"Gaffer" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... was something about the Squire more burly, and authoritative, and menacing than heretofore. Old Gaffer Solomons observed, "that they had better moind well what they were about, for that the Squire had a wicked look in the tail of his eye—just as the dun bull had afore it ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 8, January, 1851 • Various
... was accustomed to in mortal flesh. You hobserve this button. I press it so, and it instantly rings a bell in the kitchen 'all, and shows in fair letters the name of this 'ere gallery—as we will see later. Will hany good dame or gaffer press the button? Will YOU, mistress?" said the Cicerone to a ...
— Colonel Starbottle's Client and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... said: "Well, gaffer, I do not quite understand what you mean. All I can say is, that I hope he will not leave us: for don't you see, he is another kind of man to what we are used to, and somehow he makes us think of all kind of things; and ...
— News from Nowhere - or An Epoch of Rest, being some chapters from A Utopian Romance • William Morris
... cream o' the filth-heap—Faugh! Aie, aie, aie, aie! [Greek: otototototoi], ('Stead which we blurt out, Hoighty toighty now)— And the baker and candlestick maker, and Jack and Gill. Blear'd Goody this and queasy Gaffer that, Ask the Schoolmaster, Take Schoolmaster first. He saw a gentleman purchase of a lad A stone, and pay for it rite on the square, And carry it off per saltum, jauntily Propria quae maribus, gentleman's property now (Agreeable to the law ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various
... of going out (to prey) by morning"; for dawn is called Zanab Sirhan the Persian Dum-i-gurgwolf's tail, i.e. the first brush of light; the Zodiacal Light shown in morning. Sirhan is a nickname of the wolf—Gaunt Grim or Gaffer Grim, the German Isengrin or Eisengrinus (icy grim or iron grim) whose wife is Hersent, as Richent or Hermeline is Mrs. Fox. In French we ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton
... diggins the squire did it for, Gaffer Solomons?" asked one many-childed matron, with a baby in arms, an urchin of three years old clinging fast to her petticoat, and her hand maternally holding back a more adventurous hero of six, who had a great desire to thrust his head into ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... spoke pleasantly to him as she paid him, and inquired about his father—a shiftless old gaffer who used, sometimes, to do garden work ...
— The Crimson Tide • Robert W. Chambers
... rudely past the abashed gaffer. She was hatless, and her hair had tumbled abroad. She raised her face, ...
— At a Winter's Fire • Bernard Edward J. Capes
... "Gaffer," said he, "this will want repairing every eight days; but don't you come here any more; I'll call on you every week, and repair ...
— A Perilous Secret • Charles Reade
... there was no one to object, and one of us, Jack, did have an excellent voice. A song often heard was, Shells of Ocean and also that one most appropriate, What Are the Wild Waves Saying? Then there was If I Had but a Thousand a Year, Gaffer Green, and of course, Annie Laurie. Never was there an American or an English expedition to anywhere that did not have that song, as well as Way Down upon the Suwanee River. In addition to all these and the ...
— A Canyon Voyage • Frederick S. Dellenbaugh
... gie me a plate of beef and jack-pudding, and holds out my note for't. The maid—for 'twas a maid behind the counter—took it, and then she looks at it and then at me, for I were very wet and muddy; and then she carries it to the gaffer, and he shows it to his wife, who holds it up to the light, and then they all fall to talking, and showed it to a 'cise-man what was ...
— The Nebuly Coat • John Meade Falkner
... words to himself and Dulcinea, and nothing that Sancho could say had power to cheer his spirits. Moreover, the boys of the village, having seen them, raised a shout, and came laughing about them, saying, "Oh, law! here is Gaffer Sancho Panza's donkey as fine as a lady, and Don Quixote's beast thinner than ever!" The barber and the curate then came upon the scene and saw their old friend, and went ...
— The Worlds Greatest Books - Vol. II: Fiction • Arthur Mee, J. A. Hammerton, Eds.
... a third. 'The girt mun on the grey horse is the soldier for me. He has the smooth cheeks o' a wench, an' limbs like Goliath o' Gath. I'll war'nt he could pick up my old gaffer Jones an' awa' wi' him at his saddle-bow, as easy as Towser does a rotten! But here's good Maister Tetheridge, the clerk, and on great business too, for he's a mun that spares ne time ne trooble in the ...
