"Handy" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... for show," answered Gaston, affecting an air of wisdom, "but it is deemed handy sometimes. It does all sorts of business that you would never think of. A ...
— The Champdoce Mystery • Emile Gaboriau
... a large fire on the shore, and went into the woods to cut down bamboos and rattans; then we set to work to stop the holes, which decreased fast enough under our handy-work upon ...
— Adventures in the Philippine Islands • Paul P. de La Gironiere
... good novels too: no man of sense will deny that they are far better than our dilettantism of the slums, or our religious and social tracts in the disguise of romance. If there is no new tale of treasure and bandits and fights and lions handy, may I have a fashionable novel in French to fall back upon! Even Count Tolstoi does not disdain the genre. There is some uncommonly high life in Anna Karenine. He adds a great deal of psychology, to be ...
— Essays in Little • Andrew Lang
... much praying; don't seem to come handy to me; but I can watch like a redskin, only it's easier to mount guard over a lurking grizzly than my own cursed temper. It's that I'm afraid of, if I settle down. I can get on with wild beasts first-rate; but men rile me awfully, and I can't take it out in ...
— Jo's Boys • Louisa May Alcott
... Now very hard it is to make A Brownie his bad ways forsake, For it's a fact he takes the cake, If he can't find the candy! And if you clap your hands and shoo, He'll only make a face at you; There's only one thing you can do— Just keep the pepper handy! For, as a Brownie hates to sneeze, Or blow his nose if it should tease, Or any wholesome acts like these, He can't abide ...
— Christmas Entertainments • Alice Maude Kellogg
... summat like a couple o' wild b'ys; they keeps the passon and the mistress in, not for to say hot water, but bilin' water, for the livelong day!' constantly declared Binks, who was the handy-man at the Vicarage, and, in fact, handy-man at the little church as well, he being both factotum and sexton. Binks was a worthy old soul whom the terriers led a troubled life by their destructive ...
— The Captain's Bunk - A Story for Boys • M. B. Manwell
... dress might come in mighty handy on SOME occasions; so I guess you'd better hold on to it for future use, and go and select another for this Fairford dinner," he said; and before he could finish he was in her arms again, and she was smothering his last word in little cries ...
— The Custom of the Country • Edith Wharton
... a handy lad, however. I could go aloft with any man on board, and never troubled the shrouds in coming down when a rope was within springing distance. But this was instinct or habit: thought was not concerned in it—I had not found the principle. One day, it blew what sailors call great guns; our bulwarks ...
— Chambers' Edinburgh Journal - Volume XVII., No 423, New Series. February 7th, 1852 • Various
... school, and a grand council of the boys was held, assisted by some of the selectmen. The beasts in the lozenge-box were easily disposed of, for it had a sliding cover, which was dexterously raised high enough to let the beasts all into the squirrel-cage. Then handy Tim Stubbs punched a hole in the bandbox opposite to the entrance of the squirrel-cage, and one by one the leopards and the rest were allowed to make their way into the wiry prison. The tiger made a dash, but in vain; he ...
— The Last of the Peterkins - With Others of Their Kin • Lucretia P. Hale
... branding irons, a block and fall, muzzles of different sizes, corkscrew picket-pins for holding the turn of a rope, and a nondescript article shaped like a huge pair of tongs, for which I feel sure there is no name in any trade, but which looked to be a handy implement for clamping the jaws of a beast. To have these things made according to specifications took time and an endless amount of running about. Besides, there was the more ordinary part of the equipment to procure: English ...
— Stories from Everybody's Magazine • 1910 issues of Everybody's Magazine
... but you were not ordered to send as after a jack-o-lantern, or to mistake some xebec or other, from one of the Greek islands, for a light, handy ...
— The Wing-and-Wing - Le Feu-Follet • J. Fenimore Cooper
... with that profession, Jimmy had said, was that the indispensable assets in it were not industry, intelligence, ambitions, but a reasonably presentable pair of arms and legs (a good-looking face would surely come in handy too) and a rudimentary sense of rhythm. Another demoralizing thing about it, he had said, was the fact that the work wasn't hard enough, except during rehearsal, to keep ...
— The Real Adventure • Henry Kitchell Webster
... into the Red's gear as I talked! "I've trained all the little muscles in my face—muscles you others don't even know you have. Started when I was a kid, then made a good living at it, acting. Comes in handy now, damn handy. I can make anything of my face, and hold it forever if I have to. Chink, Russ—anything. Distort my limbs too, and change my voice. That won't be necessary now. Simple, but it ...
— Astounding Stories, May, 1931 • Various
... a row; each hunter wrapped himself in his blanket, and pillowing his head on his saddle, stretched his feet towards the fire and went to sleep, with his loaded rifle by his side and his hunting-knife handy in his belt. Crusoe mounted guard by stretching himself out couchant at Dick Varley's side. The faithful dog slept lightly, and never moved all night; but had any one observed him closely he would ...
