"Critter" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... better'n a mile away from me. It looked like a mountain sheep, as well as I could make out; but there it was for sure; an' thinkin' how good that critter will taste roasted has given me a regular twistin' pain all through my empty inside! But th' point is that down on that side o' th' mountain there's game; I saw birds, too, but I couldn't make out what they were; an', somehow, it looks different ...
— The Aztec Treasure-House • Thomas Allibone Janvier
... 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 words that ...
— Chums in Dixie - or The Strange Cruise of a Motorboat • St. George Rathborne
... Everybody knows how Julius Caesar turned up his nose at fat men. The poet never could stand frying; he calls it, in 'Macbeth,' 'the young fry of treachery.' Probably he'd had more taste of the traitor than was good for him. Has a good slap somewhere on the critter that 'devours up all the fry it finds.' I reckon that Shakspeare always set a proper valuation on human digestion; 'cause when he speaks of a man with a good stomach,—an excellent stomach,—he always has a good word for him, and kind of strokes ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864 • Various
... not let you ride him. I reckon you'll get enough of the critter before you have ridden him many minutes, even if you ...
— Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders on the Great American Desert • Jessie Graham Flower
... chicken, last time I saw him. Kind of a spindlin' little critter, with sandy complexion and hair, but dressed—my soul! there wasn't any picked ...
— Cap'n Dan's Daughter • Joseph C. Lincoln
... big striped tiger, then and there, for he started to drag me away, like he meant to eat me up. I got hold of the leg of the table, and held on like all get-out. That's when I waked up, and found that I was bein' yanked out of my blanket by some critter that did have hold of my left ankle. And it was Steve and not the table leg I'd been hangin' on to ...
— The Strange Cabin on Catamount Island • Lawrence J. Leslie
... coaxing him 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 calculations regarding his farm-products. The result ...
— The Path of Duty, and Other Stories • H. S. Caswell
... he said anyway. He was took with just such a lonesome spell once when he was trapping in the Mandans country. He was a pious critter, great on prayer and communing with the Lord. And he felt—I've heard him tell about it—just as if he'd go wild if he didn't get something for company. What he wanted was a dog and you might just as well want ...
— The Emigrant Trail • Geraldine Bonner
... 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 will be on ...
— The Lone Ranche • Captain Mayne Reid
... color. Yer smilin', young man. Well, go on and smile at me, 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 ...
— A Sappho of Green Springs • Bret Harte
... you're right, Ben, and I ought to have thought of that. I jest wish I could set eyes on the critter at this particular minute. To treat us that way after our ...
— The Young Explorer • Horatio Alger
... bloodhound." I knew what Rube meant, for it was a well-known matter of boast of El Zeres that no one could ever escape him, for that his bloodhound would track them to the end of the world. "There's only one thing to be done," I said; "we must go back and kill that critter." "Wait, Seth," Rube said; "we don't know where the darned brute is kept. He warn't up at the hut, and we might waste an hour in finding him, and when we did, he ain't a critter to be wiped out like a babby." ...
— Out on the Pampas - The Young Settlers • G. A. Henty
... danger was over, Pete was disposed to scold. "I'm a-thinkin'," said Pete severely, "ez thar ain't a critter on this hyar mounting, from a b'ar ter a copperhead, that could hev got in sech a ...
— The Literary World Seventh Reader • Various
... 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 ...
— The Moving Finger • Mary Gaunt
... much use't to gemman's horses. Kind of bold me on, mas'r, till I gits de hang of de critter. ...
— Bad Hugh • Mary Jane Holmes
... be a fool. Come back, come back, I say. Why, I believe the critter has taken me for earnest. Jabez Andrews, ...
— The Book of Anecdotes and Budget of Fun; • Various
... toddling along to the window, and looking up and down the road. "Denno. Mile off, mebbe. Master critter to ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 79, May, 1864 • Various
... is 'bout the boldest critter that runs wild. Let 'em alone and they'll let you alone. But they ain't afeard of nothin' on two laigs or four—or that flies in the air, neither. When ye see a skunk in the path, ...
— The Mission of Janice Day • Helen Beecher Long
... "Yer poor critter!" said Creline, with great contempt for her ignorance. "Why, Massa Linkum, eberybody knows 'bout he. He's done gone made ...
