"Joking" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... in a mood for joking," said the King. "Let us return to business. As I was saying, you will announce to the people that the enormous sacrifice which their King is prepared to make for them consists of— There they go again. I must really see what it is. Just ...
— Once on a Time • A. A. Milne
... was an easy-going, large-framed man who regarded most things as an occasion for drinking and joking. He willingly undertook to assist de Lotbiniere to act for the de Lery party among the Guardsmen, and to take charge of any petitions which might need to be presented to a military court. He protested good-humouredly, however, that "he was a sabreur, not an advocate." De Lotbiniere, ...
— The False Chevalier - or, The Lifeguard of Marie Antoinette • William Douw Lighthall
... precipitately reel into the fatal that my thoughts stopped. I could only look when I saw that they had somehow recognized the man on the engine for a sheriff. Two had sprung from their horses and were making boisterously toward the cab, while Lin McLean, neither boisterous nor joking, was going to the cab from my side, with his pistol drawn, to keep the peace. The engineer sat with a neutral hand on the lever, the fireman had run along the top of the coal in the tender and descended and crouched somewhere, and the sheriff, cool, and ...
— Lin McLean • Owen Wister
... "No, no. He's joking. This is a serious business. It's of vital importance to me and it ought to be of vital importance to you. Please ...
— The Branding Iron • Katharine Newlin Burt
... in the direst straits they were fond of practical joking. One of them, for instance, on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, finding a general's uniform, that for some unaccountable reason was hanging up in an inn at Jenappes, assumed the costume, and, thus disguised, had a great deal of fun with her husband, ...
— Punch, Volume 101, September 19, 1891 • Francis Burnand
... behind me. It was attended with a great deal of noisy pleasantry, flavored every now and then with a dash of irritation. There was a young man of whom I made a note; he was such a beautiful specimen of his class. Sometimes he was very facetious, chatter- ing, joking, punning, showing off; then, as the game went on and he lost, and had to pay the consomma- tion, he dropped his amiability, slanged his partner, declared he wouldn't play any more, and went away in a fury. Nothing could be more perfect or more amusing than the contrast. ...
— A Little Tour in France • Henry James
... "Look here, joking apart," said the artist, putting in the waves of the thick black hair, "are you really going to be dumped down in London to seek your fortune? ...
— The Fortunate Youth • William J. Locke
... happening, with a vengeance. Never had she imagined such a notion on the part of this staid and venerable person. She flushed hotly, and wrenched her imprisoned hand free. "I don't like stupid jokes," she muttered, overcome with confusion. "Do I give you the impression that I am joking?" ...
— Sisters • Ada Cambridge
... seriousness in the Five Towns that one is somehow bound to pretend that they are not joking. So I replied— ...
— The Grim Smile of the Five Towns • Arnold Bennett
... Jeannin. "You poor fellow! I very much fear that you are warming a little serpent in your bosom. Have an eye to this dandy with the beardless chin! But joking apart, my boy, are you really on good ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... from home awakened many pleasant memories, and perhaps a little feeling of home sickness, and there was no eager acceptance of the miner's proposition, which, anyway, was probably made in a joking spirit. ...
— The Boy Scouts on the Yukon • Ralph Victor
... never felt less like joking, but he was rewarded by seeing a faint smile relax the ...
— The Vision of Desire • Margaret Pedler
... are," began the prince, "settling yourselves down to listen to me with so much curiosity, that if I do not satisfy you you will probably be angry with me. No, no! I'm only joking!" he added, hastily, with ...
— The Idiot • (AKA Feodor Dostoevsky) Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... creed in this respect as a modified Mahometanism. I could relate many instances, affecting myself, where trustfulness has incurred payment in this coin, but, having no desire to stimulate the Indian's existing proneness to practical joking, I stay my hand at further ...
— A Treatise on the Six-Nation Indians • James Bovell Mackenzie
... quite so,' he agreed. He was deeply disappointed and inclined to be huffy. 'Of course you were joking about the lasso. But would you mind giving me the address of the dealer from whom you obtained this specimen?' And once more he pointed ...
— The Uttermost Farthing - A Savant's Vendetta • R. Austin Freeman
... I'm not, really—I was only joking," and Dorothy's laugh rang out over the lawn as they seated themselves on the gallery to await the arrival of the guest. "But I do feel a trembling sensation when I think that I am to meet the great ...
