"Bairn" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... a moment, then replied in a sharp voice, "Mockin' ye! indeed, it's na such thing. If ye had an atom o' moosic in ye, ye wad ken at ance, its a sweet Scotch sang I'm singin' to ye. I've sung mony a bairn to sleep ...
— Adele Dubois - A Story of the Lovely Miramichi Valley in New Brunswick • Mrs. William T. Savage
... toot!" quo' her gray-headed faither, "She's less o' a bride than a bairn; She's ta'en like a cout frae the heather, Wi' sense and discretion to learn. Half husband, I trow, and half daddy, As humor inconstantly leans, The chiel maun be patient and steady That yokes wi' a mate in her teens. A kerchief sae douce and sae neat, ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various
... "where are ye, my bonnie wee croodlin doo?" In a moment a bright, eager child of seven was in his arms, and he was kissing her all over. Out came Mrs. Keith. "Come yer ways in, Wattie." "No, not now. I am going to take Marjorie wi' me, and you may come to your tea in Duncan Roy's sedan, and bring the bairn home in your lap." "Tak' Marjorie, and it on-ding o' snaw!" said Mrs. Keith. He said to himself, "On-ding—that's odd—that is the very word." "Hoot, awa! look here," and he displayed the corner of his ...
— Stories of Childhood • Various
... creature his Alice was then; but even over that day there hung a cloud, for it was begun in intemperance and ended in riot. He thought of the hour when he first looked on his boy, and had felt as proud as if no other man had ever had a bonny bairn but he. He thought with shuddering self-reproach of long years of base neglect and wrong towards the children whose strength and peace his own words and deeds had smitten down as with blows of iron. He thought of the days and years of utter selfishness which had drained away every ...
— Frank Oldfield - Lost and Found • T.P. Wilson
... in London, All alone and alonie, She's gane wi' bairn to the clerk's son, Down by the green-wood ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 207, October 15, 1853 • Various
... bairn," she said, "if you have anything to say to your father, or anything to ask of him, it ...
— Christie Redfern's Troubles • Margaret Robertson
... bonnie bairn, Ho thy way, upon my airm, Ho thy way, thou still may learn To say Dada ...
— The Beautiful Wretch; The Pupil of Aurelius; and The Four Macnicols • William Black
... know), my lord," she replied, "unless, Heaven save us! he takes you for the Lord of lords. I didna think the bairn was so heathenish and so daft (foolish). You maun forgie (must forgive) ...
— Stories of Many Lands • Grace Greenwood
... of horses, pleughs, and kye:[14] The youngster's artless heart o'erflows wi' joy, But blate[15] and laithfu',[16] scarce can weel behave; The mother, wi' a woman's wiles, can spy What makes the youth sae bashfu' an' sae grave; Weel pleased to think her bairn's respected like the lave.[17] ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 • Various
... rung, and mass was sung, And every bairn went hame, Then ilka lady had her young son, But Lady ...
— The Book of Old English Ballads • George Wharton Edwards
... her heel and spoke gibberish; for which she was presently driven out of the place by Tarn Roberton, the baillie, and the village dogs. But the thing stuck in my memory, and together with the fact that I was a Thursday's bairn, and so, according to the old rhyme, "had far to go," convinced me long ere I had come to man's estate that wanderings and surprises would ...
— Salute to Adventurers • John Buchan
... "Ye should go, bairn, they're a fine key. Clever as the devil, but naething true about them. After the Danae-piff!" and he snapped his fingers. "Ye hae no call to worry, you're the hub, Mary—let the wheel spin a ...
— The Nest Builder • Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale
... "The poor bairn is too weak to speak to us," said Madge, when she had adjusted the pillows. "After a good rest, and a little more food, she will be stronger. Come away, Simon and Harry, and all the rest of you, and let her go to sleep." So Nell was left alone, and ...
— The Underground City • Jules Verne
... bold bairn! Isn't he a sturdy, stirring lad, Ma'am?" said the proud mother, as Jamie, addressing himself again to his work, shouted to the black nags, and put them along the bit of level road in the valley at a ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 • Various
... faither's looked after the cattle, and disposed o' them at Morpeth; and I, having hired a hearse at Alnwick, got the body o' my faither taen hame. A sorrowfu' hame-gaun it was, ye may weel think. Before ever we reached the house, I heard the shrieks o' my puir mither. 'O my faitherless bairn!' she cried, as I entered the door; but before she could rise to meet me, she got a glent o' the coffin which they were takin' out o' the hearse, and utterin' a sudden scream, her head fell back, and she gaed ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, XXII • various
... one o' ye oot o' the way," cried ancient Nanny, now as wide-awake as ever; "Master Robin Cockscroft gie ma t' bairn, an' nawbody sall hev him ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore
... this time he was 'cross the foord, Whare in the snaw the chapman smoor'd; And past the birks and meikle stane, Whare drucken Charlie brak's neck bane; And thro' the whins, and by the cairn, Whare hunters fand the murder'd bairn; And near the thorn, aboon the well, Whare Mungo's mither hang'd hersel.— Before him Doon pours all his floods! The doubling storm roars thro' the woods; The lightnings flash from pole to pole; Near and ...
— The Mysteries of All Nations • James Grant
... do for me at all; Nor for you neither, Merrick? End of the World? Bogy! A parson's tale or a bairn's! ...
— Georgian Poetry 1913-15 • Edited by E. M. (Sir Edward Howard Marsh)
... say! But Roger, he ran away—leastways e went off to furrin parts and we 'eard as 'ow 'e'd married an Heyetalian young lady out there. And you are really Roger Gibbs' bairn?" ...
— The Making of a Soul • Kathlyn Rhodes
... to be servant at the manse, the folk were fair mad wi' her an' him thegether; and some o' the guidwives had nae better to dae than get round her door cheeks and chairge her wi' a' that was ken't again her, frae the sodger's bairn to John Tamson's twa kye. She was nae great speaker; folk usually let her gang her ain gate, an' she let them gang theirs, wi' neither Fair-gui-deen nor Fair-guid-day; but when she buckled to, she had a tongue to deave the ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) - Ghost Stories • Various
... few days later, a neighbour told me that its mother was out, and it was a good thing too, as she had been heard to declare she would 'go for that lady the next time she saw her, for flingin' of her bairn about!'" ...
— Ideala • Sarah Grand
... poor bairn. Hearken to me, Bessie. Quit crying now, quit crying. Do you mind, Bessie, the day I was in with you and Rab away at Ballymoney? Do you mind how you said to me that every day you thanked God for the good husband ...
— The Northern Iron - 1907 • George A. Birmingham
... vernacular poet, author of "The Mitherless Bairn," &c.; was a native of and hand-loom weaver at Aberdeen; endured much hardship ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood
... Duchess of Clarence lost their only child, the infant Princess Elizabeth. Of this long-forgotten branch of the Royal Family, one who was present at her birth says:—"She is christened by the name of Elizabeth Georgiana. I hope the bairn will live. It came a little too early, and is a very small one at present, but the doctors seem to think it will thrive; and to the ears of your humble servant it appears to be noisy enough to show it has great strength."[7] Her loss affected the King, between whom and the Duke ...
— Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1) - From the Original Family Documents • Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
... "'Like a bairn to its mither, a wee birdie to its nest, I wad fain be ganging noo unto my Saviour's breast; For He gathers in His bosom witless, worthless lambs like me, And carries them Himsel' to His ...
— Left at Home - or, The Heart's Resting Place • Mary L. Code
... giving way. And then she rocked backward and forward, as if to make it sleep, hushing it, and wasting on it her infinite fondness. "Wae's me, doctor! I declare she's thinkin' it's that bairn." "What bairn?" "The only bairn we ever had; our wee Mysie, and she's in the Kingdom forty years and mair." It was plainly true: the pain in the breast, telling its urgent story to a bewildered, ruined brain, was misread and mistaken; it suggested to her the uneasiness of a breast full ...
— Rab and His Friends • John Brown, M. D.
... never out o' mischief—and they just got a glisk o' his Honour as he gaed into the wood, and banged aff a gun at him, I out like a jer-falcon, and cried,—"Wad they shoot an honest woman's poor innocent bairn?" And I fleyt at them, and threepit it was my son; and they damned and swuir at me that it was the auld rebel, as the villains ca'd his Honour; and Davie was in the wood, and heard the tuilzie, and ...
— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott
... na wise-like. But after a' ye're ony a bairn. Here, Tam, ye'd better gang up by the Stank burn an' keep a look-oot ower the hills, an' I'll ...
— Freaks on the Fells - Three Months' Rustication • R.M. Ballantyne
... said grannie, too loyal to the old man to let Katie see that she was startled by her words. "It has been for a while's peace, as you say. And now you'll run up the brae after him, and take no heed, but wile him from his vexing thoughts, like a good bairn ...
— David Fleming's Forgiveness • Margaret Murray Robertson
... mother of the Douglases sank on the ground in the dusk, leaning against the wall of her house. She held her face in her hands and sobbed aloud, "O Willie, Willie Douglas, mair than ony o' my ain I loed ye. Bonny were ye as a bairn. Bonny were ye as a laddie. Bonny abune a' as a noble young man and the desire o' maidens' e'en. But nane o' them a' loed ye like poor auld Barbara, that wad hae gien her life to pleasure ye. And noo she canna even steek thae black, black ...
— The Black Douglas • S. R. Crockett
... 'He was no his bairn,' I retorted, hastily finishing off my "parritch" with a gulp. 'I'm late, as ye said,' I added, rising, 'I must be off to ...
— Border Ghost Stories • Howard Pease
... Weelum," broke in Marget, Whinnie's wife, a tall, silent woman, with a speaking face; "it's naither the ae thing nor the ither, but something I've been prayin' for since Geordie was a wee bairn. Clean yirsel and meet Domsie on the road, for nae man deserves more honour in ...
— Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush • Ian Maclaren
... bairn be{a}led oot that bad, I was cl{e}an scar'd, but it was at noht bud a battle-twig 'at hed crohl{e}d up'n hisairm. (Battle-twig, earwig; ...
— English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day • Walter W. Skeat
... bairn, Mary,' was Jean's answer. 'We shall do better for Jamie by wedding some great lords in the far country than by waiting here ...
— Two Penniless Princesses • Charlotte M. Yonge
... touching the bairn, it's weel kent she was born on Hallowe'en was nine years gane, and they that are born on Hallowe'en whiles see ...
— The Proverbs of Scotland • Alexander Hislop
... she's just a wee bit bairn; but as soon as she begins to sigh for joes and bawbees she'll be just like the rest. They're all of them elemental things," he said with conviction, "and ye can't change their natures any more than ye can ...
— Nancy Stair - A Novel • Elinor Macartney Lane
... begin the warld for himself. He continued steady and industrious, and was prospered accordingly; and at the age o' twenty-five he had saved considerable money. It was about this time, that he was married to a worthy young woman, to whom he had been long deeply attached. They had but one bairn, a fine boy, who was the delight o' his father's heart, and I hae heard it said by they who kenn'd them at the time, that a bonnier or mair winsome boy could 'na hae been found in the city, than wee Geordie Stuart. Time gied on till Geordie ...
— The Path of Duty, and Other Stories • H. S. Caswell
... your inheritance all in the future, I trust?" said my old friend. "There's crumbs to be gotten even now from that feast; ye didn't go starving, my bairn?" ...
— Daisy in the Field • Elizabeth Wetherell
... "Ah, my bairn," replied the old woman; "I fear I'm no your friend, meikle as I love you. We speak owre, owre often o' the lost; for our foolish hearts find mair pleasure in that than in anything else; but ill does it fit us for being alone. Weel do I ken your feeling—a stone deadness o' the ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume III • Various
... she tries to smile among the neighbours, and speaks of her boy's likeness to its father; nor, when the conversation turns on bygone times, does she fear to let his name escape her white lips, "My Robert; the bairn's not ill-favoured, but he will never look like his father,"—and such sayings, uttered in a calm, sweet voice. Nay, I remember once how her pale countenance reddened with a sudden flush of pride, when a gossiping crone alluded to ...
— Lady Byron Vindicated • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... ca' a bairn a brute; there's but ae brute here, an' it's no you, Jamie, nor me—is it, ...
— Christie Johnstone • Charles Reade
... entered a shop in New York, a Scotch nursemaid followed him, carrying her infant charge. "Please, sir, here's a bairn ...
— Washington's Birthday • Various
... gyte! [out of her senses]. What for wad I be sleepin' in the afternune? An' me wi' the care o' yer gran'faither—sic a handling, him nae better nor a bairn, an' you a bit feckless hempie wi' yer hair fleeing like the tail o' a twa- year-auld cowt! [colt]. Sleepin' indeed! Na, sleepin's nane ...
— The Lilac Sunbonnet • S.R. Crockett
... to him inclyne, And bow unto that bairn benyng, And do your observance divyne To him that is of kingis King: Encense his altar, read and sing In holy kirk, with mind degest, Him honouring attour all thing Qui ...
— Book of English Verse • Bulchevy
... qualm of conscience, she couldna tak upon her to decide, but sure it was, Cuddie had been in sair straits a' night, and she couldna say he was muckle better this morning. The finger of Heaven," she said, "was in it, and her bairn should gang on nae sic errands." Pains, penalties, and threats of dismission, were denounced in vain; the mother was obstinate, and Cuddie, who underwent a domiciliary visitation for the purpose of verifying his state ...
— Old Mortality, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott
... spoken, sir," said his follower, "except that I met ane very honest, fair-spoken, weel-put-on gentleman, or rather burgher, as I think, that was in the whigmaleery man's back-shop; and when he learned wha I was, behold he was a kindly Scot himsell, and, what is more, a town's-bairn o' the gude town, and he behoved to compel me to take this Portugal piece, to drink, forsooth—my certie, thought I, we ken better, for we will eat it—and he spoke of paying your lordship ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott
... their bairn was born, And syne she cudna sleep; She wud rise at midnicht, and wan'er till morn, Hark-harkin the sough ...
— Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Vol. 2 • George MacDonald
... London. In the meantime, I have only to add, that, when the Session meets, I wish you would speak to the elders, particularly to Mr. Craig, no to be overly hard on that poor donsie thing, Meg Milliken, about her bairn; and tell Tam Glen, the father o't, from me, that it would have been a sore heart to that pious woman, his mother, had she been living, to have witnessed such a thing; and therefore I hope and trust, he will yet confess ...
— The Ayrshire Legatees • John Galt
... naething kept frae ye; if ye hadna been a perfect bairn in a'thing, ye wad hae seen through a'thing. That was why a' the folks—yer grand freen's, I mean—were sae angry because ye had Liz here. But I believed in her mysel' up till she ran awa'. Although a lassie's led awa' she's no' aye lost; ...
— The Guinea Stamp - A Tale of Modern Glasgow • Annie S. Swan
... place enow," said Mrs Stirling. Then, turning to Archie, she said, "And so you liked better to bide out here than to go in to your dinner at the manse? Well, it's a good bairn that likes to do what it's bidden. I dare say Mrs Blair would have felt some delicacy in taking you both into the manse parlour; though why she should, is more than the like of ...
— The Orphans of Glen Elder • Margaret Murray Robertson
... not touch the bairn. She was not accustomed to children. But the parson had christened too many babies to be afraid of them, and he picked up the little fellow in a moment, and tucked the yellow rag round him, and then addressing the ...
— Tales from Many Sources - Vol. V • Various
... loss it wad be tiv us. But," said he, "to tell the truth, aa hev been for prayin' mesel ever since the bairn tuck bad, but then aa thowt it was cowardly to ask help when aa was in difficulties and nivvor at ony other time. ...
— Looking Seaward Again • Walter Runciman
... Reginald, dryly, and said no more; for it is a characteristic of the awfu' bairn to be mute where fluency is ...
— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade
... fighting feared to hold him. Fleeing, he sought our South-Dane folk, over surge of ocean the Honor-Scyldings, when first I was ruling the folk of Danes, wielded, youthful, this widespread realm, this hoard-hold of heroes. Heorogar was dead, my elder brother, had breathed his last, Healfdene's bairn: he was better than I! Straightway the feud with fee {7b} I settled, to the Wylfings sent, o'er watery ridges, treasures olden: oaths he {7c} swore me. Sore is my soul to say to any of the race of ...
— Beowulf • Anonymous
... of her appearance," Mrs. McDougall said, not without a touch of pride. "It does no good to encourage vanity, but I wouldn't have her always longing for pretty things, so she shall just wear this tie to the kirk on the Sabbath Day. Her grannie would just give in to the bairn, and let her ...
— Little Folks (November 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various
... it; you don't understand, my bairn; and I don't rightly understand it myself. It's their house—something about a mortgage—now the poor Laird's gone, and they only waited until he was under the ground to come tearing up from London ...
— A City Schoolgirl - And Her Friends • May Baldwin
... and we both heard it, sometimes like a bairn crying and sometimes like a wench in pain. I've been seventeen years to the country and I never heard seal, old or young, make a sound like that. As we were standing there on the foc'sle-head the moon came out from behind ...
— The Captain of the Pole-Star and Other Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle
... drawing from him of course his favourite ejaculation of amazement. By the assistance of some women the luckless Dominie was extracted from his position, justifying the remark of one of his assistants, that "the laird might as weel trust the care of his bairn to a potato-bogle." Which was the most helpless of the two men—the Laird of Dumbiedikes, or the illustrious Dominie—it would be difficult to say; both these most original characters took a powerful hold on ...
— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt
... to pity me. "Kenneth, bairn, but you're an awfu' ignoramus. You ken naething ava about the lassies. I'm wondering what they learnt you at Oxford. Gin it's the same to you we'll talk of something mair within your comprehension." And thereupon ...
— A Daughter of Raasay - A Tale of the '45 • William MacLeod Raine
... motherless bairn who would like you to be nursey to her," said Annie, seating herself on a low hassock at the old woman's feet and looking ...
— Red Rose and Tiger Lily - or, In a Wider World • L. T. Meade
... said aside to Ohlsen, the second mate—"Old son of a gun" as the men used to call him, making a sort of pun on his name—"the old man's setting up as dominie to teach that bairn how to tak' a sight, you ken; did you ever see the like? These be braw times when gentlefolk come to sea for schoolin', and ship cap'ens have to tak' to ...
— On Board the Esmeralda - Martin Leigh's Log - A Sea Story • John Conroy Hutcheson
... come the fourteenth of next July. But she's not a woman to me, and she never will be. She's my wee bairn that I took from her mother's dyin' arms and nursed at my own breast, and she'll be that wee bairn to me as long as I live. Ye'll be up to see ...
— The Tides of Barnegat • F. Hopkinson Smith
... shall know what to do then," he said; "but for the present the bairn must just fight her own battle. Has she good health, ...
— The Right Stuff - Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton • Ian Hay
... my thumb at it! Black be its fall! If ye see the laird, tell him what ye hear; tell him this makes the twelve hunner and nineteen time that Jennet Clouston has called down the curse on him and his house, byre and stable, man, guest, and master, wife, miss, or bairn—black, ...
— Kidnapped • Robert Louis Stevenson
... puir la-amb," she protested, dwelling on the vowels in fatuous, maternal love; "the bairn's wearied, man! He's ainything but strong, and the schooling's owre ...
— The House with the Green Shutters • George Douglas Brown
... bairn, what I knew was that he had not gone far from the body that had held him when he fell. Perhaps he had felt lost for a bit when he found himself out of it. But soon he had begun to call to her that was like his own heart ...
— The White People • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... when she left that stern old man for love of Walter Home, I went, too, for love of her. Ah, dear heart! she had sore need of me in the weary wanderings which ended only when she lay down by her dead husband's side and left her bairn to me. Then I came here to cherish her among kind souls where I was born; and here she has grown up, an innocent young thing, safe from the wicked world, the comfort of my life, and the one thing I grieve at leaving when ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... that business lay, I blame no chaps wi' clearer head for aught they make or sell. I found that I could not invent an' look to these — as well. So, wrestled wi' Apollyon — Nah! — fretted like a bairn — But burned the workin'-plans last run wi' all I hoped to earn. Ye know how hard an Idol dies, an' what that meant to me — E'en tak' it for a sacrifice acceptable to Thee. . . . Below there! Oiler! What's your wark? Ye find it runnin' hard? ...
— Verses 1889-1896 • Rudyard Kipling
... Samuel. Dudna her neighbours' an' all kuth an' kun savun' them thot luv'd un the house wuth her, get up an' walk out ot the christenun' of the second—hum thot was cooked? Thot they dud, an' ot the very moment the munuster asked what would the bairn's name be. 'Samuel,' says she; an' wuth thot they got up an' walked out an' left the house. An' ot the door dudna her Aunt Fannie, her mother's suster, turn an' say loud for all tull hear: 'What for wull she be wantun' ...
— The Strength of the Strong • Jack London
... — N. infant, babe, baby, babe in arms; nurseling, suckling, yearling, weanling; papoose, bambino; kid; vagitus. child, bairn [Scot.], little one, brat, chit, pickaninny, urchin; bantling, bratling^; elf. youth, boy, lad, stripling, youngster, youngun, younker^, callant^, whipster^, whippersnapper, whiffet [U.S.], schoolboy, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... wept violently as she returned thanks for such a wonderful deliverance; but her thoughts were bewildered, and, fancying that her child was lost, she struck her hands together, and leaping again on her feet, screamed out, "Oh! where's my bairn—my wee bairn?" ...
— The Junior Classics • Various
... Obituary Thomas William Parsons The Child's Heritage John G. Neihardt A Girl of Pompeii Edward Sandford Martin On the Picture of a "Child Tired of Play" Nathaniel Parker Willis The Reverie of Poor Susan William Wordsworth Children's Song Ford Madox Hueffer The Mitherless Bairn William Thom The Cry of the Children Elizabeth Barrett Browning The Shadow-Child Harriet Monroe Mother Wept Joseph Skipsey Duty Ralph Waldo Emerson Lucy Gray William Wordsworth In the Children's Hospital Alfred Tennyson "If I Were Dead" Coventry Patmore The Toys ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 1 (of 4) • Various
... one more item from the novel, as it aptly shows what advantage is sometimes to be gained by tracing the Poet in his reading. In the play, the Shepherd on finding the babe is made to exclaim, "What have we here? Mercy on 's, a bairn; a very pretty bairn! a boy, or a child, I wonder?" For some hundred years, editorial ingenuity has been strained to the utmost to explain why child should be thus used in opposition to boy; and nothing would do but to surmise an obsolete custom of speech which made ...
— Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. • H. N. Hudson
... Carry was not so tired as that. She had been in and out of that window scores of times; and now, when she heard that the permission was accorded to her, she was not long before she was in her mother's arms. "My own Carry, my own bairn;—my girl, my darling." And the poor mother satisfied the longings of ...
— The Vicar of Bullhampton • Anthony Trollope
... your mother is well, But an' your brothers three; Your sister Lady Maisry's well, So big wi' bairn gangs she.' ...
— Ballads of Romance and Chivalry - Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - First Series • Frank Sidgwick
... wisely to retire from public life, and take down a sign which had no longer fascination for guests. But Meg's spirit scorned submission, direct or implied. "Her father's door," she said, "should be open to the road, till her father's bairn should be streekit and carried out at it with her feet foremost. It was not for the profit—there was little profit at it;—profit?—there was a dead loss; but she wad not be dung by any of them. They maun hae a hottle,[I-7] maun they?—and an honest public canna serve ...
— St. Ronan's Well • Sir Walter Scott
... forgotten one day upon the knolls when a thunderstorm came on, his aunt ran out to bring him in, and found him shouting, "Bonny! bonny!" at every flash of lightning. One of the old servants at Sandy-Knowe spoke of the child long afterwards as "a sweet-tempered bairn, a darling with all about the house," and certainly the miniature taken of him in his seventh year confirms the impression thus given. It is sweet-tempered above everything, and only the long upper lip and large mouth, derived from his ancestress, ...
— Sir Walter Scott - (English Men of Letters Series) • Richard H. Hutton
... ye, friends, is it not a crying sin and a national shame to see things going aglee as they are doing? There seems hardly such a thing as manhood left upon the Borders. A bit scratch with a pen upon parchment is becoming of more effect than a stroke with the sword. A bairn now stands as good a chance to hold and to have, as an armed man that has a hand to take and to defend. Such a state o' things was only made for those who are ower lazy to ride by night, and ower cowardly to fight. ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 2 - Historical, Traditional, and Imaginative • Alexander Leighton
... ain bairn,' answered the old lady. 'For many a weary week have we been looking for him, and never have our eyes rested on his bonnie face since the black day, near five long years ago, when he was carried away from us. Ah! it ...
— Will Weatherhelm - The Yarn of an Old Sailor • W.H.G. Kingston
... the domestic service of Sandy-Knowe when the lame child was brought thither in the third year of his age. One of them, Tibby Hunter, remembers his coming well; and that "he was a sweet-tempered bairn, a darling with all about the house." The young ewe-milkers delighted, she says, to carry him about on their backs among the crags; and he was "very gleg (quick) at the uptake, and soon kenned every sheep ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10) • John Gibson Lockhart
... felt her heart How that it ben to-torne,— She kissed eche day till she ben gray The shoon he used to worn; No bairn let hold untill her gown, Nor played upon the floore,— Godde's was the joy; a lyttel boy Ben in the way ...
— A Little Book of Western Verse • Eugene Field
... exceeded 800L., and is given to the senior scholar, who is called Captain of the School. This procession appears to be coeval with the foundation; and it is the opinion of Mr. Lysons, that it was a ceremonial of the Bairn, or Boy- Bishop. He states, that it originally took place on the 6th of December, the festival of St. Nicholas, the patron of children; being the day on which it was customary at Salisbury, and in other places where the ceremony was observed, to elect the Boy-Bishop ...
— The English Spy • Bernard Blackmantle
... gae wi' child, father, Mysel maun bear the blame; There's neer a laird about your ha Shall get the bairn's name. ...
— A Collection of Ballads • Andrew Lang
... dinna ken what's guid for ye at your time o' life, it's weel there sud be anither 'at does. What has a man o' your 'ears to du drinkin' soor milk—eneuch to turn a' soor thegither i' the inside o' ye! It's true I win' ye weel a sma' bairn i' ...
— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald
... mine might lull the bairn to sleep, And tell the meaning in a mother's eyes; Might counsel love, and teach their eyes to weep Who, o'er their dead, question unanswering skies, More worth than legions in the dust of strife, Time, looking back at last, should count ...
— Songs, Merry and Sad • John Charles McNeill
... man started and moved towards her, eagerly, his keen eyes breaking through the film that at times obscured them. "'Merrikan! tha baist 'Merrikan? Then tha knaws ma son John, 'ee war nowt but a bairn when brether Dick took un to 'Merriky! Naw! Now! that wor fifty years sen!—niver wroate to his old feyther—niver coomed back, 'Ee wor tall-loike, an' thea said 'e feavored mea." He stopped, threw up his ...
— Stories in Light and Shadow • Bret Harte
... greatly pleased with it. "It must always be a proud and gratifying distinction," she said, "to have the name of Sir Walter Scott associated with that of my husband in the review of 'Salmonia.' I am sure Sir Humphry will like his bairn the better for the public opinion given of it by one whose immortality renders praise as durable as it ...
— A Publisher and His Friends • Samuel Smiles
... the morning of the 19th of August 1808, at my father's house No. 47 York Place, Edinburgh. I was named James Hall after my father's dear friend, Sir James Hall of Dunglass. My mother afterwards told me that I must have been "a very noticin' bairn," as she observed me, when I was only a few days old, following with my little eyes any one who happened to be in the room, as if I had been thinking to my little self, ...
— James Nasmyth's Autobiography • James Nasmyth
... gang a bit wi' you," the policeman entreated, "for till Rob sent me on this errand not a soul has spoken to me the day; ay, mony a ane hae I spoken to, but not a man, woman, nor bairn would fling me ...
— The Little Minister • J.M. Barrie
... the runaway, and the men came back well drenched by their second trip. The whole thing was done with perfect simplicity; and the fishermen would not accept even a glass of ale from the boy's father. They said "they were glad to see the bairn so pleased," and they tease the said "bairn" about his skill in navigation even to this day. When we see kindness like this we may be content to do without words ...
— The Romance of the Coast • James Runciman
... Mr Benson, "doan't do that, bairn. He's safe enough if he's got that dog wi' him; he'd be sewer to find the way out o' ...
— Hollowdell Grange - Holiday Hours in a Country Home • George Manville Fenn
... 'my ain bairn, when ye hae won the croun, use it na' at all, though a' the fiends fra' hell tempted ye, but carry it to the kirkyard at mirk midnight; an' when ye hae cannily lichted a bit bleeze, burn the king's ...
— Adrift in the Ice-Fields • Charles W. Hall
... wor a bonny young wench, an' better nor bonny,— Aw seem nah as if aw can see her, wi' th' first little bairn on her knee, An' we called it Ann, for aw liked that name best ov ony, An' fowk said it wor th' pictur o' th' mother, wi' just a ...
— Yorkshire Ditties, Second Series - To which is added The Cream of Wit and Humour - from his Popular Writings • John Hartley
... he said, and taking Elizabeth's hand he led her up to where the MacAllisters were climbing into their buggy. He leaned over and talked in a low tone to Mr. MacAllister and they both laughed, and the latter called, "Hey, hey, Lizzie, come awa', bairn, and jump in!" And Mother MacAllister said, as her arms went around her, "Hoots, toots, and did the lamb do it to save the little dog?" And Charles Stuart looked at her with undisguised admiration in his eyes, and said, "Aw, you goose, what did you ...
— 'Lizbeth of the Dale • Marian Keith
... he's weel awa'. He has sic a wark wi' thae laddies an' their bit bairn o' a mither, I'll no say he'd been easy keepit out o' the thick o' the distress, an' it's may be no surprisin', after a' that's come and gane, that he seeks to take siccan a lift of the concern. I've mony ...
— The Clever Woman of the Family • Charlotte M. Yonge
... made no resistance to this way of showing gratitude, but muttered between her teeth, "He's just a bairn!" ...
— Christie Johnstone • Charles Reade
... Noncy was a bairn, she was the maist ugsome wee thing I ever clappit an e'e upon. My Leddy W. lodged in this verra room, in the which we are no' sittin'. She had a daughter nearly a woman grown, an' I was in my sma' back ...
— Flora Lyndsay - or, Passages in an Eventful Life • Susan Moodie
... let that flea stick by the wa'. We maun do at Rome as Rome does, as ye'll soon find'—and disregarding Arthur's exclamation—'and the bit bairn, I thocht ye said he was no Scot, when I was daundering awa' at ...
— A Modern Telemachus • Charlotte M. Yonge
... present, but actually sat beside two twin-mothers. Akom's face was transfigured. Jean's adopted child, Dan, was also baptized on the occasion, and it was a great and solemn joy to Mary to see her oldest bairn give him to God, and promise to bring him up ...
— Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary • W. P. Livingstone
... o' promise that some gladsome day the King To His ain royal palace His banished hame will bring. Wi' heart and wi' een rinnin' ower we shall see The King in a' His beauty in oor ain countrie. Like a bairn to its mither, a wee birdie to its nest, I wad fain be agangin' noo unto my Saviour's breast; For He gathers in His bosom witless, worthless lambs like me, An' carries them Himself to ...
— The First Soprano • Mary Hitchcock
... Gae til land is, Go ashore. Tak place is, Take place, or sit down. If you talk of bathing, they will advise you to dook oonder; and should a mother present her baby to you she will call it her smook barn, her pretty bairn or child, smook being the Norse word for pretty. And it is a curious fact, worthy of particular note, that all the mothers in Norway think their bairns smook, very smook! and they never hesitate ...
— Chasing the Sun • R.M. Ballantyne
... in a woeful way," mourned Janet. "To think of your father's only bairn leaving her ain house so! The master's half daft with his troubles, for they've scattered and lost the bit ...
— A Fascinating Traitor • Richard Henry Savage
... soon stopped crying, and allowed me to take him up and carry him; and the mechanic and I trudged away along Princes Street to find his parents. I was soon so tired that I had to ask the mechanic to carry the bairn; and you should have seen the puzzled contempt with which he looked at me, for knocking in so soon. He was a good fellow, however, although very impracticable and sentimental; and he soon bethought him that Master Murphy might ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 23 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... pebble on the cairn Of him, though dead, undying; Sweet Nature's nursling, bonniest bairn Beneath her daisies lying. ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... child should be given up. He muttered something, indeed, about impotent nonsense, which seemed to imply that the threat could be of no avail; but there was none of that reassurance to be obtained from him which a positive promise on his part to hold the bairn against all comers would have given. Mrs. Outhouse told her niece more than once that the child would be given to no messenger whatever; but even she did not give the assurance with that energy which the mother would have liked. "They shall drag him away from me by force ...
— He Knew He Was Right • Anthony Trollope
... America already into the clan, dear bairn," smiled Mrs. Cameron. "No other visitor keeps us ...
— The Jolliest School of All • Angela Brazil
... the first seat of the new government, a Scotch maid-servant of the family, catching the popular enthusiasm, one day followed the hero into a shop and presented the lad to him. "Please, your honor," said Lizzie, all aglow, "here's a bairn was named after you." And the grave Virginian placed his hand on the boy's head and gave him his blessing. The touch could not have been more efficacious, though it might have lingered longer, if he had known he was ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... did; he never could be easy a minute without her. It was a sore day for my poor bairn, when it pleased God to take her father; poor man! But He knows best, Bridget, and ...
— Lewie - Or, The Bended Twig • Cousin Cicely
... his parents before him," said Janet Mackay. "They used to live around the corner from me in Aberdeen. I can remember Charlie as a bairn, and even then he was always into mischief. He's no ...
— The Monk of Hambleton • Armstrong Livingston
... knees. "And O my lass," he cried, "you must forgive me, too! Not your husband—I have only been the ruin of your life. But you knew me when I was a lad; there was no harm in Henry Durie then; he meant aye to be a friend to you. It's him—it's the old bairn that played with you—O, can ye never, never ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. XII (of 25) - The Master of Ballantrae • Robert Louis Stevenson
... whose bairn it is, Captain, or thaa'd never trouble to go in after it. It's his whose dog welly worried thee and me ...
— Lancashire Idylls (1898) • Marshall Mather
... Our bonnie bairn's there, John, She was baith gude and fair, John, And we grudged her sair, John, To ...
— Rab and His Friends • John Brown, M. D.
... the evil eye. U Could turn thersels into a hare. V Could turn thersels into a cat. W Had a familiar. X Could cripple a quickening bairn. Y Well up in all matters of the black art. Z Did use ...
— The Evolution Of An English Town • Gordon Home
... me if ane wadnae think, to hear ye, this was the first bairn that e'er was born! 'What'sa' the fraize aboot, ye gowks?" (to his daughters)—"a whingin get! that'll tak mail' oot o' fowk's pockets than e'er it'll pit into them! Mony a guid profitable beast's been brought into the warld and ne'er a word ...
— Marriage • Susan Edmonstone Ferrier
... pedestrian. The loungers at Brim's tavern flock to the door, and gaze earnestly at him; while Bridget the house-maid, and Dennis the hostler, hold a short confab on the back stairs, each equally wondering whose "bairn" ...
— Town and Country, or, Life at Home and Abroad • John S. Adams
... then," he said soothingly. "Tak' thy leg oot o' the boocket, my bairn;" and to the astonishment of all present the cow lifted her leg and set it down ...
— Cutlass and Cudgel • George Manville Fenn
... because when she did know the truth there would be something about it which would humiliate her. She cast down her eyes and stared at the floor so that none might see how close she was to tears. She was a silly weak thing that would always feel like a bairn on its first day at school; she was being tormented by Mr. Philip. Even the very facts of life had been ...
— The Judge • Rebecca West
... travellers, travellers indeed! Give me my bonny Scot, that travels from the Tweed. Where are the chiels? Ah! Ah, I well discern The smiling looks of each bewitching bairn. 40 ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith • Oliver Goldsmith
... bairn's grave by the sea! O Keith o' Craigentolly, The graves of maidens three! And a bluidy shift, And a sainless ...
— New Collected Rhymes • Andrew Lang
... sergeant exclaimed; "you will be coming and telling me next that you are going to marry a princess of the blood. Did one ever hear of such things! However, Hector, lad, I congratulate you with all my heart, and I am as glad as if it had been a bairn of my own that had had your good fortune. Now, in what can I help you about the four men? What sort of men ...
— Won by the Sword - A Story of the Thirty Years' War • G.A. Henty
... any notion that he will be the more or the less likely to do so when he learns that there's a French gentleman of your make in the country-side, and a friend of Doom's, too, which means a Jacobite? A daft errand, if I may say it; seeking a needle in a haystack was bairn's play compared to it." ...
— Doom Castle • Neil Munro
... difficult to realise that earlier Edinburgh, where, we learned from old parochial records of 1605, Margaret Sinclair was cited by the Session of the Kirk for being at the 'Burne' for water on the Sabbath; that Janet Merling was ordered to make public repentance for concealing a bairn unbaptized in her house for the space of twenty weeks and calling said bairn Janet; that Pat Richardson had to crave mercy for being found in his boat in time of afternoon service; and that Janet Walker, accused ...
— Penelope's Experiences in Scotland • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... wind to the bairn when gaun for its name, Gentle rain to the corpse carried to its lang hame, A bonny blue sky to welcome the bride, As she gangs to the kirk, wi' the sun ...
— Folk Lore - Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century • James Napier
... Saxons. And these beliefs died so hard in these lonely Yorkshire villages that until recent times a mother would carry her child suffering from whooping-cough along the beach to the mouth of the cave. There she would call in a loud voice, 'Hob-hole Hob! my bairn's gotten t'kink cough. Tak't off, tak't off.' One can see the child's parents gazing fearfully into the black depths of the cavern, penetrating the cliff for 70 feet, and finally turning back to the village in the full belief that the ...
— Yorkshire—Coast & Moorland Scenes • Gordon Home
... of Anak hath appaired amang us,' said Ferguson, turning his face, all scarred and reddened with the king's evil, in my direction. 'A Goliath o' Gath, wha hath a stroke like untae a weaver's beam. Hath he no the smooth face o' a bairn and ...
— Micah Clarke - His Statement as made to his three Grandchildren Joseph, - Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 • Arthur Conan Doyle
... born on fair Sunday Is bonny and loving, and blithe and gay. Monday's bairn is fair in the face, Tuesday's bairn is full of grace, Wednesday's bairn is loving and giving, Thursday's bairn works hard for a living, Friday's bairn is a child of woe, Saturday's bairn has far ...
— Current Superstitions - Collected from the Oral Tradition of English Speaking Folk • Various
... force it was in vain to strive against, and I rose up and gaed out into the passage amang them. The auld man was shakin' like an aspen leaf; the gudewife had her apron ower her face and was greeting like a bairn, and in the door stood Tarn Farquharson, a railway-porter frae the station. I saw it aa' quicker nor I can tell it to you, leddy. I steppit up to Tarn and ...
— Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places • Archibald Forbes
... aye leal and true, Jean, Your task's ended noo, Jean, And I'll welcome you To the land o' the leal. Our bonnie bairn's there, Jean, She was baith guid and fair, Jean; O we grudged her right sair To ...
— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various
... must, but I know how it will be—you'll come back tired out, fit to drop, and Miss Val and Miss Primrose won't have a rag fit to be seen on them. But if it's your will, what must be must, for you're no better than a bairn yourself, general's lady though you ...
— The Two Sides of the Shield • Charlotte M. Yonge
... less of a bride than a bairn, She's ta'en like a colt from the heather, With sense and discretion ...
— Heartsease - or Brother's Wife • Charlotte M. Yonge
... you know, you're peevish. Here, Fraser, give him your hanger. Do you second the bairn, Donald? Come, Patrick, I'll have you. There's one for you and one for me, my man, and ...
— The Highwayman • H.C. Bailey
... very well like the look o' the bairn," she said, surveying him carefully. "It strikes me you won't find it an easy matter to get him dressed. Here, Duncan, are you ready for something to eat now?" she cried, bending over him, ...
— Little Folks (October 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various
... answer and after waiting a few minutes I knocked again. A boy of my own age opened the door. An old woman came towards me and asked what I wanted. I am cold, I said, and, please, might I warm myself? She was deaf and did not catch what I said. 'Whose bairn are you?' she asked me. Mary Askew's, I replied, I noticed the younger woman who had the child in her lap fixed her gaze on me. Where are you from? grannie asked. From Glasgow and I am so cold. Laying down the child in the cradle, the younger woman came to me and sitting on a stool took ...
— The Narrative of Gordon Sellar Who Emigrated to Canada in 1825 • Gordon Sellar
... yes!Ye're very gudeye're very gude!Nae doubt, nae doubt!It's our duty to submit!But, oh dear! my poor Steenie! the pride o' my very heart, that was sae handsome and comely, and a help to his family, and a comfort to us a', and a pleasure to a' that lookit on him!Oh, my bairn! my bairn! my bairn! what for is thou lying there!and eh! what for am I left ...
— The Antiquary, Complete • Sir Walter Scott
... man said, in his slow northern fashion. "It's a good thing ye're not lost away from your natural home, which I'd be sorry to think of happening to any bairn. It's a goodish bit out of my road, but I'd like to carry the poor bairnies back to ...
— Little Folks (Septemeber 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various
... the kitchen, And word's gane to the ha', That Marie Hamilton has born a bairn To the ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various
... low, vulgar fellow for presuming to address a lady. She worked herself into a fury, and said far worse than that; a perfect guller of clarty language came pouring out of her. He had heard women curse many a time without turning a hair, but he felt wae when she did it, for she just spoke it like a bairn that had been in ...
— Sentimental Tommy - The Story of His Boyhood • J. M. Barrie
... and Polly, with the gentlemen of the party, embarked on board the Stella, which was to convey them to Oban. The men waved their bonnets, and uttered a prayer in Gaelic that the laird and his good wife and the "bairn" might be brought back to them ...
— The Three Commanders • W.H.G. Kingston
... was its father, for Groa was no man's wife. It was women's talk that Asmund the Priest was the father of this child also; but when he heard it he was angry, and said that no witchwoman should bear a bairn of his, howsoever fair she was. Nevertheless, it was still said that the child was his, and it is certain that he loved it as a man loves his own; but of all things, this is the hardest to know. When Groa was questioned she laughed darkly, as was her fashion, ...
— Eric Brighteyes • H. Rider Haggard
... a wad of cotton into my mouth after soaking it in some brown astringent stuff, and told me to be sure to keep my mouth shut and all would soon be well. Mother put me to bed, calmed my fears, and told me to lie still and sleep like a gude bairn. But just as I was dropping off to sleep I swallowed the bulky wad of medicated cotton and with it, as I imagined, my tongue also. My screams over so great a loss brought mother, darkest corners of the house, and oftentimes a long search was required to find me. But after we were ...
— The Story of My Boyhood and Youth • John Muir
... fuel!) Inventions? Ye must stay in port to mak' a patent pay. My Deeferential Valve-Gear taught me how that business lay, I blame no chaps wi' clearer head for aught they make or sell. I found that I could not invent an' look to these—as well. So, wrestled wi' Apollyon—Nah!—fretted like a bairn— But burned the workin'-plans last run wi' all I hoped to earn. Ye know how hard an Idol dies, an' what that meant to me— E'en tak' it for a sacrifice acceptable to Thee.... Below there! Oiler! What's your wark? Ye find her ...
— The Seven Seas • Rudyard Kipling
... work?" He said, "To man I can be answerable; and for God, I will take him in my own hand." Claverhouse mounted his horse, and marched, and left her with the corpse of her dead husband lying there; she set the bairn on the ground, and gathered his brains, and tied up his head, and straighted his body, and covered him in her plaid, and sat down, and wept over him. It being a very desart place, where never victual grew, and far from ...
— Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. II (of 3) • Walter Scott
... be shocked, but the thought of any one trying to rule you, Kit, tickles me immensely. I have had the reins since you were a bairn, and you have been a handful. You were a 'smatchit' at six years old, and a 'trimmie' at twelve, and you are qualifying for the ...
— Kate Carnegie and Those Ministers • Ian Maclaren
... worthless sons-in-law the noo, are here an' anither a stage-driver. Aye, they 're capital husbands for Donald McLeod's lassies, are they no? Afore I let Esther marry the first scamp that comes simperin' aroond here, I'll put her in a convent, an' mak' a nun o' the bairn. I gave the ither lassies their way, an' look at the reward. I tell ye I'm goin' to bar the door on the last one, an' the man that marries her will be worthy o' her. He winna be a vaquero ...
— A Texas Matchmaker • Andy Adams |
