"Mum" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... it, Miss Betty; Mr. Mahaffy says he don't reckon no one will ever tell who wrote the letter—he 'lows the man who done that will keep pretty mum—he just dassent tell!" ...
— The Prodigal Judge • Vaughan Kester
... prove it, mum," rejoined the Irishman. Then, turning to a laborer at hand, he added, "Kelly, ...
— Best Short Stories • Various
... getten t' mopes, an' what he wants is his libbaty an' coompany like t' rest on us, wal happen a rat or two 'ud liven him oop. It's low, mum,' says I,'is rats, but it's t' nature of a dog; an' soa's cuttin' round an' meetin' another dog or two an' passin' t' time o' day. an' hevvin' a bit of a turn-up wi' him like ...
— Soldiers Three • Rudyard Kipling
... he assured her. "Of course I knew what was doing. But I kept mum—didn't want to say anything to you till I could say everything. Mildred, I'm free. We can be married to-morrow, if ...
— The Price She Paid • David Graham Phillips
... his eyes. He had been rumbling through the Strand for thirty years. "Lor', mum," he said, "legs ain't no treat ...
— The So-called Human Race • Bert Leston Taylor
... to know my notions On sartin pints thet rile the land; There 's nothin' thet my natur so shuns Ez bein' mum or underhand; I 'm a straight-spoken kind o' creetur Thet blurts right out wut 's in his head, An' ef I 've one pecooler feetur, It is a ...
— The Biglow Papers • James Russell Lowell
... weighed the infant eleven times. He was a man of few words, and he soon got through with them. The first time he said, "E's a good un;" the next time he said, "My word!" the third time he said, "Well, mum," and after that he simply blew enormously each time, scratched his head, and looked at his scales with an unprecedented mistrust. Every one came to see the Big Baby—so it was called by universal consent—and most of them said, "E's a Bouncer," and almost all remarked to him, "Did they?" ...
— The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth • H.G. Wells
... it. He is a perfect sphinx. Never before has he opened his mouth so widely, and only an occasion like this could have moved him. You must have unconsciously revealed a hidden law, or else he would have been as mum as an oyster." ...
— Nature's Serial Story • E. P. Roe
... know?" answered Molly. "To be sure—took it the minute she got home. But that wasn't all, neither. Old Polesworth told Mum"—which meant Lady Delawarr—"that he might have stood small-pox, but he couldn't saintship; so Saint Gatty lost her chance, and much she'll ever see of such another. Dad and Mum were as mad as hornets. Dad said he'd have horsewhipped her if she'd been out of bed. Couldn't, ...
— The Maidens' Lodge - None of Self and All of Thee, (In the Reign of Queen Anne) • Emily Sarah Holt
... render silent; muzzle, muffle, suppress, smother, gag, strike dumb, dumfounder; drown the voice, put to silence, stop one's mouth, cut one short. stick in the throat. Adj. aphonous[obs3], dumb, mute; deafmute, deaf and dumb; mum; tongue- tied; breathless, tongueless, voiceless, speechless, wordless; mute as a fish, mute as a stockfish[obs3], mute as a mackerel; silent &c. (taciturn) 585; muzzled; inarticulate, inaudible. croaking, raucous, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... fools, Kid; not you. There's something crooked going on in that canyon, an' I know it! But keep mum about ...
— Bar-20 Days • Clarence E. Mulford
... way. I've been keeping mum just on that account. Norvallis was apparently satisfied with a statement that Copley is temporarily absent and that we are trying to get ...
— The Monk of Hambleton • Armstrong Livingston
... what doesn't meet with your approval, or Mrs Steele's, or the company's: but that's just my point. I don't hold with meetings for public business being called in a private house. Because if things are done that you don't approve of, either you sit mum-chance out o' politeness, or else you speak your mind and offend your host ...
— Nicky-Nan, Reservist • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)
... several cases," I said, "where Air Force Intelligence is supposed to have warned pilots to keep mum. Two of the reports come ...
— The Flying Saucers are Real • Donald Keyhoe
... him again! Your reform is soon ended. Well, my girl, there is really no necessity for any such sacrifice on your part. No one here suspects anything regarding our little affair excepting you and me. You do what I desire with this Winston, and I 'm mum. ...
— Beth Norvell - A Romance of the West • Randall Parrish
... to see you amongst us, Mrs. Brooke, mum; and hope you'll come again," was heard so often that Lady Alice was quite amazed by the warmth of the greeting. "And the young lady too—where's she? she ought to have been here as well," said one woman; to which Maurice Kenyon ...
— Brooke's Daughter - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
... and the crazy quilt and the doll-baby with him. John, the servant-man, searched everywhere, but not a trace of them could he find. "They must have all blown away, mum," he said to ...
— The Children's Book of Christmas Stories • Various
... attimpted to enter. Undaunted be th' stairs iv th' building or th' rude jeers iv th' multichood, they advanced to th' very outside dures iv th' idifice. There an overwhelmin' force iv three polismen opposed thim. 'What d'ye want, mum?' asked the polls. 'We demand th' suffrage,' says th' commander iv th' ...
— Mr. Dooley Says • Finley Dunne
... others, and to levy, for instance, four shillings in the pound sterling income-tax, which has just been continued for another year! And all the time taxes on distilled spirits, on the excise of wine and beer, on tonnage and poundage, on cider, on perry, on mum, malt, and prepared barley, on coals, and on a hundred things besides. Let us venerate things as they are. The clergy themselves depend on the lords. The Bishop of Man is subject to the Earl of Derby. The lords have wild beasts of their own, which they place in ...
— The Man Who Laughs • Victor Hugo
... me, mum," she explained. "I know I hadn't ought to. But I was lookin' at the doll, mum—an' I was frightened when you come in—an' slipped under ...
— A Little Princess • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... book, without any 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
... he was admitted to the secret. It consisted in spelling every word, leaving the five vowels as they are, but doubling each consonant and putting a "u" between. Thus "b" became "bub," "d" "dud," "m" "mum," and so forth, except that "c" was "suk," "h" "hash," ...
— Two Little Savages • Ernest Thompson Seton
... 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, ...
— The Little Nightcap Letters. • Frances Elizabeth Barrow
... deal is being done—but in the strictest secrecy! Most important investigations, my dear!—the police, the detective police, you know. The word at present—to put it into one word, vulgar, but expressive—the word is 'Mum'! Silence, my dear—the policy of the mole—underground working, you know. From what I am aware of, and from what our good friend Halfpenny tells me, and believes, I gather that a result will be ...
— The Herapath Property • J. S. Fletcher
... of her cheek was visible, and as Dove had done exactly the same, Johanna could only conclude that the two had fallen out. It was something novel for her to be obliged to talk when Ephie was present, but it was impossible for them to walk the whole way home as mum as this, especially as Dove had already heaved more than one ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson
... let me feel of her. Mum; catch my hand. Ah, that's her (feeling the chest), that's the Golden Mary. Now, see here, my bo, if you've the pluck of a weevil in a biscuit, this girl is yours; if you hain't, and think to sheer off, I'm blind, but ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XV • Robert Louis Stevenson
... it is unnecessary. There are plenty of men to do the talking." "But," said 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)
... time, at the sight of a score of his fat beeves; a little bit of choice roguery played off upon him by honest Anthony of the tender conscience! Look to it, comrade, he shall know of this before thou canst convey thy cowardly carcase out of his clutches. An' it be thou goest forward—mum!—backward! Ha! have I caught ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... you're right, mum," said Jim Grimm, "we must make him happy every hour he's with us. Hush, mother! Don't cry, ...
— Billy Topsail & Company - A Story for Boys • Norman Duncan
... 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 ...
— The Marriage of William Ashe • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... "Me carackter, mum! Me stiffticket! You'll not be sending me away without one, peticklerly as 'twas meself as ...
— The Secret of a Happy Home (1896) • Marion Harland
... "Keep mum," 'Frisco Kid whispered to him while the irate Frenchman was busy fastening the painter. "Don't talk back. Let him say all he wants to, and keep quiet. It 'll be ...
— The Cruise of the Dazzler • Jack London
... "No, mum," he replied. "It's yours all right. I found it at the shore where a freightin' team left it. I don't generally carry such things. But says I to myself, 'That's fer Widder Bean, and she's goin' to have it to-night if Tim Harking knows anything.' ...
— Under Sealed Orders • H. A. Cody
... mum?' said the necromancer. A look of relief came into his wizened face. 'I didn't know but what it might be——' His voice trailed off into an indistinct murmur, and he smeared his hand heavily across his face, and looked at it, mistrustfully, as ...
— Julia And Her Romeo: A Chronicle Of Castle Barfield - From "Schwartz" by David Christie Murray • David Christie Murray
... "Sit down, mum," said she. "This isn't much of a kitchen, for I haven't had time to clane it up, an' as for me, I'm not much of a cook, nather; for when ye have to be iverything, ye can't be ...
— The Girl at Cobhurst • Frank Richard Stockton
... 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 devising a ...
— Mr. Prohack • E. Arnold Bennett
... eyes that go to sleep Just when they ought sharp watch to keep Lest evil to their lord befall." Thus fools contrariously do all; They chatter when they should be dumb, And, when they ought to speak, are mum. ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry
... to express himself, not with his tongue, but with his arms and legs— with my body I thee worship, as it says in the marriage service. I begin to understand the old plays and pageants. I see why the mutes at a funeral were mute. I see why the mummers were mum. They MEANT something; and Smith means something too. All other jokes have to be noisy—like little Nosey Gould's jokes, for instance. The only silent jokes are the practical jokes. Poor Smith, properly considered, is an allegorical practical joker. What he has really done in this house has been ...