— Micah Clarke - His Statement as made to his three Grandchildren Joseph, - Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 • Arthur Conan Doyle
... for his common needs, but it was never a vast intelligence. Now, under a daily burden of dull misery, it clouded and stooped. The base wit of the workshop he comprehended less, and realized more slowly, than before; and the gaffer cursed him for a ...
— Victorian Short Stories of Troubled Marriages • Rudyard Kipling, Ella D'Arcy, Arthur Morrison, Arthur Conan Doyle,
... in. There is no chance to jump into a canoe and drop below him, and get the current to help you in drowning him. You cannot follow him along the shore. You cannot even lead him into quiet water, where the gaffer can creep near to him unseen and drag him in with a quick stroke. You must fight your fish to a finish, and all the advantages are on his side. The current is terribly strong. If he makes up his mind ...
— Fisherman's Luck • Henry van Dyke
... This Gaffer's Rock was the extreme point of the opposite arm of the cove—a sharp tooth rising ten feet or more above high-water mark. As the little schooner came tearing abreast of it, a huge sea caught her broadside, and lifted as if to fling her high and dry. The men and women on ...
— I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tales • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... me, 'bo. Jimmy Stiles is the young gaffer I's trailin' that afternoon with that tan satchel from the Alderson Construction Company's office. No, the Chief didn't say anythin' to me 'bout him; but ...
— Every Man for Himself • Hopkins Moorhouse
... Diggs for grabbing a bit of one's wages. He do so love it! And then he says you never need be at no loss for nothing; you can find everything under my roof. I should like to know who is to mend our shoes. Has Gaffer Diggs ...
— Sybil - or the Two Nations • Benjamin Disraeli
... outside a village inn in that county of curious dialects, Loamshire. The inn is easily indicated by a round table bearing two mugs of liquid, while a fallen log emphasizes the rural nature of the scene. Gaffer Jarge and Gaffer Willyum are seated at the table, surrounded by a fringe of whisker, Jarge being slightly more of a ...
— The Holiday Round • A. A. Milne
... Mark Clark, with corroborative feeling; "but we Churchmen, you see, must have it all printed aforehand, or, dang it all, we should no more know what to say to a great gaffer like the Lord ...
— Far from the Madding Crowd • Thomas Hardy
... sand, his head resting in his hands, his eyes gazing up to the sky. "Tell me, gaffer, if you had your choice of the two, would you rather be a sailor, or a gentleman of the court, and live at London, ...
— Historic Boyhoods • Rupert Sargent Holland
... "Gaffer said he's no more orders—couldn't keep us on. The shop's shut up. Know of a job, guv'nor?" he asked, with a momentary eagerness. "I've two characters in my ...
— A Prince of Sinners • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... dost thou shiver and shake, Gaffer-Gray! And why doth thy nose look so blue? ''Tis the weather that's cold; 'Tis I'm grown very old, And my doublet is not ...
— The Adventures of Hugh Trevor • Thomas Holcroft
... then took him by the ear, saying, Sing higher in Ge, sol, re, ut. So, so poor devil, thou hast a good throat; thou wert never so happy as to be no longer king. And Pantagruel made himself merry with all this; for I dare boldly say that he was the best little gaffer that was to be seen between this and the end of a staff. Thus was Anarchus made a good crier of green sauce. Two days thereafter Panurge married him with an old lantern-carrying hag, and he himself made the wedding with fine sheep's heads, brave haslets with mustard, gallant ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais
... thumb on the brake of the reel, gave him absolutely no leeway, and the tuna was stopped within twenty feet, to be reeled in again. In the meantime, the gaffer had recovered his weapon, and as the big fish was brought to the side of the boat, he struck again, this time succeeding in holding against the rush of the fish, though he was pulled elbow-deep into the water. Then, standing on the gunwale, the gaffer lifted the head of ...
— The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries • Francis Rolt-Wheeler
... kind-hearted dame. She accounted for the silence of the village and her own extraordinary bustle, by stating that it was exercise-day; a meeting of ministers had been at the godly work for eight hours; and she doubted not, after so long buffeting Satan, they would come away main hungry. "My poor Gaffer," said she, "always brings all he can to our house. They tell him a blessing comes upon all those who furnish a chamber for wayfaring prophets, and set on pottage for them; but for my part I see it not, and begin to wonder whether these are ...
