"Napping" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Depend on't, he engrossed the wrong docket, and by this time has discovered the true will in one of his moldy boxes. Gad, it'll ruin him, though—if his nephew has not done it already. A family lawyer can't afford to be caught napping. ...
— Humphrey Bold - A Story of the Times of Benbow • Herbert Strang
... early part of the sixteenth century. He lost this in the same manner, at two shillings! Perhaps, however, you too have been guilty of these lapses, reader? Semel insanivimus omnes. Experience is better than advice, and for his part our book-hunter will not be caught napping again. The following incident will show you, moreover, that it is not always safe to order books from a catalogue even ...
— The Book-Hunter at Home • P. B. M. Allan
... floor to one of the inner rooms. I used to occupy this room at night and it was my office and my pleasure to pull the bobbin and let the latch fly up when the scouting troop would come in late at night. Captain Gordon said that he never found me napping, that I was always ready to greet them as soon as their horses turned the corner two squares away. The entrance door admitted to a great hall with a stone floor, ending in apartments for the horses. On the right of the hall were rooms for domestic ...
— An Ohio Woman in the Philippines • Emily Bronson Conger
... won't be ketched napping," said Jerry. "The only way is to meet him, on his own ground. I'll fix him! You get two or three of them splinters, and light 'em, and ...
— The Young Trail Hunters • Samuel Woodworth Cozzens
... midnight dreary, While I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious Volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, Suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, Rapping at my chamber door. "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "Tapping at my chamber door Only ...
— McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey
... exasperating as the real thing, for each time Daylight was fooled into tightening his leg grip and into a general muscular tensing of all his body. And then, after a few make-believe attempts, Bob actually did whirl and caught Daylight napping again and landed him in the old position with clasped ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London
... was a near thing, too. But they weren't quite ready then. Now they are ready, and they think we're not. If I were asked, I'd say we ought to let them know we're ready for 'em. They want to fight because they think they can catch us napping; they'd think twice if they knew they ...
— Winds of the World • Talbot Mundy
... to be on guard. He might be from the country and green, but no one should catch him napping, as had ...
— The Young Oarsmen of Lakeview • Ralph Bonehill
... Molly asked herself this question. There were times during the summer when she heard the call still infinitely far away to write, and on hot afternoons when the others were napping she would steal down to the big cool parlor with a pencil and pad. Here in the quiet of the darkened room, with strained mind and thoughts on tiptoe for inspiration, she would try to write, but the stories were crude and childish. Sometimes she would read ...
— Molly Brown's Senior Days • Nell Speed
... a breath before being pulled under, for the lad was not to be caught napping twice in the same way, and he felt that he could remain beneath the water as ...
— The Boy Allies Under the Sea • Robert L. Drake
... entire continent instead of being localized as heretofore. Men were men and kings were kings and war was war. Gisela sometimes wondered if the hideous upheaval were anybody's fault, if the desire to fight had not been more or less simultaneous in spite of the fact that Germany was caught napping and permitted Russia and France to ...
— The White Morning • Gertrude Atherton
... this case he did appear Like a slop-merchant from Wapping, And with smug face, and eye severe, On every side did perk and peer Till he saw Peter dead or napping. 95 ...
— Peter Bell the Third • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... a second. Then he said, like one ashamed "You caught me. I was napping. For a moment I thought you were ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... catch a man like Arthur napping?" she sneered. "Is there a moment in the last four years that he has been asleep? See to it that you are not reported to him every night. But if he is in love with Honora Ledwith, there's a chance that he won't see or care to see what you are doing. ...
— The Art of Disappearing • John Talbot Smith
... fairies, but this is the first time I have ever caught one napping under the trees. I wonder who she is anyhow? Surely she can not be some drudging farmer's daughter with a form and face like that?" he mused, suspiciously eying the basket of freshly laundered laces against which the flushed cheeks ...