— Dorothy's Triumph • Evelyn Raymond
... at last. The cabin tables having been removed, and rows of seats placed in front of the stage, the men were admitted from the deck, to which they had been expelled an hour previous in order not to impede preliminary arrangements. There was great joking, of course, as they took their seats and criticised the fittings up. David Mizzle was of opinion that the foot-lights "wos oncommon grand", which was an unquestionable fact, for they consisted of ...
— The World of Ice • R.M. Ballantyne
... Gobet returned to his kitchen, where he stirred up his cooks and scullions on all sides, to make up for the loss of his Easter pies on the grand tables in the hall. He capered among them like a marionette, directing here, scolding there, laughing, joking, or with uplifted hands and stamping feet despairing of his underlings' cooking a dinner fit for ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby
... small cask of water, and a quadrant and compass were put into the boat, also some bread and a small quantity of rum and wines. When this was done the officers were brought up one by one and forced over the side. There was a great deal of rough joking at the captain's expense, who was still made to stand by the mizzen-mast, and much bad language was ...
— The Junior Classics • Various
... new car. This neighbourhood is charming, but to explore it in a hired carriage, lined with dirty velvet, does not attract me. Now, dear friend, don't go and send off car and chauffeur post-haste to me. That would be like your good nature. But, of course, I am only joking. ...
— The Dangerous Age • Karin Michaelis
... serious divinity, and so were all the mid-Western human-beings about him. One heard no joking either of the dapper or cockney sort of cities, or the quaint graphic phrasing of Eastern country folk; and it may have been not far enough West for the true Western humor. At any rate, when they were not silent these men still ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells
... 'if you can't take joking better than this, it's the last time I'll ever try joking ...
— In Homespun • Edith Nesbit
... stealthily at his whimsical face, to be sure whether he were joking or no—and decided he probably was. But Mr. Hanbury-Green, so irritated by the delightful hostess's evident penchant for his rival, allowed his ill-humor to obscure his usually keen judgment, and took the ...
— Halcyone • Elinor Glyn
... the top, but a sort of dew would be left behind in the glass chimney, if the chimney was cold enough when you put it on. There are ways of collecting this sort of dew, and when it is collected it turns out to be really water. I am not joking, uncle. Water is one of the things which the candle turns into in burning,—water coming out of fire. A jet of oil gives above a pint of water in burning. In some lighthouses they burn, Professor Faraday says, up to two gallons of oil in a night, and if the windows are cold the steam from the ...
— The International Weekly Miscellany, Volume I. No. 9. - Of Literature, Art, and Science, August 26, 1850 • Various
... practices, and in Germany, Professor Gurlitt (Die Neue Generation, January, 1909), among others, testifies to similar absence of experience during his whole school life, although there was much talk and joking among the boys over sexual things. I have added some observations by a correspondent whose experiences of English public school ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... accordingly directed our course towards it. Anyone seeing us riding along would not have supposed that we were well aware of a powerful body of enemies being close to us, as we might have been seen laughing and joking, one of the party occasionally breaking out ...
— Adventures in the Far West • W.H.G. Kingston
... Mr. Crosby? And would you have been afraid to leave your cabin—or are you joking? You know I never know when you are. It is very ...
— The Crusade of the Excelsior • Bret Harte
... course I am joking," I answered, leaving the window. "And now I must wish you good-morning, with many apologies for my intrusion." He must have been glad to be rid of me, but he politely insisted on showing me to the gate. Perhaps he wanted to be sure that I should not ask questions of the servants. As we ...
— A Roman Singer • F. Marion Crawford
... he never was at a watering-place before where they buried the summer boarders in the front yard. Mrs. Benson didn't like joking on such subjects, and Mr. King turned the direction of the conversation by remarking that these seeming trifles were really of much account in these days, and he took from his pocket a copy of the city newspaper, 'The Summer Sea-Song,' and read ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... Ah! What an unexpected pleasure! Herr Werner! Welcome, welcome! Yes, you are just the same jovial, joking, honest Werner! So you are to beware of me, my pretty ...
