"Spec" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... landlady, thinking the front sitting-room would be free, had invited 'company,' i.e., two or three married daughters and their belongings; one of the children beats Magnay's 'Carina' as to beauty—he ought to paint her. Happy thought, send him and pretty Mrs. Esperance down here on spec. He can paint the child for the next Academy, and meantime I could enjoy his company. Well, all these good folks being just set-to at roast beef, I naturally wouldn't hear of disturbing them, and in the end was obliged to sit down too and eat at ...
— Derrick Vaughan—Novelist • Edna Lyall
... cannot imagine," wrote Steele, "the civilities and honours I had done me there. I never lay better, ate or drank better, or conversed with men of better sense than there." Poets and authors greeted him in verse, he was "Kind Richy Spec, the friend to a' distressed," "Dear Spec," and many stories are told of his doings among these new-found friends. He paid several later visits to Scotland, but about a year after his return from this first short visit Steele had a great sorrow. His wife died. "This is to ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall
... "Spec' I'd ort to killed him," regretted the mountaineer, as he lowered the rifle, and gazed off down the valley, "but I hain't ...
— The Gold Girl • James B. Hendryx
... immense speculations in land and stock. The men who saw no end to speculation are gone and floored, every one of them. Will you believe that Messrs —— sent out three thousand pounds worth of brandy to Sydney, and so glutted the market that part of the cargo was bought low enough to make it a good spec to reship it for England. Such is the fact. There never was a better moment than the present for a hit in land—sheep are at so low a figure, and settlers so hard run. The former I still believe will gradually rise; for, on the Sydney side, the process of boiling down sheep ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 • Various
... that. I'm keen on my work. The artist, after all, is the strongest thing in me. I'm quite happy, now I have made up my mind. My nose is in the air. I can look creation in the face without winking an eyelid. I can respect myself. And I'm tremendously grateful to Lionel Gordon for taking me on spec, and to Fallowfeild for greasing the creature's Caledonian-Teutonic-Hebraic palm for me. Still—still—you can imagine, can't you, that, take it all round, it's not precisely a Young Woman's Christian Association blooming picnic party ...
— The Far Horizon • Lucas Malet
... marster. Virgie's a fine gal, sho' I am a little old, Marster Milburn, but I'll have to look out for myseff, I 'spec, now you done burnt down my spreein' place. Dar's a wife comin' in yar now. So if you don't speak a good word fur me wid some o' Miss Vesty's gals, I'm ...
— The Entailed Hat - Or, Patty Cannon's Times • George Alfred Townsend
... for Melbourne,—got it that very week. Those were the days when thousands went over to fortune seek, The days of the great gold fever, and a manager thought the spot Good for a "spec," and took us as actors among ...
— Poems Teachers Ask For, Book Two • Various
... buttons!' groaned Sponge, as the discordant noise shot through his aching head, 'but this is the worst spec I ever made in my life. Fed on pork, fluted deaf, bit with bugs, and robbed at cards—fairly, downrightly robbed. Never was a more reg'ler plant put on a man. Thank goodness, however, I haven't paid him—never will, either. Such a confounded, ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees
... the old woman in a compassionate tone, but too low for Mrs. Wentworth to hear her. "I 'spec her husband been treatin' her bad. Dem men behave berry bad sometime," and with a sigh she ...
— The Trials of the Soldier's Wife - A Tale of the Second American Revolution • Alex St. Clair Abrams
... ain't, Amanda. Come to think of hit, seems lak I 'member 'em scrunchin' 'g'inst my teeth when I eats. I ain't sayin' nothin' 't all 'bout white folks superstitions,—I 'spec' dey's true, ebery one ob 'em,—but hit look' lak you oughtn't to shet yer min' ag'inst de colored signs dat done come down f'om yer maw an' yer paw, an' yer gran'maw an' gran'paw fer back as Adam. I 'spec' Adam hisself was conjured. Lak as not de sarpint done tricked him into regalin' ...
— Miss Mink's Soldier and Other Stories • Alice Hegan Rice
... publications in "Punch," are by his own hand, as are also many other sketches scattered throughout the volumes. They may be generally distinguished by the insertion of a pair of spectacles in the corner. His articles, too, frequently bear the signature "SPEC." Not until the commencement of 1855 did Thackeray relinquish his connection with "Punch." An allusion to this, from his pen, contained in an essay on the genius of Leech, and published in the "Westminster Review," was commented upon very bitterly by Jerrold, in ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton
... the woods, and boomed in the water ready to tow to the mills. The first limit I got—from the government—will scale around ten million feet. The other two are nearly as good. But I got them from timber speculators, and it's costing me pretty high. They're a good spec if I can hang ...