— The Dog Crusoe and His Master - A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... had further work to do on the plans and must be going back. He took leave of Mr. Hooper and the daughter, and retreated with the boys as hurriedly as Bill could manage his handy crutch. They all proceeded silently in crossing the broad field, but when in the road Bill had to ...
— Radio Boys Cronies • Wayne Whipple and S. F. Aaron
... was out on the lake shore and we found a nest of ants, these little red ants, and I got a pop bottle half full of the ants and took them home. I didn't know what I would do with the ants, but ants are always handy to have in the house. This morning, when Pa was dressing for church, I saw his liver-pad on a chair, and noticed a hole in it, and I thought what a good place it would be for the ants. I don't know what possessed me, but I took the liver-pad ...
— Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa - 1883 • George W. Peck
... man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine—ears: see how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: Change places, and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, and which is THE THIEF?' [Searching social questions, as before. 'Thou robed man of justice (to the Bedlamite), take thy place; and thou, his yoke-fellow of equity (to ...
— The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded • Delia Bacon
... had a rubber head, looked as though she "had been through the wars." Her nose was worn out, so that she had a great hole in the end of it. I suppose, if she had wanted to sneeze, this hole would have been very handy; but Miss Lucy was a very proper young lady, and never sneezed in company. If she ever sneezed when alone, of course there was no one present to ...
— Dolly and I - A Story for Little Folks • Oliver Optic
... Humphrey, and it will be his amusement. You must not expect him to work very hard; they are not accustomed to it. They live a roving life, and never work if they can help it; still, if you make him fond of you, he may be very useful, for they are very clever and handy." ...
— The Children of the New Forest • Captain Marryat
... its side midway between the two ends against the rim of the bowl. The greater part of the white of the egg was allowed to escape into a small vessel next the bowl, as it is not required for the mayonnaise, but comes in handy for other culinary purposes. He now, with the yolk in one half of the shell, poured away all the white remaining in the other half. Next he dexterously turned the yolk into this latter emptied shell and then ...
— The Art of Living in Australia • Philip E. Muskett (?-1909)
... which first came into use will always be doubtful, but one would think that stones, being hard and handy, as well as plentiful, might have presented irresistible attractions to, say, some antediluvian monster, who wished to intimate to a mammoth or icthyosaurus, a few hundred yards distant, his readiness ...
— Broad-Sword and Single-Stick • R. G. Allanson-Winn
... some way to get in; and unless we made sure to guard that point, they'd have a way to escape handy," the ...
— Fred Fenton on the Track - or, The Athletes of Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... 'What a handy jade it is!' said the locksmith to Mrs Varden, who stood by with folded hands—rather proud of her husband too—while Miggs held his cap and sword at arm's length, as if mistrusting that the latter might run some one through the body of its own accord; ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens
... he produced, from inside a purse which he had handy, a transcribed office-philactery, which he handed over to Yue-ts'un; who upon perusal, found it full of trite and unpolished expressions of public opinion, with regard to the leading clans and notable official families in that particular district. They ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... run over to Mrs. Barton's, and ask her for any old duds Billy don't want; and Betty, you go to the Cutters, and tell Miss Clarindy I'd like a couple of the shirts we made at last sewing circle. Any shoes, or a hat, or socks, would come handy, for the poor dear hasn't a whole thread ...
— Under the Lilacs • Louisa May Alcott
... it was plain that the vessel could not stand the rage of the breakers much longer. It was hard to see the ship at all, the spray came in so thickly. The women were crying and wringing their hands on the bank; but that was of small avail. However, one little trouting-boat lay handy, and her owner determined to go off in her to the brig. He was a fine fellow to look at—quite a remarkable specimen of a man, indeed. Without any flurry, without a sign of emotion on his face, he said, "Who's coming?" ...
— The Romance of the Coast • James Runciman
... it—the dear child was so clever, it would be a change for her. Then, actually resting on the pincers, she came on her pass-book, recently made up, containing little or no balance, just enough to get darling John that bag like hers with the new clasp, which would be so handy for his papers when he went travelling. And having reached the pincers, she took them in her hand, and sat down again to be quite quiet a moment, with her still-dark eyelashes resting on her ivory cheeks and her lips pressed to a colorless line; for her head swam from stooping over. In repose, ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... ter be gettin' handy," roared the latter to Frenchy, who nodded back, turning towards us his dripping, bearded ...
— Sweetapple Cove • George van Schaick
... began, "Well, 'twas the wonderfullest gale o' wind you ever seed—snowin' an' blowin', with the sea in mountains, an' it as black as a wolf's throat—an' we was somewheres off Cape Mugford. She were drivin' with a nor'east gale, with the shore somewheres handy t' le'ward. But, look! nar a one of us knowed where she were to, 'less 'twas in the thick o' the Black Heart Reefs...." Stout, hearty fellows they were who told yarns like these—thick and broad about the chest and lanky below, long-armed, hammer-fisted, ...
— Doctor Luke of the Labrador • Norman Duncan
... a machinate mammal. The lower animals keep all their limbs at home in their own bodies, but many of man's are loose, and lie about detached, now here and now there, in various parts of the world—some being kept always handy for contingent use, and others being occasionally hundreds of miles away. A machine is merely a supplementary limb; this is the be all and end all of machinery. We do not use our own limbs other ...
