"Critter" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... likely it would wake him up," said he, demurely. "Killin' 's killin', and a critter can't sleep over it 's though 'twas the stomachache. I guess he'd kick some, ef he was ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn
... to do that, so he promised me I could go to ride if I wouldn't go to that celebration. That jus' tickled me to death, for I did lak to ride. Grandpa had two young mules what was still wild, and when he said I could ride one of 'em Grandma tried hard to keep me off of it, for she said that critter would be sure to kill me, but I was so crazy to go that nobody couldn't tell me nothin'. Auntie lent me her domino coat to wear for a ridin' habit and I sneaked and slipped a pair of spurs, then Grandpa put a saddle on the critter ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Georgia Narratives, Part 3 • Works Projects Administration
... did," assented Bristles, joyfully. "I was getting tired of swinging my club, and whacking that terrible critter. Talk to me about being able to stand punishment,—-I never before saw a dog that could come up fresh every time you keeled him over. Most curs would run away, howling like mad, but he just set his teeth, and took a fresh grip. Whew! I'm sure glad ...
— Fred Fenton Marathon Runner - The Great Race at Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... into the halter, and several times nearly succeeded, but just when he thought himself sure of him, the animal would gallop off in another direction. Out of all patience, he at length exclaimed, "What does possess that critter to act so to-day?" then glancing at the sky, which at the time happened to be overcast by dull murky clouds, he said: "It must be the weather." I chanced one day to be present when Uncle Ephraim was busily occupied in making some arithmetical ...
— The Path of Duty, and Other Stories • H. S. Caswell
... down—that was his fashion. Taking up his pail he began moving among the flowers, and soon found a honey-bee sipping from the cup of a rose-raspberry. He said he knew at once the face of his own bee, "to say nothin' of the critter's talk"—meaning its buzzing of wings. A glass with honey from the tin pail soon captured the bee: uneasy at first, it was soon sipping the sweets. When quite satisfied it was set free, and its flight closely followed by the ...
— James Fenimore Cooper • Mary E. Phillips
... coz they wun't show ez talkers, Nor can't be hired to fool ye an' sof'-soap ye at a caucus,— Long 'z ye set by Rotashun more 'n ye do by folks's merits, Ez though experance thriv by change o' sile, like corn an' kerrits,— Long 'z you allow a critter's "claims" coz, spite o' shoves an' tippins, He's kep' his private pan jest where't would ketch mos' public drippins,— Long 'z A.'ll turn tu an' grin' B.'s exe, ef B.'ll help him grin' hisn, (An' thet's the main idee by which your leadin' men hev risen,)— Long 'z you let ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IX., March, 1862., No. LIII. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics, • Various
... lanes, up and down the hills, her horse her only companion, but having the most perfect understanding with him, both Ellen and the Brownie cast care to the winds. "I do believe," said Mr. Van Brunt, "that critter would a leetle rather have Ellen on his back than not." He was the Brownie's next best friend. Miss Fortune never said anything to ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Susan Warner
... with poets: wut they've airly read Git,s kind o' worked into their heart-an' head, So 's 't they can't seem to write but jest on sheers With furrin countries or played-out ideers, Nor hev a feelin', ef it doosn't smack O' wut some critter chose to feel 'way back. This makes 'em talk o' daisies, larks, an' things, Ez though we'd nothin' here that blows an' sings,— (Why, I'd give more for one live bobolink Than a square mile o' larks in printer's ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various
... bull's-eye, stranger.' I blazed away, and I wish I may be shot if I didn't miss the target. They examined it all over, and could find neither hair nor hide of my bullet, and pronounced it a dead miss; when says I, 'Stand aside and let me look, and I warrant you I get on the right trail of the critter,' They stood aside, and I examined the bull's-eye pretty particular, and at length cried out, 'Here it is; there is no snakes if it ha'n't followed the very track of the other.' They said it was utterly impossible, but I insisted on their searching the hole, and I agreed to be stuck up as a mark ...
— David Crockett: His Life and Adventures • John S. C. Abbott
... Mac. You got me now, but that hunch is a rip-snorter persuadin' sort of a critter, and it's my plain duty to ride it. I call for three thousand. And I got another hunch: Daylight's going to ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London
... yur hoss!" cried Wilder, as he pulled up in front of it, at the same time flinging himself from his own. "Drop the bridle, and leave him behint. One o' 'em'll be enough for what I want, an' let that be myen. Poor critter, it air a pity! But it can't be helped. We must hev some kiver to screen us. Quick, Frank, or the skunks ...
— The Lone Ranche • Captain Mayne Reid
... you hadn't. Might's well send for a poll parrot, the critter would be just as much good and talk less. I'll look out for things, me and ...
