"Spunk" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the dagger work, there being, as the sahib doubtless knows, a common saying in these parts about Damascus folk and sharp steel. Whereat Yussuf Dakmar suddenly assumed a sneering tone of voice, saying that he preferred men for his part with spunk enough to do such work themselves, and there was an argument, they protesting and he mocking them, until at last this man, whose neck the glass cut, demanded of him whether he, Yussuf Dakmar, was not in truth an empty boaster who would ...
— Affair in Araby • Talbot Mundy
... free and equal; but they are a scrubby set—' Considering it a duty I owed to the nation, I again interrupted him. 'Cape Cod,' replied I, 'has got gumption, principle, and the spirit of a go-ahead in her: she germinated the Young American party. Understand, citizen, (here I found spunk was necessary), a cape-coaster can at any time boast a full fair of fish; if he draw them from Mr. John Bull's waters, so much the better. He is no stranger to Mr. John Bull, whom he esteems rather a dogged fellow, pugnaciously ...
— The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth • Timothy Templeton
... commenced to cry softly to himself. It was a good thing he did for he soon cried the cinder out and when his eye stopped hurting, he got some of his spunk back again and began to plan some way of getting ...
— Billy Whiskers - The Autobiography of a Goat • Frances Trego Montgomery
... dry sage-brush or grease-wood, pinon and other resinous woods, dung of herbivora when obtainable, charcoal, and also bituminous or cannel-coal were employed. The principal agent seems, however, to have been dead-wood or spunk, pulverized and moistened with some adhesive mixture so that flat cakes could be formed of it. I infer this not alone from Zuni tradition, which is not ample, but from the fact that the sheep-dung now used ...
— A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuni Culture Growth. • Frank Hamilton Cushing
... the apartment and plain refused to put away another woman's pots and pans. It was just spunk. I don't know that I blame her. So Belle got that low ...
— The Gorgeous Girl • Nalbro Bartley
... gentlemen," he reminded. "Are you all in? Don't leave with regrets. You," he said, direct to me. "Are you in such short circumstances that you have no spunk? Why did you come here, sir, if not to win? Why, the stakes you play would not buy refreshment for ...
— Desert Dust • Edwin L. Sabin
... Sam was almost a stranger on the maps; he hadn't a friend in the world, apparently, while he had more enemies than he could shake a stick at. Every body snubbed him, and every body wanted to lick him. But Sam has now grown to be a crowder; his spunk, too, goes up with his resources, and he don't wait for any body to "knock the chip off his hat," but goes right smack up to a crowd of fighting bullies, and rolling up his sleeves, he coolly "wants to know" if any body had any thing to say about him, in that crowd! ...
— The Humors of Falconbridge - A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes • Jonathan F. Kelley
... you think of that?" Levi exclaimed shaking with laughter. "If that ain't spunk and ...
— A Son of the Hills • Harriet T. Comstock
... thing I want you to bear in mind, is, that I shall not be captured without a struggle; and that every chance I get I shall try to escape. I am going to show those fellows that I have some spunk. I want you to act natural, and to prevent me from getting away from you; but you must not abuse me. You can treat the others as roughly as you please. Do you agree to ...
— Frank Among The Rancheros • Harry Castlemon
... girl!" commented Joe, who had been busy making a bow and arrow for Roger. "If her brother Jack had a little of her spunk he would not be ...
— Dorothy Dale • Margaret Penrose
... the face er the yeth good enough fer Sis, but that air feller's got the looks an' the spunk. I'll set in this very day an' hour, an' I'll bake Sis a cake that'll make the'r eyes water." And so it went. Everybody on Hog Mountain had ...
— Mingo - And Other Sketches in Black and White • Joel Chandler Harris
... somethin' else. I dipped my hands in spunk water, up on the mountain where you can never find it, and besides that I spit on ever' card in this deck and wiped it off. Couldn't lose now to ...
— Goodbye, Dead Man! • Tom W. Harris
... run off," he continued, after a pause, "I like your spunk,—just what I should have done myself. But tell me how you managed to get off without the old chap's ...
— Paul Prescott's Charge • Horatio Alger
... tell me why yes," he chuckled. "You have a lot of spunk. That you certainly have, and you ought to make a good business man, but I won't loan you ...
— The Rise of David Levinsky • Abraham Cahan
... he chose to perform solus, as there was nothing in that way to be seen in the room in the shape of a reel, nor was there a single tune played of which he could make either head or tail—nothing but "your foreign trash, with neither spunk nor music in them." Determined, however, since his highland fling had been so much approved of, to give a specimen of the highland reel, if he could possibly make it out, Donald, as a first step, looked around him for a partner; and ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 2 - Historical, Traditional, and Imaginative • Alexander Leighton
... qualities for a fine lad: unselfish, gentle, strong, brave. They're your qualities, lad dear. And you proved the last one when you took that whipping with the ropes—ah, is a boy poor when he's got the spunk in him? He is not! Well, along with those four qualities I can honestly add these others: you're grateful, you're clean (in heart and in mouth, liking and speaking what's good), you're merciful, you're truthful, you're ambitious, you've got decent instincts—inherited, but ...
— The Rich Little Poor Boy • Eleanor Gates
... thegether. Whate'er the hour, whate'er the weather, John kept himsel' wi' mistened leather An' kindled spunk. Wi' him, there was nae askin' whether - John was ...
— New Poems • Robert Louis Stevenson
... from across the aisle, insisted that dinner was to be not only with but "on" him, but I only consented on the "with" plan, and paid my own little check and tip. He said I was a darned independent little piece but he liked my spunk! He asked me where I was bound and I said—sighing a little for good measure, Emma—that I was going to Chicago to earn my living. Now in I or The Narrow Path he would at once have given me his card and offered to "fix me up with something at the office," but the Buffalo merely said "That so!" ...