— Erewhon • Samuel Butler
... your guns handy," counseled Charley, as the band approached. "I declare, if they aren't all unarmed," ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... down his pipe. "Out of order, eh?" he said. "I'm sort of handy with gadgets. Let me take a look ...
— Made in Tanganyika • Carl Richard Jacobi
... malhelpi. Hamstring subgenuo. Hand mano. Hand-barrow pusxveturilo. Handcuff mankateno. Handful plenmano. Handicraft manfarado. Handkerchief naztuko. Handle manpreni. Handle tenilo. Handmade manfarita. Handshake manpremo. Handsome bela. Handy lerta, oportuna (of things). Hang (intrans.) pendi. Hang up pendigi. Hanker deziregi. Hansom kabrioleto. Hap okazi. Hapless malfelicxa. Haply eble. Happen okazi. Happiness felicxo. ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes
... 'I've got my gun handy - so you'd best not try any tricks,' said the keeper. 'If we open the door, will you promise to come quietly ...
— Five Children and It • E. Nesbit
... that he was inviting risks. His pistols were still useless but they would be handy for threats, and he should be able to take care of himself ...
— The Shades of the Wilderness • Joseph A. Altsheler
... to stand handy by when a Kansas cyclone ripped the insides out of a clothing-store only the boys' sizes would drop in the same county with me," grumbled the tramp, working his ...
— The Landloper - The Romance Of A Man On Foot • Holman Day
... "woman's" "particular worth and general missionariness," to see that the dress of women is daily more and more unfitting them for any "mission," or usefulness at all. It is equally unfitted for all poetic and all domestic purposes. A man is now a more handy and far less objectionable being in a sick-room than a woman. Compelled by her dress, every woman now either shuffles or waddles—only a man can cross the floor of a sick-room without shaking it! What is become of woman's light ...
— Notes on Nursing - What It Is, and What It Is Not • Florence Nightingale
... 1920. The last number of the Chapbook, containing "Three Critical Essays on Modern English Poetry," by three well-known critics of literature, I read with suspiciously eager attention, for I will confess that I have no handy rule, not one that I can describe, which can be run over new work in poetry or prose with unfailing confidence. My credentials as a literary critic would not, I fear, bear five minutes' scrutiny; but I never cease to look for that defined and adequate equipment, such as even a carpenter calls his ...
— Waiting for Daylight • Henry Major Tomlinson
... "This handy book of exploration in Australia ... picks out the most noted expeditions of Australian history, and presents them in a form in which they should find most acceptance from the work-a-day world. The book, which is well illustrated, is a useful contribution to the general stock of information concerning ...
— Colonial Born - A tale of the Queensland bush • G. Firth Scott
... any lapse of logic that may connect inward vagueness with outward zeal, if it be the zeal of subscribers, presenters or drivers of cars, or both at once, stretcher-bearers, lifters, healers, consolers, handy Anglo-French interpreters, (these extremely precious,) smoothers of the way; in short, after whatever fashion. We ask of nobody any waste of moral or of theoretic energy, nor any conviction of any sort, but that the job is inspiring ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 2, May, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various
... you, miss!' said Blathers, drawing his coat-sleeve across his mouth; 'it's dry work, this sort of duty. Anythink that's handy, miss; don't put yourself out of the way, on ...
— Oliver Twist • Charles Dickens
... during which she had bit her lips, and frowned, and gazed abstractedly at the wall, a gleam of hope lit up her face, soon brightening into a smile. She had hit upon a plan! She could learn the milliner's trade! She had always been handy with her needle, and liked nothing better than to arrange laces and ribbons and flowers. She could easily learn to make and trim a bonnet, she thought; at least, she could try. At first it would come hard to sit cooped up in those little back shops, sewing and stitching from ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various
... small but handy, Indeed we think the place most dandy, We're going to try and make ...
— The Jolliest School of All • Angela Brazil
... round to the side door, dumped out the treasure-box, ran into the house, and quickly returned with a hammer and some tacks, then fell swiftly to ripping the oilcloth that covered the box which stood against the wall to serve as a handy wash-stand for use by dusty travellers before dining. The two boxes were of the same size and shape, and she draped the treasure chest with the cloth, tacked it in place, restored to the top of it the tin basin, and tossed the former wash-stand ...
— Brand Blotters • William MacLeod Raine
... their own coining, but had never handled a section on parade or seen inside the cover of a text-book. The position was aggravated by many of the officers being "rusty" themselves and not having books of reference handy. However, the difficulty was got over by forming a class of instruction in each company, and the desired result was obtained in a few days. Five hours daily were given to parades and a half-holiday observed on ...
— The 28th: A Record of War Service in the Australian Imperial Force, 1915-19, Vol. I • Herbert Brayley Collett
... utmost good nature, "here is mine; I haven't any trunk, so it is handy; and it has rained on my old alpaca for ages; can't hurt that, so wrap yourself up and come along, for I believe in my heart that this ...
