"Prairie fire" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... listen, the sound gets louder; everyone stops to listen—the sound approaches, and is now distinguishable as rifle-fire. The firing becomes faster and faster; then suddenly swells into a roar and now comes the phenomenon of trench warfare: "wind up"—the prairie fire of the trenches. ...
— Bullets & Billets • Bruce Bairnsfather
... burning grass set on fire by accident, or purposely, for the double advantage of obtaining a clearer path and an abundant crop of fresh grass; but I must relate an adventure of my own, of a kind not likely to be forgotten. So long as a prairie fire is confined to the high grounds, there is very little danger from it; for, in such situations, the grass being short, the fire never becomes large, though the line of flame is a long one. Birds and beasts retire before it in a very leisurely manner; ...
— History, Manners, and Customs of the North American Indians • George Mogridge
... boy, and waved his sword with hoarse cries to his men. They caught sight of the lonely little figure in the background, and his cry went to their hearts, and a great wave of rage and shame swept the line like a prairie fire. Like a landslide the men of Connecticut swept forward to recapture the ground they had yielded. Back fell the British before a countercharge they could not withstand, back beyond the rail fence. Nor was there refuge even there, for, shattered and spent, they ...
— The Junior Classics • Various
... Hohenstiel-Schwangau, although he did not publish it until the right moment, which came in 1871. After the appearance of Dramatis Personae (1864), and The Ring and the Book (1868-9), Browning's fame spread like a prairie fire; and it was quite natural that his immense reputation was a sharp spur to composition. One is more ready to speak when one is sure of an audience. Capricious destiny, however, willed that the books which sold the fastest after publication, were, with few exceptions, the least ...
— Robert Browning: How To Know Him • William Lyon Phelps
... counter-blast from which they received the name "counter-Remonstrants." The States-General passed an edict tolerating both parties and forbidding further dispute, but the conflict of views would not down. It spread like a prairie fire, became complicated with political issues, had its martyrdoms, and produced far-reaching results and consequences.[16] At the Synod of Dort, on April 24, 1619, the Remonstrants were declared guilty of falsifying religion ...
— Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries • Rufus M. Jones
... "You wolves went through that lunch like a prairie fire. But I've got some slices of bacon in the locker, and here's some salt and pepper. I guess we ...
— The Rushton Boys at Treasure Cove - Or, The Missing Chest of Gold • Spencer Davenport
... type of man," interrupted Radley, "who'd start a prairie fire, if it were the only way to ...
— Tell England - A Study in a Generation • Ernest Raymond
... going on for years, and it'll keep going on till the old folks all die off or move away—or land in the pen. Hasn't been a killing in there for years, but that's because they're all so damn tough they know if one starts shooting it'll spread like a prairie fire ...
— Rim o' the World • B. M. Bower
... in Pop's ears. It was mingled with a curious buzzing and a dizziness that made him grip his chair lest it pitch him to the floor. Chills, in which his bones were a mere rattlebox, alternated with little rushes of prairie fire across his skin. Throes of ...
— In a Little Town • Rupert Hughes
... meeting in the centre of the square and heaping up on its edges. There they squabbled and fought in the madness of panic and despair, as so many mad wolves might have fought when caught in the red whirl of a prairie fire, until the soldiers broke in and at the bayonet's point brought some semblance of order out of ...
— The San Francisco Calamity • Various
... entrance to Sackville Street, the insurgents still held Hopkins's corner on the other side, and on this the artillery next concentrated not only high explosive shells but incendiary bombs as well, and the whole place became a mass of blazing ruins, the flames leaping across Lower Abbey Street like a prairie fire. ...
— Six days of the Irish Republic - A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish Politics • Louis Redmond-Howard
... helped to heap the measure of glory that has crushed and smashed everything that has come in contact with it: I helped to give him the name of 'Hero,' which, like the lightning from heaven, has scorched and blasted everything that stood in its way—a name which, like the prairie fire, you have to burn against, or you are gone—a name which ought to be the first in war, and the last in peace—a name which, like 'Jack-o'-the lantern, blinds your eyes while you follow it through mud ...
— David Crockett: His Life and Adventures • John S. C. Abbott
... outer part of the right thigh in a small circle with the open right hand, fingers pointing downward. This sign is also made by the Arapahos. (Dakota IV.) "These Indians were once caught in a prairie fire, many burned to death, and others badly burned about the thighs; hence the name Si-ca[n]-gu 'burnt thigh' and the sign. According to the Brule chronology, this fire occurred in 1763, which they ...
— Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes • Garrick Mallery |
