, 5 dollars. Item, in Haliburton's for mum, 22 shiling. Item, upon seck, 9 shiling. Item, in James Haliburton's, ...
— Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 36 • Sir John Lauder
... special stickers on it, mum. You'll find it in your stateroom when you get to the steamer. Is that ...
— The Ghost Breaker - A Novel Based Upon the Play • Charles Goddard
... I've 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 ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day
... and papers; how he studied and wrote and prayed; and during his two hours' daily liberty wandered sadly and in a silent manner about the Castle. For this was all Mistress Ruth had to tell, and of the Prisoner's name, or of his Crime, she was, perforce, mum. ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 of 3 • George Augustus Sala
... benedicite, whom have we here Tom Tumbler, or else some dancing bear? Body of me, it were best go no near: For ought that I see, it is my godfather Lucifer, Whose prentice I have been this many a day: But no more words but mum: you shall hear ...
— The Growth of English Drama • Arnold Wynne
... you a fire, mum," said Joseph, "in a minute. None of us would mind the trouble, seeing as it's only for once, and ...
— A Country Gentleman and his Family • Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
... 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
... first—she always 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, and so on, I'm clear run out, ...
— Divers Women • Pansy and Mrs. C.M. Livingston
... young man, no offence," said the landlord, in a quite altered tone; "but the sight of your hand—," then observing that our conversation began to attract the notice of the guests in the kitchen, he interrupted himself, saying in an undertone: "But mum's the word for the present, I will go and ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow
... "Lor'! Mum," she exclaimed triumphantly, "you've no call to mind about that. That's only thrush, that is. Three of ourn had it, and did beautiful. She's bound to be a bit fretful, but she won't come to no harm, so long ...
— A Pair of Clogs • Amy Walton
... one that belongs to her,' said Dolores. 'Oh, there's Uncle William!' as on the top of the stairs she spied the welcome sight of his grey locks and burly figure. Before he had descended, her other uncle had vanished, and she fancied she had heard something about, 'Mum about our ...
— The Two Sides of the Shield • Charlotte M. Yonge
... "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 ...
— Trapped by Malays - A Tale of Bayonet and Kris • George Manville Fenn
... the portico the top-knots of several policemen had appeared. The forces of law and order were trying to elbow their way into the throng. Sh ... h ... h! Tia Picores assumed command. "Back to your stalls, everybody! And mum's the word! Those pretty boys will be in here with their summonses and their papers! Nothing's the matter, remember, everybody, nothing happened at all!" Some one threw a big handkerchief over the bleeding ear of the wounded girl. The women were all in ...
— Mayflower (Flor de mayo) • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... she-guide, seating herself, "if I'd stayed an old maid as long as that, I think I'd stuck it out. But perhaps you was a widow, mum?" ...
— The Associate Hermits • Frank R. Stockton
... solemn face And a tender, melancholy grace. Improbable 'twas, no doubt, When you came to think it out, But the fascinated crowd Their deep surprise avowed And all with a single voice averred 'Twas the most amazing thing they'd heard— All save one who spake never a word, But sat as mum As if deaf and dumb, Serene, indifferent and unstirred. Then all the others turned to him And scrutinized him limb from limb— Scanned him alive; But he seemed to thrive And tranquiler grow each minute, As if there were nothing in it. "What! what!" cried one, "are you not amazed At ...
— The Devil's Dictionary • Ambrose Bierce
... kind of you and the colonel, mum," said Nancy, who didn't believe half her mistress was saying, but thought it might be for her interest ...
— The Tin Box - and What it Contained • Horatio Alger
... think that little soft-lookin' creature could be so set an' determined, now, would you?" she asked. "I never see any one to beat her. An' mum! She shuts her ...
— The Old Gray Homestead • Frances Parkinson Keyes
... up to ten o'clock to-night, mum," said Mr Hutton, as he threw a soiled envelope on the table. "An' if I'm woke up arter, I charge it ...
— Sparrows - The Story of an Unprotected Girl • Horace W. C. Newte
... corrupted by servants into 'Ma'am,' and by Mrs. Gamp and her tribe into' Mum,' is in substance equivalent to' Your exalted,' or' Your Highness.' Ma Dame originally meaning high- born or stately, and being applied only to ...
— Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society • Sarah Annie Frost
... a-cussin' him an' a-swearin' to lynch him. He won't know but what we aim to hang him to the first likely cottonwood, an' we'll have a lot of fun with him. An' no one else won't know it, neither. Then you-all ride back an' pertend to keep mum, but leak it out that we done hung him. They won't be no posse hunt for him then an' I'll take him an' slip him acrost to the N. P. or the C. P. R. an' let him go. It's too good a chanct to miss. Lordy! Won't the pilgrim beg! An' Sam Moore—he'll be ...
— The Texan - A Story of the Cattle Country • James B. Hendryx
... replied Lisbeth very seriously. "You see, child, he had never seen any women but the washed out, pale things they all are in the north, and a slender, brown, youthful thing like me warmed his heart.—But, mum; ...
— Poor Relations • Honore de Balzac
... I curse the eyes that go to sleep Just when they ought sharp watch to keep Lest evil to their lord befall." Thus fools contrariously do all; They chatter when they should be dumb, And, when they ought to speak, are mum. ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry
... untended by the heroine of the celebration; she wondered if Cottingham would tell Papa, and if Papa would tell Mother (thus did this child of the 'eighties speak of her parents, the musical abbreviations of a later day, "Mum," and "Dad," not having penetrated the remoteness in which her home was placed); she also wondered if there would be a row about her getting wet. All these things seemed but too probable, but she was in ...
— Mount Music • E. Oe. Somerville and Martin Ross
... me that, 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 ...
— Foe-Farrell • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... "Yes mum," said Winnie, with unusual alacrity, and started off down the lane as fast as his copper-toed feet could carry him. It was quite a long lane, and a very pleasant one in summer. There was a row of hazel-nut bushes, always ...
— Gypsy Breynton • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
... 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 ...
— Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories - A Book for Bairns and Big Folk • Robert Ford
... themselves. Why didn't they sit up straight and firm, with their hands in their muffs and their eyes on hers, and say with a rising inflection and lips that moved as little as possible,—"What wages, mum?" or ...
— The Other Girls • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... 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
... 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
... the husband's caution, with the necessity of compliance; and the two retire to rest, in the midst of their black olive branches, with a mutual promise to be "mum." ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid
... 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 babby. That's always ...
— The Eustace Diamonds • Anthony Trollope
... gift o' speech than you can make pretence to," said the woman abruptly. "I often wonder that of two twin-brothers one should be so glib and t'other so mum-chance." ...
— The Delectable Duchy • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... the indefinable greatness of personality. He was not a clever man. He had no gifts of any kind. In the society of scholars he was mum and among the lovers of the beautiful he cut an awkward figure. At certain moments he had curious flashes of inspiration, but they came at long intervals and were seldom to be had in the day of drudgery, when his mind was not excited. On the whole his intelligence was of ...
— The Mirrors of Downing Street - Some Political Reflections by a Gentleman with a Duster • Harold Begbie
... she was mum as to her adventures. Having changed her clothes in her own little bower in the pines, she sought out Musq'oosis and ...
— The Huntress • Hulbert Footner
... my 'pinion, which, m'appen you doan't, she's neither Low nor 'Igh. She's no Seck. If she h'longed to a Seck, she wouldn't be readin' on a book under the Five Sisters last Sunday marnin' when the bells was a-ringin' for church time. I goes past 'er, an' I sez 'Marnin,' mum!' an' she looks up smilin'-like, an' sez she: 'Good- marnin!' Nice day, isn't it?' 'Splendid day, mum,' sez I, an' she went on readin', an' I went on a walkin'. I sez then, and I sez now, she ain't ...
— God's Good Man • Marie Corelli
... moment he went on. "I don't w-wish to waste words; I mum-merely come to say that Mark has five hunderd dollars, and that I can scrape up a couple o' hunderd more, and will give my note w-with him for the balance. Th-that's all we can handily do; an' ef that'll arnswer, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 10, August, 1858 • Various
... of mystery as his tip-toe movement, "a great deal is being done—but in the strictest secrecy! Most important investigations, my dear!—the police, the detective police, you know. The word at present—to put it into one word, vulgar, but expressive—the word is 'Mum'! Silence, my dear—the policy of the mole—underground working, you know. From what I am aware of, and from what our good friend Halfpenny tells me, and believes, I gather that a result will be attained which ...
— The Herapath Property • J. S. Fletcher
... I'll wager you would. Well, now—come closer. Mum's the word, eh? I like you, Harry Brooks; and the boys in this town "—he broke off and cursed horribly—"they're not fit to carry slops to a bear, not one of 'em. But you're different. And, see here: any time you're in trouble, just pay a call on me. Understand? Mind ...
— Poison Island • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)
... heard in the narrow front hall. "How fur is it up, mum? Oh, another flight! Begorra, it's as dark as a coal-hole and about as dirty!" This was followed by: "Oh, is that you, sor? How ...
— Felix O'Day • F. Hopkinson Smith
... to be Comings, and I came from New York; that was all settled in my mind; but what was my business there? I expected to be there a few days, and there was the rub; finally, after failing to fix up a story I concluded to "keep mum," entirely. Later you will see the fix which that conclusion came near leading ...
— Between the Lines - Secret Service Stories Told Fifty Years After • Henry Bascom Smith
... 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 ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift
... mum," said Jim Grimm, "we must make him happy every hour he's with us. Hush, mother! Don't cry, ...
— Billy Topsail & Company - A Story for Boys • Norman Duncan
... be you thinkin' of, mum?" he was saying. "'Tain't no sport at all. You shut your mouth, gwaes. Be you goin' to ask your mother for the boiling-water? Is, Bob Williams, I do know all that: but where be you a-going to get the fire from? ...
— The Hill of Dreams • Arthur Machen
... 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 ...
— Blue Aloes - Stories of South Africa • Cynthia Stockley
... "Well, mum's the word about the money," warned Ted. "We don't want this thing to leak out. If it does, there's a chance ...
— Ted Strong's Motor Car • Edward C. Taylor
... to pull a house down about your own ears! What have you or I to do with these Scotch adventurers, when a gallant enemy invites us to come out and meet him! But, mum—here is Bunting." ...
— The Two Admirals • J. Fenimore Cooper
... chlorpicrin and mustard, various other compounds have been and many others might be made. A list of those employed in the present war enumerates thirty, among them compounds of bromine, arsenic and cyanogen that may prove more formidable than any so far used. American chemists kept very mum during the war but occasionally one could not refrain from saying: "If the Kaiser knew what I know he would surrender unconditionally by telegraph." No doubt the science of chemical warfare is in its infancy and every foresighted power has ...
— Creative Chemistry - Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries • Edwin E. Slosson
... 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 ...
— A Duet • A. Conan Doyle
... believe me, Mrs. Jennifer, mum," Mrs. Dibble had said, "fear that child does not know—so Mr. Thomas hisself says; an' set an' smile he did, an' talked to his lordship as if they'd been friends ever since his first hour. An' the Earl so took aback, Mr. Thomas says, that he couldn't ...
— Little Lord Fauntleroy • Frances Hodgson Burnett |