— Jane Journeys On • Ruth Comfort Mitchell
... "You've got lots o' spunk," said Bill, coming out from behind the counter, "but that ain't goin' to git you anywheres in pertic'ler in a case like this. You'd better set down on that stool and think things over ...
— Mystery Ranch • Arthur Chapman
... himsel' free o' me," the shepherd told afterward, "and I saw him bending down and measuring the distance wi' his een as cool as if he was calculating a drill o' tatties. Syne I saw his lips moving in prayer. It wasna spunk he needed to pray for, though. Next minute there was me, my very arms prigging wi' him to think better o't, and him standing ready to loup, has knees bent, and not a tremble in them. The mist lifted, and I—-Lads, I couldna gie a look to the earl. Mr. Dishart jumped; I hardly saw him, ...
— The Little Minister • J.M. Barrie
... was washing it with warm water, when it swelled up. I rubbed it through my hand, which gave me unusual pleasure, then a voluptuous sensation came over me quickly so thrilling and all pervading that I shall never forget it. I sunk on to a chair, feeling my cock gently, the next instant spunk jotted out in large drops, a full yard in front of me, and a thinner liquid rolled over my knuckles. I had frigged myself, without ...
— My Secret Life, Volumes I. to III. - 1888 Edition • Anonymous
... spunk since you came North, then," said Hepworth; "for I agree with your father, Southern girls do not have much energy of character. At least, Miss Farley hasn't. She's about nineteen or twenty, but she's as childish as a girl of fourteen,—except in her ...
— Patty's Success • Carolyn Wells
... three thicknesses of tin foil may be pressed into a cavity with a rubber point or hard piece of spunk, allowing it to come well out to the margin; ...
— Tin Foil and Its Combinations for Filling Teeth • Henry L. Ambler
... the seizure of fever came, and the sweat gathered on her lips, and her eyes went wild, she gritted her teeth and just clung to him. She had spunk—admirable, if perhaps destructive. "Love yuh," Frank kept ...
— The Planet Strappers • Raymond Zinke Gallun
... there he lies, day in an' day out, with his poor sightless eyes turned to the wall. He won't eat a thing hardly, except what I snuggle up when she's out airin' herself. He ain't keen on bein' fed with a spoon like a baby. No boy with any spunk ...
— Dawn • Eleanor H. Porter
... Ferguson, openly told the judge that, if he decided against him, they "would take him from the bench d—d quick." Judge Stiles adjourned his court, and applied to Governor Young for assistance; but got only the reply that "the boys had got their spunk up, and he would not interfere," and that, if Judge Stiles could not enforce the United States laws, the sooner he adjourned court the better.* All the records and papers of the United States court were kept in Judge Stiles's ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn
... here. Tell ye what's ez good ez ennything. We'll crowd around the stage, fust throwin' keards for who's to put out his hoof to be accidently trod onto by the infernal teacher ez he gits out. Then satisfaction must be took out uv the teacher. It'll be a mean job, fur these teachers hevn't the spunk of a coyote, an' ten to one he won't hev no shootin' irons, so the job'll hev to be ...
— Romance of California Life • John Habberton
... cried Sam, "we've got to do it, Uncle Israel, for we six have sworn to help you through the winter. So spunk up." ...
— Choice Readings for the Home Circle • Anonymous
... tumbled off the water cart— It was a peacherino of a drunk; I put the cocktail market on the punk And tore up all the sidewalks from the start. The package that I carried was a tart That beat Vesuvius out for sizz and spunk, And when they put me in my little bunk You couldn't tell my jag ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume II. (of X.) • Various
... in your pluck and spunk," said Case, "and I think of your performance as Major Noah said of Adam and Eve: 'As touching that first kiss,' said he, 'I have often thought I would like to have been the man who did it; ...
— Bart Ridgeley - A Story of Northern Ohio • A. G. Riddle
... out of the Old Orchard? If they don't I'm afraid he will drive them out. No one likes to live with such quarrelsome neighbors. They don't belong over in this country, anyway, and we would be a lot better off if they were not here. But I must say I do have to admire their spunk." ...
— The Burgess Bird Book for Children • Thornton W. Burgess
... from her sister's arms and left the cell. Ratcliffe followed her, so impressed was he by her "spunk," he advised her as to her proceedings, to find a friend to speak for her to the king—the Duke of Argyle, if possible—and wrote her a line or two on a dirty piece of paper, which would be useful if she fell among thieves. Jeannie then hastened ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VII • Various
... to laugh. "Got spunk, ain't you? Now you git down and come along with me, Pete. No use you riding back to the mesa to-night. Your dad ain't there. You ...
— The Ridin' Kid from Powder River • Henry Herbert Knibbs
... got spunk enough not to care," Mrs. Kate interposed hastily. "Phenie's pretty, of course—but it takes more than that to attract a man like Ford. You can't expect him to like her when she won't look at him, hardly; it makes me feel terribly, because he's sure to think it's because he—I've tried to make ...
— The Uphill Climb • B. M. Bower
... of a great majority of the women of that day was thrown on the side of slavery, as was undoubtedly the case, the minority largely made up for the disparity of numbers by the spunk and aggressiveness of their demonstrations. A good many of the most indomitable and effective Abolition lecturers were women—such as Mrs. Lucretia Mott, the Grimke sisters, Abby Kelly, and others whose names are here omitted, although ...
— The Abolitionists - Together With Personal Memories Of The Struggle For Human Rights • John F. Hume
... see a fellow show some spirit," growled Richard. "I thought you had some spunk; but you caved in, and took your flogging as meekly as though you had been one of the saints in ...
