"Mum" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... I be workin' for the likes of a child like that? No, mum, I ain't no nurse; I'm a cook, and I want a mistress as has got past ...
— Patty at Home • Carolyn Wells
... on his pony, as sure as anything! You knew he was coming along all the while, and just kept mum. But I'm sure glad to see the old cowman right now. And it may turn out to be a day of reckoning for that cunning Sallie, ...
— The Saddle Boys in the Grand Canyon - or The Hermit of the Cave • James Carson
... on the right, there was a general waving of hands, and whispering and tittering; but the eight small beginners held their mouths shut tight and not a sound came from them. Glory Goldie was as mum ...
— The Emperor of Portugalia • Selma Lagerlof
... to men and women, have an affection for their parents somewhat childish. A young Gipsey man known to the author, when his mother stays longer from the camp than usual, expresses his anxiety for her return, by saying—Where is my mum? I wish my mum would ...
— The Gipsies' Advocate - or, Observations on the Origin, Character, Manners, and Habits of - The English Gipsies • James Crabb
... try to rouse him up a bit, and I think he likes having me with him, but still he's as gloomy and as dull as can be. 'T was only yesterday he took me to the works, and you'd ha' thought us two Quakers as the spirit hadn't moved, all the way down we were so mum. It's a place to craze a man, certainly; such a noisy black hole! There were one or two things worth looking at, the bellows for instance, or the gale they called a bellows. I could ha' stood near it a whole day; and if ...
— Mary Barton • Elizabeth Gaskell
... years of wandering from Wallis Island to the Bonins; and wherever I go that infernal story follows me up. Well, I'll risk it anyhow, and the first chance that comes along I'll cut Kanaka life and drinking ship's rum and go see old dad and mum to home. Here, Tikena, you Tokelau devil, bring ...
— The Ebbing Of The Tide - South Sea Stories - 1896 • Louis Becke
... no more reference between us to this money, and that we shall go on being good friends as before. Leave it to me to make arrangements to acquit myself honourably of my obligations towards you. I need say no more; till a year's up, mum's the word." ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... I said she wasn't, but she explained, while I sat there rather mum, that there was really another girl, and that the other girl's name was really Jerusha Brown. She was the daughter of the postmaster in the village where Miss Shirley was passing the summer. In fact, Miss Shirley was boarding in the ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells
... an' the water tank's near empty, so I'll wish ye good-morning, anyhow, mum!' And this valiant ...
— The Record of Nicholas Freydon - An Autobiography • A. J. (Alec John) Dawson
... mo wordes but mum My think I heare mast welth cum Knele downe and say sum deuout orison That they may heare vs pray Now Iesu ...
— The Interlude of Wealth and Health • Anonymous
... much better than the way Miss Grace 'ad it, Mum. In their jackets, Mum, very well. Certainly. That ...
— The Captives • Hugh Walpole
... said Clancy, "didn't I tell you I'd help you find your father if you'd keep mum about ...
— Owen Clancy's Happy Trail - or, The Motor Wizard in California • Burt L. Standish
... very seriously. "You see, child, he had never seen any women but the washed out, pale things they all are in the north, and a slender, brown, youthful thing like me warmed his heart.—But, mum; you ...
— Poor Relations • Honore de Balzac
... we here Tom Tumbler, or else some dancing bear? Body of me, it were best go no near: For ought that I see, it is my godfather Lucifer, Whose prentice I have been this many a day: But no more words but mum: you shall hear what ...
— The Growth of English Drama • Arnold Wynne
... he stammered, breathlessly, his eyes bulging from his head,—"Oh! it's awful, mum! Don't know how many's drownded! Everybody's shovelin' on de railroad dump, but dere ain't nothin' kin save it, ...
— Peter - A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero • F. Hopkinson Smith
... please, mum," said a servant, entering, "the back yard is that full of water that our kitchen will be flooded ...
— Leslie Ross: - or, Fond of a Lark • Charles Bruce
... Dolores. 'Oh, there's Uncle William!' as on the top of the stairs she spied the welcome sight of his grey locks and burly figure. Before he had descended, her other uncle had vanished, and she fancied she had heard something about, 'Mum about our meeting. ...
— The Two Sides of the Shield • Charlotte M. Yonge
... no mums, Mr. Wheeler. Between you and me, my best hunter has been ruinationed; and I can't afford to be mum. So you'll take no offence if I speak; and as you'll set off to-morrow, as soon as the Montem's over, you'll be pleased to settle with me some way or other to-day, as we've no ...
— The Parent's Assistant • Maria Edgeworth
... when free speech was the life-breath of freedom— So thought once the Seldens, the Hampdens, the Lockes; But mute be our troops, when to ambush we lead 'em, "For Mum" is the word with ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al
... have this Business concluded, that I have employ'd my Womans Brother, who is a Lawyer in the Temple, to settle Matters just to your Liking, you are to give your Consent to my Marriage, which is to your self, you know: But Mum, you must take up notice of that. So then I will, that is, with your Leave, put my Writings into his Hands; then to Morrow we come slap upon them with a Wedding, that no body thought on; by which you seize me ...
— The Busie Body • Susanna Centlivre
... replied Racey, rather intoxicated by his success, and now drawing wildly on his imagination, "yes, mum, I should think you was becustomed to walls that was made of gold all over, and—and—" hesitating how to make his sarcasm biting enough, "and floors made of ...