— Four Girls at Chautauqua • Pansy
... deserves special mention; for not only is he an important item in our establishment, but a very special crony of mine. This is Willy Paterson (known locally, by-the-bye, as "the Priest's Wully"), our gardener, groom, coachman (when required), and general handy man. Willy is a wiry, wrinkled, white-haired little man—little now, because stooping a bit under the weight of well-nigh eighty years—who is greatly respected by his neighbors far and near because he has "been sooth." For he was long ago in ...
— Up in Ardmuirland • Michael Barrett
... the left hand, is the quay-pool, now lying dry, in which a dozen trawlers are lopping over on their sides, their red sails drying in the sun, the tails of the trawls hauled up to the topmast heads; while the more handy of their owners are getting on board by ladders, to pack away the said red sails; for it will blow to night. In the long furrows which their keels have left, and in the shallow muddy pools, lie innumerable fragments of exenterated maids (not human ones, pitiful ...
— Two Years Ago, Volume I • Charles Kingsley
... young girls have long heads. It may all be a pretty show-down now, but some day you may find it come in handy." ...
— Peggy Stewart at School • Gabrielle E. Jackson
... tin boxes arrived at their destination as good as new, and were quite invaluable for travelling, as they each formed a handy load, and were alike proof against the attacks of ...
— Ismailia • Samuel W. Baker
... a safe there," urged the Earl. "Most people have a safe in their houses nowadays—they're so handy, you know, and so cheap. Don't you think ...
— The Chestermarke Instinct • J. S. Fletcher
... to it is easier and safer. The purfling tool may be regulated and adapted in this case, after which the table will be laid flat, carefully considered, and the more detailed gouging commenced. A small pair of calipers will prove handy for measuring the depth of the channelling of the original parts and gouging down carefully until a corresponding modelling ...
— The Repairing & Restoration of Violins - 'The Strad' Library, No. XII. • Horace Petherick
... thanks," she said. "Now listen. That street there is all lodging-houses. Go and get a room and lie quiet for a bit. They're used to odd folk down here, and you look like a painter or a writer. Say you're an actor out of a job, or anything that comes handy." ...
— The Survivor • E.Phillips Oppenheim
... up for me by a printer's boy I know. I'd done some favours for him, so he made me a few cards. Handy to ...
— Good Cheer Stories Every Child Should Know • Various
... very well," said Fred, taking in all the points at a glance; "here is a rocky bed on which we can start a fire, and the other rocks and bowlders will keep off the wind, if there happens to be any; the water is handy, if we should need it, and it is certain that we are not as likely to be seen here as ...
— The Hunters of the Ozark • Edward S. Ellis
... escapin'. But I did manage to escape at last, through God's blessin', an' got to Hong-Kong in a small coaster; found a ship—the Seacow-about startin' for England short-handed, an' got a berth on board of her. On the voyage the second mate was washed overboard in a gale, so, as I was a handy chap, the cap'en he promoted me, an' now I'm huntin' about for my dear little one all over London. But it's a big place ...
— The Garret and the Garden • R.M. Ballantyne
... man, by dint of a chair, was mounted safely, while his fellow-stranger, a burly, coarse-looking man, equally gay, and rather more handy, made so fierce a rush at his saddle, that, like "vaulting ambition who o'erleaps his selle," he "fell on t'other side:" or would have fallen, had he not been brought up short by the shoulders of the ostler at his off-stirrup. In which shock ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley
... laughin', and the sheep rises up and smites him on the hip and thigh so he flew after the Doctor like a grey-whiskered sky-rocket, with a ha-ha! cut in two in the middle. "Woosh!" says old Windy as he comes up. "Hi, there cooky! I'll beat you ashore!" He was a handy-witted old Orahanna, that Windy, and you didn't put the kybosh on him easy. So it went with all of us. That ram come out of no-where-at-all another night and patted me on the stummick so I pretty near fainted. I tried to twist his cussed head off his shoulders, but he'd knocked the wind out of me ...
— Red Saunders' Pets and Other Critters • Henry Wallace Phillips
... of a Calvinistic preacher, was throwing from behind his spectacles glowing looks in the direction where Marie Launay stood listening to and laughing at the badinage of Molina. Some newspaper reporters, scenting a handy paragraph, came sauntering up to overhear some fragment of the conversation between the minister of yesterday and him ...
— His Excellency the Minister • Jules Claretie
... the Quay Flat!' said Arthur Graydon. 'I say, Dick Elliott, you cut ahead, and see if that crew out of Skinner's Hole are anywhere about! You other fellows, get some stones and keep 'em handy!' ...
— The Wolf Patrol - A Tale of Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts • John Finnemore
... princesses still standing; and rising in his chair, he said to Madame de Saint-Simon— "Madame, I have already begged you to be seated;" and all immediately seated themselves. On the morrow, Madame de Saint-Simon received all the Court in her bed in the apartment of the Duchesse d'Arpajon, as being more handy, being on the ground floor. Our festivities finished by a supper that I gave to the former friends of my father, whose acquaintance I had ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre
... was a general look of comfort which had not existed in that house for more than a week. The poor tired woman sank into a rocking-chair, saying to herself, "I don't see how it is some people's children are so handy. Mine don't ever do anything they can help. It's some people's luck." It never came into Mrs. Sanderson's head that the "luck" of good, efficient children is largely dependent upon the sensible training given them ...
— Katie Robertson - A Girls Story of Factory Life • Margaret E. Winslow
... make matters worse, it wasn't any time before I recollected that Campbellite preacher thet was burned in with them, an' with that my imagination run riot, an' I'd think to myself, 'If they're inclined, they cert'n'y have things handy!' Then I'd ketch myself an' say, 'Where's your faith in Scripture, Mary Marthy Matthews, named after two Bible women an' born daughter to an apostle? What's the use?' I'd say, an' so, first an' last, I'd get a sort o' alpha an' omega comfort out o' the passage about ...
— Humorous Ghost Stories • Dorothy Scarborough
... am glad the saws are going.[90] We may begin by and by with wrights, but I cannot but think that a handy laborer might be taught to work at them. I shall insist on Tom learning the process ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume V (of 10) • John Gibson Lockhart
... Most of the folks that bought those shares are under consider'ble obligation to me.' Just what he meant by that I don't know, of course, but I can guess. Raish makes it a point to have people under what he calls 'obligations' to him. It comes in handy for him, in politics and other ways, to have 'em that way. He lends money and holds mortgages and all that, and that's where the obligations come in.... Well, anyhow, that's what he said and, although father didn't look any too happy at the time and wouldn't talk about it afterward, ...
— Galusha the Magnificent • Joseph C. Lincoln
... illuminant. In temperate climes however daylight of the desirable quantity is not always available, and recourse must be had to oil lamps, gas lamps—preferably those with incandescent mantles—and electricity; and of these the last is undoubtedly the best. A handy lamp holder which can be manufactured in the laboratory is shown in Fig. 60. It consists of a base board weighted with lead to which is attached the ordinary domestic lamp holder, and behind this is fastened ...
— The Elements of Bacteriological Technique • John William Henry Eyre
... were that fair for either? At shearing who'd prefer Horsehair to wool? or when the goat stood handy, suffer her To nurse her firstling, and himself go ...
— Theocritus • Theocritus
... wrench" is not so named because it is a handy thing to monkey with, or for any kindred reason. "Monkey" is not its name at all, but "Moncky." Charles Moncky, the inventor of it, sold his patent for $2,000, and invested the money in a house in Williamsburgh, Kings ...
— The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing - A Manual of Ready Reference • Joseph Triemens
... when a measurer of tape Turns butterfly and dandy, Assumes their grace, their air, their shape, I wish a pump were handy! I never to such balls will go, Those poor pretexts for prancing; Where Jenkins dislocates his toe, And Tomkins ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 13, No. 355., Saturday, February 7, 1829 • Various
... the resident's house was improved, and boats were constantly going to and from the "Startler," whose hold was something like a conjuring trick, as it constantly turned out household necessaries and furniture. Handy workmen amidst the soldiers and Jacks were busy, fitting, hammering, and nailing; so that in a very short time the resident's house began to ...
— Middy and Ensign • G. Manville Fenn
... Since I gave up my place in the bank, and became a sort of handy-lad for you, I know more about your work. But isn't it going to be dangerous to make a ...
— Tom Swift and his Giant Cannon - or, The Longest Shots on Record • Victor Appleton
... got on fire inside; there was no outward injury to be seen, but they smoked alarmingly, and internal crackings were to be heard of a fearful and mysterious description. Molly flew to the kitchen, and flung the bellows, as if they were alive, into a pan of water that stood handy. Doubtless the remedy was effectual so far as extinguishing the fire was concerned, but as for the after result on the constitution of the poor bellows I cannot report favourably, as they were never again fit to use. And, as this was the fourth pair spoilt in a month, ...
— Grandmother Dear - A Book for Boys and Girls • Mrs. Molesworth
... the dauntless Lem: "I'm an old railroader and a handy man of experience, I am, and I wanted to make a proposition ...
— Bart Stirling's Road to Success - Or; The Young Express Agent • Allen Chapman
... the Colonies. Out in Fortitude Valley one night the keeper of a saloon fired a bullet into his aristocratic head, and The Waif was auctioned. She had taken a hand in a number of games after that. A fast yacht is a handy vessel south of the line, and some queer tales were told about the boat that had once shown her heels to the crackerjacks in the Solent. But I couldn't afford to be particular at that moment. Levuka isn't the spot where a man can pick and choose, so I wiped the ...