— In School and Out - or, The Conquest of Richard Grant. • Oliver Optic
... sure they are. In my opinion we are going to sail for Belfast, to convey the Arbuckles home. You won't see any Rhine, except a pork rind, on this cruise. If the fellows have any spunk at all, ...
— Down the Rhine - Young America in Germany • Oliver Optic
... approved the girl. "Get up your spunk. Cuss, if you like. Rip loose, good and hard. ...
— Out of the Depths - A Romance of Reclamation • Robert Ames Bennet
... "what with all this hyar daily weepin' an' nightly mournin', I 'ain't got spunk enough lef ter stan' up agin the leetlest Kittredge a-goin'. I ain't man enough ter sight a rifle. Kittredges kin kem enny time an' take my hide, horns, an' tallow ef they air ...
— His "Day In Court" - 1895 • Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
... of cramoisie. An draw thou nigh with doughty will * To do thy doing lustily, Thou'll find it fain to face thy bout * And strong and fierce in valiancy. It bendeth backwards every brave * Shorn of his battle-bravery. At times imberbe, but full of spunk * To battle with the Paynimry. 'T will show thee liveliness galore * And perfect in its raillery: Zayn al-Mawasif it is like * Complete in charms and courtesy. To her dear arms one night I came * And won meed given lawfully: I passed with her that self-same night * (Best of my ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 8 • Richard F. Burton
... ain't. It don't allus take spunk. Yore chief said they was another fellow—desp'rit villain. Did ye ...
— The Boy Scout Treasure Hunters - The Lost Treasure of Buffalo Hollow • Charles Henry Lerrigo
... Congreve to himself. "I didn't think the little fool would have spunk enough to do it, but he has. I may pay him that fifty dollars, and then again I may not. I don't think I shall care to come back again to this dull hole to-night. I shall have to leave my trunk, but it isn't worth the sum I owe the landlord, and ...
— The Tin Box - and What it Contained • Horatio Alger
... they talked and they argued, some for and some against,— And they progressed no further than they were when they commenced. Until in a burst of eloquence a queer little piece of punk Arose in his place and said, "I think we ought to show some spunk. And I for one have decided, although I am no shirk, That to-day is a legal holiday and not ...
— The Jingle Book • Carolyn Wells
... cowards heard what I said and got up spunk enough to tackle matrimony," interrupted the venerable town marshal. "June seems to be a good month fer weddin's everywhere else in the world except right here in Tinkletown. The last one we had was in December, and that was ...
— Anderson Crow, Detective • George Barr McCutcheon
... wouldn't anyone with the least grain of spunk in him do the same if he'd been called a coward fer nuthin'? This young chap is no coward, let me tell ye that. He did more'n his bit over in France when you was hidin' away in the hills. Oh, I know all about it, an' whar ye was an' what ye was doin'. Why, this chap ...
— Glen of the High North • H. A. Cody
... affair with Andy Buckton is mentioned oftener than the weather. People say he always loved her and, now that he is rich and rolling high, that he is winning out. Many sporting people that I know glory in his 'spunk,' as they call it. They are counting on a ...
— The Desired Woman • Will N. Harben
... going to say, but that was different. He never had any spunk, anyway. Nobody believed in him but Robey, and Robey was wrong, just as he is about you. Anyway, all I'm trying to say is that there's no use getting waxy if some idiot shoots off his mouth. The fellows who really count ...
— Left Guard Gilbert • Ralph Henry Barbour
... "I must spunk up a little," he said, "for I want to use this net," but in spite of his resolve, he was soon watching, as before, for ...
— Princess Polly's Gay Winter • Amy Brooks
... utterly discredit it. It couldn't be that I was to turn about, and go the way I had come. Nevertheless, I said to myself, "You'd better keep a cool head, my boy, or you are in for a night of it. Better listen to science than to spunk." And I resolved to heed the impartial needle. I was a little weary of the rough tramping: but it was necessary to be moving; for, with wet clothes and the night air, I was decidedly chilly. I turned towards the north, and slipped and stumbled along. A more uninviting forest to pass ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... to say, "I don't git up enough spunk to cut a heifer out o' the herd until somebody else has roped her and slapped his brand onto her. Talk about too many irons in the fire, why, I've only got one, and it's het up red all the time waitin' fer the right chanct to use it; but some how I never git it out o' the coals. ...
— The Round-up - A Romance of Arizona novelized from Edmund Day's melodrama • John Murray and Marion Mills Miller
... he says he wants to try it out!" snapped the aroused Giraffe, who at any rate was not lacking in spunk. ...
— The Boy Scouts' First Camp Fire - or, Scouting with the Silver Fox Patrol • Herbert Carter
... about buckshot ain't nothin' more'n vain hyperbole, Rucker not possessin' the spunk of bull-snakes. The Turner person, however, lets him get away with it, an' submits tamely to be buffaloed, which of itse'f shows he ain't got the heart of a horned toad. The eepisode does Rucker a heap of good, though, an' he puffs up immoderate. Given any party he can buffalo, ...
— Faro Nell and Her Friends - Wolfville Stories • Alfred Henry Lewis
... you, Phil! I like your spunk," said Paul, heartily. "I wouldn't go back to the old villain if I were you. Where ...
— Phil the Fiddler • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... spunk. Have you thought of being a nurse? All work is hard and I should think that would be interesting. Must meet a jolly lot of people. You should see the becoming uniforms the London nurses wear. Prettiest women on the street, ...
— The Sisters-In-Law • Gertrude Atherton
... put a stop to the torture. There he was, without a feather to cover himself with, and the cool autumn nights coming on. So I took some gray cloth and made him these clothes. He would have been picked to the bone if I hadn't. But they put spunk into him. That Shanghai rooster has found out he has to assert himself, captain, and he does ...
— A British Islander - From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899 • Mary Hartwell Catherwood
... say," Joe Martin retorted, with a grin. "Better take some one with more spunk, Rod. I think you ...
— Rod of the Lone Patrol • H. A. Cody
... in his own behalf. It rested with him and his lawyer to settle that; under the law he could not be forced to testify. The transcript of his testimony at the inquest was ready at the prosecutor's hand. Joe would be confronted with that, and, if there was a spark of spunk in him, people said, he would rise up and stand by it. And then, once Sam Lucas got him in the witness-chair, it would be all day with his evasions ...
— The Bondboy • George W. (George Washington) Ogden
... strong, All our Scriptur' an' law, every the'ry an' fac', Wuz Quaker-guns daubed with Pro-slavery black. Why, ef the Republicans ever should git Andy Johnson or some one to lend 'em the wit An' the spunk jes' to mount Constitootion an' Court With Columbiad guns, your real ekle-rights sort, Or drill out the spike from the ole Declaration Thet can kerry a solid shot clearn roun' creation, We'd better take maysures for shettin' up shop, An' put ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862 • Various
... fibbing, my lad. Hence it comes,—BOXIANA, disgrace to thy page!— Having floored, by good luck, the first swell of the age, Having conquered the prime one, that milled us all round, You kickt him, old BEN, as he gaspt on the ground! Ay—just at the time to show spunk, if you'd got any— Kickt him and jawed him and lagged[6] him to Botany! Oh, shade of the Cheesemonger![7] you, who, alas! Doubled up by the dozen those Moun-seers in brass, On that great day of milling, when blood ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al
... himself and snapped the case to. He put it back in his sidepocket and took from his waistcoatpocket a nickel tinderbox, sprang it open too, and, having lit his cigarette, held the flaming spunk towards Stephen in the shell of ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... down, and was wetted nearly all over. Our hands being benumbed with the cold, it was some time before we could get off our snow-shoes, and we were no sooner out of the water than our moccasins and leggings were frozen stiff. Our spunk wood got wetted by the water, and when we at last reached the shore we were unable to light a fire. Our clothes also were so completely frozen that ...
— Snow Shoes and Canoes - The Early Days of a Fur-Trader in the Hudson Bay Territory • William H. G. Kingston
... the way 'tis here; you don't work; you get easy, and lazy, and sleepy; somethin' in the air kind of hushes you up; it makes you sweat to think, and you're too hazy to, if it didn't; and you don't care for nothing much but food and drink. I hadn't no spunk left; so I married her after their fashion, and I liked her well enough; and she ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, March, 1858 • Various
... observe what should pass between Glenvarlochides and his page, whom we caused to be admitted to his apartment, well judging that if they were of counsel together to deceive us, it could not be but something of it would spunk out—And what think ye we saw, my lords?—Naething for you to sniggle and laugh at, Steenie—for I question if you could have played the temperate and Christian-like part of this poor lad Glenvarloch. He might be a Father of the Church in comparison of you, man.—And then, to try his patience yet ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott
... home, Mr. Emory Sewell. She carried de rooster in where dere wus a sick Yankee. De Yankee took him in his hands an' de rooster crowed. He give mother thirty-five cents for him. De Yankee said if he could crow an' his eyes out he wanted him. He said, he called dat spunk. ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States • Various
... then, it is indeed so; for Sabrey Haviland never uttered aught but perfect truth and sincerity in all her life. Why, God bless her for her spunk and independence, living and visiting, as she mostly has, from a child, in that circle of high-toned and bitter tories. And it argues well for your suit, too, Woodburn, which till now I have considered rather an unpromising one; for it tells me that she will struggle hard to get free from the fetters ...
— The Rangers - [Subtitle: The Tory's Daughter] • D. P. Thompson
... I! 'Twould never do for three jolly blades like us to steal the lady from her lover and not offer another in exchange. No, no! Castle Creagh is crying for a mistress, and if you don't spunk up to the ...
— A Daughter of Raasay - A Tale of the '45 • William MacLeod Raine
... kens nae mair nor a guano-bag. There's nocht in him but what the spoon pits intil him. He hasna the spunk o' a rabbit. I tell ye what, we need a man o' wecht in oor kirk. Come up oot o' there, boy; ye're lickin' that sugar again! Na, he'll ken wha he's preachin' till, when he stands up afore me. My e'e wull be on him nicht and day. Hae ye no thae bags made yet? Gin they're no' dune in five meenits, ...
— Bog-Myrtle and Peat - Tales Chiefly Of Galloway Gathered From The Years 1889 To 1895 • S.R. Crockett
... looked up into Jane's face now with a completely altered expression. Her glance was curious and searching, but it was very kindly. "And you are David Marshall's daughter?" She smiled indulgently at Jane's outburst of spunk. ...
— With the Procession • Henry B. Fuller
... you done it when you did," pursued Tracey, oblivious to Nat in his own ecstatic temper. "I guess I wouldn't never 've got up the spunk to—to tell Angie what I did to-night, 'f it hadn't been we was talkin' 'bout your engagement to Josie. Then, somehow, it just seemed to bust right out of me, like I couldn't hold it no longer. ...
— The Fortune Hunter • Louis Joseph Vance
... breeding and tradition—all the grand stuff that's been grown in them on the NOBLESSE OBLIGE principle—self-respect, courage, dignity—the stuff that gives staying power as well as the fire for making good spunk.... Not that I'd put a pure-blood racer to haul up logs for an iron-bark fence: any more than I'd set out to plant an English lady of that sort to rough ...
— Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land • Rosa Praed
... shaking her head, "we'll see about that! He does not know anything at all, and has not what is necessary for ordering about. In spite of his fighting-cock airs, he hasn't two farthings' worth of spunk—it would be easy enough to lead him by the nose. Do you see, Claudet, if we were to manage properly, instead of throwing the handle after the blade, we should be able before two weeks are, over to have ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... They'll lay close, thinkin' that we're unsuspicious, and that havin' the water we'll chase their other party. That's what they want. Go, every petticoat of you, and every child large enough to tote a piggin. It'll require spunk—we'll be prayin' for you as men never prayed before; but you'll come back safe—that we'll guarantee or we wouldn't send our wives and sisters and children on such a quest. You're Kentucky women ...
— Boys' Book of Frontier Fighters • Edwin L. Sabin
... a year or two's time. His evenin's and his Sundays and so forth were jolly well all he'd got. It was all very well for Ransome, he wasn't gone on a girl, else he'd know how erritatin' it was to the nerves. And if Ranny hadn't got the spunk to stand by a pal and see him through, why, then he'd cut the Poly. and make Maudie ...
— The Combined Maze • May Sinclair
... wolf won't work. Won't eat. Aint got no spunk left. All the dogs is licking him. Wants to know what has become of you, and I don't know how to tell him. Mebbe ...
— White Fang • Jack London
... He was a slender, sad-colored man, possibly of her own age, and he spoke in a very soft voice. He was Susan's widowed brother-in-law, and the neighbors said he was clever, but hadn't no more spunk'n a wet rag. ...
— Tiverton Tales • Alice Brown
... the other boy that roared at him, who, injured arm or not, could somehow inspire the former leader with fear. "I'm going to tell myself; an' if any of you fellows has got spunk, he'll tell, too." It was such a battle cry that Mike's head went down. He knew as well as afterward that his leadership was gone, and that every one of the crew had gone over to the ...
— Five Little Peppers and their Friends • Margaret Sidney
... I c'n remember putty near. As I told ye, I felt a twitch at my hair, an' he said, 'What be you thinkin' about, sonny?' I looked up at him, an' looked away quick. 'I dunno,' I says, diggin' my big toe into the dust; an' then, I dunno how I got the spunk to, for I was shyer 'n a rat, 'Guess I was thinkin' 'bout mendin' that fence up in the ten-acre lot's much's ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott
... what he called "Lecty's spunk." For Aunt Priscilla agreed quite readily. It was dull for Betty with two old people. Mercy would ...
— A Little Girl in Old Boston • Amanda Millie Douglas
... beatin' de cullud folks, I don't want 'em to come talking religion to me. We used to hab on our place a real Guinea man, an' once he made ole Marse mad, an' he had him whipped. Old Marse war trying to break him in, but dat fellow war spunk to de backbone, an' when he 'gin talkin' to him 'bout savin' his soul an' gittin' to hebbin, he tole him ef he went to hebbin an' foun' he war dare, he wouldn't go in. He wouldn't stay wid any such rascal ...
— Iola Leroy - Shadows Uplifted • Frances E.W. Harper
... pocket—they'll no be muckle use—button yir jackets, and when the three o' us gae down the passage for ony sake follow close in behind. Just ae thing more," said Speug, who was in his glory that day. "I'll need a laddie to keep me gaein' with balls, and I want a laddie that has some spunk, for he'll hae a rough time." Below thirty of the junior school were waiting and looking at Speug like dogs for a biscuit. He threw his eye over the group, any one of which would have given his best knife and all his marbles, ...
— Young Barbarians • Ian Maclaren
... I couldn't come in—that I must slide myself into costume of the eight stripe! This to me was neither diplomatic nor polite. And being deemed impolite, according to the rules of our Young America, I placed the broad front of my knuckle-bones between his observators, (just to bring out his spunk), and demanded to know what they charged in Washington for a few knockings-down. To which he elongated himself, and with cool assurance said it had never before been his fortune to be put through the process—hence ...
— The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth • Timothy Templeton
... were fixed and quiet again. But at that, their chance isn't so grand. This isn't worrying Lily any. She saw all of it happen, she knows what's going on. What I want, dearest lady, is for you to get on the job, and spunk up to them, just like you did about Junior going away. I didn't think you'd get through with that, and I know Peter didn't; but you did, fine! Now if you and Peter would have a little private understanding and engineer this visit ...
— Michael O'Halloran • Gene Stratton-Porter
... daring, gallantry, intrepidity; contempt of danger, defiance of danger; derring-do; audacity; rashness &c 863; dash; defiance &c 715; confidence, self-reliance. manliness, manhood; nerve, pluck, mettle, game; heart, heart of grace; spunk, guts, face, virtue, hardihood, fortitude, intestinal fortitude; firmness &c (stability) 150; heart of oak; bottom, backbone, spine &c (perseverance) 604.1. resolution &c (determination) 604; bulldog courage. prowess, heroism, chivalry. exploit, feat, achievement; heroic deed, heroic act; bold stroke. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... Temple contradicted so emphatically what Dr. Gunnip had told her she says she felt as if she had been dead and buried all those dreadful weeks and had come back to life. Miss Crilly insists that if it hadn't been for Miss Twining's "martyrdom" we never should have had "spunk" enough to go to Mr. Randolph with our awful story. I guess she is right. That stirred us up to do something. Miss Twining is pretty well now. She writes nearly every day, and as she can sell as much ...
— Polly and the Princess • Emma C. Dowd
... big man double his profits and the small man be ill set to get his ham and egg on Sabbath mornin'? That's the meaning o' Labour unrest, as they call it, and it's a good thing, says I, for if Labour didna get its leg over the traces now and then, the spunk o' the land would be dead in it, and Hindenburg could squeeze ...