— The Junior Classics • Various
... 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 diff'ent—he wuz the batteredest-lookin', ...
— Kincaid's Battery • George W. Cable
... the critter got a chill and done died," announced the cadaverous Missourian, to whose care ...
— Gold • Stewart White
... so, mas'r," said Tom. "'Twould be downright cruel, the poor critter's sick and feeble. Mas'r, if you mean to kill me, kill me; but as to my raising my hand against anyone here, I never will—I'll die first." Legree shook with anger. "Here, Sambo!—Quimbo!" he shouted, "give this dog such a breakin' in as he ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VIII • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... a lunkhead, an' I know it; 'taint no use to squirm an' talk, I'm a gump an' I'm a lunkhead, I'm a lummux, I'm a gawk, An' I make this interduction so that all you folks can see An' understan' the natur' of the critter thet I be. ...
— Memories and Anecdotes • Kate Sanborn
... this—there ain't a engine with its biler bust, in God A'mighty's free U-nited States, so fixed, and nipped, and frizzled to a most e-tarnal smash, as that young critter, in her luxurious location in the Tower of London will be, when she reads the next double-extra ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens
... laughed. "There ain't enough babies around a mining camp to make you forget any one of 'em, and you couldn't rightly forget Billie if you tried. Fat and curly-headed she was, and the spunkiest little critter you ever see, always falling down hard and scrambling up again by herself and laughing to beat four of a kind. Her ma tried to keep her home, but there warn't a chance; she went wherever her little legs would carry ...
— The Fifth Ace • Douglas Grant
... 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
... 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 philosophers, ...
— Galusha the Magnificent • Joseph C. Lincoln
... she, as the men came into the yard, 'I want ye t' look at this boy. Did ye ever see such a cunnin' little critter? Jes' look at them bright eyes!' and then she held me to her breast and nearly smothered me and began to hum a ...
— Eben Holden - A Tale of the North Country • Irving Bacheller
... feed the critter some soothin' syrup?" jeers a villager. Emma reads the message of the hermit thrush. On the way to the "Big Woods." Trouble is threatened at Bisbee's Corners. The Overlanders ...
— Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders in the Great North Woods • Jessie Graham Flower
... just outside the Shark's Teeth reef day 'fore yesterday," spoke Jack Kett, "when our lookout spied the whale. We keep a couple of irons aboard for sharks, dogfish and the like, and it didn't take long to sink one in this critter. Then he sounded and we couldn't pick him up again. We've been looking for him ever since, and to-day we thought we saw someone in a motor boat towing our whale away. I explained how we got on the wrong course," and he detailed what is ...
— Frank and Andy Afloat - The Cave on the Island • Vance Barnum
... roared Wash, "I ain't gwine to hab no off-color critter like disher try ter combobberate ma Shanghai. Dat is ma final ratification ob de pre-eminent ...
— On a Torn-Away World • Roy Rockwood
... sentiments, as made 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 ...
— The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth • Timothy Templeton
... her," said the trapper. "I reckon I know when life is strong in any critter. She'll git over thet. All we can do now is to watch her an' keep her from doin' herself harm. Take her ...
— The U.P. Trail • Zane Grey
... far and wide. It was a remarkable thing about him, often spoken of, that if you went to Tammas with a stranger and asked him to say a sarcastic thing that the man might take away as a specimen, he could not do it. "Na, na," Tammas would say, after a few trials, referring to sarcasm, "she's no a critter to force. Ye maun lat her tak her ain time. Sometimes she's dry like the pump, an' syne, again, oot she comes in a gush." The most sarcastic thing the stone-breaker ever said was frequently marvelled over in Thrums, both before and behind his face, but unfortunately ...
— Auld Licht Idylls • J. M. Barrie
... all the nights in de year. You Solomon, it's a night dat dey keeps up in heaven. You know nothin' about it, you poor critter. I done believe you never hearn no one tell about it. Maybe Miss Daisy wouldn't read us de story, and de angels, and de shepherds, and dat great light what come down, and make us feel good for Christmas; and Uncle Darry, he'll ...