— The White Waterfall • James Francis Dwyer
... believ'd, where th' odds were such. But one against a multitude Is more than mortal can make good. For while one party he oppos'd, 75 His rear was suddenly inclos'd; And no room left him for retreat, Or fight against a foe so great. For now the mastives, charging home, To blows and handy gripes were come: 80 While manfully himself he bore, And setting his right-foot before, He rais'd himself, to shew how tall His person was above them all. This equal shame and envy stirr'd 85 In th' enemy, that one should beard So many warriors, and so stout, As he had done, and stav'd it out, ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler
... of rowlocks; and a length of three-inch planking sawn down the middle and shaped with a spokeshave into a pair of paddles completed the equipment of what turned out to be a very serviceable and handy boat. ...
— Dick Leslie's Luck - A Story of Shipwreck and Adventure • Harry Collingwood
... your Goldsmith made a general sensation, what should you think of doing a cheap edition of his works? I have an idea that we might do some things of that sort with considerable effect. There is really no edition of the great British novelists in a handy nice form, and would it not be a likely move to do it with some attractive feature that could not be given to it by the Teggs and such people? Supposing one wrote an essay on Fielding for instance, and another on Smollett, and another on Sterne, recalling how one read ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster
... a mile of home where help was handy. Such accidents happening several miles from home may have far more serious consequences, and every Ski runner, who scoffs at the precautions of people more fussy than themselves, may very likely have the life or limb of someone else on their mind when, had they been a little more fussy, they ...
— Ski-running • Katharine Symonds Furse
... early in the day. If you have sandwiches wrap them in a damp napkin; if cold drinks are wanted have them well chilled, your glasses and straws handy, have your silver and china ready at hand so that when your guests arrive you may devote your time and attention to them. The following menus are not hard to prepare and the dishes will be found most palatable and suited ...
— Armour's Monthly Cook Book, Volume 2, No. 12, October 1913 - A Monthly Magazine of Household Interest • Various
... A rick stood handy in the yard, and on going to it I found that three or four dasses of hay had been carved out ready for removal to the stalls. I carried them to the shed, one by one, and mighty hot I was by the time I dumped the last on ...
— The Yeoman Adventurer • George W. Gough
... trying to help in domestic process of any sort, is the period of all others when to "learn by doing" what they are interested in will give them a background capable of easy adjustment to the later demands of family life. The training of boys of the same ages has an analogue in farming and handy use of common tools; and in the "work, play, and study school" boys and girls learn much together which fit both for mutual aid in the private family. The new education of the grade schools, therefore, ...
— The Family and it's Members • Anna Garlin Spencer
... running out of the towne from the footemen, the horsemen without draue in at the gates again, where being without all hope of life, they fought valiantly, and after the Christians came among them to handy blowes, seeing themselues in great distresse without any succour, many of them fled into the burning houses, where one vpon another they were smothered and burnt in the fire. (M636) The whole number of the Indians that died in this towne, were two thousand Indians and fiue ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of - the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. • Richard Hakluyt
... into the cabin, saying, "We don't want to show people ashore where we are. Hah! that's right. This is Tom Fillot's doing. He's a handy fellow." ...
— The Black Bar • George Manville Fenn
... almost before the words were out of his mouth. In a moment those handy men had his clothes off, and had tucked him into his bed in the chamber where I had washed my hands. They closed the door and came back. Then they seemed preparing to leave; but I said: "Please don't go, gentlemen. She won't know me; ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... that your man would do very well for us both but, sometimes, when you make a village your headquarters and ride to visit others from it, I may not feel well enough to go with you; and then he would come in very handy, for he has picked up a good many words of English. Your man is getting on ...
— On the Irrawaddy - A Story of the First Burmese War • G. A. Henty
... could they find fault with him? He was very handy, and showed the utmost consideration ...
— Bouvard and Pecuchet - A Tragi-comic Novel of Bourgeois Life • Gustave Flaubert
... I am particularly nervous," she hastily added, as the girls looked at her suspiciously. "Only I will feel just as well when we have put a dozen miles between us and that highway robber, instead of only half that. I wish there was a town handy where we could ...
— The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge - or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls • Laura Lee Hope
... far better stand a sudden inroad than if he had had to meditate for a week on entertaining the bride. Not that the bride wanted entertainment, except waiting upon her husband, who let himself be many degrees less handy than at Malta, for the pleasure of ...
— The Young Step-Mother • Charlotte M. Yonge
... pages contain additional maps that may assist in understanding some of the references to locations in the text. The first shows Western France. The second map contains many of the locations of the European battles. They are adapted from Putnam's Handy Volume Atlas of the World, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York and ...
— History of the World War - An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War • Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish
... that have strength of body, lend your hands; and all you that have honest hearts, lend your prayers, your cries, your tears, for the prosperous success of this great work. And the Lord prosper the works of all our hands, the Lord prosper all our handy-works. Amen. ...
— The Covenants And The Covenanters - Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation • Various
... which, they say, tries all tempers, had only proved the engaging equanimity of Catesby, and had never disturbed the amiable repose of his brother priest: and then they were so entertaining and so instructive, as well as handy and experienced in all common things. The monsignore had so much taste and feeling, and various knowledge; and as for the reverend father, all the antiquaries they daily encountered were mere children in his ...