— Mr. Standfast • John Buchan
... not seem to be in the least concerned; for when the roof fell in with a crash, Mary commenced the rebel air, "Bonnie Blue Flag," and sang it through to the end. Frank admired her "spunk," even though her sympathies were ...
— Frank on a Gun-Boat • Harry Castlemon
... Chimbwe]; "he had to cross a marsh a mile wide, and waist-deep.... I went over first, and forgot to give directions about the dog—all were too much engaged in keeping their balance to notice that he swam among them till he died. He had more spunk than a hundred country dogs—took charge of the whole line of march, ran to see the first in the line, then back to the last, and barked to haul him up; then, when he knew what hut I occupied, would not let a country cur come in sight ...
— The Personal Life Of David Livingstone • William Garden Blaikie
... comparatively a wilderness, and the trip a long one, beset by many difficulties, especially from the Indians. I felt, and so did my mother, that we were parting forever. I knew she would not recall her promise; there was too much spunk in her for that, and this caused me to linger a day or two longer than ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks
... I'm not the kind of man that's satisfied to go on working all his life for only just enough to keep body and soul together. That's all right maybe for pikers—poor devils that have no spunk—but not for 'yours truly.' I'm a pusher, a climber, I am, and, what's more, I'm a man with ideas. No one can keep me down in the world. One of these days I'll be driving my own automobile and Fanny will be riding in it with me. It's no 'guff' I'm ...
— Bought and Paid For - From the Play of George Broadhurst • Arthur Hornblow
... harpooning him," confessed the skipper. "He's a darned old hypocrite, cheating widders and orphans by choice because they 'ain't got the spunk to razoo back, and I've allus enjoyed fighting such as him. Him and me is due for a row. But I'll hold off the best I can till we have got ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day
... alcohol to be sold by doctors in this town. And 'twas ten minutes of twelve Saturday mornin', too, and there was eight men waitin' their turn in line, and nary one of them or Lute either had the spunk to ask Melissa to hurry. Ho, ...
— Shavings • Joseph C. Lincoln
... convenience of foreign speculators; and populated mostly by mongrel sheep, and partly by fools, who live like European slaves in the towns, and like dingoes in the bush—who drivel about 'democracy,' and yet haven't any more spunk than to graft for a few Cockney dudes that razzle-dazzle most of the time in Paris. Why, the Australians haven't even got the grit to claim enough of their own money to throw a few dams across their watercourses, ...
— While the Billy Boils • Henry Lawson
... Valley and it was Grandma Wentworth who really managed that vacation though to this day nobody but she herself knows how and she won't tell. Susie came back so rejuvenated, with such color in her cheeks, such brightness in her eyes, and so much snap and spunk in her system that Jake Tuttle up and married her two months after she came home. And he's been happy ever since for in spite of her school-teaching handicap Susie has turned out to be a born cook and housewife. And as if to make up to her those twenty colorless years ...
— Green Valley • Katharine Reynolds
... Miranda Pryor promised to help with a dialogue and when she had her part all learnt her father put his foot down and refused to allow her to help at all. I am not blaming Miranda exactly, but I do think she might have a little more spunk sometimes. If she put her foot down once in a while she might bring her father to terms, for she is all the housekeeper he has and what would he do if she 'struck'? If I were in Miranda's shoes I'd find some way of managing Whiskers-on-the-moon. I would horse-whip him, or bite him, if nothing ...
— Rilla of Ingleside • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... fair In his embraces sunk, Partly wi' love o'ercome sae sair, [so sorely] An' partly she was drunk. Sir Violino, with an air That show'd a man o' spunk, [spirit] Wish'd unison between the pair, An' made the bottle clunk To their ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson
... hummer, Vandeford, if I can just make the dolts put it across. It is a genuine Hawtry vehicle, but in a new vein. It's a corking situation and yet rings true. Did any old dame really have the spunk to put that dinner-party across on both lover and husband that you've got in your play, miss?" As Mr. Rooney asked the question of Miss Adair, it was the first time that he had seemed aware of the existence of the author ...
— Blue-grass and Broadway • Maria Thompson Daviess
... me run the thing. You can begin right off a Monday. They a'n't been no other applications. You see, it takes grit to apply for this school. The last master had a black eye for a month. But, as I wuz sayin', you can jist roll up and wade in. I 'low you've got spunk, maybe, and that goes for a heap sight more'n sinnoo with boys. Walk in, and stay over Sunday with me. You'll hev' to board roun', and I guess you ...
— The Hoosier Schoolmaster - A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana • Edward Eggleston
... early light of the August morning; a clutch of Jerrold's slim brown hand at the bared throat. But he rallied gamely, strode a step forward, and looked his superior full in the face. Sloat marked the effort with which he cleared away the huskiness that seemed to clog his larynx, but admired the spunk with which the young officer returned ...
— From the Ranks • Charles King
... me bould Tad, and I reached into the engine room for a spanner whereby to back him up, for I admired the spunk of the young sprig. But the man stared into the lad's face and said nothin'. And the boat pulled away with him ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Stories • Various
... that moment the Lord's ain hand out o' the Heevens struck the Horror whaur it stood; the auld, deid, desecrated corp o' the witch-wife, sae lang keepit frae the grave and hirsled round by deils, lowed up like a brunstane spunk and fell in ashes to the grund; the thunder followed, peal on dirling peal, the rairing rain upon the back o' that; and Mr. Soulis lowped through the garden hedge, and ran, wi' skelloch ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) - Ghost Stories • Various
... with the widely-known world," said Pringle wearily, "is that people won't play their hunches. They haven't spunk enough to believe what they know. Let me spell it out for you in words of two cylinders, Breslin: You saw that I knew Creagan and Applegate, while they positively refused to know me at any price; you heard the sheriff deny that I was at the Gadsden House before I'd claimed anything ...
