"Afire" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... feel pretty fine," Bristles remarked, as they got ready to depart, "and I kind of hate to leave it, because, as you know, Fred, I always worship a camp fire. No need to put this one out, is there? because it couldn't set these woods afire if it tried its best, while ...
— Fred Fenton Marathon Runner - The Great Race at Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... he cried, "why travel you so fast? Is a house afire or a friend ill; or does a feast wait till you come? Tell me, I pray you, that I may sorrow with you, or rejoice, ...
— The Story-teller • Maud Lindsay
... selection from the Testament—the last chapter of Revelation—and then went out of the tent to take the usual nine o'clock weather observation. Between the horizon and a fringe of black clouds that hung low in the north the reflected sun set the heavens afire, and through the dark fir trees the lake stretched red as a lake of blood. I called the others to see it and Easton joined me. We climbed a low hill close at hand to view the scene, and while we looked the red faded into orange, ...
— The Long Labrador Trail • Dillon Wallace
... room where death apparently stood on the threshold, and the dying man had followed him about the room with most terrible, appealing eyes, he had heard but few of the words spoken—all his heart and brain were afire with the scene he had just left; that, and the others preceding it! Every word or glance he had noticed between Monroe and the woman he loved returned to him! Trifles light as air before, now overwhelmed him with horrible suggestions; and her pleading ...
— The Bondwoman • Marah Ellis Ryan
... her!" and, bringing the wheel close around, he swung the bow of the Francois into the side of the Englishman. But, as the sailors scampered to the bulwarks with cutlass and with dirk, a sheet of flame burst from the port-holes of the drifting Nonsuch. She was afire. ...
— Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea • Charles H. L. Johnston
... and passing round the wood. At its corner, the sudden shape of a woman arose against the sportive sunbeams that outlined her with light. Alertly erect she stood, before the faintly violet background of the wood's marge and the crosshatched trees. She was slender, her head all afire with fair hair, and in her pale face we could see the night-dark caverns of great eyes. The resplendent being gazed fixedly upon us, trembling, then plunged abruptly into the undergrowth and ...
— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse
... [At the door] Come here, whoever there is! [Through the open door can be seen a window, red with flame: afire-engine is heard passing the house] How awful this is. And how I'm sick of it! [FERAPONT enters] Take these things down.... The Kolotilin girls are down below... and let them have ...
— Plays by Chekhov, Second Series • Anton Chekhov
... awake and knows no rest, Passion dies and is dispossessed Of his brief, despotic power. But the Brain, once kindled, would still be afire Were the whole world pasture to its desire, And all of love, in a single hour,— A single wine cup, filled to the brim, ...
— India's Love Lyrics • Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (AKA Laurence Hope), et al.
... assailed the other ship, captured it, and sent it to Malaca. They saw that there was another large ship in thus mouth of the river, and attacked that one. The Dutch who were aboard deserted it. The Portuguese captured the artillery, ammunition, and other things in the ship, and set it afire. ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXIII, 1629-30 • Various
... fallen the issues of the fight were still undecided. "The French, sir. They give way everywhere." "Thank God! I die in peace," replied the English hero. At a time when the momentous results of this battle had set the whole of Great Britain afire with enthusiasm it is easy to understand the popularity of a picture such as this. It was sold in 1791 for oe28, and now belongs to the Duke of Westminster. There is a replica of it in the Queen's ...
— Pictures Every Child Should Know • Dolores Bacon
... the western pines, on meadow, stream, and pond, Flamed the red radiance of a sky set all afire beyond, Slowly o'er the eastern sea-bluffs a milder glory shone, And the sunset and the ...
— The Elson Readers, Book 5 • William H. Elson and Christine M. Keck
... direction; It must expire—here find a resurrection; And, if 'tis real, it nothing knows of rue! Each Beauty in the world is sole, unique; So must the love be that would Beauty seek! So long as Youth lives on with pulse afire, Out to the chase! To victories ...
— Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies • Philip H. Goepp
... without deliverance, and taught the son of Aison to be wise in prayers and charms, that he might make Medea take no thought to honour her parents, and longing for Hellas might drive her by persuasion's lash, her heart afire with love. ...
— The Extant Odes of Pindar • Pindar
... came out pat. The creative impulse shot up in him and grew. He knew what it was to be a prisoner under penalty, every cruel phase of it; and now that he saw everybody else in bonds, one to an unbalanced law of life we call our destiny, one to cant, one to greed, one to untended impulse, he was afire to let the prisoners out. If they knew they were bound they could throw off these besetments of mortality and walk in beauty. Old Addington, the beloved, must free herself. Too long had she been held by the traditions ...
— The Prisoner • Alice Brown
... is. But there was them same big eyebrows standin' out fur from this white face as his'n does from his red one. There was the same sort of bitter look in the eyes, only these ones was afire. Ain't that queer?" ...