— Manalive • G. K. Chesterton
... Owner of the Hat on the shoulder.) Excuse me, Mum, but might I take the liberty of asking you to kindly remove your 'at? [The Owner of ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., Jan. 31, 1891 • Various
... to her about that part of the story," said Miss Thackeray sagely. "And as you say, mum's the word. We don't want them to get onto the fact that she's here. ...
— Green Fancy • George Barr McCutcheon
... down, an I'll perceed ter divest myself uv w'at little information I've got stored up in my noddle. Ye see, mum, my name's Walsingham Nix, at yer sarvice—Walsingham bein' my great, great grandad's fronticepiece, while Nix war ther hind-wheeler, like nor w'at a he-mule ar' w'en hitched ter a 'schooner.' Ther Nix family were a great one, bet ...
— Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road - or, The Black Rider of the Black Hills • Edward L. Wheeler
... mum,' I made bold to say, thinking to take her down a peg. But, lor'! she didn't care a rush for that, but 'Which o' my husbands?' says she, and laughed fit to bust, and poked the horse-dealer in the side. He looked as if he'd like to throttle her, but she didn't mind that neither. 'What ...
— The Nebuly Coat • John Meade Falkner
... restored to their country. These and other acts of cruelty aroused a spirit of vengeance against the Romans, that soon culminated in war. But the Achaeans and their allies were defeated by the consul Mum'mius, near Corinth (146 B.C.), and that city, then the richest in Greece, was plundered of its treasures and consigned to the flames. Corinth was specially distinguished for its perfection in the arts of painting and sculpture, and the poet ANTIP'ATER, ...
— Mosaics of Grecian History • Marcius Willson and Robert Pierpont Willson
... 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
... Lion, mum, wants to know what's to be done with the trunks. There's six of 'em, an' they're all that 'eavy as he says he wouldn't lift one alone for ...
— A Fair Barbarian • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... "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 ...
— Romance of California Life • John Habberton
... I likes it best pure naked. I'd be thankful to 'ee, mum, if ye wouldn't call me Mr. Maine; it ...
— North, South and Over the Sea • M.E. Francis (Mrs. Francis Blundell)
... she had the character of being somewhat loquacious, could not help laughing at this, and said, "Well, I will try for once; so, mum! I am going to ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various
... jolly mummers That mum in Christmas time. Come join with us in chorus Come join with us in rhyme. Chorus- And a-mumming we will go, we'll go, And a-mumming we will go ; With a white cockade in all our hats, We'll ...
— Yorkshire Dialect Poems • F.W. Moorman
... the governor's room, and we should be put through our first examination. My head was too stupid to think, and I made up my mind to keep perfectly mum. Yes, even if they tried thumbscrews. I had no kind of story, but I resolved not to give anything away. As I turned the handle I wondered idly what kind of sallow Turk or bulging-necked German ...
— Greenmantle • John Buchan
... "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' Avenoo back in ...
— The Girl Aviators on Golden Wings • Margaret Burnham
... running after a hen who had just left her nest; "I say, mum, you dropped this 'ere. It looks wal'able; which I fetched it along!" And splitting his long face, he laid a warm egg at ...
— Cobwebs From an Empty Skull • Ambrose Bierce (AKA: Dod Grile)
... smiled sadly, 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 melancholy mate, ...
— In Clive's Command - A Story of the Fight for India • Herbert Strang
... in need of some small change called down-stairs to the cook and enquired: "Mary, have you any 'coppers' down there?" "Yes, mum, I've two; but if you please, mum, they're both me cousins," ...
— The New Pun Book • Thomas A. Brown and Thomas Joseph Carey
... 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 on, I'm ...
— Divers Women • Pansy and Mrs. C.M. Livingston
... seen the little one tethered to a chair by a scarf about its waist, creeping by the wall to the door, and there gazing out on the world with looks of intelligence, and babbling to it in various inarticulate noises. "Boo-loo! Lal-la! Mum-um!" The little dark face had the eyes of its mother, but it represented Glory for all that. John Storm loved to see it. He felt that he could never part with it, and that if Lord Robert Ure himself came and asked for it he would bundle ...
— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine
... filling up, every day—people coming from everywhere. I've got the biggest scheme on earth—and I'll take you in; I'll take in every friend I've got that's ever stood by me, for there's enough for all, and to spare. Mum's the word—don't whisper—keep yourself to yourself. You'll see! ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... and prayed; and during his two hours' daily liberty wandered sadly and in a silent manner about the Castle. For this was all Mistress Ruth had to tell, and of the Prisoner's name, or of his Crime, she was, perforce, mum. ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 of 3 • George Augustus Sala
... widow. Here's your health in a bumper, and wishing you a better husband than your first. It'll be your own fault if you don't soon get another and a proper young man into the bargain. Here's his health likewise. What! mum still. You're the first widow I ever heard of who could withstand that lure. I'll try the effect of a jolly stave." And he ...