— The Desire of the Moth; and The Come On • Eugene Manlove Rhodes
... a spunk o' Allan's glee, Or Fergusson's the bauld an' slee, Or bright Lapraik's, my friend to be, If I can hit it! That would be lear eneugh for me, If I could ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns
... strange morning visitor. They saw that she was moving about as if she were intent upon domestic work; and, by-and-by, there she was busy with coals and sticks brought from their respective places, putting on the fire, which she lighted with the indispensable spunk applied to the spark in the tinder-box. Next she undertook the sweeping of the floor, saying to herself—and they heard the words—"It looks as if it hadna been swept for seven years." Next she washed the dishes, which ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. XXIII. • Various
... I see you folks in that house last night," he said, "I thought to myself, 'Judas priest!' thinks I. 'Them women has got more spunk than I've got.' Gettin' into a house like that all alone in the dark—Whew! Judas ...
— Thankful's Inheritance • Joseph C. Lincoln
... said Strout. "But that Sawyer was like that malary that the boys got off to war. It gets into your blood and you can't get it out. Why, he snubbed 'Zeke Pettingill jest the same as he did me when they had that sleigh ride, and he didn't have spunk enough to hit back. If 'Zeke had jined in with me we'd had him out o' town lively. And then the way he butted in at my concert and turned a high-class musical entertainment inter a nigger minstrel show by whistling a tune vas enough to make anybody ...
— The Further Adventures of Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks • Charles Felton Pidgin
... earnest." There was a note of bitter challenge in Toby's reply. "If a woman hasn't the spunk to defend ...
— Charles Rex • Ethel M. Dell
... wharf-rat, ain't you got no spunk to answer wid?" Dan jerked a slice-bar from the fire and hurled it to the floor at Larry's feet. The little man leaped in the air; the white-hot end of the bar, bounding from the floor, missed his legs ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1917 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... caught on, and when O'Brien, no longer fat and florid, and the elder Miss Dooley, no longer scrawny, moved out to start the dance, there was only one who had not assumed an astral personality. Poor fellow, though I pitied him, I did admire his spunk in holding back. It seems that as an editor he took to telling falsehoods on his own account so often that the Syndicate is packing him off as Special Correspondent to a ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IV. (of X.) • Various
... him for his spunk, as they termed it, and when Fred only bowed to the question, and pulled his hat a little more over his ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes
... spunk of a chipmunk you and me'll take a peek at that there packet. I bet you it's thousand-dollar bills—more'n ...
— The Flaming Jewel • Robert W. Chambers
... have fish frys than to dig ditches. All of which I hearn Elmira talking over with the neighbours more'n once when I was growing up, and they all says: "How sad it is you have came to this, Elmira!" And then she'd kind o' spunk up and say, thanks to glory, she'd ...
— Danny's Own Story • Don Marquis
... would feel sad," said Argyle. "The place is fast growing respectable—Oh, piety makes the devil chuckle. But respectability, my boy, argues a serious diminution of spunk. And when the spunk diminishes we-ell—it's enough to make the most sturdy devil look sick. What? No doubt about it, no doubt whatever—There—!" he had just finished settling his tie and buttoning his waistcoat. "How do I look, eh? Presentable?—I've just had this suit turned. Clever little tailor ...
— Aaron's Rod • D. H. Lawrence
... at bragin'; but ye don't come square up to the line when there's anything to put through what wants pluck. 'Tain't what a knowin' 'un like I can do; it's just what he can larn to be with a little training in things requiring spunk. I'm a going to have a square horse, or no horse; if I don't, by the great Davy, I'll back out and do business on my own account,—Anthony Romescos always makes his mark and then masters it. If ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams
... lived together long enough to have grown children. For nearly a score of years they pulled like a pair of balky horses—what time they were not doing the monkey and parrot act. The husband stayed out nights and tippled. The wife sat at home and felt virtuous. Finally the woman worked up spunk enough to do what she had been dying to do for years. She packed up and left. Now she is happily married to a man she can pull with, And he is married to another woman who pulls with him. She has quit feeling virtuous and he has quit tippling. They are both prospering ...
— Happiness and Marriage • Elizabeth (Jones) Towne
... which by vehement Collision, or Rubbing together, take Fire. This Method they will sometimes practise now, when it has happen'd thro' rainy Weather, or some other Accident, that they have wet their Spunk, which is a sort of soft corky Substance, generally of a Cinnamon Colour, and grows in the concave part of an Oak, Hiccory, and several other Woods, being dug out with an Ax, and always kept by the Indians, instead of Tinder or Touch-wood, both which it exceeds. ...
— A New Voyage to Carolina • John Lawson
... old gal had too much spunk for that: you see there is a quarrel between the deacon and ...
— The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... in deferential silence to the men's talk; but when old Ocock—he never had a good word to say for the riotous diggers—took his pipe out of his mouth to remark: "A pack o' Tipperary boys spoilin' for a fight—that's what I say. An' yet, blow me if I wouldn't 'a bin glad if one o' my two 'ad 'ad spunk enough to join 'em,"—at this Polly could not refrain from saying pitifully: "Oh, Mr. Ocock, do you really MEAN that?" For both Purdy and brother Ned were in the rebel band, and Polly's heart was ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson
... o's cutty he scartit a spunk, An' he leggit it doon the wind; Gin his claes would hae fleggit a bubbly-jock, Guid Lord! he'd an easy mind! An' oor forebears maybe were near-hand freen's For a' that ...
— The Auld Doctor and other Poems and Songs in Scots • David Rorie
... the hand.) Jump out of every window I have in my house; hunt my deer into high fevers, my fine fellow! Ay, that's right. This is spunk, and plain speaking. Give me a man who is always flinging his dissent to my doctrines smack in ...
— McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey
... first time in years this old place is to know the touch of a woman's hand—and that's what it hasn't known for almost twenty years, except for those few short months six years ago when a dark-eyed girl and a little gray kitten (that was Spunk, your predecessor, you know) blew in and blew out again before we scarcely knew they were here. That girl was Miss Billy, and she was a dear then, just as she is now, only now she's coming here to stay. She's coming home, Spunkie; and she'll make it a home ...
— Miss Billy Married • Eleanor H. Porter
... twiddle him Round her little finger: just the sort a doxy, Or a drop too much, sets dancing, heels in air: He's got the gallows' brand. But none of your sons Has a head for whisky or wenches; and not one Has half my spunk, my relish. I'd not trust Their judgment of a ewe, let alone a woman: But I could size a wench up, at a glance; ...
— Krindlesyke • Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
... up to her, and laying his hand on her shoulder, "I ken weel ye hae the spunk to work till ye drap. But there's na occasion the noo. Sit ye doon an' tak yer breath ameenute—here i' the shaidow o' this stook. Whan Glenwarlock's at the tither en', we'll set tu thegither an' be up wi' him afore he's had time to put a fresh edge ...
— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald
... celebrated for his descriptions of scenery, and was not the only member of the club whose essays got into print. More memorable perhaps was an itinerant match-seller known to Thrums and the surrounding towns as the literary spunk-seller. He was a wizened, shivering old man, often barefooted, wearing at the best a thin, ragged coat that had been black but was green-brown with age, and he made his spunks as well as sold them. He brought Bacon and Adam Smith into Thrums, and he loved to recite long ...
— Auld Licht Idyls • J.M. Barrie
... Root's home, gave up eight more; but the Delaware congressman, angry because deprived of his fifty shares, refused to accept any. "I had come prepared to take the fifty," he wrote, "and in a fit of more spunk than wisdom, ...
— A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3 • DeAlva Stanwood Alexander
... policeman her age. Not that she had any reason to be ashamed of her age. In fact she could easily have passed for twenty years younger than she probably was, but she just had the average American woman's spunk and refused to ...
— Flash-lights from the Seven Seas • William L. Stidger
... hard work, too, to say nothin' o' them dirty Poles and other cats. . . . I gotta turn up to the minute every mornin' ur they wanta know why. That nigger, Koppy! Some day I'll jes' natcherl bust up an' take him to Heaven with me. I'm sure losin' my spunk." ...
— The Return of Blue Pete • Luke Allan
... mean to be, my dear; but really, Caroline, you do annoy me. Have you no spunk at all in your composition? Are you still fretting your heart out for ...
— Wild Kitty • L. T. Meade
... the cold, surely," declared Edith Watts. "Why, it's just fine to be out to-day. And I know Lucile would never stay away because it was cold. She has too much spunk ...
— Dew Drops, Vol. 37, No. 10, March 8, 1914 • Various
... will thrust into heart, brain, and backbone, so as to form part of the physical substance of the man. The feeling with which it rushes into consciousness is akin to physical sensation; and the whole body—every nerve, muscle, and drop of blood—is thrilled with purpose and passion. "Spunk" does not express it; for "spunk," besides being petite in itself, is courage in effervescence rather than courage in essence. A person usually cowardly may be kicked or bullied into the exhibition of spunk; but ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 • Various
... high-toned, an' stubborn as a mule—I dunno's she an' Austin will be able to stick it out, he's some set himself. I shouldn't wonder if it all got broke off, an' I'm not sayin' it mightn't be for the best if it was. But I don't deny Sylvia's real pretty an' generous, an' I like her spunk. I was ...
— The Old Gray Homestead • Frances Parkinson Keyes
... good an' soft, Then Wallie he come and carried it oft. Then he'd roll it into a gret big ball, An' he made a-more'n a MILLION in all! Then Huldy Ann she spanked 'em flat An' pinched an' poked, an' the like o' that, Till she got it inter a gret big hunk— My! didn't Huldy have the spunk! And then she sliced one end half-way To make the laigs ('cause they never stay When you stick 'em on in a seprit piece— Seems like the ends was made o' grease); And she slit an arm right up each side,— I couldn't a done it if I'd a tried! O' course, her brothers ...
— The Purple Cow! • Gelett Burgess
... pleases the old lady, makes her your friend 'cause she likes your spunk, and because of it she'll give you the wind of a grey wolf, the step of the panther, the strength of the buffalo and the courage of a lion. She is always generous with her favorites. Ah! lad, she kin make your blood ...
— The Black Wolf Pack • Dan Beard
... road. He'll go straight on. Clever, eh? Say, I wouldn't have guessed you had all this spunk in you!" he took the time to say, casting her an ...
— Red-Robin • Jane Abbott
... showing people that can help you, and keep your house full, how pleasant it is up here.' She ain't no fool, with all her faintin's and dyin's away! No, Jeff Briggs. And if she wants to show ye off agin them city fellows ez she knows, and ye ain't got spunk enough to stand up and show off with her—why"—she turned her head impatiently, but he ...
— Jeff Briggs's Love Story • Bret Harte
... the dyke yon briar grows Wi' leaf an' thorn, it's lane Whaur the spunk o' flame o' the briar rose ...
— Songs of Angus and More Songs of Angus • Violet Jacob
... meekly from the pillow. "I know you will." Phoebe looked at her for a moment longer rather wistfully, and turned away. "I do wish she had some spunk," she muttered complainingly, not thinking that Evadna might hear her. "She don't take after the Ramseys none—there wasn't anything mushy about them that I ...
— Good Indian • B. M. Bower |