— Minna von Barnhelm • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
... wrote state-papers on matters which he did not understand, and gave himself the airs of diplomatic learning while he showed himself to be sadly ignorant of the very rudiments of diplomacy. He tried to joke as Lord Palmerston jokes, and nobody liked his joking. He was greedy after the little appanages of power, taking from others who loved them as well as he did privileges with which he might have dispensed. And then, lastly, he was successful in nothing. He had given himself out ...
— Volume 2 • Anthony Trollope
... She must have been very much frightened by the man of whom she spoke. She was not joking. Therefore it is clear to my mind that the word was not 'artichoke,' but 'aristocrat,' that he used. Now you know who used to call us that,—my brother and I. Pussy has just told me that this took place on that evening when they ...
— Rico And Wiseli - Rico And Stineli, And How Wiseli Was Provided For • Johanna Spyri
... great a man as the O'Rapley be joking? No; the Don seldom laughed. He was a great admirer of everything relating to the law, but had a marked prejudice against the new system; and when he spoke of the "Round Square" he meant, as he afterwards explained, that confusion of Law and Equity ...
— The Humourous Story of Farmer Bumpkin's Lawsuit • Richard Harris
... bedroom prepared for her, where she is seated upon a bed resplendent with red satin quilts. Then the guests, invited and uninvited, pour into the room. They subject the bride and her clothes to an interested and careful scrutiny, commenting upon everything, with much joking and laughter. As soon as one group gets tired and takes its leave, another is ready to push in and view ...
— Have We No Rights? - A frank discussion of the "rights" of missionaries • Mabel Williamson
... of surprise came into Lois' eyes, mingled with indignation. She looked keenly into her father's face, thinking that he must be merely joking. ...
— Under Sealed Orders • H. A. Cody
... was joking about shooting you up from the mesquite, Dave," he explained as the horses climbed the trail from the park. "I ain't got a thing against you—nothing a-tall. Besides, I'm a law-abiding citizen. I don't hold with this here gunman ...
— The Sheriff's Son • William MacLeod Raine
... joking all aside, One of our friends, the tallest of the three I think it was, but cannot quite decide, Was handsome as a man could hope to be, I only wish that he'd exchanged with me; Such depth of eye and such a princely ...
— The Minstrel - A Collection of Poems • Lennox Amott
... thus seated, twiddling the queer manuscript in his hand, joking grimly to himself, when his servant came in with a card from a gentleman, who wished to speak to him very particularly. And if Pen had gone out into the passage, he would have seen, sucking his stick, rolling his eyes, and showing great marks of ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray
... yet, not yet," replied the captain, blandly; "and it won't come any the quicker for you joking me about it." ...
— Sappers and Miners - The Flood beneath the Sea • George Manville Fenn
... aside after dinner. "Do you see," she said, "the tears in her eyes? It wrenches my heart. She has become an old woman in a day. I feel as if Frances were dead, and that was her ghost joking and laughing." ...
— Frances Waldeaux • Rebecca Harding Davis
... mind was elsewhere. He was wondering suddenly about Cayley. Cayley was just an ordinary man—like himself. Bill had had little jokes with him sometimes; not that Cayley was much of a hand at joking. Bill had helped him to sausages, played tennis with him, borrowed his tobacco, lent him a putter.... and here was Antony saying that he was what? Well, not an ordinary man, anyway. A man with a secret. Perhaps a murderer. No, not a murderer; not ...
— The Red House Mystery • A. A. Milne
... Blaney, who didn't like to be long out of the conversation. "Suppose you join our coterie and get the rust removed. Nor am I joking, Mr. Channing. Many there be who laugh at our earnestness, but only because of their ...
— Patty Blossom • Carolyn Wells
... 'Certainly, sir; would you like any more?—fifty or a hundred?' said the smiling clerk. Sheridan was overpowered. He would like a hundred. 'Two or three?' asked the scribe. Sheridan thought he was joking, but was ready for two or even three—he was always ready for more. But he could not conceal his surprise. 'Have you not received our letter?' the clerk asked, perceiving it. Certainly he had received the epistle, which informed him that his salary as ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 2 • Grace & Philip Wharton
... are joking, Aunt; you half frightened me at first. As far as having no fears for myself, I am really in an ...
— Elinor Wyllys - Vol. I • Susan Fenimore Cooper
... mood for joking, for it is not a merry thing to dig like anything for months and be completely ruined in the process, especially if you happen to dislike digging, and consequently I ...