— Keziah Coffin • Joseph C. Lincoln
... Chips, but you beats me. Yes, sah, you beats me, but yer haid is thick. Yes, sah, yer haid is thick ernuff, yah, yah," laughed the "doctor." "What would yer do but drink the water, white man? yes, sah, drink the water for the acid in the critter. It's salt in yer blood makes scurvy, from libbin' so long er eatin' nuffin' but salt junk. Lime juice is good, ef the ole man gives it to yer straight, but he nebber does. No, sah, dat he nebber do. It's ...
— Mr. Trunnell • T. Jenkins Hains
... a active young feller it wouldn't be hard, but for a pore old critter like that thar, it couldn't ...
— Lost in the Fog • James De Mille
... steers you can by mid-morning into the old corral. There isn't one chance in a thousand we'll meet any one. Nelson's making hay five miles below here. But if any one should come along when you've roped a steer, get him to examine the brand for you, and of course if the brand isn't yours, let the critter go." ...
— Judith of the Godless Valley • Honore Willsie
... the old critter to make a bee-line track like that. But what in thunder did he want to go that way across the clearing for? I'm much obleeged to him for his trail, but it ain't headed right ...
— Jersey Street and Jersey Lane - Urban and Suburban Sketches • H. C. Bunner
... say, with a smile that was fairly luminous,—"and a pootty likely critter I call it ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 • Various
... consideration, and the congress committed the crowning act of rashness and, without a thought of the consequences, made an everlasting enemy of Susan Anthony by ruling her out of the convention as a delegate. This was the unkindest cut of all. "A lone, lorn old critter," with whom everything "goes contrairie," was denied the solace of being counted the one-two-hundreth part of a man by a labor convention! We may well believe that Susan wept with sorrow at the ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper
... you're a he critter on two legs," snapped Jenks. "Not in this country or any other white man's country; no, nor in red man's country neither. What you do back in the States, can't say. ...
— Desert Dust • Edwin L. Sabin
... them. Next I thought of drawing all the unlikely places in the country, and making a blank day of it. Then I thought that would only be like cutting off my nose to spite my face. Then I didn't know what on earth to do. At last, when I saw the critter's great pecker steadily down in his plate, I thought I would try and steal a march upon him, and get away with my fox while he was feeding; and, oh! how thankful I was when I looked back from Bramblebrake Hill, and saw no signs of him in ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees
... whittling at the gate with sudden vehemence, "fact is, I've set my mind on your buyin' that critter, an' you jes' set down on that 'ere milkin'-stool an' I'll tell ye the rights on 't, though I feel kinder meechin' myself, to be so soft ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 • Various
... another of the same type. "No go. Sunk to ther hubs in mud holes an' then if it wusn't thet ther wuz ther sand to shove through and they hed ter give it up. No, ther vehicle or ther critter hain't invented that's goin' ter get away off thar back of beyond whar the gold lies—or whar they say it does," he added rather doubtfully. "When I was a kid back East my poor mother used ter tell me that gold lay at ther end ...
— The Girl Aviators on Golden Wings • Margaret Burnham
... takin' a feelosophical view o' the p'int—I don't. But I b'lieve some of it. I do b'lieve there's some 'xtraord'nary critter in them there mountains—for I've lived nigh forty years, off and on, in these parts, an' I've always obsarved that in this wurld w'enever ye find anythin' ye've always got somethin'. Nobody never got hold o' somethin' an' found afterwards that it wos nothin'. So ...
— The Wild Man of the West - A Tale of the Rocky Mountains • R.M. Ballantyne
... here does—if he's smart enough ter catch one. Rigged-up broomsticks ain't in it with a live bird when it comes ter drivin' away them pesky, thievin' crows. There ain't a farmer 'round here that hain't been green with envy, ever since I caught the critter. An' now ter have you come along an' with one flip o'yer knife spile it all, I—Well, it jest makes me mad, clean through! ...
— Just David • Eleanor H. Porter
... wa'n't the sort of man to let his wife go gallivantin' round the country with a lover, that's certain. We was s'prised he stood it long as he did. Oh, I ain't sayin' Dr. Benoix done his killin' in cold blood! He prob'ly done it in self-defense. The gentlest critter'll fight if it's got to. But killin' it certainly ...
— Kildares of Storm • Eleanor Mercein Kelly
... it talk, Es yer mustang crunches the dry, bald sod; Fur I reckin' the hills, an' stars, an' creek Are all of 'em preachers sent by God. An' them mountains talk tew a chap this way: "Climb, if ye can, ye degenerate cuss!" An' the stars smile down on a man, an say, "Come higher, poor critter, ...
