"Squirm" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... burning foxes. Ha, ha, ha!—Andre is in New York! A spasm of joy; and yet it pains my leg. Your hand, my friend. The laughter comes again— Ha, ha, ha! Now let them vote! Brigadier Generals May rain on this accursed land of pain As fast as Congress spawns them! Now, ye rats! Who shall squirm last, I ask ye? [To Smith.] Safe, you say? You ...
— The Treason and Death of Benedict Arnold - A Play for a Greek Theatre • John Jay Chapman
... as so many little immoveable statues. "There, sit in just that spot, and don't you move an inch till I bid you." Who has not heard a parent give forth such a mandate? And a school-master, too, to some little urchin, who tries to obey, but from that moment begins to squirm, and turn, and hitch, and chiefly because his nervous system is all deranged by the very duty imposed upon him. And, besides, what if Tommy, in the exuberance of his feelings, while sitting on the bench, does stick out his toe a little beyond the prescribed line. Or suppose Jimmy ...
— Mrs Whittelsey's Magazine for Mothers and Daughters - Volume 3 • Various
... no worse than yesterday," replied Slivers. "But I knowed he wouldn't tackle it anyhow. He'll be back here in a minute, to squirm ...
— Life at High Tide - Harper's Novelettes • Various
... well I jumped on Albatross's back in the saddling paddock and jogged quietly down to the starting point. There were some eight starters. Down went the flag, away we went, and I took Albatross to the front. He was a fine jumper, but he had one fault; he was inclined to run down his fences, and squirm a little when jumping. We went once round the course. We were coming to the wall for the second time just in front of the grand stand and Albatross was moving like a bird. I let him just "gang his ain gait"; nothing behind me could force the pace. He led the field easily, ...
— The Chronicles of a Gay Gordon • Jose Maria Gordon
... 'I know what you're after, sir—it's Jack Everett's launch, commonly called "Squirm". She's got a four-bladed propeller, and one blade is ...
— The Grand Babylon Hotel • Arnold Bennett
... inheritance, on the other hand, will show clearly by the violence of the response provoked that their nervous system is easily stimulated and exhausted. They will wriggle and squirm for hours together, emitting the same constant reflex cry. The whole body will start convulsively at a sudden touch or a loud sound which would evoke no response from a more stolid infant. The sleeplessness and crying exhaust the baby, rendering the nervous system more and more irritable, while ...
— The Nervous Child • Hector Charles Cameron
... his kennel, its door closed and bolted, Marcel was free to squirm out of the window and roam and range Paris at will. And it was thus that he came by most of his knowledge ...
— The Lone Wolf - A Melodrama • Louis Joseph Vance
... that Happy Jack endeavored to expostulate, but Irish glared at him in a way to make Happy squirm and stammer incoherently. ...
— The Happy Family • Bertha Muzzy Bower
... one summer not long ago, and that he gave her to understand that she could not, so she went away. If she's back, it means only one thing, and I think probably she'll succeed; but you can be sure it will make me squirm properly." ...
— A Daughter of the Land • Gene Stratton-Porter
... tremble, tremble like an aspen leaf; quiver, quaver, quake, shiver, twitter, twire[obs3], writhe, toss, shuffle, tumble, stagger, bob, reel, sway, wag, waggle; wriggle, wriggle like an eel; dance, stumble, shamble, flounder, totter, flounce, flop, curvet, prance, cavort [U.S.]; squirm. throb, pulsate, beat, palpitate, go pitapat; flutter, flitter, flicker, bicker; bustle. ferment, effervesce, foam; boil, boil over; bubble up; simmer. toss about, jump about; jump like a parched pea; shake like an aspen leaf; shake to its center, shake to its foundations; be the ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... on his bunk. They waited for Sim to show up, but he did not come to the room. At eight o'clock Stan began to squirm. ...
— A Yankee Flier Over Berlin • Al Avery
... in and felt shy when, on her entry, the big girls stared at her and touched each other's elbows, and the little ones began to squirm ...
— A Little Princess • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... of these." I indicated the garment over the pillow, and he wiggled. "Please don't squirm," I said coldly. "You will wear out your—lingerie, and I ...
— When a Man Marries • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... Jug, too, is analytical in its conduct. Almost from the first it is evident that Adam, the village judge, is himself the culprit in the case at trial in his court, and the comic efforts of the arch-rascal to squirm out of the inevitable discovery only serve to make his guilt the surer. In this comedy the blank verse adapts itself to all the turns of familiar humorous dialogue, and the effect of the Dutch genre-paintings of Teniers or ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IV • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... Ned. You dont know what may happen to you yet. There now! I know, without opening my eyes, that you are shocked, bless your delicacy! How do you think I should have got through life if I'd been thin-skinned? What good does it do you? You are pining away in this hole of a lodging. You squirm when Mrs. Myers tries to be friendly with you; and I sometimes laugh at your expression when Eliza treats you to a little blarney about your looks. Now I would just as soon gossip and swear at her as go ...
— The Irrational Knot - Being the Second Novel of His Nonage • George Bernard Shaw
... He ceased to squirm, and encouraged by this Paul by degrees removed his muffling hand, so that Bobolink could ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts on a Tour - The Mystery of Rattlesnake Mountain • George A. Warren
... ball glides along in the intense and immediate vicinity of the object-ball, and a count seems exquisitely imminent, lift one leg; then one shoulder; then squirm your body around in sympathy with the direction of the moving ball; and at the instant when the ball seems on the point of colliding throw up both of your arms violently. Your cue will probably break a chandelier, but no matter; ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine
... freedom because you are not going to send the letter. When you are on fire with theology you'll not write it to Rogers, who wouldn't be an inspiration; you'll write it to Twichell, because it will make him writhe and squirm & break the furniture. When you are on fire with a good thing that's indecent you won't waste it on Twichell; you'll save it for Howells, who will love it. As he will never see it you can make it really ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine
... I saw that young woman looking as if she was dead on the ground I felt I must do something, and seeing a pail of water standing near by, I held it over her face and poured it down on her a little at a time, and it wasn't long before she began to squirm, and then she opened her eyes and her mouth just at the same time, so that she must have swallowed about as much water as she would have taken at a meal. This brought her to, and she began to cough and splutter and look around wildly, and then I took her by the arm and helped ...
— Pomona's Travels - A Series of Letters to the Mistress of Rudder Grange from her Former - Handmaiden • Frank R. Stockton
... a second boche who like the first had been squatted down rose to his feet, slowly, it seemed, alongside me. We were both bereft of speech from the surprise; the fellow under me was incapable of locomotion as well, for while I felt him squirm ...
— Winning a Cause - World War Stories • John Gilbert Thompson and Inez Bigwood
... not the boy to give in without a struggle, but kick and squirm as he might, he could not free himself. Presently those who were carrying him stopped and laid him on the sidewalk. Then he heard a knock and a gate opened. Then he was lifted up again and, almost before he knew it, he was thrust into a little room—a closet it seemed—and ...
— The Broncho Rider Boys with Funston at Vera Cruz - Or, Upholding the Honor of the Stars and Stripes • Frank Fowler
... good ways from lil chile, who wan't an atom shy of de Colonel, though he was of her, an' when he took her han' I could almost see him squirm like. I think he tried to be kind, an' he gin her a lil ivory book he had on his watch-chain, but you see he didn't feel it. He didn't care for children, and it seemed as if he wanted to get away from this one. But he couldn't. She was ...
— The Cromptons • Mary J. Holmes
... who looked in the canteen, and who is now here for justice for that skeleton. He's waited twenty years for it, Carey, but he's going to get it to-day. Don't squirm so. You distract ...
— The Long Chance • Peter B. Kyne
... had a bag in his hand. And while Mr. Rabbit was watching, he squeezed through the hole in the stump. Even for Peter Mink the hole was almost too small. But he managed to squirm through, though it cost him a few groans; and he said some words that made Mr. Rabbit shake ...
— The Tale of Peter Mink - Sleepy-Time Tales • Arthur Scott Bailey
... cub to roll and squirm in protest Challoner went about the business of getting breakfast. For once Miki found a proceeding more interesting than that operation, and he hovered about Neewa as he struggled and bawled, trying vainly to offer him some assistance in the matter of sympathy. Finally Neewa lay still, ...