— Daisy Brooks - A Perilous Love • Laura Jean Libbey
... 'Mistress, whither go ye?' 'Marry,' said she; 'I am going to St. Thomas of Acres, to the sermon; I could not sleep all this last night, and I am going now thither; I never failed of a good nap there.' And so I had rather ye should go a-napping to the sermons than ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 52, October 26, 1850 • Various
... Carlisle with a force of five hundred men, some of them the pick of the British regulars, but many of them aged veterans enfeebled by disease and long, severe exposure. Bouquet had seen considerable service in Indian warfare. He was not likely to be caught napping. He marched slowly along the Cumberland Valley and crept cautiously over the mountains, passing Forts Loudon and Bedford, the latter surrounded with Indians, to Fort Ligonier, which, as noted above, had ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, v. 13 • Various
... It was no flowers that Steele now brought me, but stern peremptory command to "get out!" He was unusually irate, first at having been wakened out of his sleep, and secondly at having in probably unique circumstances been caught napping at the post of duty. I went forth disconsolate, and there was a great hubbub in the dark little room outside. My friend and co-conspirator fled in affright when he saw me actually enter the gallery. Now he dropped in in a casual way, and stood at ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 25, January 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various
... she come right, kiss, and make friends, and call herself a madwoman—a reckless fool—as she'd often done before? No; she was in bitter earnest this time. It did not pay to be slack in making off. Once we had been caught napping, and ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood
... non-combatants had little meaning in the wilds of America at this period. When France and England were at open war, every settler was a soldier, and as such each man's duty was to keep on his guard. If caught napping he must take the consequences. Thus, to fall upon an unsuspecting hamlet and slay its men-folk with the tomahawk, while brutal, was hardly more brutal than under such circumstances we could fairly ...
— The Fighting Governor - A Chronicle of Frontenac • Charles W. Colby
... cried Maggot—'the Doctor's too much for you; you've only got one hand now, and you'd be no match for him, for he's the devil's pup at a tussle. Let them both slide this time; you may catch them napping before long. As it is, they've got but a devilish small chance of escape, for it rains terribly overhead, which will fill up the sewers, and drown them ...
— City Crimes - or Life in New York and Boston • Greenhorn
... expedient to detect his indolence. The artist worked in a room above her; ever and anon she roused him by thumping a long stick against the ceiling, while the obedient Berghem answered by stamping his foot, to satisfy Mrs. Berghem that he was not napping. ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli
... poor girl," cried the old man, clasping his wife in his arms. "As sure as man is the standard of all things, all must go well with me this time if everlasting Love is not napping. Till we meet again, best of good women!—And, if ill befalls your stupid old husband, always remember that he brought it upon himself in trying to save a quarter of a hundred innocent women from the worst misfortunes. At any rate I shall fall on the road I myself have ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... fish, so they got out their log-lines. The first and most manifest thing to do was to find bait. There were plenty of limpets on the rocks, and with penknives they managed to dislodge some of them. It was only when a limpet was caught napping that it was possible to secure him: once he sat down tight and excluded the air from his shell, no amount of pulling could move him. The victims thus gathered were sacrificed by Beata and Merle, who acted as high priestesses, ...
— Monitress Merle • Angela Brazil
... course. You did not hear it because you were not here. You were asleep in your own beds, of course, where Dutchmen always go when they are sleepy, which is perhaps the principal reason why they are not caught napping in business hours. Unfortunately, however, that speech was printed in full, or I might repeat it now. One learns from such little experiences what not to do the next time. But if you do not remember the speech, I do—at least the subject—which was "The Dutch as Neighbors," ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z • Various
... enjoying myself with as jolly a rum set of codgers as ever helped to toom out a keg of Hollands. I danced, and egad, drank with them, till I was pretty blue, and dat's no mistake;—but confound it, they shouldn't have caught me napping, for 'tis plain they have taken themselves off [like an unceremonious pack of—pack of—give an eye tooth to know who they were.(137) [Looking around.] Where is my gun? I left it on a little bush. [On examining he finds the rusty barrel of his gun.] Hillo! [come up, here's a grab!](138) the ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van - Winkle • Charles Burke
... We'll risk it, Bel, and to begin on I have nailed it as hard as I knew how. Next, we will clean the house——until it shines, and then we will fill the cupboard, and if anything does happen we won't be caught napping. Yes, boy, we will take the chance! We can't be any worse disappointed than we have been before and survived it. ...
— The Harvester • Gene Stratton Porter
... Rooms were opened in Corn Exchange Passage on the 31st of May, and for a time all promised well. Unfortunately the half-sovereigns did not come in very fast, and the landlord, though he knew "Nap" to be a very favourite game, did not choose, to be caught napping, and therefore "took his rest" at the end of the fifth half-year, and in so doing rent the whole fabric of the club.—The Edgbaston Art Club was organised in 1878; the Chess Club in 1841; the Germania Club in 1856; ...
— Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham - A History And Guide Arranged Alphabetically • Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell
... visitor to be caught napping on so familiar a text; the parson saw it, and spoke consolingly. But if not strong in texts, the Deacon knew what his strong points were; so, before leaving, he invites a little offhand discussion ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 • Various
... sheep cropping the grass and herbs, which were a mat of green, rising so fast with the daily showers that only flocks could keep it shorn. On the verandas and on the turf idle men and women were gazing at the sky, talking, humming the newest air, plaiting hats, or napping. No one was reading. There was no book-store in Tahiti. I had not read a line since I came. I had not stepped up to the genial dentist's to see an American journal. After years of the newspaper habit, ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien
... expostulated. "Really, one might think that you actually enjoyed this sort of thing! One of these fine days, if you're not careful, you'll be caught napping, and it'll take all Dollops's and my ingenuity to get you out of the clutches. I do beg of you to be careful—for Ailsa's sake, ...
— The Riddle of the Frozen Flame • Mary E. Hanshew
... G[^u][n]wani[']gista['][)i] (see formulas) it is forbidden to carry the child outdoors, but this is not to procure rest for the little one, or to guard against exposure to cold air, but because the birds send this disease, and should a bird chance to be flying by overhead at the moment the napping of its wings would fan the disease back into the ...
— The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees • James Mooney
... importance whatever to our needs; But the treasure raised against the Medes You've squandered, and do nothing in return, save that you make Our lives and persons hazardous by some imbecile mistakes What can you answer? Now be careful, don't arouse my spite, Or with my slipper I'll take you napping, ...
— Lysistrata • Aristophanes
... great stroke, this general strike," he said, as we bowled along through the crowded but orderly streets. "It's a smashing body-blow. Labour caught us napping and struck at our weakest place, the stomach. I'm going to get out of San Francisco, Corf. Take my advice and get out, too. Head for the country, anywhere. You'll have more chance. Buy up a stock of ...
— The Strength of the Strong • Jack London
... fox and a swan took place at Sherborne Park. Master Reynard seems to have caught the old swan napping, and to have seized him by the throat. The bird defended himself with his wings so powerfully that its assailant was done to death in no time, and a workman going past the lake above the bridge next morning found both fox and swan lying dead together. The bird had received a fatal bite in the throat; ...
— Chatterbox Stories of Natural History • Anonymous
... rate—by Fontenoy and his friends. The young inspector, himself a hot partisan, and knowing with whom he had to deal, would have liked to convict his companion of sheer and simple ignorance; but, on the contrary, Tressady was not to be caught napping. As far as the trade details and statistics of this gruesome slopwork of East London went, he knew all that could be ...
— Sir George Tressady, Vol. II • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door— ...
— The Raven • Edgar Allan Poe
... for an instant the Rovers, as they flew to loose the tackles of their guns, and hoisted their battle-lanterns, believed that a man-of-war had caught them napping. ...
— The Last Galley Impressions and Tales - Impressions and Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle
... been sure death to have trusted myself near that station, but I think I'd have risked it just to have seen Bill's face when you told him! Just think of it! Bill, who was a match for anybody! Bill, who was never caught napping! Bill, who only wanted supreme control of things to wipe me off the face of the earth! Bill, who knew how everything was done, and could stop it if he chose, and then to have been ROBBED TWICE IN ONE EVENING BY MY GANG! Yes, sir! Yuba Bill and his rotten old coach were GONE THROUGH ...
— From Sand Hill to Pine • Bret Harte
... the farmer, 'do you begin to realize that agriculture has had a hair cut? You belong in a bygone era. Why, Tom Lawson himself knows better than to try to catch an up-to-date agriculturalist napping. It's Saturday, the Fourteenth, on the farm, you bet. Now, look here, and see how we keep up ...
— The Gentle Grafter • O. Henry
... is no such serious danger as you imagine. Last time the cuttle caught me napping. He will not do so again. Those rifles I must have. If it will serve to reassure you, I will go along the ...
— The Wings of the Morning • Louis Tracy
... and besieged—once when Split crept upon Sissy and, with a quick thrust of her slim, straight leg, disarranged an elaborate scheme for "putting horses in the stable," and once when there was a strategic sortie from Sissy, which failed to catch the enemy napping. ...
— The Madigans • Miriam Michelson
... himself napping. Suppose he should go to sleep. The idea was not to be entertained for a moment. He sat up in the bed and listened, listened, listened, until at length the welcome strokes greeted his ear. He was tired and sleepy and stupid ...
— Tiger and Tom and Other Stories for Boys • Various
... napping. His wakeful ears had heard the tumult in the air, and he guessed who it was that was coming. He threw the net, which he had just finished, into the fire, and jumped quickly into the swift torrent, where, changing ...
— Hero Tales • James Baldwin
... we didn't stop at the first one. The mine caught the Boches napping there and stood them on their heads. But in the second it was an out and out stand up fight, man to man, ...
— Army Boys in the French Trenches • Homer Randall
... inches of wood, had pierced a lancer's breast and killed him, besides shattering the wrist of yet another lancer. Those trains had just been fired at by a mounted Boer patrol which had caught our men literally napping. Most of them were lying fast asleep in the bottom of the trucks, with their unloaded carbines beside or under them, so that not a solitary reply shot was fired as the trains sped past the point ...
— With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back • Edward P. Lowry
... fox stalks his game is one of the most remarkable things about him. Stupid chickens are not the only birds captured. Once I read in the snow the story of his hunt after a crow—wary game to be caught napping! The tracks showed that quite a flock of crows had been walking about an old field, bordered by pine and birch thickets. From the rock where he was sleeping away the afternoon the fox saw or heard ...
— Ways of Wood Folk • William J. Long
... officer made a practice of coming on deck at irregular hours during the night while anchored in a roadstead, so that the men might become impressed with the idea of never relaxing their vigilance. Notwithstanding this care it was not an infrequent thing for the watch to be caught napping. On one occasion a collier brig had been windbound for several days in the Yarmouth roads. The mate was accustomed to pay nocturnal visits on deck, and had suspected that a great deal of napping was done before the galley fire, and he had his suspicion ...
— The Shellback's Progress - In the Nineteenth Century • Walter Runciman
... exclaimed. "Are two such men as the duke and his accomplice likely to be caught napping? They are prepared for such a visit, and we should only have our labor ...
— The Honor of the Name • Emile Gaboriau
... a ridiculous clatter Over such a small matter! I was peacefully napping When you came with your tapping; You are vastly mistaken If you think I've forsaken My official position Because no physician Could give me a cranium Like a pot of geranium. And these are my orders— No one passes these borders Unless he is able, In song, rhyme, ...
— All the Way to Fairyland - Fairy Stories • Evelyn Sharp
... if she goes at all, with her papa; he often takes her out. I heard her say that she did just love to go out with her dear papa, and that it pleased him so much. Poor old man! I saw him nodding and napping, nearly dead for sleep, the last time he was out with her. It's a shame to keep him up so! As for myself, I would never go any where if I had to, for the lack of a man, always be dragging poor papa out. It must be so very mortifying. ...
— The Inner Sisterhood - A Social Study in High Colors • Douglass Sherley et al.
... would reply. She began to feel rather uncomfortable over it. She feared people would think she had been napping and dreaming although ...
— The Adventures of Ann - Stories of Colonial Times • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... go—not on our journey, but all over the town to the different hotels, to pick up live freight. I heartily hoped they might all oversleep themselves that morning. Alas! no such luck. Jonathan and a weasel are two animals that are very rarely caught napping. Passengers kept coming in until we were six, and "comfortable enough" became a misnomer. A furious blast of the tin tube, with a few spicy impromptu variations, portended something important, and, as we pulled up, we saw it was the post-office; but, murder of murders! we saw four more ...
— Lands of the Slave and the Free - Cuba, The United States, and Canada • Henry A. Murray
... upon their consciousness. Sitting on stone benches in the sunshine, they subside into slumber, or nearly so, and start at the approach of footsteps echoing under the colonnades, ashamed to be caught napping, and rousing themselves in a hurry, as formerly on the midnight watch at sea. In their brightest moments, they gather in groups and bore one another with endless sea-yarns about their voyages under famous admirals, and about gale and calm, ...
— Our Old Home - A Series of English Sketches • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... if, while he's in the midst of signaling, his light goes out, the submarine won't know what to make of it, and will come up closer to find out what's wrong. Then our own guns, or those of the destroyers, can bang away and catch the Germans napping." ...
— The Moving Picture Boys on the War Front - Or, The Hunt for the Stolen Army Films • Victor Appleton
... consider, we must reflect, we must puzzle our brains, for the gods have been napping this morning, and we must be doubly wide-awake. Irene—our little Irene—and who would have thought it yesterday! It is a good-for-nothing, unspeakably base knave's trick—and now, what can we do to snatch the prey from the gluttonous monster, the savage wild beast, before ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... themselves—which I did. So we went plowing past the sterns of steamboats and getting closer and closer—the crash was bound to come very soon—and still that hat never budged; for alas, the captain was napping in the texas.... Things were becoming exceedingly nervous and uncomfortable. It seemed to me that the captain was not going to appear in time to see the entertainment. But he did. Just as we were walking into the stern of a steamboat, ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... Southern attorney identify the man he had served the papers on. For this purpose he was engaged in conversation with one of his own clerks when the lawyer was due to appear. Kimmel appeared to act confused, as if he had been caught napping. The Southern lawyer, who had seen Thurston only once, fell squarely into the trap and identified the clerk as Thurston. There were plenty of witnesses to it, and it was point number two for the great Mose Kimmel. Papers were drawn up to ...
— The Poisoned Pen • Arthur B. Reeve
... his doorstep with his chin in his hands, and it was very plain to see that Danny had something on his mind. He had only a nod for Jimmy Skunk, and even Peter Rabbit could get no more than a grumpy "Good morning." It wasn't that he had been caught napping the day before by Reddy Fox and nearly made an end of. No, it wasn't that. Danny had learned his lesson, and Reddy would never catch him again. It wasn't that he was all alone with no one to play with. Danny was rather glad that he was alone. The fact is, ...
— The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse • Thornton W. Burgess
... used to catch the flying grasshoppers early of an August morning—"the big brown fellows that fly like birds"; they would congregate here during the night to avail themselves of the warmth of the rocks, and here he would stop on his way from driving the cows to pasture, and catch them napping. ...
— Our Friend John Burroughs • Clara Barrus
... said: "Flavelle? Yes—he is mighty clever." And Flavelle had been for one year then a baronet. That also was clever; and just in time. The man who happened to be in England when war was declared and sold war bacon in August, 1914, was not to be caught napping in 1917; neither after he had got his title was he to be found slacking in his marvellous work in 1918. Flavelle earned a title—even after he had ...
— The Masques of Ottawa • Domino
... yards ahead beneath the shoulder of a kopje. Had the thing not contained the very germ of tragedy it would have been laughable to see the way those figures scattered over the red veld. It was De Wet's commandos caught napping. Just before the shell fire our burghers had gone out ahead hell-for-leather on either flank. The whole column then advanced. After two hours' pretty hot work the action was over. We lost six killed against the rebels' twenty-two, and with twenty wounded on ...
— With Botha in the Field • Eric Moore Ritchie
... catch you napping. I think that when you recover your memory it will be from some little thing that strikes you in an unguarded moment. Your mind, when consciously active, fortifies itself against your forgotten past, and it may be in a moment of weakness that things will return to you; I shouldn't ...
— Who Goes There? • Blackwood Ketcham Benson
... night-gear, with bare feet thrust into slippers, proved him newly risen from bed; but the hum of voices and clatter of plates which came from the neighbouring kitchen were signs that, late as it was, the good inn was not caught napping. ...
— The Castle Inn • Stanley John Weyman
... napping, and had lost the wagon. He was never so mortified in his life. One who was so careless ...
— Try Again - or, the Trials and Triumphs of Harry West. A Story for Young Folks • Oliver Optic
... will be pyrotechnics. Mad, mad, I tell you! But whether mad or not matters little in our land of freedom, where all men are born unequal, where only the artists are sad. They are useless beings, openly derided, and when one is caught napping, doing something that offends church or State or society, he is imprisoned. Mad, you know! No wonder anarchy is thriving, no wonder every true artist is an anarch, unavowed perhaps, yet an anarch, ...
— Visionaries • James Huneker
... rest of the time (Sunday of course exempted) had been carefully husbanded by him in making all due preparation; and he now stood before his expected guests with the air one, to use a common phrase, who has not been caught napping. For each, as they rode up, he had a friendly salutation and familiar word; and inviting them to dismount and enter, until the whole number should be arrived, he led away and secured their horses ...
— Ella Barnwell - A Historical Romance of Border Life • Emerson Bennett
... has stolen him from almost under my nose. Let up, Dick—or, rather, turn back. It's no good. That darned 'gator has got my jaguar safe down there in the mud, and we shall never see him again. Well, never mind, I daresay we shall get plenty of other chances. But I'll watch out and not be caught napping next time." ...
— In Search of El Dorado • Harry Collingwood
... old scheme was that it caught the enemy napping: while he was lounging and waiting for the loud signal, the ball was silently put in play before he was ready. On the fatal day Tug found that the scheme was well worth the trouble it took. It has its disadvantages in the long run, but on its first appearance ...
— The Dozen from Lakerim • Rupert Hughes
... wonder these tired boys under the heavy, hot steel helmets, which absorb the heat of the scorching sun, are listening with all their ears, yet one or two fall asleep for very weariness and may again be caught napping by the enemy's poison gas up the line. The instructor is in dead earnest, for the life of every man during the coming conflict may depend upon his message. His words are still in my ears, for they were strangely like ...
— With Our Soldiers in France • Sherwood Eddy
... sir; But let me add—I fear the wary foe Would nab your regiment napping on the field. You have forgotten, Colonel—not so fast— I am the man that slept upon his post.' Our bluff old Colonel laughed and turned away; Ten minutes later came his kind reply— A basketful of ...
— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon
... friendship with her—a share in her bed, for one night only, will be requested. Who knows, but on that very Monday night I may be so unhappy as to give mortal offence to my beloved? The shyest birds may be caught napping. Should she attempt to fly me upon it, cannot I detain her? Should she actually fly, cannot I bring her back, by authority civil or uncivil, if I have evidence upon evidence that she acknowledged, though but tacitly, her marriage? And should I, or should I ...
— Clarissa, Volume 4 (of 9) - History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson
... is to say, Fools and Knaves: pray, how long is't since you left Toping and Napping, for Quacking, good Brother Cater-tray?—but let that pass, for I'll have my Humour, and therefore will quarrel with no Man, and so I drink.— ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume IV. • Aphra Behn
... Captain comes to port With barrels of oil from whales caught napping, He'll pace the deck, and loudly snort, "This land air is my ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume II. (of X.) • Various
... pilot-house, "Jimmy" Doyle, Carr, and David, the patriots and their arms had been safely dumped upon the coast of Cuba, and The Three Friends was gliding swiftly and, having caught the Florida straits napping, smoothly toward Key West. Carr had just finished reading aloud his ...
— The Red Cross Girl • Richard Harding Davis
... afraid of the governor, I am," said Cousin Milly, when we had left him. "I was in a qualm. When he spies me a-napping maybe he don't fetch me a prod with his pencil-case over ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VI. • Various
... then, that P'hra-Alack experienced an access of gratitude for the privilege of napping for two hours in a snuggery ...
— The English Governess At The Siamese Court • Anna Harriette Leonowens
... white hotels facing the river many drawn blinds spoke of napping travelers, and in the shade of the garden of the Grand other travelers were whiling away the listless inertia of the ...
— The Palace of Darkened Windows • Mary Hastings Bradley
... But napping through such lamentation was impossible, and accordingly he once more began to crawl up the side of the Oak trunk, his head turning now to one side, now to the other, his horns extended to the utmost, that, if possible, he might see what ...
— The Junior Classics Volume 8 - Animal and Nature Stories • Selected and arranged by William Patten
... commander, gallant "Fighting 'Joe' Hooker," was not caught napping. Lee did not escape from Fredericksburg unobserved. The army of the Potomac cavalry was sent to guard the passes in the mountains and see to it that Jackson's and Longstreet's maneuvers of the previous summer were not repeated, while six corps of infantry marched leisurely toward the fords of the ...
— Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman - With Custer's Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the Civil War • J. H. (James Harvey) Kidd
... long time Deane had proved himself a better man than either Bucky or himself, and that, after all, he was the man who held the situation well in hand even now. He was well armed. He was as cautions as a fox, and would not be caught napping. And yet this thought filled Billy with satisfaction rather than fear. Deane would be more than a match for Bucky alone if he failed in beating out the corporal. But if he did ...
— Isobel • James Oliver Curwood
... as it makes lizards wriggle," said he. "Lippo is a lizard. No dog ever caught him napping, though he looks so ...
— Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida • Ouida
... not catch. A dull Pew is often responsible for a dull Pulpit. Do not put your head down on the back of the seat in front, pretending you are very much affected with the sermon, for we all know you are napping." ...
— Around The Tea-Table • T. De Witt Talmage
... to play you, and your Love a Huntsup. You were told what this same whorson wenching, long agoe would come to: You are taken napping now: has not a Souldier, A time to kiss his friend, and a time to consider, But he must lye still digging, like a Pioneer, Making of mines, and burying of his honour there? 'Twere good you ...
— The False One • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
... not to be caught napping. "Some of you fellers stay here an' guard this woman. Don't ...
— Anderson Crow, Detective • George Barr McCutcheon
... abduct the Indian girl made a strong impression on every one of the Moon Valley outfit, and they resolved that they would not be caught napping in that manner again. ...
— Ted Strong in Montana - With Lariat and Spur • Edward C. Taylor
... dogs, I suppose, not to be caught napping; well, I'm up to them, we'll fan them in high style; the ragged nabobs, I understand, are not far off, and our troops are in ...
— She Would Be a Soldier - The Plains of Chippewa • Mordecai Manuel Noah
... cried Chubikoff, stretching himself luxuriously. "He has betrayed himself! And didn't I get round him cleverly! Regularly caught him napping—" ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery In Four Volumes - Detective Stories • Various
... faint glimmer of the dying embers of the Masai camp-fires. We halted and watched, for the sentry we knew was posted at the opening. Presently he appeared, a fine tall fellow, walking idly up and down within five paces of the thorn-stopped entrance. We had hoped to catch him napping, but it was not to be. He seemed particularly wide awake. If we could not kill that man, and kill him silently, we were lost. There we crouched and watched him. Presently Umslopogaas, who was a few paces ahead of me, turned and made a sign, and next second I saw him go down on his stomach ...
— Allan Quatermain • by H. Rider Haggard
... he would not hesitate, colonel," the major laughed. "The young beggar was as cool as a cucumber, and I doubt if we should catch him napping, however ...
— Through Three Campaigns - A Story of Chitral, Tirah and Ashanti • G. A. Henty
... as well to tell you, sir," he said, "that I don't quite like the way the Frenchmen are carrying on. I have observed them for some time past whispering together, and I cannot help thinking that they expect to find us napping, and to set on us and try ...
— John Deane of Nottingham - Historic Adventures by Land and Sea • W.H.G. Kingston
... asleep in her sofa-crib, and Velours was rolled in a torpid circle on the hearth. The fire burned low, casting a faint and fitful gleam through the room. The hermit occupied his usual seat in the leather chair at one corner of the chimney. Whether he had been napping or musing it were difficult to say, but it was with a quiet, almost stealthy movement that he walked to the door which he opened, and looked out into the night. Returning, he placed a large log on the fire, ...
— The Bastonnais - Tale of the American Invasion of Canada in 1775-76 • John Lesperance
... knowing a hand to be caught napping. He had had the tip about lamb's singing from his brother last term, and was prepared. He joined in, ...
— The Cock-House at Fellsgarth • Talbot Baines Reed
... privilege to pass the lines unchallenged. In fact, the doctor's strict surveillance diminished, and he was occasionally guilty of napping at the post when Sandy was ...
— Sandy • Alice Hegan Rice
... Archduke John defeated Prince Eugene in Italy and drove him back upon the Adige, while Ferdinand overpowered all resistance in Poland, and on the twentieth occupied Warsaw. Such successes were intoxicating; the great general had, it seemed, been caught napping at last, and the advantage of a successful opening appeared to be with ...
— The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte - Vol. III. (of IV.) • William Milligan Sloane
... to fossils. My hope is that the true American spirit will soar above the vanity and pettiness of corporated wisdom, and that this scientific Academy bubble will end in inanity and in ridicule. I am sorry that Congress was taken in, and committed such a blunder. It was caught napping. ...
— Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863 • Adam Gurowski
... once saw that the stipulation was reasonable, or he might be caught in a fix in midwinter. But, with true "Scotch caution" and forethought, he was, while anxious to experiment, determined not to be "caught napping." After some consideration, I prepared a sketch for him of how I thought it could be done, and at the same time comply with his stipulation; and having received full explanations, he set about it, and has had it working now for something like six months. His experience ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 601, July 9, 1887 • Various
... October 10th, there. This district abounds in duck, and the Prince and his staff had very fair sport. During his stay the weather suddenly turned colder, the rivers froze over and snow fell. So sudden was the cold snap that one of those with the Prince was caught napping. He woke up to find that his false teeth were frozen into the solid block of ice that had been water the night before. He had to take the tooth glass to the kitchen of the house where he was staying, and thaw it before he could even ...
— Westward with the Prince of Wales • W. Douglas Newton
... oft caught napping, And the scientist can say, That our yawning drains want trapping, Lest the deadly typhoid stay. Even with your house in order, If you go to take the air, So to speak, outside your border, Lo! ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, August 22, 1891 • Various
... but most of us were up at sunrise. It doesn't do for chaps in our line to be caught napping, and the police might have got wind where we were at work. We had our horses to look to, and to give a look round in a general way to see ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood
... slept soundly, as was his wont; then, also according to his habit and training, he came wide awake, with no intermediate stage of napping. ...
— Triplanetary • Edward Elmer Smith
... Evan; "the fox will catch the wolf napping, and nail him before he can fortify himself with a ...
— The Diamond Coterie • Lawrence L. Lynch
... would be justly angry with me, give me a little insight into your plan; but if I am kept ignorant of every contrivance, I must always be caught napping. ...
— The Blunderer • Moliere
... thunderous bay sounded in our ears, followed by a profound silence, broken only by the quick shivering breathing of the horses. Then suddenly, and noiselessly, a great tawny brute, with its black muzzle to the earth, and its overhung cheeks napping on either side, sprang into the band of moonlight between the rocks, and on into the shadow beyond. It never paused or swerved for an instant, but pursued its course straight onwards without a glance to right or to left. Close behind it came a second, and behind that a third, ...
— Micah Clarke - His Statement as made to his three Grandchildren Joseph, - Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 • Arthur Conan Doyle
... just valuation. Women had already given him many a mauvais quart d'heure in Paris; Madame de Stael and, later, the beautiful Madame Recamier were forced to go into exile because he feared their power, and here in Italy he resolved not to be caught napping. Among the number of these Italian women who were daring enough to oppose his success, one of the most influential and best known was the Countess Cicognara. Her husband, Count Leopold Cicognara, was an archaeologist of some reputation, who is to-day best known by ...
— Women of the Romance Countries • John R. Effinger
... usual in the evening, reporting that his mother was "rather better." It was a discouraging habit she had, when she was not known to have been any worse than usual. This good lady always caught Commiseration napping, if ever that quality took forty winks. The doctor was very silent this evening, imbibing Sally without comment. However, St. Sennans was drawing to a close for all others. That was enough to account for it, Sally thought. It was ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan
... prowled around among the spectators, keeping in the shadows and seeking white men for partners. These, mostly cowboys and trading-post managers, were wary, and only one was caught napping. It cost him all the loose silver he had in his pocket to get rid of the tiny fat squaw that had ...
— I Married a Ranger • Dama Margaret Smith
... thought; rapt, in the clouds, bemused; dreaming on other things, musing on other things; preoccupied, engrossed &c (attentive) 457; daydreaming, in a reverie &c n.; off one's guard &c (inexpectant) 508 [Obs.]; napping; dreamy; caught napping. disconcerted, distracted, put out &c v.. Adv. inattentively, inadvertently, absent-mindedly &c adj.^; per incuriam [Lat.], sub silentio [Lat.]. Int. stand at ease, stand easy!, Phr. the attention wanders; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... people who most excited my attention were the Touaricks, whom I now saw for the first time. Many of them were here at this time for trading purposes. They expressed as much astonishment at seeing me as I them, some exclaiming, "God! God! how could the Infidel come here?" Late in the afternoon, after napping, went again into the city: was much pleased with its appearance. Thought it better than Tripoli, considering the position of the respective places, Tripoli on the edge of the sea, and open to all the world, and Ghadames in the midst of The Desert, far from the shores of the ...
— Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 • James Richardson
... have been told," replied the other, modestly. "But just now I am more concerned how I may get out of this country of the fighting armies than what my dead and gone ancestors may have been. I have been caught napping, as they say, and for days now have been trying to reach Paris, where I hope to secure some funds, and start back across the ocean to my ...
— The Big Five Motorcycle Boys on the Battle Line - Or, With the Allies in France • Ralph Marlow |