— Old Spookses' Pass • Isabella Valancy Crawford
... life to you, and that's no joke," answered the foreman shortly. "We didn't see that he was in trouble till one of the boys discovered you chasing his pony. Then we saw you rope the critter and pack the boss on ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in Montana • Frank Gee Patchin
... go with you!" said the miner, "I want to see what sort of a critter your landlord is. The mean scoundrel! It would do me good to shake him out ...
— The Erie Train Boy • Horatio Alger
... We've got together, as usual, without any plan of operation, except to howl and make faces at the critter man, ontil he is ready to give up his liberties and endow us angelic beeins with the privilege of fillin' up with benzine on eleckshun day; to vote and rool the destinies of ...
— Punchinello Vol. II., No. 30, October 22, 1870 • Various
... up here 'bout seventeen miles for to let you see me. 'Spect you don't see much in dis old worn out critter. Now ...
— Slave Narratives Vol. XIV. South Carolina, Part 1 • Various
... the critter when he tried to unclimb the tree, till finally the boss got back with his dogs. They set up an awful holler when they see the bear—first one they'd ever smelled, I reckon—and the little feller crawled up in some forks and watched ...
— The Spoilers • Rex Beach
... can't do everything in a minute, and the political bosses and the Liquor Power are rulin' things about the same as ever. Big trusts are flourishin', Capital covered with gold and diamonds is settin' on the bent back of Labor, drivin' the poor critter where they want to, and the Man with the Hoe is hoein' away jest as usual and don't get the pay for it he'd ort to." And here Arvilly broke in (she had been introduced), and sez she, "Uncle Sam is girdin' up his lions and stands ...
— Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife • Marietta Holley
... He searched through a small pool with his hands, sifted out sticks and leaves, but found nothing else. A farmer going by told him it was only a "spring Peeper," whatever that was, "some kind of a critter in the water." ...
— Two Little Savages • Ernest Thompson Seton
... me—I'm going to ask you some questions. Did you see the lady that got out of the coach when I did? She's a beautiful critter; such black eyes!—such a sweet voice!—such a small hand! We travelled together the whole way from town. She spoke very little, and kept her name a secret. I couldn't find out what she came here for. ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various
... sassy and desp'rit critter at that," the colonel went on. "One of that McGee tribe from down-river way. He's been loafin' 'round town some days, I'm told, an' we're lucky not to have our homes robbed o' everything wuth while. My Bob met him on the street a while back; an' jest like boys, they had ...
— Chums in Dixie - or The Strange Cruise of a Motorboat • St. George Rathborne
... to Farmer Green, "this mare is the meanest critter that comes into my shop. She doesn't know anything except how to kick and bite. That old horse of yours is worth a dozen like her. I'd give more for his tail than I ...
— The Tale of Pony Twinkleheels • Arthur Scott Bailey
... "That's the way I'm treated. You allers take sides with that air hussy agin your own flesh and blood. You don't keer how much trouble I have. Not you. Not a dog-on'd bit. I may be disgraced by that air ongrateful critter, and you set right here in my own house and sass me about it. A purty fellow you air! An' me a-delvin' and a-drudgin' fer you all my born days. A purty son, ...
— The Hoosier Schoolmaster - A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana • Edward Eggleston
... consequence, I'd like to know, your hat, or his head? Hats enough in the world. But that 'ere head is an oncommon head, and, bless the boy, if he should lose that, I do'no' where he'd git another like it! Come, no more fuss now! I got to make some gruel for this 'ere poor, wet, starvin' critter. That hash a'n't the thing for him, mammy,—you'd ought to know! He wants somefin' light and comfortin', that'll warm his in'ards, and make him sweat, bless him!—Joey! Joey! give ...
— Atlantic Monthly,Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... Ef they ain't wuth it, wut is wuth a fight? I'm older 'n you: the plough, the axe, the mill, All kinds o' labor an' all kinds o' skill, Would be a rabbit in a wile-cat's claw, Ef't warn't for thet slow critter, 'stablished law; Onsettle thet, an' all the world goes whiz, A screw is loose in everythin' there is: Good buttresses once settled, don't you fret An' stir 'em: take a bridge's word for thet! Young folks are smart, but all ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, February, 1862 • Various
... ol' thing!" he cried, "jest a mean ol' critter ter bite a feller's finger like ye did mine. I'll pay yer fer what ye done! Look at this, an' see how ...
— Princess Polly's Playmates • Amy Brooks
... in a philanthropical tone of voice, "dat'e best way. What good it do to torment a fellow critter? If Misser Mulford run, why put him down run, and let him go, I say, on'y mulk his wages; but what good it do anybody to starve him? Now dis is my opinion, gentle'em, and dat is, dat starwation be wuss dan choleric. Choleric kill, I knows, and so does starwation kill; but of ...
— Jack Tier or The Florida Reef • James Fenimore Cooper
... critter bein' free!" Samson exclaimed. "Why, he should be linked up with Curly, an' git the same dose. Thar's something comin' to him, an' he'll git it in time, mark ...
— Glen of the High North • H. A. Cody
... No. 1, "did you railly sell that kickin' spavin'd critter to mother? Wall, you AIR ...
— The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 4 • Charles Farrar Browne
... was tall, was my Jack, And as strong as a tree. Thar's his gun on the rack,— Jest you heft it, and see. And YOU come a courtin' his widder! Lord! where can that critter, ...
— Complete Poetical Works of Bret Harte • Bret Harte
... hid her face at the recollection. "An' when the ladies came to see about me," she continued, "she told me ef I dast tell 'em, she'd do worse by me, an' she told the ladies I was a lyin' thievin' critter, an' purtended I was ill tret, when she was a mother to me an' never laid the flat of her hand agen me, ...
— A Dear Little Girl • Amy E. Blanchard
... if there be," said the sheep driver. "I'm going ter git rid of ther pesky critter. He's cost me a lot in ...
— The Girl Aviators' Motor Butterfly • Margaret Burnham
... larks now, old girl," said Fisher's principal aid. "We mounts guard turn an' turn about, an' the first livin' critter as comes anigh them beasts—the watch he ...
— The Moving Finger • Mary Gaunt
... All the help the black hoss had was what little bit Mose give him after the barrier went up. Ketch me handing the drug habit to a dumb critter! I guess not!" ...
— Old Man Curry - Race Track Stories • Charles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan
... horse, cart horse, dray horse, post horse; ketch; Shetland pony, shelty, sheltie; garran^, garron^; jennet, genet^, bayard^, mare, stallion, gelding; bronco, broncho^, cayuse [U.S.]; creature, critter [U.S.]; cow pony, mustang, Narraganset, waler^; stud. Pegasus, Bucephalus, Rocinante. ass, donkey, jackass, mule, hinny; sumpter horse, sumpter mule; burro, cuddy^, ladino [U.S.]; reindeer; camel, dromedary, llama, elephant; carrier pigeon. [object used for carrying] pallet, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... the top book. His finger traced each word as he read. "The Three Mus—Musketeers. Whatever kinda critter is that?" ...
— Rebel Spurs • Andre Norton
... chair back against the wall, and putting his thumbs in the arm-holes of his waistcoat, "I jined a cavalry regiment durin' the war, and see a consid'able amount of fightin'. My horse, Major, was a fust-rate animal, and I was as fond on him as ef he'd ben a human critter. He warn't harnsome, but he was the best-tempered, stiddyest, lovenest brute I ever see. I fust battle we went into, he gave me a lesson that I didn't forgit in a hurry, and I'll tell you how it was. It ain't no use ...
— Little Men - Life at Plumfield With Jo's Boys • Louisa May Alcott
... all hope soured on me Of my fellow-critter's aid,— I jest flopped down on my marrow-bones, Crotch-deep in the snow, and prayed. * * * * * By this, the torches was played out, And me and Isrul Parr Went off for some wood to a sheepfold That he said was somewhar ...
— Journeys Through Bookland - Volume Four • Charles H. Sylvester
... it's all wrong. Somebody ought to keep a watch on me, and when they see me beginnin' to get hot, set me on the back of the stove or somewheres; I'm always liable to bile over and scald the wrong critter. I've done that all my life. I'm sorry, Zoeth, ...
— Mary-'Gusta • Joseph C. Lincoln
... these girls bresh you off. You sho'ly got the hafe o' Hinds County on you ... Pemberton's men? Law, no; they wuz on Big Black but they right out here, now, on Champion's Hill, in sight f'om our gin-house ... Brodnax' bri'—now, how funny! We jess heard o' them about a' hour ago, f'om a bran' new critter company name' Ferry's Scouts. Why, Ferry's f'om yo' city! Wish you could 'a' seen him—oh, all of 'em, they was that slick! But, oh, slick aw shabby, when our men ah fine they ah fine, now, ain't they! There was a man ridin' with him—dressed ...
— Kincaid's Battery • George W. Cable
... send-off like that, I'll be expectin' the critter to do great things here on this lil ole planet ...
— Tom Swift and The Visitor from Planet X • Victor Appleton
... illustrious descendant of the Bishops of Imeeo, was twenty feet from the ground. "Aramai! come down, you old fool!" cried the Yankee; "the pesky critter's on t'other side of the ...
— Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas • Herman Melville
... it a storm after you have. There ain't no name in the dictionary that exactly fits that kind of a critter. A stampede is a Sunday in a country village as compared with one of them Texas howlers. You'll be wishing you had a place to hide, in about a minute after that kind ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in Texas - Or, The Veiled Riddle of the Plains • Frank Gee Patchin
... cover 't up thet he'd tuk the hoss. We air sum used ter hoss-thieves in Tennessee; but I never heered o' one yit thet left his name fur a refference berhind him, ter show which road he tuk, 'n' fastened ther stolen critter ter his front gate when he got hum! I allow me 'n' yeow hedn't better say anythin' much more on ther subjeck, fur I allow we air bound to querril ef we dew;" and nothing that Merrill said could draw another ...
— Ramona • Helen Hunt Jackson
... on account of what the men eat," he went on. "If you're two days late, minding rules in a fog, owners ask what the tophet's the matter with you! This kind of business don't need steamboat men any longer; it calls for boarding-house keepers who can cut sirloin steak off'n a critter clear to the horn, and who are handy in turning sharp corners on left-overs. I'll buy a book of cooking receets and try ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day
... thought that they could be after aught worse than rook-shooting," she would murmur, "for all I heard a sort of a sobbing on the stairs. It was hard on poor old Madam though, never to take any leave of her; but all her life has been hard for that matter, poor innocent old critter. Well, well, I hope it's not a sin to wish 'em happy, spite of that bad action; and as for her, she's had her troubles in this world, as all the parish is ready to testify, and no doubt but what that will be considered to her in ...
— Fated to Be Free • Jean Ingelow
... get like that, mousing around here without a chance to yappi with a feller critter. 'Nough ...
— The Mascot of Sweet Briar Gulch • Henry Wallace Phillips
... "The little critter's all right!" declared MacPhairrson, when he and the Boy were done laughing. "Ananias-an'-Sapphira won't hurt him. She likes all the critters she kin bully an' skeer. An' Stumpy an' that comical cuss of a Ebenezer, they be goin' ...
— The Backwoodsmen • Charles G. D. Roberts
... was very smart indeed and ought to have a job with the Government at a dollar a year telling people to quit beef meat for the elephant. I said I was much obliged for the tip and if I ever got to going good in elephants I'd see he had a critter of his own to butcher every fall. So Pete went out with all his excitement and told the boys how I was going to stock the ranch with these new animals which was better than whales because you wouldn't have to get your feet wet. The boys made ...
— Ma Pettengill • Harry Leon Wilson
... likely shote give to him one year, but it turned out a runt, he fed it so queer. The critter seemed allus squealin' for something to eat, ...
— The Mission of Janice Day • Helen Beecher Long
... was dead chickens afore she runned inter de shed. An' massa, sho's yo's bawn, she hooked an' tossed me like a rubber bawl all de way up heah, till I hain't got a whole bone anywhares in my body. Lordy! but she's a turrible critter!" ...
— The Gentle Art of Cooking Wives • Elizabeth Strong Worthington
... and the way you was actin' when I see you struttin' into the parsonage yard last night afore mail time made me think you must have a first mortgage on Helen and her pa and the house and the meetin'-house and two-thirds of the graveyard. I never see such an important-lookin' critter in MY life. Haw, haw! ...
— The Portygee • Joseph Crosby Lincoln
... teams;"—that is, two wheel mules and a single leader, instead of four-mule teams. After I saw the teams move out, each mule looking mournful, as though each one thought his time might come next, I didn't want to ask any questions about that meat, though I know there wasn't a beef critter within fifty miles of us. I have had my children ask me, many times, if I ever eat any mule in the army, and I have always said that I did not know. And I don't. But I am a great ...
— How Private George W. Peck Put Down The Rebellion - or, The Funny Experiences of a Raw Recruit - 1887 • George W. Peck
... air lost critter of yourn was a Comanche scout's, you bet; and, bein' a scout, he couldn't have done nothin' else, 'cause it might hev spilt their entire calculation. You'll hev a chance ter see him ...
— The Young Trail Hunters • Samuel Woodworth Cozzens
... doubtless they are tame because they are held to be sacred, and have a better time than they do in Africa and elsewhere. But all the fun of the fauna is concentrated in the wild animals, such as the tiger (about the gamiest 'critter' that exists), the panther, cheetah, boar, bear, elephant, and rhinoceros. Two kinds of crocodiles (not alligators) live in the mud and water of the rivers; and I suppose they snap up a man or woman when they get ...
— Across India - Or, Live Boys in the Far East • Oliver Optic
... take a walk down to Spackles's and look over the steer. They tell me he dressed clost to nine hunderd. Hope they contrive to cook him through and through. Never see a barbecued critter yit that was done.... Folks is beginnin' to git here. Guess they won't be a spare bedroom in town ...
— Scattergood Baines • Clarence Budington Kelland
... have known thar warn't nobody to do what I ask 'em," observed Sarah in the voice and manner of a martyr. "It's rabbits or girls, one or the other, and if it ain't an old hare it's some light-moraled critter ...