— The Boys and I • Mrs. Molesworth
... Believer lifts his eyes Devoutly and his prayer applies; But next to Solyman the Great Reveres the idiot's sacred state. Small wonder then, our worthy mute Was held in popular repute. Had he been blind as well as mum, Been lame as well as blind and dumb, No bard that ever sang or soared Could say how he had been adored. More meagerly endowed, he drew An homage less prodigious. True, No soul his praises but did utter— All plied him with devotion's ...
— Shapes of Clay • Ambrose Bierce
... common sense, "I don't see why it's a bit more unladylike than the ladies' colloquy at the lyceum was last evening. There were more people present than are here tonight; and as for the men, they are perfectly mum. There seems to be plenty of opportunity for somebody." "Well," said Satan, "it isn't customary at least, and people will think strangely of you. Doubtless it would do ...
— Ester Ried • Pansy (aka. Isabella M. Alden)
... how to begin, Miss Dorothy. I—I'm so flabbergasted by all that's happened this afternoon, mum, that I can't get my thoughts ...
— The Bicyclers and Three Other Farces • John Kendrick Bangs
... of British army life, did I hear a discussion of mothers. When the weekly parcels from England arrived and the boys were sharing their cake and chocolate and tobacco, one of them would say, "Good old mum. She ain't a bad sort"; to be answered with reluctant, mouth-filled grunts, or grudging nods of approval. As for fathers, I often thought to myself, "What a tremendous army of posthumous sons!" Months before I would have been astonished at this reticence. But I had learned to understand Tommy. ...
— Kitchener's Mob - Adventures of an American in the British Army • James Norman Hall
... likes it best pure naked. I'd be thankful to 'ee, mum, if ye wouldn't call me Mr. Maine; it don't ...
— North, South and Over the Sea • M.E. Francis (Mrs. Francis Blundell)
... THYROID CARTILAGE is the largest of the five, and forms the prominence in the front of the neck, called Po'mum A-da'mi, (Adam's apple.) It is composed of two parts, and is connected with the bone of the tongue above, and with ...
— A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) • Calvin Cutter
... see, gents! I see; mum—mum's the word, for the present! But, I must say, if there is any one whom I want to hear of it, sooner than ...
— Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 1. • Samuel Warren
... did, dear boy,—once was sufficient," said Mr. Montmorency, lightly. "But," he continued, dropping his bantering tone, "are these questions pertinent?—has this to do with this new profession of yours, dear boy? If so—mum's the ...
— Scarhaven Keep • J. S. Fletcher
... consciousness of warmth which had brought with it realisation of the fact that previously she had been feeling terribly cold. Then voices again—notably Maria's this time: "She'll do now, Mrs. Hilyard, mum. 'Tis ...
— The Vision of Desire • Margaret Pedler
... at her sewing, some one knocked at the door, and who should come in, but the fat cook, with a great goose, fatter than she was; who cried out: 'Only see what a big goost, mum; and only you and Miss Edith to eat it; besides a beef-steak to brile, and peas ...
— The Little Nightcap Letters. • Frances Elizabeth Barrow
... took the place of their favourite word as a term of contempt, and they shouted it at each other on all sides; bus-drivers, cabbies and paper sellers using it in and out of season with the keenest relish. For the moment the upper classes lay mum-chance and let the storm blow over. Some of them of course agreed with the condemnation of the Puritans, and many of them felt that Oscar and his associates had been too bold, and ought ...
— Oscar Wilde, Volume 1 (of 2) - His Life and Confessions • Frank Harris
... and no one can gossip beyond the walls of the ship. Besides Kettle is far too staunch to talk. He's the sort of man who can be as mum as the grave when he chooses. But if you persist in refusing to trust him, well, I tell you that the thought of what he may be up ...
— A Master of Fortune • Cutcliffe Hyne
... this purpose at Amblemere. 'Ay, Miss Millikin, mum, he cooms ahn boord reglar, does that wee dug,' said the old boatman, 'and a' makes himsel' rare an' frien'ly, a' do—they coddle him oop fine, amang 'em. Eh, but he's a smart little dug, we quite look for him of a morning coomin' for his constitutionil, ...
— The Talking Horse - And Other Tales • F. Anstey
... "I'll be mum from now on," said his chum with a slight smile. "But now I guess we may as well get what things ...
— The Boy Allies Under the Sea • Robert L. Drake
... prove it, mum," rejoined the Irishman. Then, turning to a laborer at hand, he added, ...
— Best Short Stories • Various
... please, mum," said Martha, interrupting her excitedly, "we won't talk about a place—it is utterly useless, and I might be forgettin' myself; but I never thought," she continued, brushing away a hasty tear, "as it was Master Guy, meaning my lord, as would send ...
— The Cryptogram - A Novel • James De Mille
... to speak, to interrupt, to contradict, to argue. Thy silence betokened indifference. I had rather that thou hadst flown into a temper and bidden me begone than sat mum all the while." Windybank jumped up from the garden seat and began to pace to and fro, to the peril ...
— Sea-Dogs All! - A Tale of Forest and Sea • Tom Bevan
... them, vous comprenez? They were discussing atheism and I need hardly say they made short work of God. They were squealing with delight. By the way, Shatov declares that if there's to be a rising in Russia we must begin with atheism. Maybe it's true. One grizzled old stager of a captain sat mum, not saying a word. All at once he stands up in the middle of the' room and says aloud, as though speaking to himself: 'If there's no God, how can I be a captain then?' He took up His cap and went out, ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... hair standing upright on his head, so that he looked as if he had just been all but choked, and had that moment come to, "I have brought you as the compliments of the season—I have brought you, Mum, a bottle of sherry wine—and I have brought you, Mum, a ...
— Great Expectations • Charles Dickens
... seemed not to be aware that anything more was required and his brow darkened. "If it was me," he thought, "how eager I would be to explain what was taking me away from her, but she is mum!" ...
— The Deaves Affair • Hulbert Footner
... too—say several million of them. You remember the quarry I made believe I was looking at? Well, I'm going to buy it. I'm going to buy these hills, too, clear from here around to Berkeley and down the other way to San Leandro. I own a lot of them already, for that matter. But mum is the word. I'll be buying a long time to come before anything much is guessed about it, and I don't want the market to jump up out of sight. You see that hill over there. It's my hill running clear down its slopes through ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London
... Col. Jack. "You're perfectly welcome here, madam, but we can't allow you to pay. Set right down there, mum, and don't you be the least uneasy. Make yourself just as free as if you was ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... them for granted. [Footnote: They have their uses, to be sure. Says Kircher: Cunices lectularii potens remedium contra quartanum est, si ab inscio aegro cum vehiculo congrua potentur; mulierum morbis medentur et uterum prolapsum solo odore in mum locum restituunt.] Let him note that most of the inns of this region are quite uninhabitable, for this and other reasons, unless he takes the most elaborate ...
— Old Calabria • Norman Douglas
... were defending the principles of the British constitution, bearding its enemies, and administering to them the knout, the Quarterly Review was meek and mum as a mouse. ...
— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott
... well comprehend the husband's caution, with the necessity of compliance; and the two retire to rest, in the midst of their black olive branches, with a mutual promise to be "mum." ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid
... Thou little lambkin dumb, Boni, bonae, boni, For those sweet chops I sigh, Bono, bonae, bono, Have pity on my woe, Bonum, bonam, bonum, Thou speak'st though thou art mum, Bone, bona, bonum, "O come and eat me, come," Bono, bonae, bono, The butcher lays thee low, Boni, bonae, bona, Those chops are a picture,— ah! Bonorum, bonarum, bonorum, To put lots of Tomata sauce o'er 'em Bonis— Don't, miss, Bonos, bonas, bona, Thou art sweeter than ...
— The Comic Latin Grammar - A new and facetious introduction to the Latin tongue • Percival Leigh
... job of findin' him, mum," said that individual. "Well, sir, there's no one else I could make inquiries of, ...
— A Little Bush Maid • Mary Grant Bruce
... at the office just as another assistant was bringing in Walt Baxter. The two exchanged glances, but said nothing. But the glance given Walt meant, "Keep mum," and the ...
— The Rover Boys on Snowshoe Island - or, The Old Lumberman's Treasure Box • Edward Stratemeyer
... exclaimed Bud expansively. "If it was any safer you'd hav ter send fer ther perlice. Jes becos we're rough and ain't got on full evenin' dress you musn't think we're dangerous, mum," he went on more gravely. "I'll warrant you'll fin' better fellers right here on ther alkali than on Fit' ...
— The Girl Aviators on Golden Wings • Margaret Burnham
... mum,' she said, seeing Phoebe at the parlour window—'and I doan't think this has owt to do here.' She held up a telegram, doubtfully—yet with an evident curiosity and excitement in her look. It was addressed to 'Mrs. John Fenwick.' The postman had clearly ...
— Fenwick's Career • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... I've a mind to sell him to you on your own terms." He paused a moment, looking thoughtfully at a crack in the floor, as he stood by the fire with his hands in his pockets. "Yes," he said, at last, "you can have him for four dollars, if you'll keep mum about us being here for one more day. You can leave the ...
— Two Little Knights of Kentucky • Annie Fellows Johnston
... It's nothing serious, you may be sure of that, or your uncle would have sent for you at once. And, remember, mum's ...
— A Dixie School Girl • Gabrielle E. Jackson
... her own tent—make him lie down on her own sacred cot, and set my niece to bathing his head with cologne and her maid to fanning him, while she herself prepared an iced sherry cobbler for his reverence! Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Mrs. Condiment, mum!" said Old Hurricane, suddenly stopping before the poor ...
— Capitola the Madcap • Emma D. E. N. Southworth
... advice. He pooh-poohed the doctor's statements, but said that he would bring the matter to the attention of the superintendent and let me know the result. I agreed to this, and we parted with the mutual understanding that mum was the word till some official decision had been arrived at. I had not long to wait. At an early day he came in with the information that there had been, as might be expected, a division of opinion among his superiors as to the importance of Dr. Zabriskie's ...
— The Golden Slipper • Anna Katharine Green
... did you see what he did, mum? Walked straight into my clean kitchen, without even wiping his boots, the—" And before my mother could stop her, Janet had relieved her feelings by calling him it—or rather them—again, without any idea that ...
— Paul Kelver • Jerome Klapka, AKA Jerome K. Jerome
... oficios,"—and the black machine moves on, without look, word, or sign of intelligence. In New York, your Irish coachman grins approval of your order; and even an English flunkey may touch his hat and say, "Yes, Mum." But in the Cuban negro of service, dumbness is the complement of darkness;—you speak, and the patient right hand pulls the strap that leads the off horse, while the other gathers up the reins of the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 20, June, 1859 • Various
... minister," retorted Antoine; "it will be a hot day when that happens, and the hens will have teeth; he is too—but mum! When I think that I carry salaries to those humbugs who stay away and do as they please, while that poor little La Roche works himself to death, I ask myself if God ever thinks of the civil service. And what do they give you, these pets of Monsieur le marechal and Monsieur le duc? ...