— Daisy • Elizabeth Wetherell
... passed through together, or because Pat was a true convert of his, had taken quite a fancy to the Hibernian, and insisted that he should accompany him home. Pat became a very worthy man, after abandoning the "critter," which had been his greatest bane. For three years he served our New Englander faithfully on the farm, at the end of which period his desire to get ahead prompted him to take a buxom Irish girl to his bosom, and go to farming on his own hook. A visit of Henry and Emily, ...
— Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue • Warren T. Ashton
... was a little bit of a thing; you could just see her. But Ant Black, she was a great big critter that went like a train of cars when she was ...
— Old Caravan Days • Mary Hartwell Catherwood
... if 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 ...
— Desert Dust • Edwin L. Sabin
... but everything that could be purchased was good and cheap. There was but one meatshop which was kept by a Mr. Hoblet. He kept his place open in the forenoon only, as his afternoons were spent in driving over the country in search of a "fat critter." The best steaks and roasts were 8c a pound and chickens 4 to 6c a pound. Eggs, we bought at 6c a dozen and butter at 8 to 10c a pound. In winter, we purchased a hind quarter of beef at 3 and 4c a pound, chickens 3c and occasionally pork could be bought ...
— Old Rail Fence Corners - The A. B. C's. of Minnesota History • Various
... That is no doubt true, old man. Still, you must get as unprejudiced as you can. The critter has a right to his chance, such as he is. So now go right ahead. If the prisoner don't like this jury, he should have stole a horse in another town; for this is all the ...
— The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet • George Bernard Shaw
... 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
... greatest mind to set him ashore, to come to his senses at his leisure, and if I'm not greatly mistaken, he's but a young runaway at best; but we might as well keep him now, he'll do for testing the strength of our cats, and as for that other critter, Mr. Sampson, you may hand him over to the steward, and tell him I shall want a nice over-all when we get out where the ice makes an inch ...
— Natalie - A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds • Ferna Vale
... hands, both o' ye!" he exclaimed, waving the gun threateningly. "Ye be desprite scoundrels, I take it, an' I don't mean to gi'e ye any chance to treat me like ye done my dawg. Fifty dollars wouldn't buy that critter; an' like's not he won't never be any use arter this. I'm goin' to march ye both to the town lockup, right away. Don't ye ...
— The Airplane Boys among the Clouds - or, Young Aviators in a Wreck • John Luther Langworthy
... 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
... 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
... opportunity offers. If he stays where he is, fret him—and fret him!" Finally: "If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg, and the tail on the plank road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the critter must be slim somewhere; could you not break ...
— The Lincoln Story Book • Henry L. Williams
... "The critter don't seem to take to it nohow, does he?" said the blacksmith, cheerfully, as he again ...
— The Voyage of the Rattletrap • Hayden Carruth
... they heard it or not I can't say, but I heard a yell from Sam jest in time to look and see a whale rise I'll 'low twenty foot clean out of the water. Then there was a kind of a rush, and Sam and me went down, and when we riz it was gone. The critter had hopped clean over that bot as slick as nothing. That kinder tuck the peartness aout of us, so to speak; but later in the day I got aout the gun ag'in, havin' broke the lance, and in killin' the critter she jumped on the bot, and—wall, Sam and me we lit aout, and was picked up after a spell; ...
— Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36—New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885 • Various
... Printed it in the paper, for all to read. That's why I've come to cowhide the critter within an inch o' ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces on Vacation • Edith Van Dyne
... 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
... school hardly 'thout a garter-snake or two or a lizard or a toad-frog somewheres about him. He's got some o' the little girls at school that nervous thet if he thess shakes his little sleeve at 'em they'll squeal, not knowin' what sort o' live critter'll jump out ...
— Sonny, A Christmas Guest • Ruth McEnery Stuart
... in a lump. But land, Rebecky, nobody'd swaller that there village maiden o' your'n, and as for what's-his-name Littlefield, that come out o' them bushes, such a feller never 'd a' be'n IN bushes! No, Rebecky, you're the smartest little critter there is in this township, and you beat your Uncle Jerry all holler when it comes to usin' a lead pencil, but I say that ain't no true Riverboro story! Look at the way they talk! What was that' bout ...