— Lothair • Benjamin Disraeli
... youth slipped back several feet into the garden. "That's what everybody's been sayin'," he stammered, in self-defense. "All the folks was sayin' you'd be sure to keep company with Elsie when she came home. I thought it would be kind o' handy 'count o' me goin' to see Jean. We'd ...
— Treasure Valley • Marian Keith
... be a village handy," continued the young American. "We'd better make inquiries there. They'll know something about the place, and whether there's been ...
— The Secret Adversary • Agatha Christie
... their nurslings. This blind maternal affection was accompanied in this instance by household devotion. Told of the doctor's intention to send away his housekeeper, La Bougival secretly learned to cook, became neat and handy, and discovered the old man's ways. She took the utmost care of the house and furniture; in short she was indefatigable. Not only did the doctor wish to keep his private life within four walls, as the saying is, but he also had certain reasons for hiding a knowledge ...
— Ursula • Honore de Balzac
... observing the sign. "So this is where my dootiful step-son is employed. Well, I'm glad to know it. It'll come handy some day." ...
— Rufus and Rose - The Fortunes of Rough and Ready • Horatio Alger, Jr
... caps and shields for the face, leaving only narrow openings for the eyes. When we had got them on we looked like so many Esquimaux. Finally Edmund handed each of us a pair of small automatic pistols, telling us to put them where they would be handy in our side pockets. ...
— A Columbus of Space • Garrett P. Serviss
... together, and ascertain the weight by poising them in his hand; that he would purchase, at any cost, gems, carved works, statues, and pictures, executed by the eminent masters of antiquity; and that he would give for young and handy slaves a price so extravagant, that he forbad its being entered in the diary ...
— The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - To Which Are Added, His Lives Of The Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets • C. Suetonius Tranquillus
... piffle. The real reason, as every thinking person knows, is Christian Science. It's cheaper and more handy. And now that it isn't heresy to say it, the spring being floored over, I reckon that most mineral springs cure by suggestion. Also, of course, if a man's drinking four gallons of lithia water a day, he's so saturated that if he does throw in anything alcoholic or indigestible, ...
— Where There's A Will • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... the town here. They always fetch a good price. Why more people don't grow them I can't make out; it would pay better than gold-seeking, you bet. He had a few hundred dollars laid by, and he said they might come in handy to her if she fell sick, or if things went hard in winter. Well, you remember ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty
... days. I was beginning to feel quite peevish. I don't know what might happen if I became really vexed. Another banana. Certainly you took great risks for a little man. We are beginning to understand one another. Are there any more ripe bananas handy?" He said all this and more, as he looked round, cheerfully accepting peace-offerings and listening to many consolatory words. The next morning he showed us how a young and not foolish horse should ...
— My Tropic Isle • E J Banfield
... man may see how this world goes with no eyes.—Look with thine ears: See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark in thine ear—change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott
... settle," she said decidedly, "is Midas! He can help us in a dozen ways if he will, for he is really wonderfully handy for a boy of his age. He will do nothing unless we consult him formally, and make a definite business arrangement, but it pleases him and won't hurt us, as it will be only a few coppers. He is saving up for a motor-car at the present moment, and Wallace says that by steady attention to business ...
— The Heart of Una Sackville • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... Mr. Bob Sawyer, producing a card. 'Lant Street, Borough; it's near Guy's, and handy for me, you know. Little distance after you've passed St. George's Church—turns out of the High Street on the right hand side ...
— The Pickwick Papers • Charles Dickens
... the foothills cut his eyes down to crafty slits. "I was 'lowing just tother day as how a house pattern would come in handy. Ef you'll saw me out one I'll take you to the spot." And so the deal was consummated, the hill-billy gleefully driving away, joyous over having got a fine house pattern worth $40 for merely showing a fellow where you could pick up a few hunks ...
— How To Write Special Feature Articles • Willard Grosvenor Bleyer
... you can find, my dear. I've got a third dog, who comes in at dessert—a drunken old sea-dog who has followed my fortunes, afloat and ashore, for fifty years and more. Yes, yes, that's the sort of glass we want. You're a good girl—you're a neat, handy girl. Steady, my dear! there's nothing to be ...
— No Name • Wilkie Collins
... father not only his singular piety but his love of edged tools. As he never encountered an iron bar whose scission baffled him, so there never was a fire-eating Methodist to whose ministrations he would not turn a repentant ear. After a handy portico and a rich booty he loved nothing so well as a soul-stirring discourse. Not even his precious fiddle occupied a larger space in his heart than that devotion which the ignorant have termed hypocrisy. Wherefore his ...
— A Book of Scoundrels • Charles Whibley
... of Tools for you, Ge'mmen and Ladies, They'll fit you quite handy, whatever your trade is; (Except it be Cabinet-making;—no doubt, In that delicate service they're rather worn out; Tho' their owner, bright youth! if he'd had his own will, Would have bungled away with them ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al
... almost opposite the Luxembourg Gallery, and is a very handy restaurant to dine at when going to the Odeon. Potage Foyot, Riz de Veau Foyot, Homard Foyot, and Biscuit Foyot are some of the dishes of the house, and all to be recommended. The anarchists once tried to ...