— The Brass Bound Box • Evelyn Raymond
... ground. The other part of his account, in which he maintained that the fire spread to the buildings from the smoldering cotton rekindled by the wind, which was blowing a gale, deserves more respect. His report saying that he saw cotton afire in the streets was written April 4, 1865, and Howard's in which the same fact is stated was written April 1, very soon after the event, when their recollection would be fresh. All of the Southern evidence (except one statement, ...
— Historical Essays • James Ford Rhodes
... know that, sir. You have never seen the woods afire for miles as I have; if you had, you would know what it was. We have two chances: one is, that we may have torrents of rain come down with the gale, and the other is, that the wind may shift a point or two, which would be the best chance for ...
— The Settlers in Canada • Frederick Marryat
... after another, so loud and frantic that even the servants in the back part of the house came running. Miss Allison, thinking of the candle she had told Virginia to light, and remembering the thin, white dress the child wore, instantly thought she must have set herself afire. She ran into the hall, so frightened that she was trembling from head to foot. Before she could reach the staircase, Virginia came flying down the steps, white as a little ghost, and her eyes wide with terror. Throwing herself into her aunt's outstretched arms, ...
— Two Little Knights of Kentucky • Annie Fellows Johnston
... greatly bepraised Gudruda's beauty; nor in truth, for all his talk, could he praise it too much. He told of her dark eyes and the whiteness of her skin, of the nobleness of her shape and the gold of her hair, of her wit and gentleness, till at length Ospakar grew afire to see this ...
— Eric Brighteyes • H. Rider Haggard
... well towards y^e ende of Desember before she could land any thing hear, or they able to receive any thing ashore. Afterwards, y^e 14. of Jan: the house which they had made for a generall randevoze by casulty fell afire, and some were faine to retire abord for shilter. Then the sicknes begane to fall sore amongst them, and y^e weather so bad as they could not make much sooner any dispatch. Againe, the Gov^r & ...
— Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' • William Bradford
... with the class, and bore down caution and experience, particularly when it proceeded from their housekeeper. They liked the young man's congenial sense and spirit, they secretly hankered after his vivacity; they were, with their dear woman's romance, all afire in three minutes about pictures, gods, and goddesses, historic scenes, and even scratches in Indian ink. A true woman and a painter are hand and glove at a moment's warning in any age. Cambridge could but drop naturally into the background, ...
— Girlhood and Womanhood - The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes • Sarah Tytler
... accident the aeroplane is likely to overturn, and the tank will, therefore, be below the pilot. Those who believe it should be placed below, claim that in case of overturning it is safer to have the tank afire ...
— Aeroplanes • J. S. Zerbe***
... afire looking for anybody," Mac declared, when the sun was well started on its ante-meridian journey and there was still no sign of riders leaving the cluster of tents. "Ah, ...
— Raw Gold - A Novel • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... did she not move when he sprang to his feet, intoxicated with the mystery of her, afire with that love which is the ...
— The Hawk of Egypt • Joan Conquest
... into the flare of carnival illumination that paled the afterglow of a gorgeous sunset. No cars allowed on these down-town streets; even walking, we found it best to take the long way round. To our left the town roared and racketed as though it was afire. Nothing said between us ...
— The Million-Dollar Suitcase • Alice MacGowan
... them down in heaps with our rifle fire, but they kept on coming. For every dead man there were twenty live ones to take his place. We put up a stiff fight, but there were too many of them. It seemed like millions. They're coming now like a house afire and you boys ...
— Army Boys on the Firing Line - or, Holding Back the German Drive • Homer Randall
... it turned out that this was the house that was afire, possibly set ablaze through some spark that had been carried by the wind, and lodged where it could communicate to some waste material. A peculiar sense of "coming events casting a shadow before" assailed Jack. He had a vague ...
— Jack Winters' Gridiron Chums • Mark Overton
... learning how best to use this means of life. People who don't want to live, people who would sooner hibernate than feel intensely, will be wise to eschew literature. They had better, to quote from the finest passage in a fine poem, "sit around and eat blackberries." The sight of a "common bush afire with God" might ...
— LITERARY TASTE • ARNOLD BENNETT
... motley wings ever wider and wider, clutching people and dragging them after it, and striking them against one another. It lived anew, transformed into flaming wrath. A cloud of dust and soot hung over the crowd; their faces were all afire, and black drops of sweat trickled down their cheeks. Their eyes gleamed from darkened countenances; ...
— Mother • Maxim Gorky
... his wife and some of his daughters came in, and were there a few minutes when a fire occurred. The large picture-gallery was lined with silk cloth interwoven with fine metallic thread. In some manner two wires had got crossed with this tinsel, which became red-hot, and the whole mass was soon afire. I knew what was the matter, and ordered them to run down and shut off. It had not burst into flame, and died out immediately. Mrs. Vanderbilt became hysterical, and wanted to know where it came from. We told her we had the plant in the cellar, ...
— Edison, His Life and Inventions • Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin
... morning Carl rose with a feeling of spring. He wanted to be off in the Connecticut hills, among the silvery-gray worm-fences, with larks rising on the breeze and pools a-ripple and yellow crocus-blossoms afire by the road, where towns white and sleepy woke to find the elms misted with young green. Would there be any crocuses out as yet? That was the only question worth solving in the world, save the riddle of ...
— The Trail of the Hawk - A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life • Sinclair Lewis
... Well, Jim he up an' marries the girl an' it turns out fine. He gets a job herdin' sheep on shares, an' she stays with the Rodney outfit till he saves enough to build a cabin. Things is goin' with Jim like a prairie afire. In a few years he acquires a herd of his own, a fine herd, not a scabby sheep in the bunch. Alida she makes him the best kind of a wife, them kids is the pride of his life, and then, them cursed cattle-men do ...
— Judith Of The Plains • Marie Manning
... validity. It hadn't been out of pure altruism that she'd spent those twelve solid hours compelling Olga Larson to talk better. She might have felt sorry for the girl—might have loaned her money, comforted her; but she wouldn't have locked her in her room and beaten down her sullen opposition, set her afire with her own vitality, except that it was a thing that had to be done for the good ...
— The Real Adventure • Henry Kitchell Webster
... slack in the chain, and with much rattling and clanking we sat down, two and two, in the seats of the smoking-car. Afire with indignation as I was at the outrage that had been perpetrated on me and my forefathers, I was nevertheless too prosaically practical to lose my head over it. This was all new to me. Thirty days of mystery were before me, and I looked about me to find somebody who ...
— The Road • Jack London
... him to retire for the midday siesta. Through the seemingly interminable afternoon he lay upon his hard bed with his brain afire, while the events of his warped life moved before him in spectral review. The week which had passed since he left Cartagena seemed an age. When he might hope to receive word from the outside world, ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking
... face, of fire, is directed toward the earth, and one of hail, toward heaven, to cool off the prodigious heat that streams from the other face, else the earth would catch afire. In winter the sun turns his fiery face upward, and thus the cold is produced.[103] When the sun descends in the west in the evening, he dips down into the ocean and takes a bath, his fire is extinguished, and therefore he dispenses neither light nor warmth ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg
... ma!" she exclaimed. "Grandma, ain't supper ready yet? I never was so hungry in all my life. I could eat a house afire." ...
— The Girl from Montana • Grace Livingston Hill
... went to his house at night, and set it afire. Alcibiades, waking up suddenly, tried to escape with his household; but no sooner had he reached the door than he ...
— The Story of the Greeks • H. A. Guerber
... golden unknown. The men at the table were eating with their knives; each had one protecting forearm and hand cast round his arc of small dishes as if to ward off probable attempt at seizure. And they swallowed as if the boat were afire. The women ate more daintily, as became members of the finer sex on public exhibition. They were wearing fingerless net gloves, and their little fingers stood straight out in that gesture which every truly elegant woman deems necessary if the food is to be daintily and artistically conveyed ...
— Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise • David Graham Phillips
... get to work with our flint and steel and set this old wigwam afire. It's still high enough to shelter ourselves behind it, and I think we ought to do the task in two or three minutes. Tom, you and Paul and Jim ...
— The Border Watch - A Story of the Great Chief's Last Stand • Joseph A. Altsheler
... judgments are inexorably moral, will not accept his work. For, indeed, we may say that he who has not yet perceived how artistic beauty and moral beauty are convergent lines which run back into a common ideal origin, and who therefore is not afire with moral beauty just as with artistic beauty — that he, in short, who has not come to that stage of quiet and eternal frenzy in which the beauty of holiness and the holiness of beauty mean one thing, burn as one fire, shine as one light within him; he is not yet ...
— The Poems of Sidney Lanier • Sidney Lanier
... was now a feature of the scenery. The ocotilla or candlewood with long, lash-like stalks springing from a common centre—that cactus, which, when dried, needs only a lighted match to set it afire—flourishes in the rocky ledges. A species of small barrel-cactus about the size of a man's head, with fluted sides, or symmetrical vertical rows of small thorned lumps converging at the top of the "nigger-head," as they are ...
— Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico • E. L. Kolb
... rolled off and the night grew serene and clear, for a waning moon was shining in the sky. The heat of that stiffing place oppressed me; my blood seemed to be afire. I knew that there was a stream in a gorge about half a mile away, for it had been pointed out to me. I longed for a swim in cool water, who, to tell truth, had found none for some days, and bethought me that ...
— Finished • H. Rider Haggard
... weakened men, led by a man he had once despised, burst through the densest squares of his own soldiers; he had heard their cheers as they had clasped hands with the defenders; he had looked aghast into his own heart, afire with admiration, aching with a strange, broken-hearted gratitude to God who had made such men. It was in vain that, lashing himself with the knowledge of his own weakness and of his disloyalty to those who followed him, he had flung himself against the ...
— The Native Born - or, The Rajah's People • I. A. R. Wylie
... cat habitually rounds up two dozen rats and then chivies 'em out into the street for sport? McCue didn't have any cat theory. He figured that when rats come out of a place that way the place is afire. So he turned in an alarm and saved a two hundred and fifty ...
— Average Jones • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... the water, M'Adam, his face afire and eyes flaming, was in the stream. In a second he had hold of the struggling creature, and, with an almost superhuman effort, had half thrown, half shoved it on to ...
— Bob, Son of Battle • Alfred Ollivant
... fresh lad, that nothing couldn't tire nor put out, and that sparkled up and blushed so, when we joked him about Heart's Delight, that he was beautiful to look at? Gone down with Wal'r. Where's that there man's spirit, all afire, that wouldn't see the old man hove down for a minute, and cared nothing for itself? Gone down with Wal'r. It ain't one Wal'r. There was a dozen Wal'rs that I know'd and loved, all holding round his neck ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens
... battle, was in Piru, where it and another vessel sunk our almiranta. He fought as a good soldier until the enemy surrendered after a hard fight. While a captain and soldiers from our side were in the said vessel, that ship of the enemy's that was coming down upon it afire, as the executor of divine justice, set fire to this one, and it was burned. That ship was burned because His [Divine] Majesty did not choose that there should be more spoils from that victory than the memory of the just punishment that He gave by ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVIII, 1617-1620 • Various
... good or bad," the first answered him, "that can hold together when you come to heat that'll melt pitch and set wood afire! There isn't any boat, good or bad, that can stand it when a lodestone as big as Gibraltar begins ...
— 1492 • Mary Johnston
... along the cliff-top with my brain afire, and my return, draggled and dripping, an hour late for dinner; of my writing and re-writing, of my tears and black depression, of the pens I wore out and the quires of paper I spoiled, and finally of the ecstasy of the ...
— Not George Washington - An Autobiographical Novel • P. G. Wodehouse
... with the ugly duckling. We brought down her mainmast, we disabled her guns, we strewed her decks with blood and anguish (war is a wild beast, nothing more, and I'll hail the day when it lies slain). We smashed in her sides and we set her afire. She hauled down her colours and ran up a white flag. The Merrimac ceased firing and signalled to the Beaufort. The Beaufort ran alongside, and the frigate's ranking officer gave up his colours and his sword. The Beaufort's and the ...
— The Long Roll • Mary Johnston
... about her and led her away, supporting half her weight. They went slowly, by small, soft steps, towards the house, and before they reached it, he knew that she was weeping. But if there was sadness in Byrne, there was also a great joy. He was afire, for there is a flamelike quality in hope. Loss of blood and the stifling smoke, rather than a mortal injury or the touch of fire, had brought Black Bart close to death, but now that his breathing was restored, and almost normal, he gained rapidly. ...
— The Night Horseman • Max Brand
... I reckon. He come tearin' up behind me 'bout an hour ago, like a house afire. Let him ...
— The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come • John Fox
... and get possession of her, to show her to me, if I look but for a moment from afar?" Ibrahim replied, Yes; and the painter rejoined, "This being so, tarry with me till thou set out." But the youth retorted, "I cannot tarry longer; for my heart with love of her is all afire." "Have patience three days," said the Shaykh, "till I fit thee out a ship, wherein thou mayst fare to Bassorah." Accordingly he waited whilst the old man equipped him a craft and stored therein all that he needed of meat ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9 • Richard F. Burton
... wetter, thicker, and hotter. The pleasant warmth and tickling changed to a burning sensation. Ken found himself bathed in a heavy sweat. Then he began to smart in different places, and he was hard put to it to keep rubbing them. The steam grew hotter; his body was afire; his breath labored in great heaves. Ken felt that he must cry out. He heard exclamations, then yells, from some of the other boxed-up players, and he glanced quickly around. Reddy Ray was smiling, and did not look at all uncomfortable. But Raymond ...
— The Young Pitcher • Zane Grey
... no longer doubt that the glare they saw came from a conflagration, and it grew more and more certain every minute that it was their own summer home that was burning. There was no other house in that direction that would produce such a splendid reflection were it afire. ...
— The Belgians to the Front • Colonel James Fiske
... afire! A brilliant flame shot high into the air, and the smoke poured forth in a dense volume. Even from where he stood Chester could see that one wall of the hospital had fallen. It had crumbled under the ...
— The boy Allies at Liege • Clair W. Hayes
... man's breast. The sky was a light saffron over the eastern fells, and the mountains rose into it indistinguishably blue, the light mists wrapped about their feet. Among the mists, plane behind plane, the hedgerow trees, still faintly afire with their last leaf, stood patterned on the azure of the fells. And as he rode on, the first rays of the light mounting a gap in the Helvellyn range struck upon the valleys below. The shadows ran ...
— The Mating of Lydia • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... trench-mortar fighting was reported. In the Plava sector the Italians repulsed an Austrian detachment which attempted to raid positions near Pallioca. East of Vertoiba an Italian patrol entered the Austrian lines, which were set afire. Ammunition and war material were taken. In the district of Kostanjevica an Italian attack preceded by strong artillery fire was repulsed before the village. On the Tyrolean front Italian long-range cannon shelled ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume VI (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various
... are a vigilance committee going after rascalities the law doesn't reach, or won't reach, but these fellows are not that kind. They got together to wipe out their grudges—and sometimes they didn't need any grudge and let loose their deviltries just for pure orneriness; setting haystacks afire and such like; or, where a farmer had offended them, they would put on their silly toggery and take him out at midnight and whip him and plunder his house and chase the horses and cattle into his corn, maybe. They say the women went ...
— The Gentleman From Indiana • Booth Tarkington
... Confederate infantry under General Kershaw endeavored to drive us out, advancing against my right from the Bethesda Church road. In his assault he was permitted to come close up to our works, and when within short range such afire was opened on him from our horse-artillery and repeating carbines that he recoiled in confusion after the first onset; still, he seemed determined to get the place, and after reorganizing, again attacked; but the lesson of the first ...
— The Memoirs of General P. H. Sheridan, Complete • General Philip Henry Sheridan
... this for me, old man, when we are almost over the hacienda? The fuse is lighted, and I'm afraid I might heave it on to the wing and set us afire." ...
— The Thunder Bird • B. M. Bower
... saloons and houses men came sauntering, or running, according to the tension of their nerves. Many thought some house must be afire. At least thirty men were presently gathered at the place of summons. With five or six informers to tell the news of Jim's bereavement, all were soon aware of what was making the trouble. But none had seen the ...
— Bruvver Jim's Baby • Philip Verrill Mighels
... alluded to was one that might very well lead to the making of a wonderful and agricultural district of Altar Valley. While in college Dick Gale had studied engineering, but he had not set the scientific world afire with his brilliance. Nor after leaving college had he been able to satisfy his father that he could hold a job. Nevertheless, his smattering of engineering skill bore fruit in the last place on earth where anything might have been expected of it—in the desert. Gale had always ...
— Desert Gold • Zane Grey
... the life for me,' with a musing chorus, and then they got to talking about differences betwixt hogs, and their different kind of habits; and next about women and their different ways: and next about the best ways to put out houses that was afire; and next about what ought to be done with the Injuns; and next about what a king had to do, and how much he got; and next about how to make cats fight; and next about what to do when a man has fits; and next about differences ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... between them, their bodies shielding her from the flames, the two groped and stumbled down the short flight of stairs, fairly falling through the whirlwind of flame that swirled upward from the first floor. Scorched, singed, with their clothing afire in places, they fought their way back to ...
— Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts • Roy Rutherford Bailey
... can't help me. If the house isn't afire, I'll stand it till the fellows are gone, and then, Joe you fetch the doctor ...
— Twilight Stories • Various
... just bolting 'twixt my feet. She slipped my clutch: and I stood there And cursed that devil-littered hare, That left me stranded in the dark In that wide waste of quaggy peat Beneath black night without a spark: When, looking up, I saw a flare Upon a far-off hill, and said: 'By God, the heather is afire! It's mischief at this time of year ...' And then, as one bright flame shot higher, And booths and vans stood out quite clear, My wits came back into my head; And I remembered Brough Hill Fair. And as I stumbled towards the glare I knew the sudden ...
— Georgian Poetry 1911-12 • Various
... straight—see?—or I'll punch yer face in," tightening his grasp. "What wuz ye a-doin' when de circus come out—an', anoder t'ing, what's dis cologne yer got on yer coat? Maybe next time ye climb a fence ye'll keep from spillin' it, see? Oh, I'm onter ye. Ye set de stable afire. Dat's ...
— Tom Grogan • F. Hopkinson Smith
... warrior, when Muhammad Anim gets the word from Germany and gives the sign, and the 'Hills' are afire, and the whole East roars in the flame of the jihad—we will put ourselves at the head of that jihad, and the East and the ...
— King—of the Khyber Rifles • Talbot Mundy
... cried, in triumph. But Will had a "so there" answer for us a few nights later. We were coming home late one evening, and found the gate guarded by mad-looking yellow things, all afire, and grinning hideously like real live men in the moon dropped down ...
— Last of the Great Scouts - The Life Story of William F. Cody ["Buffalo Bill"] • Helen Cody Wetmore
... Silas, as they travelled through those provinces of Western Asia Minor, all afire with their great purpose of preaching the Gospel, met blank disappointment. Upon arrival at each point they were confronted with an unmistakable message from the Holy Spirit to keep their mouths shut. What could it mean? What was the use? ...
— "Say Fellows—" - Fifty Practical Talks with Boys on Life's Big Issues • Wade C. Smith
... and me, Charley, when father was away at work and locked us out, for fear we should set ourselves afire or fall out of window, sitting on the door-sill, sitting on other door-steps, sitting on the bank of the river, wandering about to get through the time. You are rather heavy to carry, Charley, and I am often obliged ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens
... white. I can follow that white glimmer in a long, long curve to the right—twenty miles or more, maybe. Yes, it is cold. But ah! what is that out there, and what is it doing? It is setting all the long white curves of ice afire. It is throwing down hammered silver in a broad path, out there on the water. Those are not ripples. That is silver! There will be angels walking on that pathway before long! That is not the moon coming up over the lake! It is the swinging open, by some careless ...
— The Singing Mouse Stories • Emerson Hough
... covered with carpets and rugs and curtains I've been ordered to clean. It's somethin' beyond words. The whole place looks as if there was goin' to be an auction, or a rummage sale, or as if we had moved out 'cause the house was afire. Then she falls to with tubs of boilin' hot soap-suds, until it fills your lungs, and drips off the ends of your nose and your fingers, and smells ...
— Hepsey Burke • Frank Noyes Westcott
... wait before making a start for the Hosmer cottage? I wonder if Matilda'll care if we keep company with them on their picnic? First thing she'll do will be to run back and add some more to the basket, because she knows how boys can eat like a house afire. I don't see how I can stand it waiting nearly a whole hour; but then there are a hundred other questions I'm ...
— The Chums of Scranton High Out for the Pennant • Donald Ferguson
... a real smart cuss, now ain't you?" queried Hopalong, his eyes twinkling and his face wreathed with good humor. "An' how innocent you act, too. Thought you could scare me, didn't you? Thought I'd go tearing 'round this fool town like a house afire, hey? Well, I reckon you can guess again. Now, I'm owning up that the joke's on me, so you hand over my cayuse, an' I'll make ...
— Bar-20 Days • Clarence E. Mulford
... deal of the plains country had been burned over; and a considerable area was still afire. The low bright flames licked their way slowly through the grass in a narrow irregular band extending sometimes for miles. Behind it was blackened soil, and above it rolled dense clouds of smoke. Always accompanied ...
— The Land of Footprints • Stewart Edward White
... praise. After some introductory paragraphs on the harp, its age, the varieties of this "most consecrated of all instruments," its "tenderness," its place in "the richest symbolism of the Holy Scriptures," he writes: "David's harp had ten strings, and, when his great soul was afire with the theme, his sympathetic voice, accompanied by exquisite vibrations of the chords, must have been overpowering.... The simple fact is that the most of us, if we praise the Lord at all, play upon one string ...
— T. De Witt Talmage - As I Knew Him • T. De Witt Talmage
... of the deep cellar-ways a man ran out, his clothes and hair and beard afire; on his heels a breathless throng of men and boys; following them, close behind, a rush of ...
— Children of the Tenements • Jacob A. Riis
... little tricksy Puck! With antic toys so funnily bestuck, Light as the singing bird that wings the air— (The door! the door! he'll tumble down the stair!) Thou darling of thy sire! (Why, Jane, he'll set his pinafore afire!) Thou imp of mirth and joy! In Love's dear chain so strong and bright a link, Thou idol of thy parents—(Drat the boy! There goes ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton
... been dead tired for a week now—I am writing this with the greatest ease, my pen gliding, as it were, over a surface of ice-like slippiness, although my fingers are all blistered from manual work. Why, you will ask? Well, simply because my imagination is afire, and taking complete control of such minor things as the nerves and muscles of my right arm, my eyes and my general person, it speeds me along with astonishing celerity. Let your imagination be aflame ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale
... mountain walls, and even the mirage which springs from its surface under that hot sun throws off the guise of a cool lake almost on the moment of its assumption to become a repellant specter that leaps and twists like a flame. The Paiute Indians called the spot Tomesha, which means "Ground Afire." ...
— When the West Was Young • Frederick R. Bechdolt
... ain't much on blind guessing. I saw my chap was crippled and I went back after the other, to keep him off you. I'd lost sight of you, but I reasoned you'd be on the way home. I knew you couldn't go very fast. Then all at once I saw I was afire. One of my wings had caught from something — probably an explosive shell. Well, I had to turn back. Meantime those planes arriving from our side had swept the Boches clean off. I saw I wasn't getting much of anywhere and I just managed ...
— Our Pilots in the Air • Captain William B. Perry
... all afire with the prospect of listening to her remarkable voice in what I had every reason to believe would call forth its full expression. "Only let me look at those sheets first, and understand as perfectly as I may, just what it is you are going to read ...
— The Millionaire Baby • Anna Katharine Green
... happenin' bad. But all at once I heard the fire-engine bell poundin' away like all possessed—an' then runnin' feet, like when they's an accident. I got to the gate just as somebody come rushin' past, an' I piped up what was the matter. 'Poorhouse's afire,' s'e. 'Poorhouse,' s'I. 'My land!' An' I out the gate an' run alongside of him, an' he sort o' slowed ...
— Friendship Village • Zona Gale
... presently he clambered up, his eyes wide and terrified, for his rising was Phoenix-like—mantled in flame. With incredible swiftness the flimsy coverings of his bed had burst into a crimson glare and even his clothing was afire. ...
— A Pagan of the Hills • Charles Neville Buck
... Brenton, afire with his message, self-forgetful, thrilling with the greatness of his theme, felt his congregation taking fire beneath him. For the hour, at least, there could be no question of his sincerity, of his belief ...
— The Brentons • Anna Chapin Ray
... met its fate, sahib. The barracks are afire, and the city has been given over to be looted. Reckon no more with Jailpore! Reckon only of the others. Listen, sahib! Has any message come from the next command? No? Then why? Think you that even a local outbreak could occur without some message being sent to you, and to the ...
— Told in the East • Talbot Mundy
... passion impossible. 2. When from earliest childhood, for one reason or another, a purely fraternal relationship has developed. 3. When both are of such nature that the famous divine spark can not set them afire. Whether there is an electrical influence between couples, as some scientists say, or not, we frequently see two people irrationally select each other, as if compelled by some evil force. Now this ...
— Robin Hood • J. Walker McSpadden
... behind, my lady," the woman said. "She'd set the 'ouse afire in a minute, she's that forward with the matches. Ain't ...
— Actions and Reactions • Rudyard Kipling
... wares, The long clock ticks on the foot-worn stairs, And the low, broad chimney shows the crack By the earthquake made a century back. Lip from their midst springs the collage spire With the crest of its cock in the sun afire; Beyond are orchards and planting lands, And great salt marshes and glimmering sands, And, where north and south the coast-lines run, The blink of the sea ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various
... for himself," Tom Connor broke in. "Here we are, theorizing away like a house afire on the idea that he is the thief, when maybe he had nothing to do with it. And if he is prospecting for himself, the sooner I get up to that claim the better if I don't want to be interfered with. I reckon I'll dig out right away. If you boys," ...
— The Boys of Crawford's Basin - The Story of a Mountain Ranch in the Early Days of Colorado • Sidford F. Hamp
... draw from your lips, your heart, a flame which consumes me? Ah, this very night, I knew your portrait was not you! Thou leavest at noon; three hours more, and I shall see thee again. Meantime, mio dolce amor, a thousand kisses; but give me none, for they set me all afire." What genuine and reckless passion! The "thou" and "you" maybe strangely jumbled; the grammar may be mixed and bad; the language may even be somewhat indelicate, as it sounds in other passages than those given: but the meaning would be strong enough incense for ...
— The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte - Vol. I. (of IV.) • William Milligan Sloane
... blindly, stumbling forward as he struck the ore-dump, and beating out with his hands the sparks that scorched his clothing. The smoke appeared to roll higher from the ground here, and the coughing soldier crept up beneath it, breathing the hot air, and feeling as though his entire body were afire. Mason, his countenance black and unrecognizable, his shirt soaked with blood, peered into ...
— Bob Hampton of Placer • Randall Parrish
... vain, to break through, and was forced lower and lower to the ground. Upon reaching the ground he refused to stop his motor until, after bumping over two fields, a bullet was fired through his gas tank setting it afire. The two Germans jumped from the machine to the ground uninjured. Both wore iron crosses. Lieut. Webb landed his machine, jumped out, grabbed an iron cross from one of the terrified Germans, and rose ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell
... clothes! Get the car—and set the road afire between here and the 'drome. Move! Don't stand there blinking like ...
— Aces Up • Covington Clarke
... his hand was a long, keen blade. He felt a stealthy hand near his own and he lunged the knife. A heavy groan and a few words in a language which only he understood, and the body sank to the floor. The tiger's blood was now afire and he leaped upon the faro table, revolver in hand. His form was outlined in silhouette by a light across the street, when a spark flashed in the darkness and he fell headlong to the floor. There was a heavy roar of voices, as the men stampeded to ...
— Where Strongest Tide Winds Blew • Robert McReynolds
... violently as I pushed the door open and advanced to the bedside. The room, hushed and in semi-darkness; the white sheet, whose surface showed too plainly the forms beneath it; and the scared, terrified face of the man who, with brain afire, stood watching, with staring eyes, the bed, made a ...
— Stories by English Authors: Africa • Various
... that poor little thing havin' her house set afire by a rival suitor just after she had paid off the mortgage by savin' out of her week's wages! Do you suppose ...
— Flower of the Dusk • Myrtle Reed
... so, Richard entered the room. "I have seen the doctor," he began, "and the little chap is going to pull along like a house afire." ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... of time Bucongo had to make a great decision, and to overcome the habits of a lifetime. Training and education to the dominion of the white man half raised his hand to the salute; something that boiled and bubbled madly and set his shallow brain afire, something that was of his ancestry, wild, unreasoning, brutish, urged other action. Bones had his revolver half drawn when the knobbly end of the chief's killing-spear struck him between the eyes, and he ...
— The Keepers of the King's Peace • Edgar Wallace
... fellow-agitators were John Wraw, in Suffolk, Jack Straw, in Essex—both priests these—William Grindcobbe, in Hertford, and Geoffrey Litster, in Norfolk. In Kent lived Wat Tyler, of whom nothing is told till the revolt was actually afire, but who at once was acknowledged leader and captain ...
— The Rise of the Democracy • Joseph Clayton
... not want it to be an expense to him, but only a help, I would make it small—a cigar, if he were willing—a cigar that he would fail again; not an expensive one, but a cheap native one, of the Crown Jewel breed, such as is manufactured in Hartford for the clergy. It set him afire all over! I could see the blue flame issue from his eyes. ...
— Chapters from My Autobiography • Mark Twain
... to hope the old man finds something that's been afire up there, Grannis," said the joker of the house. "If he don't, you've ...
— Ben Blair - The Story of a Plainsman • Will Lillibridge
... as, when the sun leaps into the heavens, the stars hide their faces and faint into invisibility. It will make us lords of ourselves, masters of the world, kings over time and sense and the universe. Everything will be different when 'earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God.' That is what is possible for a Christian holding fast by Jesus Christ, and in Him having communion with the ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII • Alexander Maclaren
... be afire; because you c'n see the red flames jumping up like fun!" was the thrilling announcement ...
— Boy Scouts on a Long Hike - Or, To the Rescue in the Black Water Swamps • Archibald Lee Fletcher
... Ah, Richard," said he, "ye're a sly dog. You and I have been as thick these twa months as men can well live, and never a word out of you of the most sublime creature that walks. I have seen women in many countries, lad, beauties to set thoughts afire and swords a-play,—and 'tis not her beauty alone. She hath a spirit for a queen to covet, ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... draught. Layers of brush are put on at intervals through the pile. The smaller lumps are placed in the core of the heap, the larger lumps thrown upon them, and 40 tons of tank residues thrown over all to exclude excess of air; 500 lb. of salt is then distributed through the pile, and it is then set afire. After well alight the draught-holes are closed up, and the pile is left to burn, which it does for six months. At the expiration of that time the pile is broken into and sorted, the imperfectly roasted ore is returned to a fresh roast-heap, and the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 363, December 16, 1882 • Various
... curious that things should have fallen out thus for the two of us: that Will Bigelow, all afire with the lust for travel, should never have mustered up enterprise enough to break his home ties, whilst I whose dearest desire had always been to live no day of my alloted span away from Radville, should have been, in a manner which I'm bound presently ...
— The Fortune Hunter • Louis Joseph Vance
... madly. The pearls told you no lie. You were my idol—the one thing in the wide world to me. You were so different from any man I had ever seen except in dreams. You did not make a fool of yourself. I admired you. I respected you. I was all afire with adoration of you. And now," she passed her hand across her eyes, "now it is all over. The idol has come sliding down its pedestal to fawn and grovel with all the other infatuates in the dust ...
— Zuleika Dobson - or, An Oxford Love Story • Max Beerbohm
... in the oasis were moving onward also, for the water in the pools was vanishing and the vegetation began to droop. Day by day the sun's rays grew more intense until it seemed they must set the world afire. ...
— The Black Phantom • Leo Edward Miller
... intention of going for them," I answered; "I only wanted to get close enough to see what they'd do. Did you set her afire?" I ...
— Mr. Trunnell • T. Jenkins Hains
... of it; spurred constantly on his tender side—his vanity—by the hard riding of Mr. Julius Bamberger, M.P. He pioneered the movement. He (pardon this riot of simile and metaphor) cut a way through the brushwood, piled the first faggots, applied the torch, set the heather afire. He canvassed the Bishop, the Dean and Chapter, the Sunday Schools, the Church Lads' Brigade, the Girls' Friendly Society, the Boy Scouts. He canvassed the tradespeople, the professional classes, the widowed and maiden ladies resident around ...
— Brother Copas • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... the gunners stood firm to their pieces under afire as terrible as troops ever endured; one-third of the command had fallen before they were withdrawn. Colonel Riley meanwhile, with the stormers of Contreras, had been despatched to assail San Pablo on the west, and, like Dimmick, was met by a murderous rain of shot. Whole heads of companies were ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 17 • Charles Francis Horne
... sight of wire Always set his soul afire (We are bound by early habits— It reminded him of rabbits); If the Huns but showed an inch of it Teddy took what he could pinch of it, Which was all, for, as I've said, Flies were not at home ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, June 4, 1919. • Various
... across country on perilous errands. This leaping into taxicabs to answer stimulating advertisements in the Morning Post was very much the same sort of thing. It was with fine fervor animating him that he entered the gloomy offices of Mainprice, Mainprice & Boole. His brain was afire and he felt ...
— Something New • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
... de kitchen at de time. I was quite small. 'Round two years old—now how old dat make me, Miss? 74? Well, I knows I is gittin' 'long. I remember dem talkin' 'bout it all. Dey searched de house, and take out what dey want, den set de house afire. Ma, she run out den an' whoop an' holler. De lady of de house wuz dere, but de Massa had went off. De place wuz dat of Dr. Bucknor. My mother been belong to de Bucknors. After dat, dey moved to de old home place of de Bucknors down here at Robertville. ...
— Slave Narratives Vol. XIV. South Carolina, Part 2 • Works Projects Administration |