— A Tale of Three Lions • H. Rider Haggard
... for you little folks," said Old Mother Nature. "When is a Red Fox not a Red Fox?" Everybody blinked. Most of them looked as if they thought Old Mother Nature must be joking. But suddenly Chatterer the Red Squirrel, whose wits are naturally quick, remembered how Old Mother Nature had told them that there were black Gray Squirrels. "When he is ...
— The Burgess Animal Book for Children • Thornton W. Burgess
... indolence. Amid all this luxury and leisure, fancy was not unemployed. We find that, like the former leaders of fashion in this country, they kept a goodly train of monkeys,[6] and anticipated our circus performances by teaching their horses to dance on their hind legs, an advance above practical joking and below pictorial caricature. Moreover, intellectual entertainment was required at their sumptuous feasts, and genius was tasked to find something light and racy, maxims of deep significance interwoven with gay and fanciful creations. There was not sufficient subtlety about ...
— History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) - With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange
... don't mind if you do take her just a bite," she said presently; and amid much laughter and sympathetic joking a tray was fitted out with various delicacies and entrusted to the ...
— The Making of a Soul • Kathlyn Rhodes
... seemed greatly changed; the red flush, the swollen lines no longer showed in his face; evidently in his absence on the Navajo desert he had had no liquor; he was good-natured, lively, much inclined to joking, and he seemed to have entirely forgotten his animosity toward Hare. It was easy for Hare to see that the man's evil nature was in the ascendancy only when he was under the dominance of drink. But he could not forgive; he could not forget. Mescal's dark, beautiful eyes haunted him. Even now she ...
— The Heritage of the Desert • Zane Grey
... course, she could know nothing of those colloquies Mr. V.V. had had in his time with O'Neill, the hard-joking Commissioner, of inner conflicts he had had of late all by himself. Nor did she even take it in how far her advancing thought of him, and of all this subject, had outrun anything she had ever put into word or deed before. ...
— V. V.'s Eyes • Henry Sydnor Harrison
... kingdom of Mercia in 828 under the the onslaughts of Ecgberht the West-Saxon, have been laid to Wiglaf's untidy personal habits and his alleged mania for practical joking. The accompanying biographical sketch may serve to disclose some of the more intimate details of the character of the man and to alter in some degree history's unfavorable estimate ...
— Love Conquers All • Robert C. Benchley
... joking, the remaining ingredients of the pyramid continued to divorce themselves from the heap that at one time had appeared to consist principally ...
— Jack Winters' Gridiron Chums • Mark Overton
... "I really don't think she would. You see, she always threatened she'd go there if we ever had a fight, but she was usually half-joking. She ...
— A World Called Crimson • Darius John Granger
... "Anyway, joking apart, the men I have brought know all about it," said Scarlett. "You've got till to-morrow ...
— The Tale of Timber Town • Alfred Grace
... have a right to be ashamed of yourself and your play-game. It's easy for you to go joking, having neither cark nor care: that is no way to treat the second best match ...
— Three Wonder Plays • Lady I. A. Gregory
... "You pore over them day in and day out; they keep you in this room here when you should be out among the people,—not making pastoral visits,—I don't mean that,—but going around among them, chatting and joking and having a good time. They would like it, and you would like it, and as for the young folks—how old are ...
— The Busted Ex-Texan and Other Stories • W. H. H. Murray
... He continued joking about our bathrooms while he was eating supper; and later, before retiring, he said, "I know you are a neat woman, Aunt Ruth, and I guess before I go to bed I'll take a turn ...
— A Busy Year at the Old Squire's • Charles Asbury Stephens
... you're joking, sir," laughed the second mate, his round face glowing with a jolly grin. "But I'll see that ...
— Gold Out of Celebes • Aylward Edward Dingle
... ask you a serious question," the student said hotly. "I was joking of course, but look here; on one side we have a stupid, senseless, worthless, spiteful, ailing, horrid old woman, not simply useless but doing actual mischief, who has not an idea what she is living for herself, and who will die in a day or two in ...
— Crime and Punishment • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... she is in love with a priest, it warns her of deceptions and an unscrupulous lover. If the priest makes love to her, she will be reproached for her love of gaiety and practical joking. ...