— The Gourmet's Guide to Europe • Algernon Bastard
... clouds, that rolled and swam and rose and fell with maddening complexity. Then came a breath of deadly chillness, and then a horror of great darkness—a darkness that could be felt. The skipper himself took to the fore rigging, and placed one of the watch handy to the wheel; finally he called all hands up very quietly, and the men hung on anyhow. One drift after another passed by in dim majesty, and the spectacle, with all its desolation, was one never to be forgotten. After half an hour ...
— A Dream of the North Sea • James Runciman
... if his own stomach were filled and his body sheltered, little cared he whether long-haired savage number two were hungry and cold. "Every one for himself," would he say, as he rolled himself in his skins, "and the cave-bear, or any other handy beast, take the hindmost." The simplicity of his mental state, his complete freedom from responsibility, assure us that his digestion of the raw flesh and the tough roots must have been perfection, and the sleep in those furred skins a ...
— Children's Rights and Others • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
... a square meal, a bed that a man can comfortably take off his boots and die in, and some violet-scented soap. Civilization's good enough for me! I even reckon I wouldn't mind 'the sound of the church-going bell' ef there was a theatre handy, as there likely would be. But the ...
— In a Hollow of the Hills • Bret Harte
... Cover.—When packing my trunk for a journey, I have found it to be a good scheme to use my stockings for shoe covers, this saves the added bulk of paper, and the shoes will be found less liable to muss up other things if protected by this clean and handy stocking covering. A stocking occupies practically no room when drawn over a shoe, and the two together will be found quite handy to tuck into chinks into ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter
... eying her mop-handle with great satisfaction. "That's what I call sensible. I expected you'd spend your money on some pesky gimcrack or other. I never thought 't would be a handy thing like this, and I am obliged to you for it, Eyebright. Now run up and see your ma. She was asking after ...
— Eyebright - A Story • Susan Coolidge
... which their father had first erected—even before building the house itself—when he came to the ox-bow, and for years this hovel had sheltered the cattle. But the fall before he died the pioneer had erected a new and better stable and shed, quite handy to the house. The children, therefore, had long considered this hovel their own especial playhouse. At spare moments Enoch and Bryce built a stone and clay chimney and laid a good hearth in the old structure, and now they planned to have the party here, where they could ...
— With Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga • W. Bert Foster
... where they were digging up the pay-dirt, and near the cradle they had dug a small reservoir, which was kept constantly filled with water by means of a small trench dug from the little mountain stream a dozen rods away, so that they had both the water and the dirt handy, two very necessary things to make cradling successful, unless the pay-dirt is very rich. The machine itself, as Thure said, looked very much like a rudely made, baby's cradle. The body was about the same size and shape as the ordinary homemade box cradle seen in the homes of thousands in ...
— The Cave of Gold - A Tale of California in '49 • Everett McNeil
... Among the rest in the farmhouse, she came upon the two volumes of a book called The Preceptor, which contained various treatises laying down "the first principles of Polite Learning:" these drew her eager attention; and with one or other of the not very handy volumes in her hand, she would steal out of sight of the farm, and lapt in the solitude of the moor, would sit and read until at last the light could reveal not a word more. Even the Geometry she found in them attracted her not a little; ...
— Salted With Fire • George MacDonald
... with their priestly avocations, out of which proceed investigations into protoplasm, the spectral analyses of stars, and so on. But science has never once thought of what axe or what hatchet is the most profitable to chop with, what saw is the most handy, what is the best way to mix bread, from what flour, how to set it, how to build and heat an oven, what food and drink, and what utensils, are the most convenient and advantageous under certain conditions, what mushrooms may be eaten, how to propagate them, and ...
— What To Do? - thoughts evoked by the census of Moscow • Count Lyof N. Tolstoi
... But her expression changed on looking at Kelson. Kelson was one of those individuals who seldom fail to meet with the approval of women—there was a something in him they liked. Probably neither he nor they could have defined that something; but there it was, and it came in extremely handy now. ...
— The Sorcery Club • Elliott O'Donnell
... kin I do it?" growled the bushwhacker, feeling that his intelligence and courage were unjustly called in question. "He's allays around the train, an' his sojers allays handy. I ...
— Overland • John William De Forest
... on this island, and brigandage is by no means confined to the neighborhood of Castrogiovanni, as the guide books would have you believe. The people seem simple and harmless enough, but Kenneth and I always keep our revolvers handy, and believe it is a reasonable precaution. I don't want to frighten you, John; merely to warn you. Sicily is full of tourists, and few are ever molested; but if you are aware of the conditions underlying the public serenity you are not so liable ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad • Edith Van Dyne
... do little here after dark—and so to bed. Between mother earth and myself is a ground sheet, near my feet my pick and spade, handy if I should feel cold and wish to do some digging during the night, as I may do when the moon rises about ten; beside me a miserable candle lamp and my revolver, and after getting into my heavy overcoat, with my pack for a pillow, hard though it is ...
— The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde" • George Davidson |
