"Sharp" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... where his daughters were concerned, M. Joyeuse replied that "the young ladies always retired early," in a short, sharp tone which said as plainly as could be: "Let us confine our conversation to our lessons, ...
— The Nabob, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alphonse Daudet
... flaxseed or other poultice will lead to the formation of "matter," with which the splinter or needle will often escape after a few days. Splinters finding their way under the nail may be removed by scraping the nail very thin over the splinter and splitting it with a sharp knife down to the point where the end of the splinter can ...
— The Home Medical Library, Volume I (of VI) • Various
... even getting uncomfortably warm. The natives of the South Pacific produce fire by rubbing pieces of dry wood together, but I never heard of their rapping sticks for the same purpose. I have seen a new, sharp knife made hot enough to raise a blister, whittling a clean dry stick of pine, and I would like to have "Spectrum" tell us, if in all the above cases percussion is the cause of the evolution of of heat, and what is friction ...
— Scientific American, Vol.22, No. 1, January 1, 1870 • Various
... on the last spur of a range of hills, and there was an abrupt descent between it and the next rounded hill-top. Covered with trees, the sharp little valley was full of shadow and mystery; and then beyond the great billowy tree-tops rose and fell for miles, until the brilliant early green of the larches and the dark hues of the many leafless branches, already ruddy with buds, became blue and at length purple ...
— Great Possessions • Mrs. Wilfrid Ward
... proceeding to amputate the hand, the doctor, after having washed it in warm water, informed him that he would save his thumb and little finger, if he would stand steady while he took off the three middle fingers. "Very well, sir, if you please, but be sharp," was his reply.—I held his arm, and Mr. Clare, who was a skilful surgeon, in a very few minutes took out the three middle fingers nearly up to the wrist, and having bound up the wound and pressed the thumb and little finger ...
— Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Volume 1 • Henry Hunt
... square space, with the church in the midst of it, was filled all day long with the dull and droning sound of many waterfalls, while from dawn to dusk this drone of waters was constantly cut through by a sound that was like the sharp screaming and moaning of women. This was caused by hundreds of saws at work beside the waterfalls, taking advantage of that force. "Afterwards, when I read about the guillotine, I always thought of those saws," said the poet, whose earliest flight of fancy seems to have been this association ...
— Henrik Ibsen • Edmund Gosse
... Irishman, and a great deal too sharp for them; as you shall hear. Morgan was taken, then, and drafted into the giant guard, and was the biggest man almost among all the giants there. Many of these monsters used to complain of their life, and their caning, and their long ...
— Barry Lyndon • William Makepeace Thackeray
... exalted estimate that same incorrigible Sidney must have placed upon the public taste of this republican land of ours? In one of his lectures on 'the beauty of form,' I remember he says: 'A chin ending in a very sharp angle would be a perfect deformity. A man whose chin terminated in a point would be under the immediate necessity of retiring to America—he would be such a perfect horror!' Decidedly flattering to our national type of beauty." As Eugene spoke, his lips wore ...
— Beulah • Augusta J. Evans
... 3:55 when we hear fast footsteps on the stone stairs leading down to the dugout entrance. There is a sharp rap on the door followed by the Colonel's command, ...
— "And they thought we wouldn't fight" • Floyd Gibbons
... in a perfect fountain from the sharp bow of the Flying Fish, and her every frame and plank quivered under the vibration of ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol • Howard Payson
... upon him by the home resembles to some extent that which operates upon his fellows. There is a pressure upon both sides of him in the house; and when he plunges into business, there is a far greater pressure there, in the shape of sharp competition, which brings him into constant collision with other men, and mayhap drives him or compels him to drive his weaker rival to ...
— Elbow-Room - A Novel Without a Plot • Charles Heber Clark (AKA Max Adeler)
... Park policemen, C.C., up toward the Ninetieth street entrance. One day in particular I got him a-going, and it proved deeply interesting to me. Our talk floated into sociology and politics. I was curious to find how these things appear'd on their surfaces to my friend, for he plainly possess'd sharp wits and good nature, and had been seeing, for years, broad streaks of humanity somewhat out of my latitude. I found that as he took such appearances the inward caste-spirit of European "aristocracy" pervaded rich America, with ...
— Complete Prose Works - Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy • Walt Whitman
... reproduction of something that's called a Sharp's Model '37 .235 Ultraspeed-Express. Made on an adjoining paratime belt by a company that went out of business sixty-seven years ago, elapsed time, on your line of operation. What made the difference was the Second War Between The States. I don't know what that was, either—I'm not ...
— Police Operation • H. Beam Piper
... clouds of smoke from his long clay pipe, and nothing broke the silence save the parrot (in a large gilded cage on a marble pedestal in the third window-niche), uttering from time to time a loud scream, or exclaiming in a sharp voice, "Good-morning!" The ticking of the bronze clock on the mantel-piece at the other end of the room could be distinctly heard. Suddenly the old gentleman struck the window-board so violently with his right hand that the panes rattled, the lady gave a start, and the parrot screeched. "Well, ...
— NAPOLEON AND BLUCHER • L. Muhlbach
... leaves may sometimes be seen from both surfaces, from which project long, sharp-pointed tubular spurs at irregular intervals. A very singular illustration of this is figured by Trattinick,[351], in which the leaves, epicalyx, sepals, and petals, were all provided ...
— Vegetable Teratology - An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants • Maxwell T. Masters
... fast enough to please him, he urges them along by prodding them. The end of the goad is shod with a sharp spike of steel, three inches or more long. Often we see these oxen dripping with blood, and seamed and ...
— A Little Journey to Puerto Rico - For Intermediate and Upper Grades • Marian M. George
... country favoured landscape painting too. No doubt the moist atmosphere and its silvery sheen, which add such freshness and brilliance to the colouring, influenced the development of the colour sense, as much as the absence of sharp contrasts in contour, the suggestive skies, and abundance of streams, woods, meadows, ...
— The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and - Modern Times • Alfred Biese
... went, over the rocky roads, now through a sharp cut between the mountains, and then again around a curve overlooking some tiny ...
— Young Auctioneers - The Polishing of a Rolling Stone • Edward Stratemeyer
... hat from his mat of coarse iron-gray hair, and laid it carefully on the floor. Out of his small sharp eyes ignorance and cunning peered, and the mass of beard that hid the greater part of his face could not hide the ...
— Kilo - Being the Love Story of Eliph' Hewlitt Book Agent • Ellis Parker Butler
... on the battlefield of Wagram in "L'Aiglon"—an episode whose sharp pathos pierces the heart and the imagination like the point of a rapier—bears a striking resemblance to a picturesque passage in Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables." It is the one intense great moment ...
— Ponkapog Papers • Thomas Bailey Aldrich
... fights—I also have heard the voice of fire-arms; I also have felt the rain of young twigs and of leaves cut up by bullets fall down about my head; I also know how to look in silence at angry faces and at strong hands raised high grasping sharp steel. I also saw men fall dead around me without a cry of fear and of mourning; and I have watched the sleep of weary fugitives, and looked at night shadows full of menace and death with eyes that knew nothing but watchfulness. ...
— An Outcast of the Islands • Joseph Conrad
... wished to do in these last two days. He had heard that the managers had entered into negotiations with a new engineer, and he wished the man to find no half-done work. The day was bright and frosty, and the sharp, bracing air seemed to clear his brain. He felt more hopeful, and less inclined to ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 • Various
... discovered that Polyphemus, and Arges, and Brontes, and Steropes, and all the other one-eyed monsters were nothing but sea-wrack, bowlders, and weeds. He sailed farther, past Scylla and Charybdis, and discovered no greater dangers than sharp rocks and whirlpools. Yet farther he sailed out into the unknown sea, and the only Siren's song he heard was the whistling of the wind through the ...
— Religion and Lust - or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire • James Weir
... they carry lances, Lances so sharp and strong; With points as sharp as needles, With hooks so ...
— Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic - Nations • Therese Albertine Louise von Jacob Robinson
... the banks of the river on both sides, and formed either precipitous walls, or flats so exceedingly rocky, that it was out of the question to follow it. We, therefore, ascended the hills and mountains, and with our foot-sore cattle passed over beds of sharp shingles of porphyry. We crept like snails over these rocky hills, and through their gullies filled with boulders and shingles, until I found it necessary to halt, and allow my poor beasts to recover. During the afternoon, I examined the country in advance, and found that the mountains extended ...
— Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia • Ludwig Leichhardt
... to rest for a few hours; the women who attended on the dying Francesca had fallen asleep. She was lying motionless on her couch of pain. Her sufferings had been sharp; they were sharper than ever that night. She endured them in the strength of the Cross, from which neither her eyes nor her thoughts wandered. The whole house, and apparently the city also, was wrapt in slumber; for ...
— The Life of St. Frances of Rome, and Others • Georgiana Fullerton
... have the writs down hot and heavy. We must be sharp. The sheriff's all right; that's a point. You must not lose an hour in getting your committee together, and ...
— Wylder's Hand • J. Sheridan Le Fanu
... A nervous twitching keeps him constantly moving, and he has the leprosy:—this is well known. He walked straight to Dumouriez, who said disdainfully, "Ah! are you the man they call Marat?" Marat immediately demanded from him an account of military measures he had taken. They had some sharp conversation which I did not hear, and Marat finally went away uttering the most insulting threats, and leaving every one in a state of mortal terror. The next day the newsboys were shouting "the discovery of a great plot by Marat, the Friend ...
— The Maid of Maiden Lane • Amelia E. Barr
... wintry afternoon, when the writer stopt in the front of the playground of a suburban school. The ground swarmed with boys full of the Saturday's holiday. The earth seemed roofed with the oldest lead, and the wind came, sharp as Shylock's knife, from the Minories. But those happy boys ran and jumped, and hopped, and shouted, and—unconscious men in miniature!—in their own world of frolic, had no thought of the full-length men they would some day become; drawn out into grave citizenship; formal, ...
— Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures • Douglas Jerrold
... in misery from a bridge To heaven... which stands like old gray stone Upon far-off houses. And, like a rope Made of tar, a dead river lies on the snow. Three trees, black frozen flames, make threats At the end of the earth. They pierce With sharp knives the rough air, In which a scrap of bird hangs all alone. A few street lights wade towards the city, Extinguished candles for a corpse. And a smear Of people shrinks together and is soon Drowned in the ...
— The Verse of Alfred Lichtenstein • Alfred Lichtenstein
... ranks closer and closer. Men are crushed to death, probably without a wound, just by this hellish impact. The shouts and yells emitted are deafening. There is an unearthly clashing of steel weapons on bronze armor. Every now and then a shrill, sharp cry tells where a soldier has been stabbed, and has gone down in the press, probably trampled to death instantly. In this way the two writhing, thrusting phalanxes continue to push on one another at sheer deadlock, until a cool observer might well wonder whether ...
— A Day In Old Athens • William Stearns Davis
... out of an egg-shell. To do this you require the following materials: one egg, as round as possible, half a tea-spoonful of shot, a piece of bees-wax about as big as a small hickory-nut, some black paint or varnish, some vinegar, a little stick of pine, a cork, and a sharp knife. Now with regard to the knife, let me recommend you to buy one such as is represented in Fig. 1. It is one of a kind that shoe-makers use, and can be bought at most hardware stores for ten or twelve cents. It is a very useful knife for all kinds ...
— Harper's Young People, August 17, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... of scalping, which, to the shame of both nations, was encouraged both by French and English, the savages performed in this manner—The hapless victim being disabled, or disarmed, the Indian, with a sharp knife, provided and worn for the purpose, makes a circular incision to the bone round the upper part of the head, and tears off the scalp with his fingers. Previous to this execution, he generally despatches the prisoner by repeated blows on the head, with the hammer-side ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett
... their little room, and she was holding her gloves whilst Lucy tied her bonnet, and she was talking over the things that were to be bought, when their brother's voice came up the stairs as loud and sharp as if a stage-coach was coming, which would not wait one moment for those ...
— The Fairchild Family • Mary Martha Sherwood
... yo'se'f, eh? Now, let me tole you' suffin'. Jest yo' look sharp after him. A 'possum am a mighty skeery critter, shore's ...
— The American Missionary — Volume 39, No. 08, August, 1885 • Various
... salon, over which, on the inner side, hung a thick plush 'portiere'. But as she was about to lift it, the sound of a voice within made her stand motionless. She recognized the tones of Marien. He was pleading, imploring, interrupted now and then by the sharp and still angry voice of her mamma. They were not speaking above their breath, but if she listened she could hear them, and, without any scruples of conscience, she did listen intently, anxious to see her way through the dark fog in which, for twelve days, ...
— Jacqueline, Complete • (Mme. Blanc) Th. Bentzon
... quickly enough, but I was as sharp as she, and trod on the tail of her dress so that she could not shut the door after her. So we went out together, and I left her ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
... Valley. As we bumped over the ground in our first sudden dash, and then birdlike rose quickly into the air, my sensations were not the hair-raising variety so often described by the thrilled amateur. When we "banked" however, on a sharp turn, I had my first real sensation—I quickly braced myself lest I fall overboard. At thirty-five hundred feet the fields looked like green-and-brown patches, the forests like low bushes, and the railroads, highways, and rivers like tracer lines across the ...
— The Fight for the Argonne - Personal Experiences of a 'Y' Man • William Benjamin West
... which these exceedingly light implements attained, with apparent ease to the pair of oxen; this was not less than eight inches, and the furrows were regular, but not turned completely over. The ploughshare is not adapted for cutting the roots of weeds by means of a flat surface and a sharp edge, but the rounded top of the native iron passes beneath the soil and breaks it up like the wave produced by the ram-bow of a vessel. The plough, when complete, does not exceed forty pounds in weight, and it is conveniently carried, together with the ...
— Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879 • Sir Samuel W. Baker
... Indians had evidently been in a fight, for two or three of them had been wounded, and they were conveying the injured persons on travois.[65] The Pawnees had “jumped” them and killed three or four after a sharp fight, in which ...
— The Great Salt Lake Trail • Colonel Henry Inman
... dabbling, meddling; interference, interposition, intermeddling; tampering with, intrigue. press of business, no sinecure, plenty to do, many irons in the fire, great doings, busy hum of men, battle of life, thick of the action. housewife, busy bee; new brooms; sharp fellow, sharp blade; devotee, enthusiast, zealot, meddler, intermeddler, intriguer, busybody, pickthank^; hummer, hustler, live man [U.S.], rustler [U.S.]. V. be active &c adj.; busy oneself in; stir, stir about, stir one's stumps; bestir ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... station on our route, a nine hours' drive. Our way lay through the snow-covered hills and their leafless forest, and long after we had left Orvieto behind again and again a rise in the road would bring it full in sight on its base of tufa, girt by its walls, the Gothic lines of the cathedral sharp against the clear, brightening sky. At our last look the sun was not up, but broad shafts of light, such as painters throw before the chariot of Phoebus, refracted against the pure aether, spread like a halo round the threefold pinnacles: a moment more and Orvieto was hidden behind a higher ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 86, February, 1875 • Various
... the opposite side. Marcellinus, the tyrant's brother, advanced to support them with the select cohorts, which were considered as the hope and strength of the army. The action, which had been interrupted by the approach of night, was renewed in the morning; and, after a sharp conflict, the surviving remnant of the bravest soldiers of Maximus threw down their arms at the feet of the conqueror. Without suspending his march, to receive the loyal acclamations of the citizens of Aemona, Theodosius pressed ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 3 • Edward Gibbon
... his sister's hand, he drifted into all the particulars of the little ways, the baby language, the dawning understanding, and the very sudden sharp illness carrying the beautiful boy away almost before they were aware of danger; and he took out the photograph from his breast, and showed her the little face, so recalling old fond remembrances. "Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead," he repeated. ...
— Modern Broods • Charlotte Mary Yonge
... breast from which it has drawn the means of subsistence, and, for a short time, uneasiness and fretfulness may be the result; but when the days of weaning are accomplished, the long-valued provision is regarded with total indifference. Strong is the conflict and sharp the encounter between a sense of duty and an inclination to sin, when the world presents those fascinating pleasures which are so adapted to the appetites of nature; but having obtained the victory—having, ...
— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I • Francis Augustus Cox
... are small, carefully finished, and painted with care in red and black lines and figures. They are semihuman and appear to be arrayed in costume. The head of each is triangular in shape, having a sharp, projecting profile, with the mouth set back beneath the chin, reminding one of the face of a squirrel or some such rodent. The figures occupy a sitting posture. The legs are spread out horizontally, giving ...
— Ancient art of the province of Chiriqui, Colombia • William Henry Holmes
... back and scanned the faces of his interviewers, faces that would have been oddly humanoid were it not for the elongated snouts and pointed, sharp-toothed jaws. The average Tepoktan was slightly under Kinton's height of five-feet-ten, with a long, supple trunk. Under the robes their scholars affected, the shortness of their two bowed legs was not ...
— Exile • Horace Brown Fyfe
... of the blasted door hung, like a tattered pennon, on one twisted hinge, and his way now lay clear to the ladder of grilled ironwork leading to the floor above. But here the steel trapdoor again barred his progress. One sharp twist and wrench with his steel lever, however, tore the bolt-head from its setting, and in another half-minute he was standing on the closed door above, shutting out the noxious smoke ...
— Phantom Wires - A Novel • Arthur Stringer
... dishonour; and answers her prayer (after twelve years' silence!) for a word of loving-kindness by elaborate denunciations of their former love, and reiterated jubilations that he, at least, has long been purged thereof; not unmixed with sharp admonishment that she had better not try to infect his soul afresh, but set about, if needful, cleansing her own. Now it so happens that what he would cure her of is incurable, being, in fact, eternal, divine—simple human love. So, to his pious and cynical admonitions she answers with strange ...
— Renaissance Fancies and Studies - Being a Sequel to Euphorion • Violet Paget (AKA Vernon Lee)
... half-lethargy. There was something inexpressibly sweet and pleasant in his present calmness; his mind seemed to have been mysteriously soothed and satisfied; the turbulent waves, that dashed him hither and thither against the sharp rocks of doubt and fear, had subsided. His features, especially when he slept, wore an expression of the most ...
— Fairy Fingers - A Novel • Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
... Walter Gay with sharp disfavour, as he left the room under the pilotage of Mrs Chick; and it may be that his mind's eye followed him with no greater relish, as he rode back to his Uncle's with ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens
... of the engine echoed loud in the canyon as the hoist brought up the first cars, and then the rumble of the trams as they were pushed down the track and the clatter of the ore down the grizzly. A sharp blap, blap, from the compressor showed that the machine-men had set up their drills; and beneath all the rest there was the hushed rumble of the mill and the thunderous rhump, rhump, of the rock-breaker. It was a ponderous affair ...
— Shadow Mountain • Dane Coolidge
... up to see if they were all still reading or asleep; he almost thought he would ask Lisa to take him on her knee a little, when, all of a sudden, the "railway," as he called it, screamed out something very sharp and loud, the rattle and the noise got "bummier" and yet sharper; Baby could see no trees, no fields, "no nothing." What could it be? It was ...
— The Adventures of Herr Baby • Mrs. Molesworth
... collect supplies. Before noon we passed through Panipat, where there was a strong force of Patiala and Jhind troops, and early in the afternoon we reached Alipur. Here our driver pulled up, declaring he would go no further. A few days before there had been a sharp fight on the road between Alipur and Delhi, not far from Badli-ki-Serai, where the battle of the 8th June had taken place, and as the enemy were constantly on the road threatening the rear of the ...
— Forty-one years in India - From Subaltern To Commander-In-Chief • Frederick Sleigh Roberts
... me, as he spoke; but on the instant I saw a sharp spasm contract his features; he clapped his hand to his heart; a look of surprise and then of ...
— Caesar's Column • Ignatius Donnelly
... and searching, I finally discovered a narrow crevice, into which I shoved the shell. The edge of it was sharp, and across the sharp edge I proceeded to saw the rope that bound my wrists. The edge of the shell was also brittle, and I broke it by bearing too heavily upon it. Then I rolled back to the heap and returned with as many shells as I could carry in ...
— Tales of the Fish Patrol • Jack London
... refin'd and gay, Now learn the Songs of the last Summer's Play: While the young Daughter does in private mourn Her Love's in Town, and hopes not to return. These Country-Grievances too great appear; But, cruel Ladies, we have greater here; You come not sharp, as you were wont, to Plays; But only on the first and second Days: This made our Poet in his Visits look What new strange Courses for your Time you took; And to his great regret he found too soon, Basset and Ombre spent the Afternoon: So ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume IV. • Aphra Behn
... its capital, is level with the dust, And the proud halls of the mighty and the calm homes of the just; For the proudest works of man, as certainly, but slower, Pass like the grass at the sharp scythe ...
— Poems • Denis Florence MacCarthy
... indeed seem destined to suffer on such occasions," I answered, a sharp pang darting through my heart. I read suspicion in his altered countenance. The flower leaves were beginning to wither. "If Miss Melville is willing, I ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz
... plenty of food, yet he never grew bigger, but remained just the same size as when he was born; still, his eyes were sharp and sparkling and he soon showed himself to be a clever little fellow, who always knew well what he was about. One day, as the woodman was getting ready to go into the wood to cut fuel, he said, "I wish I had some one to bring the cart after me, for I want to make haste." "Oh, father!" ...
— My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales • Edric Vredenburg
... to carry out my instructions, Robbins, whose sharp eyes had seen the freak in the kettle, said to Ovide in an undertone, "Thou hast not forgotten, lad, to take the frost out ...
— A Lover in Homespun - And Other Stories • F. Clifford Smith
... very long pause. A goldfish rose to the surface of the little pond, with a sharp, rippling sound. The fog drifted overhead. ...
— The Octopus • Frank Norris
... the large knives: they are very sharp, and you might cut your finger to the bone. You are a little girl, and ought to have a little knife. When you are as tall as I am, you shall have a knife as large as mine; and when you are as strong as I am, and have learned to manage it, ...
— Posthumous Works - of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • Mary Wollstonecraft
... sharp frost; the first we had had. It made nearly half an inch of ice in all kettles. Why is ice always thickest on the kettles? No doubt because they hold a small body of very still water ...
— The Arctic Prairies • Ernest Thompson Seton
... something into his jacket pocket, and plucked something out. I went round by the garden, and laid wait for the messenger; who fought valorously to defend his trust, and we spilt the milk between us; but I succeeded in abstracting the epistle; and, threatening serious consequences if he did not look sharp home, I remained under the wall and perused Miss Cathy's affectionate composition. It was more simple and more eloquent than her cousin's: very pretty and very silly. I shook my head, and went meditating into the house. The day being ...
— Wuthering Heights • Emily Bronte
... suddenly stopped his scoldings and looked sideways on my mother, who, standing up at the entry to the staircase, pushed her knitting needles with sharp little strokes. ...
— The Queen Pedauque • Anatole France
... October, sharp! Not a day earlier or later! I was up to the house yes'day afternoon, just afore you come; and sure enough the judge, he had just got a letter from the young madam,—my lady, I mean,—in which she promised not to disappoint him, but to be at Tanglewood punctually on ...
— Self-Raised • Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth
... dropped neatly over the wide horns, and a moment later the second settled upon the first. The first man turned and headed towards camp with the steer at his heels, ready at the slightest opportunity to make use of those long, sharp-pointed horns which nature had given him for just such need as this. The steer quite forgot the man behind, until he made a vicious lunge and was checked by the rope that had hung slack and unnoticed ...
— The Gringos • B. M. Bower
... bashfulness, which often unfitted him for any work of a novel description; and now he felt this so strongly that he feared he should acquit himself badly in St Ewold's reading-desk. He knew, he said, that those sharp little eyes of Miss Thorne would be on to him, and that they would not approve. All this the archdeacon greatly ridiculed. He himself knew not, and had never known, what it was to be shy. He could not conceive that Miss Thorne, surrounded ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope
... to arrive immediately. John Sharp Williams came first, then Boutell, from Illinois, Littlefield, of Maine, and after them a perfect procession, including all the leading lights—Dalzell, Champ Clark, McCall—one hundred and eighty or so in all during the next three or ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine
... weighing eighteen or twenty pounds, killed and cooked, after the fashion of Tahiti, in honour of his father. A large fire was kindled in a shallow pit, in which were a number of stones. A quantity of bread-fruit (majore), that had been first peeled and split into two portions with a very sharp wooden axe, was then brought. When the fire had gone out, and the stones heated to the requisite degree, the pig and the fruit were laid upon them, a few other heated stones placed on the top, ...
— A Woman's Journey Round the World • Ida Pfeiffer
... and exasperation at his captive plight brought a strange medley of pious thank-offerings and sharp curses to Ulrich's lips. Georg, who was early blinded with the blood which trickled across his eyes, stopped his struggling for a moment to listen, and then gave ...
— The Toys of Peace • Saki
... disgusted guards, envious of their fellows at the front, and cursing hard their luck in counting off as number four. Schreiber had just come sliding, stumbling, down from Winsor's perch to say they could hear faint sound of sharp volleying far out to the eastward, where the warriors, evidently, were trying to "stand off" Webb's skirmish line until the travois with the wounded and the escort of the possible prisoners should succeed in getting back out of harm's way and taking surer and higher ...
— A Daughter of the Sioux - A Tale of the Indian frontier • Charles King
... falling In with three French ships of war, captain Barnet, the English commodore, supposing them to be Spanish register ships, fired a shot in order to bring them to; and they refusing to comply with this signal, a sharp engagement ensued; after they had fought several hours, the French commander ceased firing, and thought proper to come to an explanation, when he and Barnet parted with ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett
... Saranac, a great boulder that lifts its head some ten or fifteen feet above the surface, away out near the middle of the lake, around which the water is of unknown depth. This rock, which is always dark and bare, is, as you will remember, of conical shape, sharp pointed at the top, and stands up about the size of a small hay-stack, in the midst of the waters. Do you remember the account that somebody gives in a ragged but terse kind of verse, of the 'gentleman in black,' who, ...
— Wild Northern Scenes - Sporting Adventures with the Rifle and the Rod • S. H. Hammond
... lives of Ney and of the brave men whom the Bourbons afterwards butchered. Outwitted by Fouche, and unwilling to face the hostility of the Chambers, Davoust at last consented to the capitulation of Paris, though he first gave the Prussian cavalry a sharp lesson. While many of his comrades were engaged in the great struggle for favour or safety, the stern Marshal gave up his Ministry, and, doing the last service in his power to France, stopped all further useless bloodshed by withdrawing the army, ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
... position behind the tree he had selected for his own cover when a second sharp crack of a rifle broke the stillness of the night, and there was a flash of fire hardly fifty ...
— The Boy Allies On the Firing Line - Or, Twelve Days Battle Along the Marne • Clair W. Hayes
... was characteristically a mob made up of diverse elements. It was not swayed by a set purpose and a common motive. It was not welded by coherence of intent. Its eddies rushed here or filtered there, according as arguments or protests gained attention by sharp clamor above the continuous diapason of voices. One who was versed in the natures and the moods of mobs would have found that mass particularly menacing by reason of the lack of unanimity. Too many men of the component elements did not know what it was all about! The arguments pro and con were ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day
... aside trivialities. Looking at him more closely, Hank could see he was older than first estimate. Possibly twenty-two or so. Darker than most of the others, heavy-set, sharp and impatient. ...
— Combat • Dallas McCord Reynolds
... several campaigns, but the last was infinitely the hardest, and I have not the least desire to repeat it. Whether all the tribes choose to send in and accept our terms, or not, makes no very great difference; they have had such a sharp lesson that it will certainly be some time before they rise again in revolt. There may be an occasional cattle-lifting raid across the frontier, but one can put up with that; and it would be infinitely cheaper ...
— Through Three Campaigns - A Story of Chitral, Tirah and Ashanti • G. A. Henty
... off the veil from the picture with a hasty movement, but, instead of gazing at it calmly, as he is wont, and snapping out his sharp criticisms, he staggered backward, as though the noonday sun had dazzled his sight. Then, bending forward, he stared at the painting, panting as he might after racing for a wager. He stood in perfect silence, for I know ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... I have found a very remarkable palm-tree, with light-green fronds ten feet long, having small leaves a quarter of an inch in breadth, and about eight inches in length, and a quarter of an inch apart, growing from each side, and coming to a sharp point. They spread out like the top of the grass-tree, and the fruit has a large kernel about the size of an egg, with a hard shell; the inside has the taste of a cocoa-nut, but when roasted is like a potato. Here we have also the india-rubber tree, the cork-tree, and several new plants. ...
— Explorations in Australia, The Journals of John McDouall Stuart • John McDouall Stuart
... air, and have short legs, broad bodies, stubbed tails, and resemble the mole in their corporal shape. It is worthy of remark, that the beaver has but four teeth, two above, and two below, which being broad and sharp, cut like a carpenter's axe, and as such he uses them. They make excavations and dry hiding places in the banks near their dwellings, and when they hear the stroke of the hunter, who with sharp poles endeavours to penetrate them, they fly as soon as possible to the defence of their castle, having ...
— The Itinerary of Archibishop Baldwin through Wales • Giraldus Cambrensis
... had left a pool in a quarry. The day passed very quietly, shells only falling on an average of one every half-hour. Unhappily a shrapnel scattered over the station, wounded three or four natives, and killed an excellent railway guard—a sharp fragment tearing through his liver and intestines. There was high debate whether the shell was thrown by "Silent Susan," or what other gun. Some even stuck out for "Long Tom" himself. But to the guard it makes no difference, and he ...
— Ladysmith - The Diary of a Siege • H. W. Nevinson
... barked. High and hidden in the haar Which blew in from the sea a heron cried Honk! and he heard his wings, but not espied The heavy flight. Slow, slow the orb was filled With light, and with the light his heart was thrilled With opening music, faint, expectant, sharp As the first chords one picks out from the harp To prelude paean. Venturing all, he lift His eyes, and there encurtained in a drift Of sea-blue mantle close-drawn, he espies Helen above him watching, her grave eyes ...
— Helen Redeemed and Other Poems • Maurice Hewlett
... grave error in hastily supporting the bill, an error which I believe he greatly regretted and which, in connection with his failing health, no doubt led him to resign his position as chairman of that committee. Although our debate was rather sharp, it did not disturb our friendly relations. With McCulloch in the treasury ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman
... her back had a map of the district and blank telegrams, one of which he filled in every now and then, and scribbled a hasty letter to the same address. He was a sharp-faced middle-aged man of business; Joseph Ashmead, operatic and theatrical agent—at his wits' end; a female singer at the Homburg Opera had fallen really ill; he was commissioned to replace her, ...
— The Woman-Hater • Charles Reade
... wasplike mother whose nose was so sharp and red that it made me think of Paul's ferret—she bustled and buzzed about, ...
— Tramping on Life - An Autobiographical Narrative • Harry Kemp
... off easily, her tones jaunty and staccato and her desire to please quivering through them. He stood beside her, the angle of his body so that the sharp bone of his hip pressed ...
— Star-Dust • Fannie Hurst
... preparations, meticulous, intricate, revolutionary, belied their smiles. The intense resolve to keep Mrs. Baines, by methods scrupulous or unscrupulous, away from Bursley until all was over, belied their smiles. And then the first pains, sharp, shocking, cruel, heralds of torture! But when they had withdrawn, she smiled, again, palely. Then she was in bed, full of the sensation that the whole house was inverted and disorganized, hopelessly. And the doctor came into the room. She smiled at the doctor ...
— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett
... idea how sharp the wind is. I am chilled to the very marrow of my bones," answered Aunt Myra, chafing the end of her purple nose with ...
— Eight Cousins • Louisa M. Alcott
... the water, and on we went, turning a sharp angle and going north a little. Presently we saw before us a bank of elm- trees, which told us of a house amidst them, though I looked in vain for the grey walls that I expected to see there. As we went, the folk on the bank talked indeed, mingling their kind voices with the cuckoo's song, ...
— News from Nowhere - or An Epoch of Rest, being some chapters from A Utopian Romance • William Morris
... rule of art as well as of life, wrote William Blake, is that the more distinct, sharp and defined the boundary line, the more perfect is the work of art; and the less keen and sharp the greater is the evidence of weak imitation, plagiarism and bungling. 'Great inventors in all ages knew this—Michael Angelo ...
— Miscellanies • Oscar Wilde
... much dejected. He pursed his lips, and fell to counting upon his fingers: as they moved his sharp ...
— Jurgen - A Comedy of Justice • James Branch Cabell
... interest in my sister Georgian. I have little or none in my sister Anitra. Georgian's intelligence, good-will, and command of money would be of inestimable benefit to me. Anitra, on the contrary, could be nothing but a burden, unless—" here he cast a very sharp glance at Ransom—"unless Georgian should have been sufficiently considerate to leave her a good share of her fortune in the will you say she made just before her ...
— The Chief Legatee • Anna Katharine Green
... satisfactory, as it proved. You should have heard the change that came in that sweetly plaintive voice when it addressed the luckless housemaid. It was not brutal; not at all. But so sharp, hard, unrelenting—the voice of the goddess Poverty herself perhaps ...
— New Grub Street • George Gissing
... once heard; and he asked the true waiting-maid what she thought ought to be done to anyone who would behave thus. 'Nothing better,' said this false bride, 'than that she should be thrown into a cask stuck round with sharp nails, and that two white horses should be put to it, and should drag it from street to street till she was dead.' 'Thou art she!' said the old king; 'and as thou has judged thyself, so shall it be done to thee.' And the young king was then ...
— Grimms' Fairy Tales • The Brothers Grimm
... sat Keraunus, his legs far apart, his face glowing, panting and choking with sheer delight, and too haughty to draw in his feet even when the brother of the archidikastes tried to squeeze by his bulky person which filled two seats at once. Arsinoe, whose sharp ears had not failed to catch the dealer's remonstrances, and the words in which brave Pollux had taken her part, had, at first, felt dying of shame and terror, but now she felt as though she could fly on the ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... made a couple of prize fools of yourselves, and if I did what I ought to, I'd cut Henry off sharp this minute. But—guess I better make a fool of myself, so you'll feel more at home." He coughed explosively. "Besides, you're awful young, both of you—and damn it, if you don't cash in on it now, next thing you know you'll be wonderin' ...
— Rope • Holworthy Hall
... type. It was when a thoughtful exegesis on "The War and Indian Home Rule," extending over two columns, had been held up for three days without acknowledgement, apology or explanation, that Lord Crawleigh decided to teach his countrymen a sharp lesson by withdrawing to the south of ...
— The Education of Eric Lane • Stephen McKenna
... brought a combination poker and stove-lifter from the kitchen, and, inserting the sharp end in the crack near the lock, gave the improvised "jimmy" a vigorous wrench. The light wood-work ...
— Mlle. Fouchette - A Novel of French Life • Charles Theodore Murray
... in all likelihood, be shrivelled, desiccated, and callous places. They found one on the old man, under his right shoulder. Herrick made oath that it was a veritable witch teat, and his deposition describes it as follows: "About a quarter of an inch long or better, with a sharp point drooping downwards, so that I took a pin, and run it through the said teat; but there was neither water, blood, or corruption, nor any other matter." As proof positive that this was "the Devil's ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham
... preliminary trembling of the earth or the air. There was an unheralded clap of sound—a sharp detonation that almost ...
— On a Torn-Away World • Roy Rockwood
... and they had to run very fast to keep it in sight; but at last they caught it, and after a sharp struggle—in which poor little Red-Cap nearly lost ...
— The Story of the Three Goblins • Mabel G. Taggart
... quite attached to the old man; but Mary was always afraid of him, and Lizzie kept her sharp eyes on him whenever he came into the house. She hated ...
— New National Fourth Reader • Charles J. Barnes and J. Marshall Hawkes
... year of novitiate. Thus, while the other lads treated Gervaise kindly, and indeed made rather a pet of him, Robert Rivers ignored him as much as possible, and if obliged to speak to him did so with a pointed rudeness that more than once brought upon him a sharp reproof from his companions. Gervaise himself was but little affected by Robert's manner. He was of an exceptionally good tempered nature, and, indeed, was so occupied with his work and so anxious to satisfy his teachers, that Robert's ill ...
— A Knight of the White Cross • G.A. Henty
... proper objects. Is it true that the objects are sufficient to satisfy the desires? Does any one of the things for which we toil feed us full when we have it? Do we not always want just a little more? And is not that want accompanied with a real and sharp sense of hunger? Is it not true the appetite GROWS with what it feeds on? And even if a man schools himself to something like content, it comes not because the desire is satisfied, but because it ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII • Alexander Maclaren
... consulted by the general in French, and he said the Hotel de l'Europe was very good. The entire party of both ships were invited to go on shore, and remain at the hotel. All of them accepted, including Captain Sharp and his wife. Those on board the Guardian-Mother went below to prepare for the shore, and the Blanchita returned to the Blanche for the same purpose. The gentlemen were on deck again in ...
— Four Young Explorers - Sight-Seeing in the Tropics • Oliver Optic
... perpendicular, was the hardest work of my journey. Often while clinging to the jutting rocks with hands and feet, to reach a shelving projection, my grasp would unclose and I would slide many feet down the sharp declivity. It was night when, sore from the bruises I had received, I reached my fire; the storm, still raging, had nearly extinguished it. I found a few embers in the ashes, and with much difficulty kindled a flame. Here on this bleak mountain side, as well as I now remember, I must have passed ...
— Thirty-Seven Days of Peril - from Scribner's Monthly Vol III Nov. 1871 • Truman Everts
... the worst financial scandals of the preceding generation. Lady Lucy made no answer, but any one closely observing her might have noticed a sudden and sharp stiffening of the lips, which was in truth ...
— The Testing of Diana Mallory • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... which the sculptor had not ventured to attack, for fear of splintering away part of the surrounding surface. In order to remove these irregularities, another tool was employed; namely, a stone cut in the form of an axe. Applying the sharp edge of this instrument to the projecting nodule, the artist struck it with a round stone in place of a mallet. A succession of carefully calculated blows with these rude tools pulverised the obtrusive knob, which ...
— Manual Of Egyptian Archaeology And Guide To The Study Of Antiquities In Egypt • Gaston Camille Charles Maspero
... hands closed, except the thumb and little finger, which are extended, and point straight toward the front, hands horizontal, backs upward, are held in front of their respective sides near the body, and then moved directly forward with, short, sharp jerking motions. (Dakota I.) "From the motion of the bear in running." This is also reported as an Arapaho sign. (Dakota IV.) The ...
— Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes • Garrick Mallery
... fighting the government reserve policy with all his might, resented fiercely the attitude of Sanderson. A sharp, bitter quarrel had resulted, and had left a smoldering bad feeling that flamed at times into open warfare. Upon the wholesome Malpais country had fallen the bitterness of ...
— Mavericks • William MacLeod Raine
... else, Prince. Yet, stay. There is a scribe without named Ana, a thin, sharp-nosed man who says he is your Highness's twin ...
— Moon of Israel • H. Rider Haggard
... Marcion felt that all other conceptions of the Gospel, and especially its union with the Old Testament religion, was opposed to, and a backsliding from the truth.[370] He accordingly supposed that it was necessary to make the sharp antitheses of Paul, law and gospel, wrath and grace, works and faith, flesh and spirit, sin and righteousness, death and life, that is the Pauline criticism of the Old Testament religion, the foundation of his religious ...
— History of Dogma, Volume 1 (of 7) • Adolph Harnack
... through at one side right to the uppers, and as he walked the sides of his bare heels came into contact with the floor, the front part of the sole of one boot was separated from the upper, and his bare toes, red with cold and covered with mud, protruded through the gap. Some sharp substance—a nail or a piece of glass or flint—had evidently lacerated his right foot, for blood was oozing from the broken heel of his boot on ...
— The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists • Robert Tressell
... caught a fearful signal of preparation; his ear noted the sharp click of the lock, as the rifle was referred to in the final resort; and his ready sense conceived but of one, and the only mode of evading the danger so immediately at hand. Too conspicuous in his present situation to hope for escape, short of a miracle, so long as he remained upon the ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms
... grew tighter and tighter; the fire, hotter and hotter. For an hour he defended himself valiantly, hoping for night or Breyman to come. At last his fire slackened. The Americans clambered over the breastworks, and poured into the redoubt. For a few moments there was sharp hand-to-hand fighting. The Germans threw down their muskets, drew their broadswords, and desperately attempted to cut their way out. Most of them were beaten back or taken. A few only escaped. The Tories and Canadians fared no better. The victory ...
— Burgoyne's Invasion of 1777 - With an outline sketch of the American Invasion of Canada, 1775-76. • Samuel Adams Drake
... days of illness. May be 23rd of January; it is 5th of lunar month. Country very undulating; it is perpetually up and down. Soil red, and rich knolls of every size and form. Trees few. Erythrinas abound; so do elephants. Carried eight hours yesterday to a chief's village. Small sharp thorns hurt the men's feet, and so does the roughness of the ground. Though there is so much slope, water does not run quickly off Marungu. A compact mountain-range flanks the undulating country through which we passed, and ...
— The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 • David Livingstone
... morning found us very empty and sharp-set, though a very sound night's rest had contributed its utmost to refresh us. But what added much to our discomfort was, that though our whole subsistence must come from fruits, there was not a tree to be found at a less distance than twelve leagues, ...
— Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins, Vol. I. (of II.) • Robert Paltock
... of course, the original controversy—slavery burning to enforce her usurpation, freedom determined to defend her birthright. Sheriff Jones had his pockets always full of writs issued in the spirit of persecution, but was often baffled by the sharp wits and ready resources of the free- State people, and sometimes defied outright. Little by little, however, the latter became hemmed and bound in the meshes of the various devices and proceedings which the territorial officials evolved from the bogus laws. President Pierce, ...
— Abraham Lincoln: A History V1 • John G. Nicolay and John Hay
... indispensable in a Kindergarten from the first. One side of a slate can be ruled with a sharp point in small squares, and if their fancy is interested by telling them to make a fish-net, they will carefully make their pencils follow these lines,—which makes a first exercise in drawing. Their little ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 61, November, 1862 • Various
... catch a glimpse of the faintest, softest, richest picture that ever graced the dream of a dying Saint, since John saw the New Jerusalem glimmering above the clouds of Heaven. A broad sweep of sea, flecked with careening sails; a sharp, jutting cape, and a lofty lighthouse on it; a sloping lawn behind it; beyond, a portion of the old "city of palaces," with its parks and hills and stately mansions; beyond these, a prodigious mountain, with its strong outlines sharply cut against ocean and sky; and over all, vagrant ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... entangle its ideals with the causes of remorse and of just indignation. In the first place nature in her slow and ponderous way levels her processes and rubs off her sharp edges by perpetual friction. Where there is maladjustment there is no permanent physical stability. Therefore the ideal of society can never involve the infliction of injury on anybody for any purpose. Such an ideal would propose for a goal something out of ...
— The Life of Reason • George Santayana
... seen upon referring to Fig. 7, that there is obtained a very sharp curve marked by points. We have a general view on considering the curve itself, and the height in meters is read directly. The fractions of a meter, as well as the times, are in the margin. Thus, at the point, a, the apparatus gives at 3 o'clock and 20 minutes ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 443, June 28, 1884 • Various
... some changes. Little John's place was vacant. A sudden sharp illness, and the frail life went out, leaving a sweet and gentle memory, for John had helped in ways he did not dream of. Every one of those merry girls and boys was more thoughtful and tender for the association with him. Seeing the ...
— The Story of the Big Front Door • Mary Finley Leonard
... victorious race, 755 whereon man bestoweth the name of seraphim. With flaming sword they are to keep sacred the field of Paradise and the tree of life. And fast in their grasp the drawn sword, sharp of edge, quivers, trembles, and changes its hue. For thou dost rule, 760 O Lord God, eternally, and thou didst hurl thy sin-stained foes, the workers of iniquity, from the heavens, and the unhappy host fell to the dark abodes, into ...
— The Elene of Cynewulf • Cynewulf
... add that the story has been subjected to careful revision, and I hope to consequent improvement, in its present form of publication. Past experience has shown me that you have a sharp eye for slips of the pen, and that you thoroughly enjoy convicting a novelist, by post, of having made a mistake. Whatever pains I may have taken to disappoint you, it is quite likely that we may be again indebted to each ...
— Heart and Science - A Story of the Present Time • Wilkie Collins
... not afford promise of much activity. His face was not ill favored, though a quick, restless black eye, keen and searching, had in it a lurking malignity, like that of a snake, which impressed the spectator with suspicion at the first casual glance. His nose, long and sharp, was almost totally fleshless; the skin being drawn so tightly over the bones, as to provoke the fear that any violent effort would cause them to force their way through the frail integument. An untrimmed beard, run wild; ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms
... the name of a narrow gorge among the mountains. It begins at the end of a lake, and extends about two or three miles. The sides are covered with forests, and there are high, sharp rocks seen every where, ...
— Rollo in Scotland • Jacob Abbott
... a noiseless brava with his hands. "Have I not always said that the signore's ears are as sharp as my own? No, the voice was very beautiful, but it was not truly Roman. It was more like they talk in Venice. And yet the sound of the voice decided me. The hills have always been calling to me; ...
— The Lure of the Mask • Harold MacGrath
... these hundred conventions. Strange to say, my course in this matter did not meet the approval of Mrs. Maria W. Chapman, an influential member of the board of managers of the Massachusetts Anti- slavery society, and called out a sharp reprimand from her, for insubordination to my superiors." John O. Wattles labored hard to introduce Woman Suffrage into the State Constitution of Kansas. Mr. Collins worked for it in California in the early days. Mrs. Chapman, ...
— Woman and the Republic • Helen Kendrick Johnson
... remember, as to whom the only natural remark would be that one would not like to meet him alone on a dark night. He was burly and big, unwashed and rough, with a black beard, shorn some two months since. He had sharp, angry eyes, and sat silent, picking his teeth with a bowie knife. I met him afterward at the Rolla Hotel, and found that he was a gentleman of property near Springfield. He was mild and meek as a sucking dove, asked my advice as to the state of his affairs, and merely ...
— Volume 2 • Anthony Trollope
... same moment he felt a sharp blow on the head, followed by a second, and he sank senseless in ...
— The Continental Classics, Volume XVIII., Mystery Tales • Various |