— Jack Sheppard - A Romance • William Harrison Ainsworth
... 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 ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... pennies And pounds, the law; And not for the love of our Lord Unclose their lips once. Thou mightest better meet mist On Malvern hills Than get a mum of their ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866 • Various
... know that Grandma's makin' Loads of mince and pun'kin pies? Don't you smell those goodies cookin'? Can't you see 'em? Where's your eyes? Tell that rooster there that's crowin', Cute folks now are keepin' mum; They don't show how fat they 're growin' When they know ...
— Cape Cod Ballads, and Other Verse • Joseph C. Lincoln
... be mum when the occasion needs. Can you tell me farther, when the bands now gathering are ...
— Winning His Spurs - A Tale of the Crusades • George Alfred Henty
... just gets me!" muttered Buck, who found it hard to understand how a fellow could hide his light under a bushel, and not "blow his own horn," when he had jumped into the river, and pulled out a drowning boy. "Say, is that so too, Fenton; did you keep mum just because ...
— Fred Fenton on the Track - or, The Athletes of Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... be sure 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
... connection at Savannah, and our 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 ...
— Historical Essays • James Ford Rhodes
... of sense in your head. Don't sit there mum-chance, man! Speak up and tell your mother not to be a fool. You are no child; you know your father, and that, if given one chance in a hundred to act perversely, he'll take it as sure as fate. For heaven's sake persuade your mother to use common caution and keep ...
— Hetty Wesley • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... in the streets, and often too, for want of better instruments, to make good music of their own voices, and dance after it. Yea many times this love will make old men and women that have more toes than teeth, dance,—"John, come kiss me now," mask and mum; for Comus and Hymen love masks, and all such merriments above measure, will allow men to put on women's apparel in some cases, and promiscuously to dance, young and old, rich and poor, generous and base, of all sorts. Paulus Jovius ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior
... lawyer went 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 ...
— The Castle Inn • Stanley John Weyman
... 'Yes, mum,' said Jack Adamson; 'we've been fellow-workmen when the work was hard enough. 'T young squire seems to have got over his difficulties pretty tidy!' Then she smiled again, and nodded to them, and retreated ...
— John Caldigate • Anthony Trollope
... before. They questioned Elizabeth when she brought their lunch, which they ate from benches and boxes to save time, but she would give them no satisfaction. Tod seemed to know something, but he too was strangely mum. ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island • Gordon Stuart
... outside the portico the top-knots of several policemen had appeared. The forces of law and order were trying to elbow their way into the throng. Sh ... h ... h! Tia Picores assumed command. "Back to your stalls, everybody! And mum's the word! Those pretty boys will be in here with their summonses and their papers! Nothing's the matter, remember, everybody, nothing happened at all!" Some one threw a big handkerchief over the bleeding ear of the wounded girl. ...
— Mayflower (Flor de mayo) • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... to the mouth o' the shaft now," said Andy. "They're a-dhraggin' the timbers away; timbers wid the fire in 'em yit. Ye'd be shtartled to see 'em, mum." ...
— Burnham Breaker • Homer Greene
... and rutted, the sides of them silent with fallen leaves under foot. An odd sense of excitement flickers through such autumn twilights. Boys herded in little troops on wickedness intent. Whooping and whistling to disarm their elders' suspicion until the evil deed should be fairly within reach, then mum as mice, stealthily vanishing, becoming part and parcel of the earth, the hedge, the harsh dusky grasses of the sand-hills, the foreshore lumber ...
— Deadham Hard • Lucas Malet
... but my lad, cried Bromley, you say nothing, don't answer a single question. What, mum's ...
— Four Early Pamphlets • William Godwin
... I, after what you've told me about him. I won't think it, until, at least, we get more information. It was my fault for leaving it around that way. It's too bad! Dad will sure be sorry to hear it's gone. I'm going to keep mum about it—maybe it ...
— Andy at Yale - The Great Quadrangle Mystery • Roy Eliot Stokes
... not get hot about it, good Wulf," Beorn laughed. "When you come to see me I will have gleemen to sing the deeds of our fathers to you. When I come to you I will sit as mum as a mouse while you read to me from some monk's missal. I will force you neither to eat nor to drink more than it pleases you, and you shall give me as much to eat and drink as it pleases me, then we shall ...
— Wulf the Saxon - A Story of the Norman Conquest • G. A. Henty
... was a stern expression on his face that made him look like papa. "'Twould take a bigger man than you are to do that, Jack," he said, with a faint smile, adding slowly, "but I'll tell you what you can do,—you can keep mum about this; and now help me upstairs, like a good boy: I'm almost too tired to put one foot after the other." Then, as he rose and slowly straightened himself up, he said, "After all, Phil's only gone for a walk, you know, Jack; he'll be home pretty soon, you may depend." ...
— We Ten - Or, The Story of the Roses • Lyda Farrington Kraus
... doctor's consulting room? (looks round with affectionate interest—sits at his table) Aurora. One of 'em, mum—I expect 'e's in one of the h'inner rooms, engaged with some patients, 'e's always very busy on a Friday—you couldn't 'ave picked a worse day to come and see the great Doctor. 'Ave you ...