— The Miller Of Old Church • Ellen Glasgow
... to yer manners!" said Barney, as he gazed after him. "But what can ye expect from the poor critter? He niver larned better Come along, Martin, we'll rest here ...
— Martin Rattler • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... "That would be a mighty resky piece of business," he said. "You would be all right, but that's not sayin' that I would; for it strikes me that your sister is about as much a bird in the bush as any flyin' critter." ...
— A Chosen Few - Short Stories • Frank R. Stockton
... sake!" gasped the third sailor, who was a negro, called Black Tom; "how's we gwine to run right out dar whar de critter am dat fired de arrer inter ...
— Frank Merriwell Down South • Burt L. Standish
... strains, and all the rest of it; and so long as they get pedigree never look at substance; and their bone comes no bigger than a deer's. Now, it's force as well as pace that tells over a bit of plow; a critter that would win the Derby on the flat would knock up over the first spin over the clods; and that King's legs are too light for my fancy, 'andsome as 'tis ondeniable he looks—for a little 'un, ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]
... things, always so much foolish fuss and ceremony, always asking such footless questions and never hearing you when you answer them. Never really knowing anything or saying anything. They're a different kind of critter, that's all there is to it; they're amateurs at life. They're a failure as a sex and an outworn convention anyway. Myself, I'm for sending them to the scrap-heap. Votes ...
— Angel Island • Inez Haynes Gillmore
... the valley, where yer might get down. Ye'd have ter hang on, tooth an' toe-nail; but both of yer are mountain men, an' I reckon yer could make the trip if yer took it careful an' slow like. Leastwise that's the one chance, an' I don't believe thar's another white critter who even knows thar is such ...
— The Strange Case of Cavendish • Randall Parrish
... go so far as to call myself that," he said. "When I went to school the teacher told us one time about an old critter who lived in a—in a tub, seem's if 'twas. HE was one of them ...
— Galusha the Magnificent • Joseph C. Lincoln
... now—did one o' them critters go trapsin' off. (he counts) Yes sir, that's just what's happened. Wall—sign fer the twenty-one, an' I'll go out lookin' fer that other critter. ...
— Washington Crossing the Delaware • Henry Fisk Carlton
... knew that his picture wuz engraved on my heart in deeper lines than any camera or kodak could do it. But I had a handkerchief pin that looked like him, I bought it to the World's Fair, it wuz took of Columbus. You know Columbus wuz a changeable lookin' critter in his pictures, if he looked like all on 'em he must have been fitty, and Miss Columbus must have had a hard time to git along with him. This looked like Josiah, only with more hair, but I held my thumb over the top, and I could almost hear Josiah speak. I might have ...
— Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife • Marietta Holley
... hangin' on ter ther mane o' thet critter fer nigh 'pon three mile, an' a prayin' fer a feather bed ter light on. It's my last 'listment en ther cavalry, ye bet. I never seed none o' yer steam keers, but I reckon they don't go no faster ner thet ...
— My Lady of the North • Randall Parrish
... of thar. I don't know what of critter ye be, but you scared my old man nigh ter death. Scat now, er ...
— The Ocean Wireless Boys And The Naval Code • John Henry Goldfrap, AKA Captain Wilbur Lawton
... in a frizz, my dears, about me," he said with dignity. "I be leaving this instant moment. As for you—" addressing Mr. Watlin—"you be a gert beefy critter, but don't be too sure you could tackle me, single-handed. I be terr'ble full of power when I'm roused, and it takes a deal to calm me down again." And he trotted to the head of the stairs and ...
— Explorers of the Dawn • Mazo de la Roche
... one he's got," replied the farmer. "You see, I married his mother. She's dead, now. That boy always was a sulky, ugly varmint. Why, he'd ought to be the happiest critter in Christendom. He's got eight step- brothers and step-sisters. Won't jibe, though. He's just unnateral, that fellow is. No living at home with him, so I'm taking his ...
— The Boys of Bellwood School • Frank V. Webster
... window for a moment with a rifle slung jauntily over her shoulder. "If you hear a shot or two don't excite yourself, and believe we're having a lynching case in the woods. It will be only me. There's some creature—confess, you expected me to say 'critter'—hanging round the barn. It may be a bear. Good-by." She missed the creature,—which happened to be really a bear,—much to Mainwaring's illogical satisfaction. "I wonder why," he reflected, with vague uneasiness, "she doesn't leave all that ...
— A Phyllis of the Sierras • Bret Harte
... baby to the taste and benefit of the baby by the light of nature must clearly be something of a phenomenon. In a room downstairs were certain little stoics whose health was poor; they were brought there daily to be watched. One was an air-raid baby, the thinnest little critter ever seen; an ashen bit of a thing through which the wind could blow; very silent, and asking "Why?" with its eyes. They showed me a mother who had just lost her first baby. The Centre was rescuing it from a pauper's ...
— Another Sheaf • John Galsworthy
... guess you do b'long to my family. I'm Asa Trenchard, born in Vermont, suckled on the banks of Muddy Creek, about the tallest gunner, the slickest dancer, and generally the loudest critter in the state. You're my cousin, be you? Wal, I ain't got no objections to kiss you, as one ...
— Our American Cousin • Tom Taylor
... you know about this, Tom?" demanded the young second mate. "That critter's gone to sleep down ...
— Swept Out to Sea - Clint Webb Among the Whalers • W. Bertram Foster
... buried in his hat, sleeping to all appearances, while the others talked and laughed; for he had no stories, though he put in an absent-minded word or two when he was directly addressed. This was the man from Tennessee, Matt Henderson, dubbed "Dixie" for short. He was a giant fellow,—a "great gormin' critter," Samantha Ann Milliken called him; but if he had held up his head and straightened his broad shoulders, he would have been thought ...
— The Village Watch-Tower • (AKA Kate Douglas Riggs) Kate Douglas Wiggin
... no horse of ourn'll ever hurt the boy. But that ain't saying that somebody's ornery critter won't harm him. There's some awful mean horses in this town, Billy," Hank worried. ...
— Green Valley • Katharine Reynolds
... scamp!" answered Herbert's new friend. "If there'd been a police-man handy, I'd have given him in charge. I've come clear from Wisconsin to see where Warren fell, but I didn't expect to come across such a critter as that on ...
— Do and Dare - A Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... did I'd be smarter than old Solomon. He had fo' or five hundred of 'em about him and he didn't understand even the most foolish one of 'em. How air you goin' to understand a critter that don't understand herse'f? But I tell you this here Miz Mayfield is smart—talks like a new book that's got ...
— The Starbucks • Opie Percival Read
... things you ever heerd tell on—calves with six legs, dogs with three eyes or two tails, steers that could be druv most as well as hosses (Barnum he got hold o' 'em and tuk 'em round with his show); all sorts o' curious fowl and every outlandish critter he could lay his hands on. 'T stands to reason he couldn't run that rig many years. Your goin's on here made me think o' Mason. He cut a wide swath ...
— Adopting An Abandoned Farm • Kate Sanborn
... That. That's different. Besides, I don't nag 'em. Not what you'd call nagging. But zize saying: Now, here's Paul, the nicest, most sensitive critter on God's green earth. You ought to be ashamed of yourself the way you pan him. Why, you talk to him like a washerwoman. I'm surprised you can act ...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis
... sight of nonsense about wine, women and horses. I've bought and sold 'em all, I've traded in all of them, and I tell you there ain't one in a thousand that knows a grain about either on 'em. You hear folks say, Oh, such a man is an ugly-grained critter, he'll break his wife's heart; jist as if a woman's heart was as brittle as a pipe-stalk. The female heart, as far as my experience goes, is jist like a new india-rubber shoe: you may pull and pull at it till it stretches out a yard long, and then let ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VIII (of X) • Various
... great orator and writer. Many readers may recollect the anecdote of the New Hampshire farmer, who was once complimented on the extremely handsome appearance of a horse which he was somewhat sullenly urging on to perform its work. "Yaas," was the churlish reply, "the critter looks well enough, but then he is as slow as—as—as—well, as slow as cold molasses." This perfectly answers to Bacon's definition of imagination, as "thought immersed in matter." The comparison is exactly on a level with the experience of the person who used it. He had seen his good wife, on ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster
... left college, in my youth, I spent a couple of years in Wyoming. Well, Mary Ann Crowder was the only single lady within a hundred miles, and she was the most obstreperous damn critter that I ever saw. She had a monopoly an' knew it, an' wasn't decently polite. Put on more style than a nigger at a cakewalk. Though she had red hair an' only one eye, some of the boys used to ride ...
— 'Charge It' - Keeping Up With Harry • Irving Bacheller
... and eyes shining, continued climbing. I couldn't get any farther, and I was thinking of coming down; but as I made a movement, biff!... The son of a sea-cook grabs me with one of his many legs by the coat and remains there hanging from me. The cussed critter was as heavy as lead; he was already reaching up after me with another claw when I remembered that I had in my vest pocket a toothpick that I had bought in Chicago, and that it had a knife attachment; I opened this, and in a moment slashed off the tail of my coat, and cataplun! ... down from a height ...
— The Quest • Pio Baroja
... blow-snake," he said, taking the creature by the tail and holding it up to view. "He's harmless. Well! Of course a dead snake is harmless, but when he was alive he was not the sort of critter to be afraid of. I thought you had encountered a bear, at the very least, by the racket ...
— The Boy Settlers - A Story of Early Times in Kansas • Noah Brooks
... my lad, but not at her. For you don't know her. When you know her story as I do, when you know she was made a wife afore she ever knew what it was to be a young woman, when you know that the man she married never understood the kind o' critter he was tied to no more than ef he'd been a steer yoked to a Morgan colt, when ye know she had children growin' up around her afore she had given over bein' a sort of child herself, when ye know she worked and slaved for that man and those children about ...
— A Sappho of Green Springs • Bret Harte
... missed the pesky critter, too!" spoke Jim's voice, resentfully, as he showed his head over the edge of the cliff, where three ...
— The Young Engineers in Nevada • H. Irving Hancock
... looking after Min. 'Sides, as I told yez, I don't know nithing about kids. Old Mrs. Billy Crawford, she was here when it was born and she washed it and rolled it up in that flannel, and Jen she's tended it a bit since. The critter is warm enough. This weather would melt a ...
— Rilla of Ingleside • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... known by his particular stars,—Soule, Saunders, and Sickles. Didn't intend to disturb you, my good woman,' says I. I wanted to seem polite—to put the very best foot forward; but it was to no earthly use. The old critter screamed, jumped out of the bed, and like a ghost shaking his cotton to the storm, ran away ...
— The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth • Timothy Templeton
... heard of after they left Martin's. When the time came for them to show up at Grayson and they didn't do it, scouting parties were sent out to look for them, and I was with the party that found the wreck of one of the wagons. And there's where I found Elam; but not a live man or critter or a cent of money ...
— Elam Storm, The Wolfer - The Lost Nugget • Harry Castlemon
... the one-eyed hostler, turning his quid again, "is the best-hearted, knowin'est critter that goes on all-fours. I'm speakin' of our native black bear, you understand. The brown bear aint half so respectable, and the grizzly is one of the ugliest brutes in creation. Come ...
— The Youth's Companion - Volume LII, Number 11, Thursday, March 13, 1879 • Various
... ready. Ten minutes would fix us, except that I must go into the fort and sell my critter and what flour and outfit we sha'n't want, to a ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty
... "Stubborn little critter. Well, I like that. All right, I'll tell you why. Because the machine has a funny kind of fuel, that's why. It doesn't run on gasoline, Danny, or ...
— My Shipmate—Columbus • Stephen Wilder
... on me. Tomorrow afternoon me and Job take a trip back to Eastboro, and one of us stays there. It may be me, but I have my doubts. I agreed to take a DOG on trial, not a yeller-jaundiced cow with a church organ inside of it. Hear the critter whoopin' down there in the boathouse! And he's eat everything that's chewable on the reservation already. He's a famine on legs, that pup. But never mind him. He's been tried—and found guilty. Tell me ...
— The Woman-Haters • Joseph C. Lincoln
... then. Come along, Hackett!" Ward commanded. "We'll give this critter a little time to figure this thing over, an' think whether he's got any friends that he'd like to get back to." They went out and ...
— The Rainy Day Railroad War • Holman Day
... "Yer poor critter!" said Creline, with great contempt for her ignorance. "Why, Massa Linkum, eberybody knows 'bout he. He's done gone made we ...
— The Junior Classics • Various
... I'll jest mention, yeou needn't jump into it, like a catameount rampagin' arter fodder. Yeou step in kinder keerful and set deown and don't move reound more'n ye ken help. It's a mighty crank little critter, I tell ye. 'Twould be tolable unconvenient to upset and git eour ...
— Adele Dubois - A Story of the Lovely Miramichi Valley in New Brunswick • Mrs. William T. Savage
... go," yelled Sparwick, in shrill tones. "There's some sort of wild critter in this ...
— The Camp in the Snow - Besiedged by Danger • William Murray Graydon
... a country court had sown seeds of hatred. Sometimes it was a horse-trade, a fence left down, or a gate left open, and the trespassing of cattle; in one instance, through spite, a neighbor had docked the tail of a neighbor's horse—had "muled his critter," as the owner phrased the outrage. There was no old sore that was not opened by the crafty leaders, no slumbering bitterness that they did not wake to life. "Help us to revenge, and we will help you," was the whispered promise. So, had one man a grudge against another, he could set his foot on ...
— A Cumberland Vendetta • John Fox, Jr.
... kept pourin' dissensions in our cup; And so that blamed cow-critter was always a-comin' up; And so that heaven we arg'ed no nearer to us got, But it gave us a taste of somethin' a thousand times ...
— Farm Ballads • Will Carleton
... a crew of bully boys to go after that critter," sighed Captain Tugg, behind his long cheroot. "He'll make more'n a bucket ...
— Swept Out to Sea - Clint Webb Among the Whalers • W. Bertram Foster |