— Bureaucracy • Honore de Balzac
... because I'm sailing but remember the Atlantic Ocean isn't a one way street. Just chalk that up on the wall, and speaking about oceans don't forget about the water by the woodshed and do what I told you. So now good-bye dear old Mum and don't worry, and I won't go near Paris like you said. Hicksville is good enough ...
— Roy Blakeley in the Haunted Camp • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... "Well, mum," said Buffle, with a delighted but sheepish look, which would have become a missionary complimented on the number of converts he had made, "I hev been around a good deal, that's a fact. I reckon I've staked a claim purty much ev'rywhar ...
— Romance of California Life • John Habberton
... "Yes, mum," Florrie whispered. She seemed to be incapable of speaking beyond a whisper. But the whisper was delicate and agreeable; and perhaps it was a mysterious sign of her alleged unusual ...
— Hilda Lessways • Arnold Bennett
... where I come from, where I'm known a bit, at Longueville in Tunis. You'll remember that? And anyway, it's written down. You must read it, the pocket-book. I shan't blab to anybody. To bring the trick off properly, mum's ...
— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse
... notice of us, as he saw us at the window. The show being ended, Mr. Young did give us a dinner, at which we were very merry, and pleased above imagination at what we have seen. Sir W. Batten going home, he and I called and drunk some mum ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... "Please, mum, I'se Ophelia. I'se de washerwoman's little girl, an' mama, she sent me to say, would you please to len' her a dime. She got ...
— Jokes For All Occasions - Selected and Edited by One of America's Foremost Public Speakers • Anonymous
... visitors to the gardens were many ladies, who often asked the gardener the name of a plant that was strange to them. As no doubt he considered it infra dig. to say he did not know, and being an Irishman, he was never at a loss when asked, "What do you call this plant?" he would reply, "Oh, that, mum, is the Hibertia Canadensus, mum!" and a further inquiry would be answered in a similar manner—"That, mum, is the Catanansus Rulia, mum!" and again the lady would thank him and walk on apparently quite pleased and happy, probably forgetting the name of the ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor
... uneasy, mum," said Bob, touching his cap. He saw at once that Mrs. Glegg was a bit of game worth running down, and longed to be at the sport; "we'll stay out upo' the gravel here,—Mumps and me will. Mumps knows his company,—he does. I might hish at him by th' hour ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot
... rat would only dare to face him. But while the cock is crowing still, and the pullet world admiring him, who comes up but the old turkey-cock, with all his family round him. Then the geese at the lower end begin to thrust their breasts out, and mum their down-bits, and look at the gander and scream shrill joy for the conflict; while the ducks in pond show nothing but tail, in ...
— Lorna Doone - A Romance of Exmoor • R. D. Blackmore
... "Mum!" said Peter. "I forgot; but don't it look as if the river was boiling hot and the steam rising, and the fire that hots it was shining up through the cloud? I say, nobody could hear me ...
— Trapped by Malays - A Tale of Bayonet and Kris • George Manville Fenn
... course, you understand, this is all between us! I'm not giving away any of the office secrets to be used against the big fellows. But I'm willing to show that I'm a friend of yours. And I know you'll be a friend of mine, and keep mum. All is, you can get wise from what I tell you and can keep your ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day
... sonny, why didn't you tell your uncle? Why didn't you put me wise? I could have given you the right steer. Have you ever known me handle a job I couldn't make good at? I'm a whole matrimonial bureau rolled into one. I'd have had you prancing to the tune of the wedding march before now. But you kept mum as a mummy. Wouldn't even tell your old pard. ...
— The Trail of '98 - A Northland Romance • Robert W. Service
... weave in, He makes it quite clear what he doesn't believe in, 791 While some, who decry him, think all Kingdom Come Is a sort of a, kind of a, species of Hum, Of which, as it were, so to speak, not a crumb Would be left, if we didn't keep carefully mum, And, to make a clean breast, that 'tis perfectly plain That all kinds of wisdom are somewhat profane; Now P.'s creed than this may be lighter or darker, But in one thing, 'tis clear, he has faith, namely—Parker; And this is what makes him the ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell
... he answered, with a smile; "it sounds to me like 'The first news is um mum, and the second news is mum um mum, and the third news ...
— Elsie at Nantucket • Martha Finley
... to write about the Americans[861]. If you have picked up any hints among your lawyers, who are great masters of the law of nations, or if your own mind suggests any thing, let me know. But mum, ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill
... came across our washerwoman and asked her how she and her husband got on together. He used to be a drunkard, and used her cruelly, but two years ago he took the pledge, and, what is more, he kept it. "Lor', mum," she exclaimed fervently, "we draws nearer every day!" I am afraid not many husbands and ...
— Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Girl - Sister of that "Idle Fellow." • Jenny Wren
... you are an actress when he hears that. Mum is the word, may you never have stage fright and never miss a cue—Here he ...
— The Voice on the Wire • Eustace Hale Ball
... knocking at his poor old breast With his great round stone to subdue the flesh, You snap me of the sudden. Ah, I see! Though your eye twinkles still, you shake your head— Mine's shaved—a monk, you say—the sting's in that! If Master Cosimo announced himself, Mum's the word naturally; but a monk! Come, what am I a beast for? tell us, now! {80} I was a baby when my mother died And father died and left me in the street. I starved there, God knows how, a year ...
— Introduction to Robert Browning • Hiram Corson
... had been left behind them somewhere on the bridge, but the chill was not gone from the air, and George felt greatly relieved when Sweetwater paused in the middle of a long block before a lofty tenement house of mean appearance, and signified that here they were to stop, and that from now on, mum was to be ...
— Initials Only • Anna Katharine Green
... left a bit more money. Didn't he tell you? No? And he's going to buy that big tract to the north-west of us. Mum's the word, but—between ...
— Bunch Grass - A Chronicle of Life on a Cattle Ranch • Horace Annesley Vachell
... Spider, when he communicated the secret to him, "mum's the word. If you mentions it, the kernel's family will bu'st up. I will return to the streets from vich I came. Trumps, alias Rodgers, to the den hout of vich 'e was 'auled. Susan will take the wail and retire to a loonatic asylum, an' Da-a-a-vid Laidlaw will ...
— The Garret and the Garden • R.M. Ballantyne
... with you every where! Nor play with costarmongers, at mum-chance, tray-trip, God make you rich; (when as your aunt has done it); But keep The gallant'st company, ...
— The Alchemist • Ben Jonson
... sailors', with the school colours. There is a blue house, and a pink, and a green, and a yellow, and a red; that's the way they arrange in all big schools, and I only hope and pray it won't be my fate to be yellow, or what an image I'll look! Other things being equal, Mum dear, kindly say you think the blue house would be best for my health and morals. I want to live in, you understand, not out— that's one point ...
— Tom and Some Other Girls - A Public School Story • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... half-tumbler of the whiskey, and took a sip of water and cleared his throat. "No, I kept mum, Dick. I said I would, and I did. It wasn't anything to me, nohow. I ain't no gossiper. That was your game, and I saw no reason to spoil it. Shucks! you needn't worry; you are deader back there than a door-nail. Where is that ...
— Dixie Hart • Will N. Harben
... had forgotten me, and that they remembered at about the same instant that they were talking before a detective. They both turned, mum and startled looking, Edwards to his window, Vandeman to a nervous brushing of his trouser edges, from which he ...
— The Million-Dollar Suitcase • Alice MacGowan
... certain room, I contend we had a right to expect that that fire should be kept in. It was not so, however, and when the lady inquired, 'Why did you not look to it, as I told you?' the girl replied, 'Well, I did, mum; the door was open and I looked at the fire every time I passed.' She appeared to attach some sort of igneous power ...
— Some Private Views • James Payn
... 'Lor, mum,' said the apothecary, 'his brain ain't in working order just at present, and as for his spirit apart from his body, that's an unknown quantity we scientific ...
— A Dozen Ways Of Love • Lily Dougall
... you, 'Squire," said he, "you won't wonder that I know the country so well. Let us push on; it's not more than two miles. I would be very clear of showing you one of my nests, if you were not such a good fellow. But mum's the word, ...
— The Story Of Kennett • Bayard Taylor
... detailed to go, and when I heard this I at once thought of the puppy I wanted so much. I managed to see Burt before he started, and when asked if he could bring the little dog to me he answered so heartily, "That I can, mum," I felt that the battle was half won, for I knew that if I could once get the dog in camp he would take care of him, ...
— Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888 • Frances M.A. Roe
... "Why, mum, what's the matter?" said Ted; "what have we been doing now, or what have we not done, that we don't deserve any supper, after pulling for two hours from Circular Quay, ...
— Amona; The Child; And The Beast; And Others - From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other - Stories" - 1902 • Louis Becke
... Sherm chuckled. "Mum's the word. Hand over the pick and we'll do such an artistic job that the porkers themselves will think they are responsible for the whole business. I don't blame you. ...
— Chicken Little Jane on the Big John • Lily Munsell Ritchie
... delighted as he, but she was more cautious and said less. She once remarked in this connection that she intended to borrow a motto from Steve's coat of arms—"Mum's the Word." ...
— The Gentle Art of Cooking Wives • Elizabeth Strong Worthington
... "But tell us something, mum," urged Jimmie, who loved his mother dearly, and was certain she knew more than anybody else, in part because she had been to college, but chiefly ...
— Little Busybodies - The Life of Crickets, Ants, Bees, Beetles, and Other Busybodies • Jeanette Augustus Marks and Julia Moody
... hard tack after a spell o' sickness, and a ten-hour march? No? P'raps you might like a streak o' mutton arterwards! P'raps you might take a notion for a couple o' chickens or so! No? How's that, Ike? What do you think, pardner? (to me) I ain't over and above cruel, mum. I don't think the Bucktails is over and above dishonest to home, mum. But, gosh hang it, I think I would bag a chicken any day! I say that above ...
— Campaigns of a Non-Combatant, - and His Romaunt Abroad During the War • George Alfred Townsend
... said Ayscough, "you keep this to yourself! Don't say anything to any of our folks if they come in. I don't half believe what that doctor said just now—but I'll make an enquiry or two. Mum's the ...
— The Orange-Yellow Diamond • J. S. Fletcher
... And now, at least, a merry one, Mr. Mum's Eudesheimer, And the church of St. Geryon, Are the two things alone, That deserve to be known, In ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton
... on, 'unless I'm foun' dead, you keep mum 'bout what ye seen to-day. If ye blab a word to anyone, ye'll git me in trouble, an' I'll crush ye as willin' as I'd swat a fly. Me an' Ned is friends ag'in,' says he, ...
— Mary Louise in the Country • L. Frank Baum (AKA Edith Van Dyne)
... of our work among the Indians, and after the meeting one man came to me and shook my hand right royally, as he said, "I've never seen you before, mum, and I reckon I never shall see you again; but we've been mightily holped up by what you've been saying, and I reckon we ought to be doing something for them poor humans." In his poverty, in his need, his heart ...
— The American Missionary — Volume 54, No. 3, July, 1900 • Various
... 'Yes mum, I've cause to remember; by the same token I've been trimming the box. That thing grows whenever ...
— A Red Wallflower • Susan Warner
... trifle, mum," said Beale, very gently and humbly, "to 'elp us along the road? My little chap, 'e's lame like wot you see. It's a 'ard life for the likes ...
— Harding's luck • E. [Edith] Nesbit
... first—she always did—"For my part I wish we could study or read something or other that would give us something to talk about when we meet in sewing society and other places. I'm tired going to sewing society and sitting perfectly mum by the side of my next neighbour, because I don't know what under the sun to say. After we have done up the weather and house cleaning and pickling and canning, and said what a sight of work it is, and asked whether the children took the measles and whooping-cough, and so ...
— Divers Women • Pansy and Mrs. C.M. Livingston
... invitation from him at all. However, since Woggs is there, we must make the best of her. I fancy that she was a year or two younger than Wiggs and of rather inferior education. Witness her low innuendo about the Lady Belvane, and the fact that she called a Countess "Mum." ...
— Once on a Time • A. A. Milne
... impatiently. That was Mrs. Munn's invariable answer. She had been old Dr. Williams' housekeeper for ten years, and had met all questions regarding his private affairs by the vague formula, "I dunno." A close woman was Mrs. Mum, as the village called her; a treasure of a woman, old Dr. Williams had said, when he recommended ...
— Treasure Valley • Marian Keith
... their minds, Mrs. Evan, soon after you'd went (their sore knees, I think, also keepin' them in sight of their doings), and they begged me, Mrs. Evan, wouldn't I mend the stockings, which I would most cheerfully, only takin' the same as not to be your idea, mum. So I says, says I, somebody havin' to be punished, your ma's goin' to do it to take the punishment herself, that is, in lest you do it your own selves instead. So, says I, I'll mend one stocking of each if you do the other, Mrs. Evan, and ...
— People of the Whirlpool • Mabel Osgood Wright
... back to the Mitre a rueful man. He had taken a lodging there with intent to dazzle the town, and not because his means were equal to it; and already the bill weighed upon him. By nature as cheerful a gossip as ever wore a scratch wig and lived to be inquisitive, he sat mum through the evening, and barely listened while the landlord talked big of his guest upstairs, his curricle and fashion, the sums he lost at White's, and ...
— The Castle Inn • Stanley John Weyman
... when he was but nineteen years of age. Macaulay said, "There is scarce an instance in history of so sudden a rise to so dizzy an eminence as Byron reached." In a few years he stood by the side of such men as Scott, Southey and Campbell. Many an orator like "stuttering Jack Curran," or "Orator Mum," as he was once called, has been spurred into eloquence by ...
— How to Succeed - or, Stepping-Stones to Fame and Fortune • Orison Swett Marden
... me, Mrs. Jennifer, mum," Mrs. Dibble had said, "fear that child does not know—so Mr. Thomas hisself says; an' set an' smile he did, an' talked to his lordship as if they'd been friends ever since his first hour. An' the Earl so took aback, Mr. ...
— Little Lord Fauntleroy • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... very slowly. "I guess I ver' foolish," she murmured. She waited, obviously to give him a chance to speak. He was mum. ...
— The Fur Bringers - A Story of the Canadian Northwest • Hulbert Footner
... papa,' cried Biddy. 'I am so glad I thought of him. I was in the kitchen one morning fetching sand for Tweetums's cage and he came in, and cook asked how was his papa, and he said, "Finely better, I thank ye, mum." I think cook said he was a Hirish boy,' Bridget hurried on in her excitement—and when she was excited I am afraid her 'h's' were apt to suffer—Mrs. Vane gasped! 'I am so glad I thought of him. Papa will get better like the potato ...
— The Rectory Children • Mrs Molesworth
... then the servant came into the drawing-room and remarked: "If you please, mum," at Mrs Cotterill, and Mrs Cotterill disappeared, closing the door ...
— The Card, A Story Of Adventure In The Five Towns • Arnold Bennett
... have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word how to know one another: I come to her 5 in white, and cry, 'mum;' she cries 'budget;' and by that we know ...
— The Merry Wives of Windsor - The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] • William Shakespeare
... very uncommon sight to see a clever man sit mum, abashed by the chatter of a cheery shallow-pate, who is happily unconscious of the oppressive triviality of his own conversation. Norburn's eager flow of words froze at the contact of Dick's small-talk, and he was a discontented auditor of ball-room and club gossip. It amazed him that a man ...
— Half a Hero - A Novel • Anthony Hope
... understanding, all heads popped up like so many frisking fish. They darted from bed and commenced in the middle of the chamber, a great pillow-fight amicable and hurtless, but furiously waged, till the approach of a broad footstep sent them scampering back to their couches, mum as mice. Mopsey, well aware of these frisks, tarried till they were blown over, in her own chamber hard by, a dark room, mysterious to the fancy of the children, with spinning wheels, dried gourd-shells ...
— Chanticleer - A Thanksgiving Story of the Peabody Family • Cornelius Mathews
... it isn't fair for all the rest to tell their part and you just sit mum and stare and stare and stare! Honey Doll, I'm ashamed of you!" ...
— Dorothy's Travels • Evelyn Raymond
... "It's mum with me so long as I see you living on the straight," said the captain. "But, by the Lord! if you get off after this, it's another story! So good-night to you—and ...
— The Valley of Fear • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
... the time. You have kept me gossiping the whole afternoon. Must be off. Nobody will be better pleased than I am to hear the good news. But of course I am mum. Not a word will they hear from ...
— The Last Hope • Henry Seton Merriman
... give it away. Mum's the word wit' me. But I'm dahmned if I t'ought ye could roide like that. It's jus' in the breed, that's what it is; ye take to it as natural as ducks—" Mike had a habit of springing half-finished sentences on his friends. "Yer father could roide ...
— Thoroughbreds • W. A. Fraser
... little Mum! here they are with lots of goodies! Come down and see the fun right away! Quick!" bawled Will and Geordie amidst a general ripping off of papers and a reckless cutting of strings that soon turned the tidy room ...
— Eight Cousins • Louisa M. Alcott
... mum," said the thoughtless Mr. Legge. "Gave 'im a passage on the ship and fairly spoilt 'im. We was all surprised at the fuss 'e made of 'im; wasn't ...
— Light Freights • W. W. Jacobs
... mum," said the man, before drinking; "and may you find such another as yourself to help you when you're in trouble, which Lord send may ...
— An Unsocial Socialist • George Bernard Shaw
... and darn the stockings, and make tea. You come home tired, and likely enough, surly, and gloom about like a thundercloud if dinner isn't ready for you the instant you are ready for it, and then sit mum and eat it; and snap at the children, and show yourselves the selfish, ugly things you are. Am I to have no fun, never go to the opera, never go to a ball, never have a party at home? Men are tyrants, Mr. Potiphar. They are ogres who entice us poor girls into their castles, ...
— The Potiphar Papers • George William Curtis
... Oh, time enough for that. I've a little account with you in horses, I know; but that's between you and me, you know—mum. ...
— The Parent's Assistant • Maria Edgeworth
... grasped his comrade's hand and nearly wrung the fingers off. "Well, keep mum! Don't say anything to anybody but me. If Byers says anything, give him to understand you are in it from the word go, but no more. We'll win out ...
— Our Pilots in the Air • Captain William B. Perry
... boy," said Lord Grosville, in evident annoyance. "The rascal hadn't a scratch, but Kitty must needs pick him up and drive him home with a nurse. 'I ain't hurt, mum,' says the boy. 'Oh! but you must be,' said Kitty. I offered to take him to his mother and give him half a crown. 'It's my duty to look after him,' says Kitty. And she lifted him up herself—dirty little vagabond!—and put him in the carriage. There were some laborers and grooms standing near, ...
— The Marriage of William Ashe • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... newspaper paragraph: "Roger Peacey, described as a clerk, fined forty shillings for being drunk and disorderly and obstructing the police in the course of their duty...." She had asked quickly, "What is he like? Does he get violent?" The woman had answered: "Oh no, mum; just silly-like," and had laughed, evidently at the ...
— The Judge • Rebecca West
... does, mum. Many's the poor brakeman's fingers I've saved by rubbin 'em in some one's ...
— Camilla: A Tale of a Violin - Being the Artist Life of Camilla Urso • Charles Barnard
... to-morrow!" [Meaning, what is of no value now may be precious hereafter.] and he laid his coarse hand on the golden and silky tresses we have described. "'T is a rum business, and puzzles I; but mum's the word for my own ...
— Paul Clifford, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... Valentin; "a man sentenced to death can never talk too much. Have you never read an account of an execution in a newspaper? Don't they always set a lot of people at the prisoner—lawyers, reporters, priests—to make him talk? But it's not Mr. Newman's fault; he sits there as mum as a death's-head." ...
— The American • Henry James
... him apprehensively, warningly. "An' I reckon you won't refuse me, Colonel." Then, going close to him, she whispered: "Remember, mum's ...
— In Old Kentucky • Edward Marshall and Charles T. Dazey
... I'll see, if you'll please to walk in," said Martha, a little confused on the score of her kitchen apron, but collected enough to be sure that "mum" was not the right title for this queenly young widow with a carriage and pair. "Will you please to walk in, and I'll ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot
... It was sundown then. She got a batten from the sofa, loosened the dog, and confronted the stranger, holding the batten in one hand and the dog's collar with the other. "Now you go!" she said. He looked at her and at the dog, said "All right, mum," in a cringing tone, and left. She was a determined-looking woman, and Alligator's yellow eyes glared unpleasantly—besides, the dog's chawing-up apparatus greatly resembled that of the reptile he ...
— While the Billy Boils • Henry Lawson
... eyes. He had been rumbling through the Strand for thirty years. "Lor', mum," he said, "legs ain't ...
— The So-called Human Race • Bert Leston Taylor
... Rogers is gifted with horse sense. When the dinner crowd boarded an up-town car, our man paid fare to the same conductor. He wired me from the Hotel Brunswick a few minutes ago. There is some sort of a caucus going on in Hendricks' office in the capitol, and mum-messengers are flying ...
— The Grafters • Francis Lynde
... be," replied Anderson, earnestly. "We're all worried. I'm goin' to let you read over the laws of that I.W.W. organization. You're to keep mum now, mind you. I belong to the Chamber of Commerce in Spokane. Somebody got hold of these by-laws of this so-called labor union. We've had copies made, an' every honest farmer in the Northwest is goin' to read them. But carryin' one around is ...
— The Desert of Wheat • Zane Grey
... so he wrote in conclusion, "that nothing may come of our meeting at all. So please don't say a word to anybody when you strike town. You've lived here yourself, and you know that three words hove overboard in Bayport will dredge up gab enough to sink a dictionary. So just keep mum till the business is settled one way ...
— Cy Whittaker's Place • Joseph C. Lincoln
... You were the little clerk who sat so mum in the corner, and then cried fy on the gleeman. What ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle
... argumentatively, blusteringly, objurgatively, but all to no purpose. The deceased wife's sister kept mum, and invisible. Reluctantly, resentfully, the parish was finally obliged to face the facts, pay the expenses of the interment, and settle that a weekly dole should be afforded for the maintenance of the child, and as that deceased wife's sister did not appear, the parochial bile overflowed ...
— The Broom-Squire • S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
... forcing the Boer back to defend his own State. Against this it was maintained that Kimberley was outside the ambit of the army's high and mighty consideration. Others argued that the Colonel's policy of "mum" was mainly intended as a protest against the traffic in "Specials." We were all weary; the strain was weakening our mental faculties; the most sensible and philosophic cherished the queerest thoughts. As a cynic observed, one ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan
... my boys, my hearts! Sing but like nightingales thus when you come to your misrepresentation, and we are made for ever, you rogues! so! steal a way now to your homes without inspection; meet me at the Duke's oak—by moon light—mum's the word. ...
— A Fairy Tale in Two Acts Taken from Shakespeare (1763) • William Shakespeare
... and ventured on no rejoinder. After the captain's outburst none of the group dared to utter a word. This pleased him no better; he cursed them all for standing mum; and spent ten minutes in reviling them in turn. Then his passion appeared to have burnt itself out. Turning suddenly to the ...
— In Clive's Command - A Story of the Fight for India • Herbert Strang
... mum," said the voice of a domestic from somewhere round the angle of the door, "number three is ...
— Beyond the City • Arthur Conan Doyle
... must lie down, you look quite pale." Peter's voice took an authoritative note, which came very naturally to him. "The sudden joy of my return has been too much for you, poor old mum." ...
— Peter's Mother • Mrs. Henry De La Pasture
... bad, mum," one of the women said to Lucy, as she stood aside to let her pass into the close, hot cabin, where Bessie was talking wildly and incessantly of her father and mother, and of Grey, while Mrs. Goodnough and Jennie tried ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes
... "Yes—yes. Mum's the word." "Poker" John indicated his approval with an upward leer as Lablache rose from his chair, and a grotesque pursing of his lips and his forefinger at the side of his nose. Then he, too, struggled ...
— The Story of the Foss River Ranch • Ridgwell Cullum
... said the long-haired scout; "I have been stationed here, as marshal of the town, to warn people away from the place. You take my advice and go to the creek and plunge in with all your clothes and play for an hour in the water, then dry yourself, go back to camp, and keep mum!" This was the year of the cholera. It started somewhere down south, and many people died from it in the city of St. Louis, and it followed the railway through Kansas to the end of the track. Many soldiers died ...
— Tales of Aztlan • George Hartmann
... a-goin' to give you warning this very day, mum, to leave at the end of my month, so I was - on account of me being going to make a respectable young man happy. A gamekeeper he is by trade, mum - and I wouldn't deceive you - of the name of Beale. And it's as true as I stand here, it Was your coming home in such a hurry, and ...
— Five Children and It • E. Nesbit
... Mr. Softly Bishop. "But before we go any further I'd perhaps better tell you a secret." His voice and his gaze dropped still lower. "She's a particularly fine girl, and it won't be my fault if I don't marry her. Not a word of course! Mum!" He turned away, while Mr. Prohack was ...
— Mr. Prohack • E. Arnold Bennett
... pretty bright surveyor already," Tom declared. "He has been keeping mum about it, but Harry can go out into the country with a transit and run up the field notes for a map about as handily as the ...
— The High School Boys' Training Hike • H. Irving Hancock
... Nations did not arrive until after supper. It used to be said by certain scoffers that if a discussion of political questions came up in the afternoon of one of those days of disappointment, we readers were mum; but in the late evening, after having digested our political pabulum, we were ready to join issue with any antagonist. Indeed, each of us might have used the words of James Russell Lowell, written while he was traveling on the Continent and visiting many places where The Nation could not be ...
— Historical Essays • James Ford Rhodes
... you think I do not know you by your excellent wit? Can virtue hide itself? Go to, mum, you are he: graces will appear, and there's ...
— Much Ado About Nothing • William Shakespeare [Knight edition]
... into this stunt on the ground floor," went on Logan. "But I will as soon as the turn's over. For all sakes, keep mum while I talk." ...
— Winnie Childs - The Shop Girl • C. N. Williamson
... Mr. W.H. Shearman of Vernon, New York, writes that my boxes of minerals and fresh water shells are irretrievably lost; that Mr. Meech, of Geneva, remains mum on the subject; and that they have not arrived at Utica. Hard fate thus to be despoiled of the ...
— Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers • Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
... to be done," she continued, "because I must give yer a 'arty lift him a jiffy and be back to my children hagain." Then going to the sick woman she took her hand and felt her pulse. "'Ow do yer find yerself, mum?" she asked. ...
— Without a Home • E. P. Roe
... fool boy was so scared, he'd plunge into the brush or the water, the second he heard Rodney's step. Those conchs can keep as mum as Seminoles. He'd never let Rodney see him or hear ...
— Black Caesar's Clan • Albert Payson Terhune |