— The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 - An Historical Novel • Jane West
... replied Stubbs, "I cannot just say—I will be sworn she was not born at Witt-ham;* for Gaffer Gibbs looked at her all the time of service, and he says, she could not turn up a single lesson like a Christian, even though she had Madge Murdockson to help her—but then, as to fending for herself, why, she's a bit of a ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott
... this pool, though in truth we never caught or saw one in it. I had arranged beforehand with Ole to lend me the support of his strong arm if I had some day to follow a fish down from boulder to boulder, and I am not ashamed to confess that on many occasions both Ole, the gaffer, and Knut, the boatman, rendered me assistance of this kind; they hauled me up, and lowered me down, and kept me from falling when I was engaged in a ...
— Lines in Pleasant Places - Being the Aftermath of an Old Angler • William Senior
... to get enough of it to cover these terrible charges. The entire fabric of things rests on money; and our prices would drive a respectable Frenchman into suicide. O poor Robin Ruff! alas for your grand visions that you sang so glowingly to dear Gaffer Green! In this age of the world, O what could you do, or where could you go, e'en on a thousand pounds ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866 • Various
... there are queer mice with only two legs, and some terrible mice that make a great noise." At this moment, Gaffer Graybeard came in, and White-paw said, "Sir, I've learned what a mouse-trap is." "Ah! then," said the sage, "you've not ...
— Friends in Feathers and Fur, and Other Neighbors - For Young Folks • James Johonnot
... Wednesday last?" exclaimed the mayor, a respectable tradesman in whom he confided and who placed himself at his disposal. "Listen, I think I can give you a valuable clue: on Saturday morning, Gaffer Charel, an old knife-grinder who visits all the fairs in the department, met me at the end of the village and asked, 'Monsieur le maire, does a letter without a stamp on it go all the same?' 'Of course,' said I. 'And does it get there?' 'Certainly. Only there's double postage to pay on it, ...
— The Hollow Needle • Maurice Leblanc
... scour the pikes. Tom Cropper, find something to keep you out of mischief. As for you, Gaffer Shard, you may ...
— The Lady of Loyalty House - A Novel • Justin Huntly McCarthy
... as wooden palings do; so that field laborers (like some insects) seem to absorb or mimic the colors of the vegetation round them and of their native soil. That is, on work-days. Sunday-best is a different matter, and in this the other gaffer was clothed. He was dressed like the crows above him, fit excepted: the reason for which was, that he was only a visitor, a revisitor to the home of his youth, and wore his Sunday (and funeral) suit to ...
— Jackanapes, Daddy Darwin's Dovecot and Other Stories • Juliana Horatio Ewing
... inches long, and must not weigh more than sixteen ounces; the line must be not more than twenty-four strands cuttyhunk; and the fisherman must land his fish with unbroken rod and tackle, and without any aid, except that of his boatman as gaffer; and the said fish must weigh 100lb. or over. On achieving this feat in the prescribed manner the angler is eligible as a member of the Tuna Club, and his fish ...
— Fishing in British Columbia - With a Chapter on Tuna Fishing at Santa Catalina • Thomas Wilson Lambert
... sturdy pony. Thanks for the use of it,' added she, as the squire proceeded to take her from the pony. He would have lifted her down, but she only touched his hand lightly and sprang to the ground, then stood patting its neck. 'Thanks again, good pony. I am much beholden to thee, Gaffer Hob! Stay a moment.' ...
— The Herd Boy and His Hermit • Charlotte M. Yonge
... your—that is, if it pleased you. But first I called, as is my wont, for porters. Now all that rabble sat in a row along a wall, and, by Baldur, when I looked, they had cleaned themselves! Whereupon an old gaffer, who has carried things once or twice for me when there has been no crowd and he has been able to come forward, lifted up his voice and asked how many men ...
— Havelok The Dane - A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln • Charles Whistler
... crab On Yule-tide bowl—your head's a-work and both your eyes Break loose? Afeard, you fool? As if the dead can rise! Say—Bagman Dick was found last May with fuddling-cap Stuffed in his mouth: to choke's a natural mishap!' 'Gaffer, be—blessed,' cries she, 'and Bagman Dick as well! I, you, and he are damned: this Public is our hell: We live in fire: live coals don't feel!—once quenched, they learn— Cinders do, to what dust they moulder while ...
— Browning's England - A Study in English Influences in Browning • Helen Archibald Clarke |