— Big Timber - A Story of the Northwest • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... and afterwards at Najran Al-Uzza was widely worshipped: her idol (of the tree Semurat) belonging to Ghatafan was destroyed after the Prophet's order by Khalid bin Walid. Allat or Al-Lat is written by Pocock (spec. 110) "Ilahat" i.e. deities in general. But Herodotus evidently refers to one god when he makes the Arabs worship Dionysus as {Greek letters} and Urania as {Greek letters} and the "tashdid" in Allat would, to a Greek ear, introduce another syllable (Alilat). This ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton
... forms reclining in every stage of squalidness. Some seemed ill, or wounded, or asleep, others were chattering eagerly among themselves, singing, praying, or soliloquizing on joys to come. "Bress de Lord," I heard one woman say, "I spec' I got salt victual now,—notin' but fresh victual dese six months, but Ise get salt victual now,"—thus reversing, under pressure of the salt-embargo, the usual ...
— Army Life in a Black Regiment • Thomas Wentworth Higginson
... call them "Pinxter Bloem" (Whitsunday flowers), as they are in blossom about Whitsuntide. The English call them wild honeysuckles, and at a distance they really have a resemblance to the honeysuckle or lonicera. Dr. Linnaeus and other botanists call it an Azalea (Azalea Nudiflora, Linn. Spec. Plant., p. 214.) Its flowers were now open, and added a new ornament to the woods, being little inferior to the flowers of the honey-suckle and hedysarum. They sit in a circle round the stem's extremity, and have either a dark red or lively red ...
— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton
... they would be," said Toddie. "Everybody gets afraid when they see good people around. I 'spec' they thought the angel would say 'don't!' in ...
— Romance of California Life • John Habberton
... slowly, striving in her turn to be kind. "Only I guess I never happened to think before just how't would be. I never spec'lated much on keepin' house." ...
— Tiverton Tales • Alice Brown
... be admitted respecting the notorious racing lotteries, in spite of the small figure of the tickets; nay this rather aggravates the danger, being a temptation to the thoughtless multitude. One of these lotteries, called the Deptford Spec., was not long ago suppressed by the strong arm of the law; but others still exist under different names. In one of these the law is thought to be evaded by the sale of a number of photographs; in another, a chance of winning on a horse is secured ...
— The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims - Volume I (of II) • Andrew Steinmetz
... ribber; dey is pressin' all our niggers; dey lib in our houses; dey drivin' our wagons, and ringin' our bells; dey 'fisticatin' our property; dey eatin' up our meat and corn; dey done killed up mose all of our men; and, 'fore God, I spec dey are gwine to marry ...
— Incidents of the War: Humorous, Pathetic, and Descriptive • Alf Burnett
... twelve pills and take six every morning, or after supper, on going to bed. Take half an ounce of cinnamon, two drachms each of smirutium, or rogos, valerin aristolochia; two scruples each of astrumone root and saffron; two drachms of spec. diambia; four scruples of trochisk of myrrh; two scruples tartari vitriolari; make half into a powder; make lozenges with mugwort water and sugar, and take one drachm of them every morning; or mix a drachm of the powder with one drachm of sugar, and take it in white wine. Take two drachms ...
— The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher • Anonymous
... Miss Julia. Yah! yah! what a li'l spec to make such a rumpus! Looks like de Bible 'mote,' but, golly! it done feel mo' like de 'beam.' Yah! yah! yah!" laughed the negress, revealing two rows of dazzling teeth to an appreciative audience as she laboriously struggled ...
— Katherine's Sheaves • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
... insects, I was surprised to find a small Aphodius (nov. spec.) and an Oryctes, both extremely numerous under dung. When the island was discovered it certainly possessed no quadruped, excepting perhaps a mouse: it becomes, therefore, a difficult point to ascertain, whether ...
— The Voyage of the Beagle • Charles Darwin
... 'Aynnah and Maghir Shu'ayb. His companions went their ways, and he, like a "bean-eater" as he was, fearing to follow them alone, made for Makn. Having married and settled there, and seeing in the fertility of the soil a prospective spec., he sent to his native country for Fellahn—cultivateurs and peasants—who were collected from every part of Pharoah-land and its neighbourhood. The new-comers were compelled to pay one-half of their harvest, by way ...
— The Land of Midian, Vol. 1 • Richard Burton
... I've made a gentleman on you. It's me wot has done it! I swore that time, sure as ever I earned a guinea, that guinea should go to you. I swore afterwards, sure as ever I spec'lated and got rich, that you should get rich. Look 'ee here, Pip. I'm your second father. You're my son—more to me nor any son. I've put away money, only for you to spend. You ain't looked slowly forward to this as I have. You wasn't prepared for this as I wos. It warn't ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol III • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... "I 'spec' she went on a visit somewhere," said Dan, whose lips trembled slightly despite the stump of a cigarette that he ...
— Calvary Alley • Alice Hegan Rice
... of liquor. Richard Luscombe had not a spark of that (his father left him one of the best cellars in England, but he never touches even a glass of claret after dinner; "I should as soon think," he says, "of eating when I am not hungry"); but he dearly liked what he called a "spec." Never shall I forget the first time he realised anything that could be termed ...
— Stories By English Authors: Italy • Various
... fair Lady Jane, As she walked on the esplanade to and again, With Captain MacBride, Of course at her side, Who could not look quite so forlorn—though he tried, An "idea" in fact, had got into his head, That if "poor dear Sir Thomas" should really be dead, It might be no bad "spec" to be there in his stead, And by simply contriving, in due time, to wed A lady who was young and fair, A lady slim and tall, To set himself down in comfort there, The lord of ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various
... was a letter putting him on to 'a big spec.,' as he called it. He said the letter told about a secret, about a fortune the writer had discovered. He said the letter was to a boy who would never know his good luck if they didn't tell him. He said to the man there was something to think over. He chuckled as he bragged ...
— Andy the Acrobat • Peter T. Harkness
... debt, having gone the pace all his life—or so they said!—till at last that mine in Ecuador had done for him—before the secretary's day, of course, but he had heard of it. The old chap had bought it up on spec'—"de l'audace, toujours de l'audace," as he was so fond of saying—paid for it half in cash and half in promises, and then—the thing had turned out empty, and left him with L20,000 worth of the old shares unredeemed. The old boy had weathered ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... t'will I gits yo' boots off'n yo' laigs! Dar! Now jess set down in de tub, suh. I gwine scrub you wif de saddle-soap—Lor', Gord-a-mighty! Who done bang you on de haid dat-a-way?"—scrubbing vigorously with the saddle-soap all the while. "Spec' you is lame an' so' all over, is you? Now I'se gwine rub you haid, suh; an' now I'se gwine dry you haid." He chuckled and rubbed and manipulated, yet became tender as a woman in drying the clipped hair and the scarred temple. And, before Berkley ...
— Ailsa Paige • Robert W. Chambers
... water-colours of lambs and a bat outstretched. No reproduction could give the exquisite texture of the bat's wings, the wandering red veins, the almost diaphanous membrane, the furry body,—a miracle of patience and softness. It is all purest Nature. Like Topsy one can but "'spec' it growed" ...
— Holbein • Beatrice Fortescue
... pig Lak you picks a chicken up, Er yo' leetles' bit o' pup. An' he had two gread big eyes, Jes' erbout a saucer's size. Why, dey looked lak balls o' fiah Jumpin' 'roun' erpon a wiah W'en dat bah was mad; an' laws! But you ought to seen his paws! Did I see 'em? How you 'spec I 's a-gwine to ricollec' Dis hyeah ya'n I 's try'n' to spin Ef you keeps on puttin' in? You keep still an' don't you cheep Less I 'll sen' you off to sleep. Dis hyeah bah 'd go trompin' 'roun' Eatin' evahthing he foun'; ...
— The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar • Paul Laurence Dunbar
... a seat in the parlor where Letty had preceded him with a lamp. "Reckon ole miss didn't spec' you quite so soon, Mahs' Junius, cos de sorrel hoss is pow'ful slow, and Uncle Isham is mighty keerful ob rocks in de road. Reckon she's done gone ober to see ole Aun' Patsy, who's gwine to die in two or free days, to take her some red an' yaller pieces for a crazy quilt. ...
— The Late Mrs. Null • Frank Richard Stockton
... I 'spec'. No, not dat—camp-meetin', dey's so noisy. Or, may be, now"—eyeing his black brethren with close attention—"may be dey's holdin' a kunvintion, like Gener'l Wilkerson an' t' other big guns, to hab ol' Kaintuck stan' 'pon her own legs, so she ...
— Burl • Morrison Heady
... always appreciated by boarding-school misses and milliners' apprentices:—'"The Cousins," written by M. ——, we candidly admit we did not encounter. When a man has arrived at that time of life when he is compelled to use spec——no, not so bad as that, but lunettes, in order to accommodate the text to his eyes, and finds at the conclusion of an article such a passage as the following: "Beneath that knoll, at the foot of that weeping ash, side by side, in the ...
— The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People • John George Bourinot
... be right in his conjecture (Spec. Plant, 1763) that the "Bihai" (Heliconia humilis), a native of Caraccas, which produces fertile seeds, is the stock plant of the plantain, it is almost impossible to ascertain; but the absence of any description of a wild seed-bearing plantain, renders it highly probable ...
— The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom • P. L. Simmonds
... in to a very great depth; and in the interstices of this rubble were embedded here and there rude blocks of greenstone, containing almond-shaped chalcedonies and agate and milk-quartz, with now and then a tiny water-worn spec which an experienced eye would have detected at ...
— What's Bred In the Bone • Grant Allen
... puzzler! His fust name's Voltaire, and I guess his last one's Delancey, 'cause he belongs to master, and his belongings generally take his name—sich as Delancey's hosses and Delancey's niggers; but bress de Lord! I 'spec you's sleepy; good-night, young massars—why didn't I tink of ...
— The Brother Clerks - A Tale of New-Orleans • Xariffa
... of the cutaneous vessels by exposure to cold, or of some internal viscus in the cold fits of agues, are frequently instrumental in recovering the use of paralytic limbs, or of the motions of other paralytic parts of the system. See Spec. 4. ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin |
