"Chance upon" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... black-board always carried along its top, in glaring chalk, the irritating reminder: Use Your Dictionary! There was diversion in turning the leaves at random (blissfully ignoring the while any white list that might be inscribed down the whole of the board) to chance upon big, strange words. ...
— The Poor Little Rich Girl • Eleanor Gates
... and persons, and their own interest in their own property (namely, their slaves), more people will visit the hospital, and aid it with greater care and liberality, and less hesitation; for one month brings the chance upon one, another upon another, and in this order it comes to all. This will be occasion and cause that the devout women, and those of the greatest influence, after seeing the work and perceiving that it is under ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume X, 1597-1599 • E. H. Blair
... Indian captive, it admitted nowhere of a doubt. That the city had been hidden for a long period, through at least several hundreds of years, from the Aztecs themselves, and that no knowledge of it had been conveyed to them by wild Indians who had come by chance upon the valley wherein it was, was evidence enough of the security of its concealment. There was nothing surprising, consequently, in the fact that the Spaniards had not discovered it when they first overran Mexico, nor that it had remained unknown to the Mexicans of modern times. ...
— The Aztec Treasure-House • Thomas Allibone Janvier
... in her tender flesh, Lift her away to some sequestered spot, There drink her blood in leisure undisturbed, And break her bones and her torn flesh devour. At early morn upon that selfsame day A huntsman sallied forth in search of food, And, wandering luckless all day long, at last Did chance upon this bird. Behind a bush He quickly crept, and straightway strung his bow. A gladsome vision suddenly appeared— He saw his wife and children in their home Enjoy the dove's well spiced and roasted flesh. But lo! a gentle flutter of the leaves By eagerness unconscious ...
— Tales of Ind - And Other Poems • T. Ramakrishna
... coming up to where we were still standing, rubbing his hands cheerfully together and seemingly much at ease now that we were well under way. "It isn't often one gets a nor'-east wind at this time of year, hereabouts, and when we do chance upon it, why, there's no use in ...
— On Board the Esmeralda - Martin Leigh's Log - A Sea Story • John Conroy Hutcheson
... with his bones and the odor of his sanctity. The story is that this St. John—neither the Baptist nor the Evangelist, but a hermit of Crete—centuries ago made his abode here, and lived many years without seeing the face of another man. Lest he should in daylight chance upon his abhorred and outcast brethren, or any of them, he only ventured out at night, and lived on what he could find in other people's gardens or orchards. Happening one night to be discovered in the act of laying in a provision of corn, he was mistaken for a thief, and received an arrow ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 121, November, 1867 • Various
... British Columbia, however, long periods of severe weather are rare. It is a variable zone, swept now and then by damp, warm breezes, and men tell of sheltered valleys where flowers blow the year round, though very few of those who ramble up and down the Mountain Province ever chance upon them. But there are times when the devastating cold of the Polar regions descends upon the lonely ranges, as it had ...
— The Greater Power • Harold Bindloss
... and sorted exhaustively, an operation in which Phoebe shows a delicacy of discrimination and a fearlessness of attack amounting to genius, we count the entire number and find several missing. Searching for their animate or inanimate bodies, we "scoop" one from under the tool-house, chance upon two more who are being harried and pecked by the big geese in the lower meadow, and discover one sailing by himself in solitary splendour in the middle of the deserted pond, a look of evil triumph in his bead-like eye. Still we lack one young duckling, and he at length is found dead by the hedge. ...
— The Diary of a Goose Girl • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
... spacious, glazed insectorium I have twenty-five Carabi aurati. At present they are motionless, lying beneath a piece of board which I gave them for shelter. Their bellies cooled by the sand, their backs warmed by the board, which is visited by the sun, they slumber and digest their food. By good luck I chance upon a procession of pine-caterpillars, in process of descending from their tree in search of a spot suitable for burial, the prelude to the phase of the subterranean chrysalis. Here is an excellent flock for the slaughter-house of ...
— Social Life in the Insect World • J. H. Fabre
... not what should make thee mad Though this and worse, howbeit it irk thee, were. Art thou discrowned, dethroned, disrobed, unclad Of empire? art thou powerless, bloodless, old? This were some hurt: but now—thou shouldst be glad To take this chance upon thee, and to hold So large a lordly happiness in hand As when my father's and thy lord's is cold Shall leave in thine the sway of all ...
— Locrine - A Tragedy • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... have come by chance upon our trail. It may be Tandakora himself and it is unfortunate. They will never leave us now, ...
— The Masters of the Peaks - A Story of the Great North Woods • Joseph A. Altsheler
... had been thrown over from above, while his pockets turned outward showed the reason for his murder. The comrades rode past without too close a survey, for dead men were no very uncommon objects on the King's highway, and if sheriff or bailiff should chance upon you near the body you might find yourself caught in the meshes of ...
— Sir Nigel • Arthur Conan Doyle |