— Nomads of the North - A Story of Romance and Adventure under the Open Stars • James Oliver Curwood
... 'Certainly, Sunday clothes'. I'll speak to Hilary, and try to get her to leave you alone. As for those kids, just leave them to me; I'll tackle them, and tell them what I think of the way they behaved to-night—the young wretches! I fancy I'll make them squirm!" ...
— A harum-scarum schoolgirl • Angela Brazil
... I was a lad I served a term In a military school—how it made me squirm! I wore a shako, and a lot of braid. And I startled fire horses when on dress parade; But they took all glory away from me As a second lieut. a-wearing ...
— The Stars & Stripes, Vol 1, No 1, February 8, 1918, - The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919 • American Expeditionary Forces
... the proprietor, attending to his job with difficulty because Luke would squirm. "Hold still, will ...
— The Heart of the Range • William Patterson White
... crushed, his robes rent, his breast gory; a bleeding gash on his brow, cutting right across the stern scowl of battle! He should press his foot hard down upon the old serpent, as if his very soul depended upon it, feeling him squirm mightily, and doubting whether the fight were half over yet, and how the victory might turn! And, with all this fierceness, this grimness, this unutterable horror, there should still be something high, tender, and holy in Michael's eyes, and around his mouth. But the battle never was such a child's ...
— The Marble Faun, Volume I. - The Romance of Monte Beni • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... and girl will have little trouble getting hold of insects, but they are often puzzled when it comes to killing them. It seems cruel to pin up an insect alive and have it squirm for a day or two and some means of killing them should be devised. Most of the soft insects, such as flies, butterflies, etc., can be killed by pressing their body, in the region of the wings, between one's thumb ...
— An Elementary Study of Insects • Leonard Haseman
... had been hot after him, and he knew not how to defend himself. His photograph was implored. He was waylaid by journalists shabby and by journalists spruce, and the resulting interviews made him squirm. He became a man of mark at Pickering's. Photographers entreated him to sit free of charge. What irritated him in the whole vast affair was the continual insistence upon his lack of years. Nobody seemed to be interested in his design for the town hall; everybody ...
— The Roll-Call • Arnold Bennett
... it's real joy to hear music with. She knows what she's listening to. A fellow can sort of forget that he's got her along, an still be glad he has. As for you, you old money-hunting blunderbuss, the way you squirm in the presence of music ought to be a penitentiary offense. I'm almost glad you can't go." He gave a laugh that was dangerously genuine, and bolted for the hall to get his coat ...
— Defenders of Democracy • Militia of Mercy
... bedizened; and she was resolved in the selection of her draperies and ornaments to buy things which suggested by their looks that they were handsome, and whose claim to distinction was not mere sober unobtrusiveness. She realized that some of her purchases would have made Wilbur squirm, but since his death she felt more sure than ever that even where art was concerned his taste was subdued, timid, and unimaginative. For instance, she believed that he would not have approved her choice of light-blue satin ...
— Unleavened Bread • Robert Grant
... offer personal testimony that they came out," said the colonel, trying not to squirm. "They came, they saw, and they conquered. And all I have to say is that I thank you for your interest in the matter, but that we shall have to decline to add your new and very efficient, but uncontrollable, weapon to ...
— Ned, Bob and Jerry on the Firing Line - The Motor Boys Fighting for Uncle Sam • Clarence Young
... the children were in a nervous quiver waiting to see which foot would be left, but now the fun began, for they took the shoe off and every one slapped that unfortunate foot. This was done with good-natured vigor but without intention to hurt. It was amusing to see the children squirm as they neared the end of ...
— The Chinese Boy and Girl • Isaac Taylor Headland
... you can talk me out of this? You, you sawdust- head? What do you think I came into your hole here for? I came here so's you'd know what I was goin' to do to your precious chums. I wanted to tell you and have the fun of watchin' you squirm. Well, I'm havin' the fun, plenty of it. Squirm, you ...
— Shavings • Joseph C. Lincoln
... birch ci'der bit'ter thirst'y chirp mi'ser dif'fer third'ly flirt spi'der din'ner birch'en girl vi'per frit'ter chirp'er shirt cli'ent lit'ter girl'ish squirm gi'ant riv'er gird'er squirt i'tem shiv'er stir'less third i'cy sil'ver first'ly girt spi'ral in'ner birth'day gird i'vy ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey
... my thinking with allowance for the whole of human character, Claire. That was what was wrong with me. I'm doing that now. I'm finding myself again. It is back with the beginning of things I must start. Back with the first squirm of life in the primordial mud. It's no use trying further back than that. No use at all. Back of that ...
— Claire - The Blind Love of a Blind Hero, By a Blind Author • Leslie Burton Blades
... door, in the way of business, and rip went that gong! The first time this happened I thought the last day was come sure. I didn't think it in bed—no, but out of it—for the first effect of that frightful gong is to hurl you across the house, and slam you against the wall, and then curl you up, and squirm you like a spider on a stove lid, till somebody shuts the kitchen door. In solid fact, there is no clamor that is even remotely comparable to the dire clamor which that gong makes. Well, this catastrophe happened every ...
— The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories • Mark Twain
... that face—it is sheer and smooth and icy now, as then. He was probably the first man to attempt its descent, and I was always weak and spent when he ended his story of it, so vividly did he portray its dangers. I sat tense, digging my nails deep into my palms, living through every squirm and twist with him, from the moment he slid down from the comparatively safe "Narrows" to the first niche in the glassy, precipitous wall, till, after many nearly-the-last experiences, he landed ...
— A Mountain Boyhood • Joe Mills
... humble enough remark, but it caused a slight stiffening and withdrawal in the young girl. She instinctively felt the pleading for commendation and resented it. It was as if a slave, upon whose neck her foot rested, were to squirm round and recommend himself to her tolerance. David, trying to extort from her flattering admissions, roused a determination to keep the slave with ...
— The Emigrant Trail • Geraldine Bonner
... see him squirm. He'll think about that all the rest of the afternoon, and will hardly dare look you in the ...
— Blazed Trail Stories - and Stories of the Wild Life • Stewart Edward White
... in the Buffo line. When things seem getting slack, I'm to the front, with lots of go. My critics may cry "Quack!" But quacking's not confined to me. I do extremely well, And the more "I give them physic," why The more they squirm and yell— ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 102, May 14, 1892 • Various
... my right hand in his, and held it up for inspection. I tried to withdraw it, but his fingers tightened, without visible effort, till I thought mine would be crushed. It is hard to maintain one's dignity under such circumstances. I could not squirm or struggle like a schoolboy. Nor could I attack such a creature who had but to twist my arm to break it. Nothing remained but to stand still and accept the indignity. I had time to notice that the pockets of the dead man had been emptied ...
— The Sea-Wolf • Jack London
... because of that word Republican. You may believe that in a given instance the Republican cause or candidate is inferior; you may have nothing personally to lose through Republican defeat; yet you squirm and twist and seek excuses for casting a Republican ballot. Such is the power—aye, sometimes the tyranny—of a word. The word Republican has not been selected invidiously. Democrat would have served as well. Or take religious words—Catholic, ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor
... two o'clock opening up. I did not know the marks so I had to squirm out what the characters meant and put the prices on the tickets in plain figures so I would know what the goods were worth. But this was a good thing. The salesman or the firm that has the honesty ...
— Tales of the Road • Charles N. Crewdson
... going back to see what has become of the white canoe," said Frank, with deliberate intent to make his companions squirm. ...
— Frank Merriwell Down South • Burt L. Standish
... the dust and the stench of melinite, not knowing where you were, hardly knowing whether you were hit—only knowing that the next was rushing on its way. No eyes to see it, no limbs to escape, no bulwark to protect, no army to avenge. You squirm between ...
— From Capetown to Ladysmith - An Unfinished Record of the South African War • G. W. Steevens
... and called down on your dear head maledictions which for fulness and snap would have made a mediaeval Pope squirm with envy." ...
— Simon the Jester • William J. Locke
... and forward again on the under side of his body, and with this for an oar he struggled and writhed and squirmed, and went bumping blindly about among the pebbles like a kitten with its head in the cream pitcher. And at last, with the most vigorous squirm and wriggle of all, he backed clear of the shell in which he had lain for so many weeks and months, and, weak and weary from his exertions, lay down ...