— Oh! Susannah! - A Farcical Comedy in Three Acts • Mark Ambient
... army, some said, was marching on Bloemfontein with a view to expediting our relief by 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, ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan
... "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
... mum" replies the butler "she is very poor-looking and says she's tramped all the way from Huntsdown to see you, but she wont give ...
— Daisy Ashford: Her Book • Daisy Ashford
... as mum as a couple of clams," Jack told him; and so they separated, little dreaming at the moment what a remarkable series of circumstances were fated to arise that would bring them together for the carrying out of an enterprise greater than anything as yet recorded in the annals ...
— Air Service Boys Over the Atlantic • Charles Amory Beach
... 'Very sorry, mum, but it's clean agin' the law of England. Give me a warrant, and in I come. If you will bring her to the doorstep, I will ...
— A Duet • A. Conan Doyle
... '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 ...
— A Dozen Ways Of Love • Lily Dougall
... Templars came, The same their talents, and their tastes the same; Each prompt to query, answer, and debate, And smit with love of poesy and prate. The pond'rous books two gentle readers bring; The heroes sit, the vulgar form a ring. The clam'rous crowd is hush'd with mugs of mum, Till all, tun'd equal, send a gen'ral hum. Then mount the clerks, and in one lazy tone Through the long, heavy, painful page drawl on; Soft creeping, words on words, the sense compose, At ev'ry line they stretch, they yawn, they doze. As to ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 • Various
... Wentworth, picking up one of his boys and then lowering him carefully to the ground. "Mum is the word, if you say so. But I haven't heard you tell Ackerman to give ...
— George at the Fort - Life Among the Soldiers • Harry Castlemon
... I, "he's getten t' mopes, an' what he wants is his libbaty an' coompany like t' rest on us; wal happen a rat or two 'ud liven him oop. It's low, mum," says I, "is rats, but it's t' nature of a dog; an' soa's cuttin' round an' meetin' another dog or two an' passin' t' time o' day, an' hevvin' a bit of a turn-up ...
— Indian Tales • Rudyard Kipling
... African ports. Coming back rich from Africa, this figure of darkness has often led its crew of shadows into port at the Brandywine mouth, passing modestly amongst the whalers and wheat-shallops, dim as the Flying Dutchman and mum as Friends' meeting. It is possible that from some visit of his arose the legend that Blackbeard, the terrible pirate, who always hid his booty on the margins of streams, had used the Brandywine for ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Volume 11, No. 26, May, 1873 • Various
... throat which stung and smarted abominably as it went down. Later had followed a pleasant dreamy 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
... gagging! But I'm bound the members as silenced us, in doing it had plenty of magging. They had better send us all off, they had, to the School for the Deaf and Dumb, To unlarn us our mother tongues, and to make signs and be regularly mum. But they can't undo natur—as sure as ever the morning begins to peep, Directly I open my eyes, I can't help calling out Sweep As natural as the sparrows among the chimbley-pots, that say Cheep! For my own part I find my suppressed voice very uneasy, And comparable to nothing but having your tissue ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood
... his forefinger to his head in search of an idea, for he is not accustomed to having his intelligence so violently assaulted, and after a moment's puzzled thought he said, "What do I think about it, mum? Why, I think we'd ought to give 'em to 'em. But Lor', mum, if we don't, they take 'em, so what's the odds?" And as he left the room I thought he looked pained that I should spin words and squander ink on ...
— Children's Rights and Others • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
... Sir Feeb. Mum—no words on't, unless you'll have the Ghost about your Ears; part with your Wife, I say, or else the Devil will ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. III • Aphra Behn
... of the ladder in a new regiment that is to be recruited. Meanwhile I was put through the manual of arms, with a lot of other awkward fellows, by a drill officer. I kept shady and told my people to be mum until something came out of it all. Come, fellows, thirteen dollars a month, hard tack, and glory! ...
— An Original Belle • E. P. Roe
... many and various are the exceptions. It was only the other day I 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
... mum," says Jack, quite polite-like. "Could you be so kind as to give me some breakfast." For he hadn't had anything to eat, you know, the night before and was as ...
— English Fairy Tales • Joseph Jacobs (coll. & ed.)
... 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; ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell
... was intolerable. The dinner hour of the twelfth century, it is known, was very early; in fact, people dined at ten o'clock in the morning: and after dinner Rowena sat mum under her canopy, embroidered with the arms of Edward the Confessor, working with her maidens at the most hideous pieces of tapestry, representing the tortures and martyrdoms of her favorite saints, and not allowing a soul ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray
... "The young woman, mum, as you said I was to call at nine,—well, she isn't in her room, and the bed doesn't look as if it had been slept in at all, and I found ...
— Flint - His Faults, His Friendships and His Fortunes • Maud Wilder Goodwin
... supposed to know a blessed thing about the fellow they accuse of burning a house," said Jack, sternly. "Just act as if you knew nothing—I mean you, Buster, for if anybody gives the secret away, it will be you. Mum's the word, now. There, you can tell from that they're heading down the river bank, and will ...
— Motor Boat Boys Mississippi Cruise - or, The Dash for Dixie • Louis Arundel
... Which I doesn't. 'Ere, boys, step right up and listen to an announcement." The crowd gave attention. "This 'ere chap is wanted. There's a big reward for 'im. You've all seen the posters. He's the Jenison boy. Well, he ain't guilty. Get the notion? We Ve got to 'elp 'im out of the country. Mum's the word, lads. Say!" He stood back to inspect his charge. "If you're going to wear them togs, you've got to 'ave your face ...
— The Rose in the Ring • George Barr McCutcheon
... pick up as fast as it can," returned Pinky; "but mind what I say: you are to be mum. Here's your pay for the first week, and you shall have it fair and square always. Call it your own baby, if you will, or your grandson. Yes, that's better. He's the child of your dead daughter, just sent to you from somewhere out of town. So take good care of him, and keep your mouth shut. I'll ...
— Cast Adrift • T. S. Arthur
... "Mum's the word, boys," whispered the old salt who had charge of the party; "the critters are comin', an' England expec's every man for to do his ...
— Lost in the Forest - Wandering Will's Adventures in South America • R.M. Ballantyne
... 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 ...
— Tom and Some Other Girls - A Public School Story • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... You were the little clerk who sat so mum in the corner, and then cried fy on the gleeman. What hast ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle
... way," drawled the Whipper-in—"we must wu'ck together. You know me, an' that Jud Carpenter's motto is, 'mum, an' keep movin'.' ...
— The Bishop of Cottontown - A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills • John Trotwood Moore
... he remained convinced that "Da" had done a dreadful thing. Though he did not wish to bear witness against her, he had been compelled, by fear of repetition, to seek his mother and say: "Mum, don't let 'Da' hold me down on my ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... song to sing, O! [SHE] Sing me your song, O! [HE] It is sung to the moon By a love-lorn loon, Who fled from the mocking throng, O! It's the song of a merryman, moping mum, Whose soul was sad, whose glance was glum, Who sipped no sup, and who craved no crumb, As he sighed for the love of a ladye. Heighdy! heighdy! Misery me - lackadaydee! He sipped no sup, and he craved no crumb, As he sighed for the love of ...
— Songs of a Savoyard • W. S. Gilbert
... the river road we walked over to-day? Well, those fellows went in that direction, didn't they? Don't you see? Aren't you on? The washout! If they don't know about it the whole bunch is at the bottom of the ravine or in the river by this time! Mum's the word! There's a chance, darling; the reward said 'dead ...
— The Daughter of Anderson Crow • George Barr McCutcheon
... "Can't tell, mum; sometimes they die in a little bit, and sometimes they get purty well over it and live on for years. Here, let me put another pillar under her head, and some o' ye there run and fetch the coldest water that ever ye ...
— Grandmother Elsie • Martha Finley
... 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 ...
— Initials Only • Anna Katharine Green
... struck dumb, And never answered her a mum: The humble reptile fand some pain, Thus to be bantered wi' disdain. But tent neist time the Ant came by, The worm was grown a Butterfly; Transparent were his wings and fair, Which bare him flight'ring through the ...
— An Elementary Study of Insects • Leonard Haseman
... Winona afterwards. "What possessed you to go and say anything at all? Mr. James will never forgive me! I could see it in his eye. And Mrs. James was ice itself! I've never felt so horrible in all my life. If you'd only had the sense to keep mum, they might never have found out. You kids are the most frightful nuisance! If I'd had my choice given me when I was born, I wouldn't have been ...
— The Luckiest Girl in the School • Angela Brazil
... I, I says to 'em, 'I don't care about your smart mum-mum-minister and what fine sermons he preaches. Let him BE smart,' I says. Says I, 'Smartness won't g-g-g-git ye into heaven.' ("Amen!") 'No, sirree! it takes more'n that. I've seen smart folks afore and they got c-c-cuk-catched up with sooner or later. Pride goes ahead ...
— Keziah Coffin • Joseph C. Lincoln
... 'Why, mum?' answered the window-cleaner, who knew her, and was humbly familiar. 'Is he taken bad or something? ...
— The Trespasser • D.H. Lawrence
... you like, except 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 the word, absolutely." ...
— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse
... time for talk. Just this; you're my man, you carry this box of metal"—he meant the case of curiosities—"and don't open your mouth, unless you get the fool in you and want the taste of a six-inch knife. That's my risk, and I haven't brought you here to share it; so mum's the word, mum, mum, mum; and keep a hold on your eyes, whatever you see or whatever you hear. Do ...
— The Iron Pirate - A Plain Tale of Strange Happenings on the Sea • Max Pemberton
... with immortal honours crown, While, patriot-like, thou'lt strut and frown. What though by enemies 'tis said, The laurel, which adorns thy head, Must one day come in competition, By virtue of some sly petition: Yet mum for that; hope still the best, Nor let such cares disturb thy rest. Methinks I hear thee loud as trumpet, As bagpipe shrill or oyster-strumpet; Methinks I see thee, spruce and fine, With coat embroider'd richly ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift
... I'll wager you would. Well, now—come closer. Mum's the word, eh? I like you, Harry Brooks; and the boys in this town "—he broke off and cursed horribly—"they're not fit to carry slops to a bear, not one of 'em. But you're different. And, see here: any time you're ...