— 10,000 Dreams Interpreted • Gustavus Hindman Miller
... oilskins while I spoke, and Trunnell smiled a queer bit of a smile, which finally spread over his bearded face and crinkled up the corners of his little eyes into a network of lines and wrinkles. "I heard the outfly," said he, "and I was only joking ye about the canvas. It's a quare world. Ye wouldn't think it, but if ye want to see a true picture of responsibility a-restin' heavy like upon the digestion of a man, ye'll do well to take a good look at the old man a-standin' there on the poop. 'What for?' ...
— Mr. Trunnell • T. Jenkins Hains
... him! Suppose the carriage was upset," she said, turning suddenly to her companion; "and suppose I was thrown out and killed on the spot? Nonsense! don't look at me in that way. I'm like your husband; I have a dash of humor, and I'm only joking." ...
— No Name • Wilkie Collins
... sympathetically. "Why, you are smiling! Oh, you bad man. I do believe you were only laughing at me after all! Now, Irene, will you please tell Mr. Tucker's fortune, and show him that it is no joking matter? I am sure you know the way, because I have seen a mysterious book about palmistry in your room. Now do, ...
— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 1, January, 1891 • Various
... and speak proper," said Fortune. "Your little brother and sister lost! Impossible; you are joking me, Iris, and that aint fair, seeing I was with you since you drew ...
— A Little Mother to the Others • L. T. Meade
... ourselves, we mean to go some day, when the Land Bill has pacified the natives, and made them law-abiding subjects. Meantime one runs the risk of being mistaken for a non-resident landlord, and that would be a pity for one's wife and family. But without any joking, this Irish sea-trout fishing is a pleasure to which we look forward; and in this work-a-day world, something to look forward to is half the ...
— Scotch Loch-Fishing • AKA Black Palmer, William Senior
... might be three nights: and the details of what Jurgen used to do there, after supper, when he would walk alone in the Black House Gardens, among the artfully colored cast-iron flowers and shrubbery, and would so come to the grated windows of Phyllis's room, and would stand there joking with her in the dark, are not ...
— Jurgen - A Comedy of Justice • James Branch Cabell
... Colonel Gaylord!" Polly exclaimed. "I was only joking; I shouldn't think of letting you go back after it. One of the ...
— The Four Pools Mystery • Jean Webster
... "Joking now, Master Walter!" cried Deborah, very much shocked. "That is what I call downright sinful. I hope you'll be made a mark ...
— The Pigeon Pie • Charlotte M. Yonge
... goats home from the summer pasture. All the other farmers were doing the same, and the clear notes of the lure, the long curving horn, used for calling the cattle and signaling across valleys, soared from slope to slope. There was laughter and shouting and joking all the way down. Now the only persons abroad seemed to be thieving ruffians whose greed for plunder was more than their fear of ...
— Days of the Discoverers • L. Lamprey
... this Affair it is far easier Matter to teaze me than it is to please me. The Matter is of too great a Consequence to be made a Jest on. If you were in my Case you would not be so gamesome; you make a mere Game of me; you game and banter me. You joke upon me in a Thing that is not a joking Matter. ...
— Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. • Erasmus
... obtained in some way, and this is easier than breaking into banks. More certain too. There! I am joking.... What is he muttering to himself now?" she cried ...
— Under Western Eyes • Joseph Conrad
... detected a less friendly tone. In a joking, incredulous manner he replied, "Well, then, I am a ...
— The Pines of Lory • John Ames Mitchell
... quiet, simple-minded person, fond of his work, fond of his home, conventional and not remarkable except for the simply heroic quality he displayed, smiling and joking up to the moment of the administering of anaesthetics for his operations, and bearing his sufferings with perfect patience and fortitude, never saying an impatient word, ...
— The Thread of Gold • Arthur Christopher Benson
... are by Ansdell, R.A. I gave him an order to paint me some donkeys, and he painted them in an old churchyard with tombstones. I complained to him in a joking sort ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 29, May 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various
... his friends were much amused with this sportive conversation of Louis's, and Edward made many smart replies, especially joking the cardinal, who, he knew, "was a gay man with the ladies, and a ...
— Richard III - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott
... "Joking?—assuredly not! I never joke about such serious matters. I am not given to superstition, but I confess that I ...
— The Man-Wolf and Other Tales • Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian
... joking?—Oh lord! the sooner the better, for such lips to smile with, are not met with every day. Well sir, then there came up a puppy fellow of the name ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various
... "I say, Father, joking apart, is she very hideous?" Anatole asked, as if continuing a conversation the subject of which had often been ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy
... and forced myself to go in. It was where my things were kept, the trunks half packed, all the drawers and closets full. And my wedding dress laid out on the bed. We girls used to go up there at first and look at the things, and there was laughing and joking. Sometimes I went up alone and tried on my hats before the glass, and thought where I should be when I wore them, and—Well! all that stopped. I dreaded to pass the door. Everything was left just as it was; the shutters open, the poor dress covered ...
— The Desert and The Sown • Mary Hallock Foote
... you are joking then," said I, "this is a very passable SKULL—indeed, I may say that it is a very EXCELLENT skull, according to the vulgar notions about such specimens of physiology—and your scarabaeus must be the queerest scarabaeus in the world if it resembles it. Why, we may get up a very thrilling bit ...
— Stories by Modern American Authors • Julian Hawthorne
... ears, and curved his scraggy neck, and tried to look as like a high-spirited charger as he could. Then everybody along the road knew Lois, and she knew everybody, and there was a mutual liking and perpetual joking, not very refined, perhaps, but hearty and kind. It was a new side of life for Margaret. She had no time for thoughts of self-sacrifice, or chivalry, ancient or modern, watching it. It was a very busy ride,—something to do at every farmhouse: a basket of ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, Issue 49, November, 1861 • Various
... all that at lunch the other day? I thought you were joking. I took it for granted that you could get work whenever you wanted to or you wouldn't have made fun of it like that! Can't you really ...
— Piccadilly Jim • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
... sudden, and it may be felt, untimely humorousness. I plead guilty to this, sensible of the tendency in me of the merely ludicrous to intrude, and to insist on being attended to, and expressed: it is perhaps too much the way with all of us now-a-days, to be forever joking. Mr. Punch, to whom we take off our hats, grateful for his innocent and honest fun, especially in his Leech, leads the way; and our two great novelists, Thackeray and Dickens, the first especially, are, in the deepest and highest sense, essentially humorists,—the ...
— Spare Hours • John Brown
... it's nothing. It was so unexpected. I thought such people didn't really exist—that they were just a fiction of the imagination. And then, all of a sudden, to find you, my brother—You are not joking, Savva? Look me ...
— Savva and The Life of Man • Leonid Andreyev
... I know it is. I was merely joking. She has done no more than what every young woman would do; and I have no doubt of her being extremely happy. My other sacrifice, of course, ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen
... commenced the business when only eight years old. His life had been one of hardship and privation, as street life always is, but he had become toughened to it, and bore it with a certain stoicism, never complaining, but often joking in a rude way at what would have depressed and discouraged a more sensitive temperament. He was by no means a model boy, though not as bad as many of his class. He had learned to smoke and to swear, and did both freely. But there ...
— Rufus and Rose - The Fortunes of Rough and Ready • Horatio Alger, Jr
... so that it had all been come by honestly, that the husband had been married as husbands ought to be married, and had not been caught like Lord Giblet; and she knew that her old friend,—her old friend whom she had not yet known for quite twelve months,—was only joking with her in that suggestion as to being cut. What a fate was this in store for her—if it really was in store—that so early in her life she should be called upon to fill so high a place. Then she made some resolutions in her mind that should ...
— Is He Popenjoy? • Anthony Trollope
... tree he would drop down at her side from the branches where he had been crouched like a lynx waiting for its prey. At first she did not mind it much, for she looked upon it as a new form of his silly practical joking, and so she only laughed and talked to him about some indifferent subject; but she soon discovered that a very remarkable change had taken place in him. He spoke gravely and solemnly and uttered the merest nothings as if they had been the weightiest affairs of state. He passed his hand meditatively ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VIII • Various
... the joking parry-and-thrust of that midnight talk between Tim Fisher and Janet Bagley but it made no sense to him still. But as he pondered the multitude of puzzlements, some of the answers fell partly into place just as some of the matching pieces of a jigsaw puzzle may lie close to one another ...
— The Fourth R • George Oliver Smith
... handed out,—useful articles of clothing, household goods, and the like, all gladly and hilariously received, with a joy as childlike as that of the little ones with their stockings. Off they tripped merrily through the snow with their burdens, laughing and joking, to their cabins, where dinners awaited them which were humble copies of that preparing for the guests at the master's table. Turkey was not wanting, varied here and there by that rare dish of raccoon or "'possum" which the Southern darky so ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 2 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris
... aghast. He would fain have believed his chum had either not seen him or was joking. But a sinking at his heart told him otherwise, and a rush of anger told him that whatever the reason might be ...
— Follow My leader - The Boys of Templeton • Talbot Baines Reed
... honest, candid soul, half melancholy? You are joking, father, or else you have never ...
— Modeste Mignon • Honore de Balzac
... Wilton, smiling, "I was only joking, my good friend. The sort of robbery I meant was aiding kings and ministers to rob and ...
— The King's Highway • G. P. R. James
... to his careless manners, and his curt and abrupt speeches. Fenitchka, in particular, was so far at home with him that one night she sent to wake him up; Mitya had had convulsions; and he had gone, and, half joking, half-yawning as usual, he stayed two hours with her and relieved the child. On the other hand Pavel Petrovitch had grown to detest Bazarov with all the strength of his soul; he regarded him as stuck-up, impudent, cynical, and vulgar; ...
— Fathers and Children • Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
... see that something was wrong. As he jumped up and hurried over to confer, others took the alarm. Joking ceased, and a look of real concern might be noticed upon many a face that, but a brief time before, was wreathed ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts on a Tour - The Mystery of Rattlesnake Mountain • George A. Warren
... than he ought to have been at all that Mr. Bell was saying. He was not in a mood for joking. At another time, he could have enjoyed Mr. Bell's half testy condemnation of a town where the life was so at variance with every habit he had formed; but now, he was galled enough to attempt to defend what was never meant ...
— North and South • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... was half joking, half entreating. The minister was still hesitating on the pulpit stairs, and he looked at the stranger. "Will ...
— The Leatherwood God • William Dean Howells
... 'is majesty's destroyers, sir, that came up. And maybe you think Hi'm joking, sir, w'en Hi tell you that the destroyers were credited with the capture because they made the 'Un strike 'is colors ...
— Dave Darrin After The Mine Layers • H. Irving Hancock
... happening, laughing and joking, the young people were soon in Deepdale, and a little later had separated ...
— The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car - The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley • Laura Lee Hope
... change after the unruly, bedlamite gusts that have been charging against one round street corners and utterly abolishing and destroying all that is peaceful in life. Nothing sours my temper like these coarse termagant winds. I hate practical joking; and your vulgarest practical joker is your ...
— The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson - Volume 1 • Robert Louis Stevenson
... little, my father," said old Mariuccia, mocking him, "do you fast on Sundays, that you look so pale?" Whereat Nino struck an attitude, and began singing a love song to the ancient woman. Indeed, she was joking about the fast, for she had expended my substance of late in fattening Nino, as she called it, for his appearance, and there was to be broiled chickens for supper that very night. He was only pale because he was in love. As for me, I made up my mind to stand in the slides, so that I could ...
— A Roman Singer • F. Marion Crawford
... groups of students, of poor girls, and of Austrian policemen, all joking and chatting in characteristic fashion, and all playing their part in the story; and also by the appearance of Bluphocks, an English adventurer and spy, who is in league with the police for the detection of Luigi, and with the ...
— A Handbook to the Works of Browning (6th ed.) • Mrs. Sutherland Orr
... do not know if you are joking, or if you are talking seriously, but your behaviour is extraordinary, ...
— Fantomas • Pierre Souvestre
... aware that Pao-yue was not particular in these respects, and that in the next place nurse Li, having pleaded old age, resigned her place and gone home, had nowadays no control over them, so that they simply gave their minds to romping and joking, and paid no heed whatever to her. Nurse Li however still kept on asking about Pao-yue, "How much rice he now ate at one meal? and at what time he went to sleep?" to which questions, the servant-girls replied quite at random; some there being too who observed: "What a dreadful despicable ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... Huntter. And you've been—a very brave man! I know you will always be that, and make light of it. I rather like the half-joking way you do your kindest things. Here are the ...
— The Place Beyond the Winds • Harriet T. Comstock |