— Forest Neighbors - Life Stories of Wild Animals • William Davenport Hulbert
... her sister's distressed face, but Trip once more claimed her attention. Just across the aisle was Old Silas Pratt's class, to which John and Charles Stuart belonged. They had just entered, and, with a squirm and a grunt, the little dog jerked himself free from the nervous grip of his preserver's feet, and darted across the aisle to his master. Charles Stuart shoved him under the scat, pinning him there with his legs, and looked inquiringly ...
— 'Lizbeth of the Dale • Marian Keith
... no surprise as he stepped back to get a better look at the czar, who began to squirm ...
— Sowing Seeds in Danny • Nellie L. McClung
... squirm for that!" the Etheling vowed. "I will tell him that your paganism has made spells over me so that I cannot tell a holy relique from an ale-skin; and a bedridden woman looks to me like two strapping yeomen. I ...
— The Ward of King Canute • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz
... a babe in the proletariat not over four years old who has received more pictures into its eye than it has had words enter its ear. The young couple go with their first-born and it sits gaping on its mother's knee. Often the images are violent and unseemly, a chaos of rawness and squirm, but scattered through the experience is a delineation of the world. Pekin and China, Harvard and Massachusetts, Portland and Oregon, Benares and India, become imaginary playgrounds. By the time the hopeful has reached its geography lesson in the public school it ...
— The Art Of The Moving Picture • Vachel Lindsay
... in a low tone, moved as always by the grandeur and beauty of the scene—"listen! Don't you hear them calling? Don't you feel the mountains sending their message to these poor insects who squirm and wriggle in this bit of muck men call their world? God, man! if only we, in our work, would heed ...
— The Eyes of the World • Harold Bell Wright
... know," said Mollie, dropping her voice. "Mother is dreadfully worried over him. And everybody is talking, Eb. It just makes me squirm. Flora Jane Fletcher asked me last night why father never testified, and him one of the elders. She said the minister was perplexed about it. I felt my ...
— Further Chronicles of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... floor and dirty children all about, and have this red-faced personage take a scarlet hand out of the tub, dry it on a dirty apron, and hold it out to her. And for her part she was prepared to take it, damp or clammy as it might be, without a squirm. ...
— Elsie Marley, Honey • Joslyn Gray
... the wild-dog, no chance to rush against him whole heartedly, with generous full weight in the attack. All Jerry could do was to crawl and squirm and belly forward, and always he was met by a snarling mouthful of teeth. Even so, he would have got the wild-dog in the end, had not Borckman, in passing, reached in and dragged Jerry out by a hind-leg. Again came Captain Van Horn's call, and ...
— Jerry of the Islands • Jack London
... they do—as you do, Jason," he said with majestic judgment, "twisting and turning with fear and unable to avoid your fate no matter how you squirm. Or you live as I have done, as a man of conviction, knowing what is right and not letting your head be turned by the petty needs of the day. And if one lives this way one ...
— The Ethical Engineer • Henry Maxwell Dempsey
... and sisters (all bigger than he!) could crowd him away from the feeding trough. And they not only could; but they often did. Unless Grunty reached the trough among the first, there was never a place left where he could squirm in. If he tried to eat at one end of the trough he was sure to be ...
— The Tale of Grunty Pig - Slumber-Town Tales • Arthur Scott Bailey
... of the house, intended to be a pleasing assurance that our fish was fresh, but a custom with just a savour in it of cannibalism. I have never cared to be on speaking terms with the creatures I am about to eat. I squirm when I see the lobster for my salad squirming, though I know the risk if it should not squirm at all. Had I lived in the country among my own chickens and pigs and lambs, I should have been long since a confirmed vegetarian. But to go to ...
— Nights - Rome, Venice, in the Aesthetic Eighties; London, Paris, in the Fighting Nineties • Elizabeth Robins Pennell
... himself he listened to hear what they were saying now in the next room. Eugenia was talking and he didn't like what she was saying about those recurrent dreams of Marise's, because he knew it was making poor Marise squirm. She had such a queer, Elly-like shyness about that notion of hers, Marise had. It evidently meant more to her than she had ever been able to make him understand. He couldn't see why she cared so much about it, hated to have it talked about casually. But he wasn't Eugenia. ...
— The Brimming Cup • Dorothy Canfield Fisher
... course. Ay! your first-person-singular novelist delights in relating his love-story, simply because he can invent something to pamper his own romantic notions; whereas, a similar undertaking makes the faithful chronicler squirm inasmuch as Oh!——you'll find out ...
— Such is Life • Joseph Furphy
... keened. "I can drag you and your sick wife, and Merkle, and those Hammon women out into the light, and I'll do it, too. I can make you all squirm, so let's get down to cases. There's millions of dollars among you, millions that were squeezed out of my kind of people; now I'm going to try my hand at squeezing. If I lose—very well. But I'll holler, and you'll have to ...
— The Auction Block • Rex Beach
... of fat men in heavy overcoats round the brightly varnished 'bus. "Are we going?" says a little man to the refreshed but purple-faced chauffeur. "Yes!" "That's good. I've had enough of this." The guard winds his horn, and after a preliminary squirm of the plump tyres on the soft road, the vehicle and its company goes tumbling down the road as if it were descending into ...
— A Tramp's Sketches • Stephen Graham
... it was plainly the Wonder whom he wished to propitiate. Then he suddenly backed as if he had dared too much, flopped on to the wet grass and regarded us both with foolish, goggling eyes. For a few seconds he lay still, and then he began to squirm along the ground towards us, a few inches at a time, stopping every now and again to bleat and gurgle with that curious, crooning note which he appeared to think would pacificate the object of ...
— The Wonder • J. D. Beresford
... there's only one thing I'm not glad about," responded Tom thoughtfully, beginning to squirm into his shirt. "I'm not glad we missed that goal. I wanted ...
— Left End Edwards • Ralph Henry Barbour
... and aspirants.' Didn't you squirm at the misprint? Is that setter-up-of-type still alive? Je m'en doute. The reference to Harcourt's chins will get you liked very much. You dated it from the Garrick, but you didn't put the time of night when you wrote ...
— The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Harry Furniss
... a nation—and she has neither a navy nor half a dozen first-class ports to guard the whole. No man catches a snake by the tail, because the creature will sting; but you can build a fire around a snake that will make it squirm. ...
— American Notes • Rudyard Kipling
... He tried to squirm loose, and to reach behind him with that suggestive movement that breeds trouble among men of the plains; but I held his arms so he couldn't move, the while I told him a lot of things about true politeness—things that I wasn't ...
— The Range Dwellers • B. M. Bower
... as ever trod quarter-deck; but when he gets spinning yarns he ain't the sort of man as I could advise you to rely upon. Well, Billy, he's got a dog, and I've seen him sit and tell yarns before that dog that would make a cat squirm out of its skin, and that dog's taken 'em in and believed 'em. One night, up at his old woman's, Bill told us a yarn by the side of which salt junk two voyages old would pass for spring chicken. I watched the ...
— Novel Notes • Jerome K. Jerome
... laughed. To his mind there was something delicious in the thought of the boss barber being forced by the politicians to buy dance tickets. "They cost two dollars each," he cried and shook with laughter "You should have seen my boss squirm. He didn't want the tickets but was afraid not to take them. The politician could make trouble for him and he knew it. You see we make a hand-book on the races in the shop and that is against the law. The politician ...
— Marching Men • Sherwood Anderson
... wasn't the only one I called down either." Then, realising that he had not helped the situation any by the remark, he tried to squirm out of it. "Of course, Holt was the one, you know. The others didn't really ...
— Left Guard Gilbert • Ralph Henry Barbour
... into the dining room. A suspicious rustle as she turned the door knob caused her to frown. Primmie was seated close to the wall on the opposite side of the room industriously peeling apples. Her mistress regarded her intently, a regard which caused its object to squirm in ...
— Galusha the Magnificent • Joseph C. Lincoln
... a soft sponge, cold water, and a bit o' scented soap— those are Mr Lacey's—to comfort you up. Of course, it depends on the oppyrator. I've seen women soaping little kids and making 'em squirm and yell, when I've felt as I could ha' washed the poor little things and made 'em laugh all the time.—This is one of Mr Lacey's towels, too—he wouldn't mind me bringing 'em. I say, though, you are a deal better. Fortni't ago you'd have shrunk ...
— The Queen's Scarlet - The Adventures and Misadventures of Sir Richard Frayne • George Manville Fenn
... the pain high up or low down?" And the doctor punched Katy's spine for some minutes, making her squirm uneasily. ...
— What Katy Did • Susan Coolidge
... Hamel telling her to go to hell one night and stop bothering him with her damned wailing ... and Frankie dying at her feet whispering, "What the devil, Pauline?" Then the trial. Hot and cold hours. A roomful of silent, open-mouthed faces listening to her weep, watching her squirm with proper shame and anguish as she told her story to the jurors ... the details of the abortion. "And then I couldn't stand it. I don't remember what happened. Oh, I loved him! I don't remember. ...
— Erik Dorn • Ben Hecht
... must brave cold water in an attempt to find enough fuel to cook with, then your philosophy and early religious training avail you little. The first ninety-nine times you are forced to do this you will probably squirm circumspectly through the bush in a vain attempt to avoid shaking water down on yourself; you will resent each failure to do so, and at the end your rage will personify the wilderness for the purpose ...
— The Forest • Stewart Edward White
... with a shudder. "I hate things that writhe, and squirm, and wriggle. Imagine being so near those hideous creatures! Why, if I once should see them I should never dare to go in bathing again. I'd rather not know ...
— The Story of Glass • Sara Ware Bassett
... bet she wouldn't say so. I've learned that much about her. Say, you'd a died to seen old Dunk look down his nose! I'll bet money she done it just t' rasp his feelin's—and she sure succeeded. I'd go anyway, now, just t' watch him squirm." ...
— Chip, of the Flying U • B. M. Bower
... I think it's Felix Wagner," admitted Fred. "Looked like his figure, but I can't squirm around so as to see again. Doesn't matter much anyway. Hi! there, turn out a little more, Bristles; you're heading for a hole! Not too far, because there's another just as bad stretching out from the other side. Careful ...
— Fred Fenton Marathon Runner - The Great Race at Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... he announced accusingly, gripping the toad that had begun to squirm at the heat and light. "I kilt a ...
— Cow-Country • B. M. Bower
... bored by mere Shakespeare and Milton, Though Hubbard compels me to rave; If I should lay laurels to wilt on That foggy Shakespearean grave, How William would squirm in ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IV. (of X.) • Various
... have points of resemblance after all. When the southern simoon from the stock yards is wafted across the vinegar orchards of Chicago, and a load of Mormon emigrants get out at the Rock Island depot and begin to move around and squirm and emit the fragrance of crushed Limburger cheese, it ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye
... Landy," laughed Toby; "none of us are hankering after an experience like that. I'll never forget what you looked like, dangling there on that push-pole, and trying to squirm your legs around it so as to climb up. Want to know what you made ...
— Afloat - or, Adventures on Watery Trails • Alan Douglas
... And he is not a hypocrite either. If your father was half as—" She stopped abruptly, her face going red when she saw Tom sitting on his horse beyond the shoulder of rock, regarding her with that inscrutable smile which never had failed to make her squirm mentally and wonder what he thought of her. She stood ...
— Rim o' the World • B. M. Bower
... Frank, turning a smiling face upon the old rider. Hank moved uneasily, seeming to squirm ...
— The Saddle Boys of the Rockies - Lost on Thunder Mountain • James Carson
... was essentially stanch and generous. Fate had played him a scurvy trick in making him a trembler, but he knew it was not in him to turn his back on Dingwell. No matter how much he might rebel and squirm he would have to come to time in ...
— The Sheriff's Son • William MacLeod Raine
... the truth be told. He did not even contemplate inflicting physical injury on Horace Gower. That would have been absurd. But he wanted to hurt him, to make him squirm, to heap trouble on the man and watch him break down under the load. And he did not see how he possibly could. Gower was too well fortified. Four years of war experience, which likewise embraced a considerable social experience, had amply shown Jack MacRae the subtle power of money, of political ...
— Poor Man's Rock • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... his shovel, he reached into a hysterical squirm of soft hair and sharp little teeth that snapped at his gloved hand. One by one he hauled them out, whining, biting, struggling like the little savages they were. One by one he sent them into oblivion with a sharp tap of the shovel. There ...
— The Ranch at the Wolverine • B. M. Bower
... that he could write: Never young Civilian's prospects were so dark, When the wretched Blitzen wrote to make his mark. Certainly he scored it, bold, and black, and firm, In that Indian paper—made his seniors squirm, Quoted office scandals, wrote the tactless truth— Was there ever known a more misguided youth? When the Rag he wrote for praised his plucky game, Boanerges Blitzen felt that this was Fame; When the men he wrote of ...
— Departmental Ditties and Barrack Room Ballads • Rudyard Kipling
... What has been "done to death" in vaudeville? You know as well as the most experienced playlet-writer, if you will only give the subject unbiased thought. What are the things that make you squirm in your seat and the man next you reach for his hat and go out? A list would fill a page, but there are two that should be mentioned because so many playlets built upon them are now being offered to producers without any hope of ...
— Writing for Vaudeville • Brett Page
... curl'd: And naiads that the vapours hide In shadows vague—Unholy light! (Spectres to each soul on a wrack) Dank caverns of each vaulted soul With spiral thoughts of fevered haste, 'Mid the throb of murderous life In haunted zones of vandals gyte, Squirm at the pulse of this blind shoal Where blood-veined dreams and acrid waste Cut thro' the senses like a knife And bid Icarian Thought to sit Below a bleak, untower'd home, Where fagots that the skelp hath stunned— Plunderers of unfathomed night! Glare thro' black shadows vague with ...
— Betelguese - A Trip Through Hell • Jean Louis de Esque
... of this sociable promenade the steamboat stopped at a small town, and it had scarcely started again when the baby gave a squirm which nearly threw it out of its bearer's arms. At the same instant he heard quick steps behind him, and, turning, he beheld the mother of the child. At the sight his heart fell. Gone were his plans, his hopes, ...
— The Squirrel Inn • Frank R. Stockton
... may warn him; Babies cry and women coax; But he cares not one iota, For he calmly smokes and smokes. Oh, he cares not whom he strangles, Vexes, puts to flight, provokes; And although they squirm and fidget, He just smokes and ...
— The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation • Carry A. Nation
... was not disposed to agree, but he was as halting in his secular utterances as he was fiery in his sacred eloquence. He could only squirm and give out a few low, doubtful grunts; after which, as the other man kept silence, he got up from his chair with about as much difficulty as if he had ...
— Stories by Foreign Authors: Italian • Various
... touched with something higher and brighter through that instant's approach and confidence. If I were to write down his thought as he walked, it would be with phrase and distinction peculiar to himself and to the boy-mind,—"It's the real thing with her; it don't make a fellow squirm like a pin put out at a caterpillar. She's good; ...
— Junior Classics, V6 • Various
... wise, and shudder as in misery; in vain the prima donna tries to win approving smiles from me; in vain the tenor or the bass, to gain from me admiring looks, pours floods of music through his face—I squirm as though on tenderhooks. And people watch my curves and sigh; "He has it all by heart, by jing! What melody would reach the sky if he ...
— Rippling Rhymes • Walt Mason
... was told, and stood helping father when the beaver came too—after getting a big whiff of hartshorn. We washed the torn flesh with water, and father poured on something from a bottle that made the old fellow squirm, but he sensed that we were helping him and ...
— Polly and Eleanor • Lillian Elizabeth Roy
... idea what you may do next. You aren't faring any too well. That's plain enough. I have seen men raise Cain out of sheer devilishness, out of a desperate notion to smash everything because they were going to smash themselves. Some people seem able to amuse themselves by watching other people squirm. Maybe you are like that. You had complete power over me once. I surrendered to that gladly, then. You appear to have a faculty of making men dance to any tune you care to play. But all the power you have ...
— The Hidden Places • Bertrand W. Sinclair |