— New Chronicles of Rebecca • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... sadly; "yo're judgment is confused by the fact that the critter carries a saddle. Look ...
— The Killer • Stewart Edward White
... roadster, goer^; racehorse, pack horse, draft 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, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... lightweight, an' I need the diamond hitch. But to-day, when I seen Little Peachey in the scrub over yonder, why, it was different, and I knowed it right quick. Ever broke a horse, have you? Well, before you've got your lassoo coiled, the critter's eyes'll tell you just what sort o' tea-party you're goin' to have. Thar was a man once—a hoss wrangler—an' the easier a hoss broke, the more he'd mouch around an' hang his head, real melancholy and sad-eyed. The ...
— Stories from Everybody's Magazine • 1910 issues of Everybody's Magazine
... your man," said Jennings, "just follow me," continued he, "and I will show you the fairest little critter you ever saw." And the two passed to the stern of the boat to where the trader had between fifty and sixty slaves, ...
— Clotelle - The Colored Heroine • William Wells Brown
... ever!" said Miss Ruey, when she had ascertained that no bones were broken; "if that ar young un isn't a limb! I declare for't I pity Mis' Pennel,—she don't know what she's undertook. How upon 'arth the critter managed to get Mara on to the hay, I'm sure I can't tell,—that ar little thing never got ...
— The Pearl of Orr's Island - A Story of the Coast of Maine • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... a broken-down critter, Who is all of a trimmle and twitter, With your palate unpleasantly bitter, As if you'd just eaten a pill— When your legs are as thin as dividers, And you're plagued with unruly insiders, And your spine is all creepy with spiders, And you're highly gamboge in the ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
... 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 ...
— The Strange Case of Cavendish • Randall Parrish
... as Dick's hat-band," the ex-boarding house mistress confided to the driver. "But, bless you! the easiest critter to get along with—you never saw his beat. If I'd a house full of Lem Camps to cook for, I'd think I was next ...
— Hiram The Young Farmer • Burbank L. Todd
... 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 ...
— Martin Rattler • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... 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 ink,) This makes 'em think our fust ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various
... 'That there critter in the wagon is a man,' said Hopkins, looking as intently in the same direction. 'It seems to me,' he added, a moment later, 'that there's somebody else a-sit-ting alongside of him, either a dog or a boy. Wal, naow, ...
— The Huge Hunter - Or, the Steam Man of the Prairies • Edward S. Ellis
... 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
... Squire," returned Aaron, 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 about it as ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 • Various
... 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 ...
— The Quest • Pio Baroja
... low meditative tone, "has only two hundred a year—so I'm told; an' the doctor at the west end has got four hundred, and he keeps a fine house an' servants; an' Sam Balls, the rich hosier, has got six hundred—so they say; and Mrs Gaff, the poor critter, has only got five hundred! That'll do," she continued, with a sudden burst of animation, "shake out the reefs in yer tops'ls, lass, slack off yer sheets, ease the helm, an' make the most on it while the ...
— Shifting Winds - A Tough Yarn • R.M. Ballantyne
... thump a drum," answered Jim, easily. "Come back here, Tintoretto. Don't you touch that skinny little critter with the shakes. I wouldn't let you eat ...
— Bruvver Jim's Baby • Philip Verrill Mighels
... here on the river for mavericking a yearling, and sent him to Huntsville for five years. That's a fair sample of these modern days. There isn't a cowman in Texas to-day who amounts to a pinch of snuff, but got his start the same way, but if a poor fellow looks out of the corner of his eye now at a critter, they imagine he wants to steal it. Oh, I know them; and the bigger rustlers they were themselves on the open range, the bitterer their persecution of the man ...
— A Texas Matchmaker • Andy Adams
... feet, and winners' 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 ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]
... a chance to try your gun, and I had just made up my mind like which leg I'd pepper if he tried to sneak anything away. Well, p'raps we may run across the critter again, and I'll just keep it in mind that it was the left leg I chose—he's got somewhat of a limp in the right one now, and you see that'd sort of even things up. I don't like to ...
— Canoe Mates in Canada - Three Boys Afloat on the Saskatchewan • St. George Rathborne
... run across the carcass of a critter that's been killed," he hazarded, "though this is pretty close home for beef thieves to get in their work. Most of the stock is killed north and east ...
— The Gringos • B. M. Bower
... Simon, 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 ...
— Jack Tier or The Florida Reef • James Fenimore Cooper
... Wal, I dare say you won't be troubled. Some folks have a knack of seeing sperrits, and then agin some hasn't. My wife is uncommon powerful that way, but I aint; my sight's dreadful poor for that sort of critter." ...
— Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Vol. 5 - Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, Etc. • Louisa M. Alcott
... and 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 a chance, as they do in the Philippine Islands ...
— Across India - Or, Live Boys in the Far East • Oliver Optic
... comfortable all over, wouldn't you know it? But that don't express it. You'd feel more'n comfortable; you'd feel so good you couldn't hold in. You'd be fur shoutin'; you wouldn't know yourself. Why, doesn't the Bible say you'd be a new critter? There'll be just such a change in your heart as there is in this old kitchen when we come in on a cold, dark night and light the candles, and kindle a fire. I tell you what 'tis, young man, if you once got convarted your troubles would ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe
... a harpooner, as they flew past. "Ye've turned the critter for us, and now she'll tow us aboard without ...
— Harper's Young People, April 20, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... say he 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 ...
— Fred Fenton Marathon Runner - The Great Race at Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... averagin' up, same as I told you. Providence made me a two-legged critter, and a two-legged critter needs two boots. I've always been able to find one of these boots right off whenever I wanted it, but it's took me so plaguey long to find the other one that whatever wet there was dried up afore I got out of the house. Yesterday when I wanted ...
— Cap'n Eri • Joseph Crosby Lincoln
... 'um, then along will come a bar that will teach you difrunt. There ain't no use in makin' rules about bar ettyket, cuz ef you do, some miserable pig-headed bar will break 'um all ter smash, jest like this 'ere one did. But I think there is a good deal surer way uv accountin' for the critter's action than what you say. It's my idee that he mistook the baby ...
— Black Bruin - The Biography of a Bear • Clarence Hawkes
... 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 ...
— The Hoosier Schoolmaster - A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana • Edward Eggleston
... 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
... a running for the train as fast as his little legs could go. But we was nigh enough then; and just as the Ingin was reaching down from his pony for the kid, Al Thorpe—he was a powerful fine shot—draw'd up his gun and took the red cuss off his critter without the paint-bedaubed devil ...
— The Old Santa Fe Trail - The Story of a Great Highway • Henry Inman
... 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 ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Georgia Narratives, Part 3 • Works Projects Administration
... time, Tonoi, the 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 ...
— Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas • Herman Melville
... when we catch a ferocious critter', we always put it in a cage. I'm no great mathematician, as I've often told you; if my dog bites me once, I kick him—twice, I beat him—thrice, ...
— The Monikins • J. Fenimore Cooper
... enjoyed the riding well enough; but I didn't enjoy hunting for punctures, putting on new tires, or burrowing into the inside of the critter to find out why she didn't go! And that's what I was doing most of the time. I never did like machinery. It ...
— Oh, Money! Money! • Eleanor Hodgman Porter
... 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 ...
— David Crockett: His Life and Adventures • John S. C. Abbott
... have knowed it," Bill chided himself aloud as he replaced the gun. "Of course a wolf that knows enough to come in with the dogs at feedin' time, 'd know all about shooting-irons. I tell you right now, Henry, that critter's the cause of all our trouble. We'd have six dogs at the present time, 'stead of three, if it wasn't for her. An' I tell you right now, Henry, I'm goin' to get her. She's too smart to be shot in the open. But I'm goin' to lay for her. I'll bushwhack ...
— White Fang • Jack London
... a trap, you know," Bandy-legs went on. "Heard about such things. The little critter may be just toling us on like they train a dog to do down in the duck regions ...
— In Camp on the Big Sunflower • Lawrence J. Leslie
... "No, he can't neither. He ain't feelin' no ways perky, any one can see that, an' I'm tickled most to pieces that he's come 'round—I've took up with him consid'rable, I have. Patriarch'll just make a new-born critter outer him—you watch through the window where he goes. Bet you a quarter that's what ...
— The Miracle Man • Frank L. Packard
... lastly, thou radiant grain-field, what prepared the room for thy bright and golden presence? Whew! if that isn't a tremendous flight, I don't know what is! But the axe, as Uncle Jack Lummis says of his brown mare, is "a tarnal great critter, any how!" ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 3 September 1848 • Various
... ov 'em round yere," he admitted. "These fellers are most all hoss-soldiers. I reckon I cud cinch sum sort o' critter. Yer want ...
— The Devil's Own - A Romance of the Black Hawk War • Randall Parrish
... critter among you as has got any sense," snarled the ferryman; "for he's the only one who didn't ask to be ...
— Chasing an Iron Horse - Or, A Boy's Adventures in the Civil War • Edward Robins
... cur of Blonay, and the bear-eyed rascal must be in the neighborhood.' 'Do you think so?' inquired Davis. 'Think so! I know so; and why should he be here if his master was not?' 'Tom,' he continued, 'hit the critter a smart blow with your stick—hard enough to scare him off, but not to hurt him; and do you move to the edge of the creek, Davis, as soon as the dog runs off, for his master must be in that direction, and I want to ...
— The Old Bell Of Independence; Or, Philadelphia In 1776 • Henry C. Watson
... been so bothered by the critter—but in point of pertinacity he has met his match. (I have no objection to your saying that your father-in-law is a brute, if you think that will soften ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 3 • Leonard Huxley
... of the "old salts," having been rebuked by the captain for steering wildly, declared, in a grave but respectful tone, that he could steer as good a trick at the helm as any man who ever handled a marlinspike; but he "verily believed the old critter knew as much as a Christian, and was obstinately determined to turn round and take a ...
— Jack in the Forecastle • John Sherburne Sleeper
... peddler had scooted up a tall tree quick as a squirrel and there he set on a limb. Buck was ragin' and chargin' in circles around that tree. That bull was riled plum to a franzy and that tin peddler was yaller as a punkin. Skeert out of his wits. 'Come on down, you pore critter!' sez I. But he just opened his mouth and couldn't say a word, just a dry croak like a frog bein' swallored in sudden quicksand. 'Come on down,' I coaxed, 'I'll quile Buck down till he's peaceable as ...
— Blue Ridge Country • Jean Thomas
... critter o' that age—wants t' try everything in its mouth," he said, trying to find a ...
— The Wind Before the Dawn • Dell H. Munger
... 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 ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VIII (of X) • Various
... behind, but never where he was. 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 ...
— Two Little Savages • Ernest Thompson Seton
... o' my ole mar. She wan't hard to find; for if ever a critter made a noise, she did. She wur tied to a tree close by the shanty, an' the way she wur a-squealin' wur a caution to cats. I found her up to the belly in water, pitchin' an' flounderin' all round the tree. She hed nothin' on but the rope that she wur hitched by. Both saddle ...
— The Hunters' Feast - Conversations Around the Camp Fire • Mayne Reid
... Maybe nobody but some harmless critter. Can't always tell. But there is one sure thing," added Mr. Hammond slowly. "We crossed the trail of that gang of horse thieves where they broke up into two parties. One party skirted the range, going north. We followed the others because they were ...
— Nan Sherwood at Rose Ranch • Annie Roe Carr
... won't call 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
... ever?" cried Mary Sands. "I never knew a hoss could have that much sense, Mr. Parks. Why, 'twas like a person more than a dumb critter." ...
— The Wooing of Calvin Parks • Laura E. Richards
... talked freely about the people for whom he worked. "Old Deacon Sears had a cow once that would jump everything. Wa'n't a wall could be built that was high enough to stop her," he would say. "'Tain't no ways clear to my mind that she ain't the identical critter that jumped the moon;—and I swan if Mis' Jameson ain't like her. There ain't nothin' that's goin' to stop her; she ain't goin' to be hendered by any sech little things as times an' seasons an' frost from raisin' corn an' green ...
— The Jamesons • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... cinch, is it proper f'r to always kick th' critter in th' stomach or on'y whin ye ...
— Observations by Mr. Dooley • Finley Peter Dunne
... confusion 'mongst de animals, Ev'y critter claimed dat he had won de prize; Dey 'sputed an' dey arg'ed, dey growled an' dey roared, Den putty soon de dus' ...
— Fifty years & Other Poems • James Weldon Johnson
... 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
... 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 ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London
... The red-haired man slipped the bridle, and underneath it appeared a small sore. "There, that's the reason, and I'll tell you the truth," said the man defiantly. "Here I am trying to sell this darned critter; paid a cool hundred for him, and everybody says jest as you do, won't buy him with the bridle on. Then I takes off the bridle, and they sees this little bile, and there's an end to it. I suppose it's the same with you. Well, good day, gentlemen. You're losin' a ...
— 'Doc.' Gordon • Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman
... longer. But he told his step-mother this very mornin' and she told me. You was the one that advised him to enlist, he said. Good Lord; think of it! He don't go to his own father for advice; he goes to the town jackass instead, the critter that spends his time whittlin' out ...
— Shavings • Joseph C. Lincoln
... truculently. "I hadn't time—took me all the time there was 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 ...
— Rilla of Ingleside • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... hyar," he continued, after having patted her nose, "'n' all critters, has one kind of whinny fer hunger 'n' thirst, another when somethin's scarin' 'em, another when they're hurt, another when they're callin' a critter, 'n' another when they're answerin'. Most all varmints has those, too; jest the same as a critter—'cept the ...
— Sunlight Patch • Credo Fitch Harris
... 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
... quite sure," said her father. "I wonder if these cooks think that meat grows, all seasoned, on 'the critter'? They must believe that. However, does she ...
— Janice Day, The Young Homemaker • Helen Beecher Long
... to add that it wouldn't cost much to feed an imaginary critter, but he was a little fearful of the temper back of the lad's hair, which was the same ...
— Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley • Belle K. Maniates
... the neighbors; tells us all their private cares, While we have the fun er knowin' how she talks of our affairs; Says, with sobs, that Christmas comin' makes her feel so bad, for, oh! Her Isaiah, the dear departed, allers did enjoy it so. Her Isaiah, poor henpecked critter, 's been dead seven years er more, An' looked happier in his coffin than he ...
— Cape Cod Ballads, and Other Verse • Joseph C. Lincoln
... daubin' at that wooden doll baby for a minute, will you? I want to talk to you. I want to ask you what you think I'd better do. I know what Gab Bearse— Much obliged for that name, Jed; 'Gab's' the best name on earth for that critter—I know what Gab came in here to talk about. 'Twas about me and my bein' put on the Exemption Board, of course. That was it, wan't it? Um-hm, I knew 'twas. I was the 'this' in his 'this and that.' And Phin Babbitt was the 'that'; I'll bet on ...
— Shavings • Joseph C. Lincoln
... 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 ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IX., March, 1862., No. LIII. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics, • Various
... 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 ...
— The Rainy Day Railroad War • Holman Day
... is a poor, shiftless kind of a critter. I s'pose the snow went off before he got ready to haul them to the mill; but if he had peeled them in June or July, they would have been all right; but now they will be ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Vol. 1, Issue 1. - A Massachusetts Magazine of Literature, History, - Biography, And State Progress • Various
... 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
... an' she'd learn me, she would, an' she beat me tur'ble," and Maggie 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
... 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 blindness of man, ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper
... afternoon, wondered which was to blame. "Pot and kettle, probably," he decided. "Samuel's goodness is very irritating sometimes, and Benjamin's badness is— well, it's not as distressing as it should be. But what a forlorn old critter he is! And this Mrs. Richie is lonely too—a widow, with no children, poor woman! I must call next week. Goliath wouldn't like to turn round now and climb the hill again. Danny, I fear Goliath ...
— The Awakening of Helena Richie • Margaret Deland
... where it was!" she ejaculated suddenly. "I've lost the child!" People began to look at her and she continued mentally: "The critter looked as if he wanted to eat her up, the poor little lamb. Unless the mother's something different from the son she'll be driven to desperation. No knowin' what she'll do." Miss Upton clasped her plump hands together in great trouble of spirit. "I believe I said Keefe more'n once. ...
— In Apple-Blossom Time - A Fairy-Tale to Date • Clara Louise Burnham
... shoot at the wild-cat, 'Siah," said the boy, getting upon his feet. "See yonder; there's the doe I knocked over. But the critter was after her, too, and it madded him when ...
— With Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga • W. Bert Foster
... pain," he said to himself. "Too bad if the critter hez had a tumble an' broke a leg! If ...
— The Boy Land Boomer - Dick Arbuckle's Adventures in Oklahoma • Ralph Bonehill
... with the fool critter!" Nance muttered. "Is she moanin' for sin? To be shore, they don't have no revival ...
— The Foolish Virgin • Thomas Dixon
... way some of those fellers howl is enough t' give any self- respectin' cow critter th' ...
— Cowboy Dave • Frank V. Webster
... close together, seemed merged in one, so concentrated was their gaze. Again their expression struck Birt's attention. He hesitated once more. "Ef I tell ye, will ye promise never ter tell enny livin' human critter?" ...
— Down the Ravine • Charles Egbert Craddock (real name: Murfree, Mary Noailles)
... when they sometimes get jammed together in the door-way, and a man has to take a running leap over their heads, afore he can get in. A little nigger boy in New York found a diamond worth two thousand dollars; well, he sold it to a watchmaker for fifty cents—the little critter didn't know no better. Your people are just like the nigger boy—they don't know the ...
— The Clockmaker • Thomas Chandler Haliburton
... it a 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 the ...
— Fated to Be Free • Jean Ingelow
... 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
... on ye, did he, young feller? Well, consarn them Mexicans! I've allus heerd they was dangerous critters. 'Cordin' to your story, you wan't none to blame in this affair. So the dod-rabbited critter kinder went in swimmin' arter that, did he? Think he's drowned, do ye? Um-her! I don't s'pose it'll do no good for us to go fishin' for him to-night. I'll git some fellers and drag for him in the mornin'. Don't s'pose you want him to soak there in your lake, Mr. Merriwell, ...
— Frank Merriwell's Son - A Chip Off the Old Block • Burt L. Standish
... back, consarn ye!" shouted old McGee. "What's the matter with ther critter, anyhow? ...
— The Boy Inventors' Radio Telephone • Richard Bonner
... 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 up that 'ere ...
— Atlantic Monthly,Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... after a deer, for we wanted venison for breakfast. I got a buck, and was returnin', when what should I see but a bear swimmin' the Ohio, and I put out in chase right off. I soon overhauled the critter, and picked up my rifle to give him a settler, when I found that in paddlin' I had spattered water into the canoe, wettin' the primin' and makin' the gun of no more use than a stick. I didn't understand much about the ...
— Wild Northern Scenes - Sporting Adventures with the Rifle and the Rod • S. H. Hammond
... we spend for groceries—and Violet goes around herself looking like the Devil before breakfast." The Doctor rested his chin on his cane. "Remember her mother—Mrs. Mauling—funny how it breeds that way. The human critter, Cap, is a curious beast—but he does breed true—mostly." The Doctor loafed, whistling, around the work shop, prodding at things with his cane, and wound up leaning against ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White
... "Why shouldn't they? I believe I can tell you one big difference between the city boy and the country. You've been both; see if I'm right. The country boy minds his folks, and his teacher. But everything else minds him. He is boss of every critter on the place, from the hens to the horses, whenever he has anything to do with them at all. So he learns to think for them, as well as for himself. In the city the boy has no chance to give orders—he's under orders, all ...
— John Wesley, Jr. - The Story of an Experiment • Dan B. Brummitt
... to ride a bucking jeep with the best of them, and he could spot, single out, and stun a steer in forty seconds flat; then use his electronic brander on it and have the critter back on its feet in just under ...
— This Crowded Earth • Robert Bloch
... couldn't have been a human thief, for you'd never say that. Did you see the critter go?" came from Jerry, as he peered forth, ...
— The Outdoor Chums on the Gulf • Captain Quincy Allen
... up here 'bout seventeen miles for to let you see me. 'Spect you don't see much in dis old worn out critter. Now does you? ...
— Slave Narratives Vol. XIV. South Carolina, Part 1 • Various
... miserable 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 ...
— Do and Dare - A Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... 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
... critter air yourn, an' ye mus' hev bought him fur a pound o' dried peaches, or sech, up thar ter ...
— The Young Mountaineers - Short Stories • Charles Egbert Craddock |