— Poison Island • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)
... "Little Mum! 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
... more, I'm proud of having done it. That was rather a curious case, Mr. Artist. Some men might be shy of mentioning it; I never was shy in my life and I mention it right and left everywhere—the whole case, just as it happened, except the names. Catch me ever committing myself to mentioning names! Mum's the word, sir, with yours to ...
— After Dark • Wilkie Collins
... "Oh, mum dear, do let me come back now. I am sure I have learned enough, and oh! how I long for a sight of you and dad, and dear old Jack and Frenchy, and Jim Travers, and all of you in fact. Let me come, oh! do ...
— Fifty-Two Stories For Girls • Various
... begin to perceive that I shall get into some confounded scrape if I stay here much longer, and so will my young friend Mr. Worrendorf, who has made me his confidant: but mum's the word! (Seeing the KING, who is in the act of taking snuff.) Ah, use snuff, my old boy?—Odd!—Thank you for a pinch. (Takes a pinch sans ceremonie, and without the King's consent. FREDERICK shuts the box angrily. WEDGEWOOD ...
— Poems • George P. Morris
... "Yes, mum; and you won't find finer tobacker anywhere in this world than what's got my name on it. Here's a picture of my store. Why, Brushwood's tobacker is known all ...
— A Truthful Woman in Southern California • Kate Sanborn
... you think I do not know you by your excellent wit? Can virtue hide itself? Go to, mum, you are he: graces will ...
— Much Ado About Nothing • William Shakespeare [Knight edition]
... no offence,' said the landlord, in a quite altered tone; 'but the sight of your hand—' then observing that our conversation began to attract the notice of the guests in the kitchen, he interrupted himself, saying in an undertone, 'But mum's the word for the present, I will ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow
... it must be bad, but I didn't think it was as bad as that! I don't blame ye for trying to keep it mum! And ye look as though it tasted bitter coming up. I'll not poison me own mouth." He stood up and yanked the man to his feet. "So I'll call ye Bill the Bomber! Where do ye work, ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day
... 'Yes, mum, the office is next door,' was vouchsafed to us in the broadest Scotch dialect, by a clerk, who escorted us there, carrying with him a huge bunch of keys, looking more like a gaoler conducting prisoners, ...
— A Girl's Ride in Iceland • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie
... laugh or fall to wailing That the most of men so dumb are, Ever borrowed thoughts retailing, And in mother-wit so mum are? ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 99, March, 1876 • Various
... "Well, mum, the County Club, in session down to the store, delegated me to call on you. Leastway, I done told them I reckoned no one else but ...
— A Son of the Hills • Harriet T. Comstock
... be here the night," says she. "And, Kitty, it's meself looks to you to be kind and patient wid him, for he's a furriner," says she, a kind o' lookin' off. "Sure, an' it's little I'll hinder nor interfare wid him, nor any other, mum," says I, a kind o' stiff; for I minded me how them French waiters, wid their paper collars and brass rings on their fingers, isn't company for no gurril brought up dacent and honest. Och! sorra a bit ...
— Successful Recitations • Various
... the winning horse, I'm bound to be a Duke, of course; But wait and see—the slightest hitch Might altogether queer my pitch; So mum's the word," says ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, June 10, 1914 • Various
... Mum's the word," agreed Ruth; and then both girls struck their horses sharply and started on a swift gallop for the Conroyal rancho, where we must leave them for the present and return ...
— The Cave of Gold - A Tale of California in '49 • Everett McNeil
... Mum's the word! I gotta be careful. I can't say nothin'; I don't pretend to know nothin'. But I kept my eyes open pretty wide, I tell you. There's detectives workin', too. I been to Wehrhahn, too, an' he told me to ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann
... I should have expected, and reminded my mother that Noah had been overtaken in a similar manner. He also narrated how a certain field-chaplain Grant, of Desborough's regiment, having after a hot and dusty day drunk sundry flagons of mum, had thereafter sung certain ungodly songs, and danced in a manner unbecoming to his sacred profession. Also, how he had afterwards explained that such backslidings were not to be regarded us faults of the individual, but rather as actual obsessions ...
— Micah Clarke - His Statement as made to his three Grandchildren Joseph, - Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 • Arthur Conan Doyle
... me that, accepting you, for a day and a half he held on his course, close-hauled. Is that so? But he was suspicious, as deaf men are. He took a notion that you—you, keeping mum as a cat, having to pass for somebody else and avoid questions—were just lying low, meaning to slip cable at Valparaiso and hurry in with a prior claim. I am sorry to say it, Foe: but altogether you did not create good impression ...
— Foe-Farrell • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... "Oh no, h'indeed, mum,—no, you won't," put in Mrs. Barrett, who at that moment appeared, gruel-cup in hand. "I don't never let my ladies lie in their berths a moment longer than there is need of. I h'always gets them on deck as soon as possible to get the h'air. It's the best medicine you can ...
— What Katy Did Next • Susan Coolidge
... been reached. The obligation of going to the front door to "show in" a visitor was in itself so subversive of the fundamental order of things that it had thrown her faculties into hopeless disarray, and she could only stammer out, after various panting efforts at evocation, "His hat, mum, was ...
— The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Part 2 (of 10) • Edith Wharton
... no doubt. We has to see a deal of this sort of thing. Just a little air, if you please, mum,—and as much water as'd go to christen a ...
— The Eustace Diamonds • Anthony Trollope
... special local sweet black beer, brewed from malted wheat instead of barley, known as "Mumme"—heavy, unpalatable stuff. If any one will take the trouble to consult Whitaker's Almanac, and turn to "Customs Tariff of the United Kingdom," they will find the very first article on the list is "Mum." "Berlin white beer" follows this. One of the few occasions when I have ever known Mr. Gladstone nonplussed for an answer, was in a debate on the Budget (I think in 1886) on a proposed increase ...
— The Days Before Yesterday • Lord Frederick Hamilton
... back— Might go crazy and foolishly follow their track. So at midnight should wait At her garden-gate A carriage to carry the dear, precious freight Of Mrs. McNair who should meet Captain Brown At the Globe Hotel in a neighboring town. A man should be hired To convey the admired. And keep mum as a mouse, and do what ...
— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon
... 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
... "No, thanky mum! I've had that dodge tried afore! Pity a grand dame like you can't scare up a nickel! Want to work a poor newsie! ...
— Raspberry Jam • Carolyn Wells
... you might have seen him, mum," said the little figure, opening its blue eyes with wonder at the kindness of the ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke
... fat, comfortable-looking woman, twice as large as her mistress, said, "Indeed, mum!" hoped Colonel Allen "wasn't sick to speak of," and shook her broad sides with laughter at the idea of ...
— Prudy Keeping House • Sophie May
... she conjectured; told her, in particular, how constantly Mr. Talboys was in the house, and how, one night, the old gentleman had walked part of the way home with him, "which Mr. Thomas says he didn't think his master would do it for the king, mum!" and had come in all of a flurry, and sent up for miss, and swore* awful when she couldn't come because she was abed. "So you may depend, mum, it is so; leastways, the gentlemen they are willing. We talk it over mostly every day in the servants' hall, mum, and we ...
— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade
... strange tales to me. I once was young, so you will therefore grant I should know something of what youths still want When they to such sweet girls quite bashful come, And utter words as if their stock was scant. Well, 'tis but natural, and I would be mum; Of bliss thus sought and gained 'twere hard to ...
— The Emigrant Mechanic and Other Tales In Verse - Together With Numerous Songs Upon Canadian Subjects • Thomas Cowherd
... 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 no ...
— People of the Whirlpool • Mabel Osgood Wright
... Ferte our road was barred by two sentinels, elderly peasants, by their looks. I played mum and tapped my ...
— My Home In The Field of Honor • Frances Wilson Huard
... furtive curtsies in your neighborhood; demure little Jacks, who start up from behind boxes in the pantry. Those outsiders wear Thomas's crest and livery, and call him "Sir;" those silent women address the female servants as "Mum," and curtsy before them, squaring their arms over their wretched lean aprons. Then, again, those servi servorum have dependants in the vast, silent, poverty-stricken world outside your comfortable kitchen fire, in the ...
— Roundabout Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray
... uncle, 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; ...
— Light Freights • W. W. Jacobs
... to be mum now, no givin' orders to your poor overworked hired help in your brick-fields, not lettin' 'em have even a straw that they begged for to lighten their burden. The descendants of them folks you driv round can stand here and poke fun at you all day and you've got to keep your mouth shet. Yes," ...
— Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife • Marietta Holley
... Mum's the word! I gotta be careful. I can't say nothin'; I don't pretend to know nothin'. But I kept my eyes open pretty wide, I tell you. There's detectives workin', too. I been to Wehrhahn, too, an' he told me to ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann
... Using her oven, washing her cups and saucers, Scouring her tables, redding up her rooms, Handling her treasures, and wearing out her gear. And now, another, wringing out my dishclout, And going about my jobs in her own fashion; Turning my household, likely, howthery-towthery, While I sit mum. But it takes forty years' Steady east wind to teach some folk; and then They're overdried to profit by their learning. And so, without a complaint, and keeping her secrets, Your mother died with patient, quizzical eyes, Half-pitying, fixed on mine; ...
— Krindlesyke • Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
... Mount Wilson, fellows. Don't forget that," he warned his passengers. "Stick to it. If they got our number back there we can bluff them into thinking they got it wrong. I'll let yuh out here and you can walk home. Mum's ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower |
