"Beckon" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... is not considered the proper thing for the father or mother to be present at the christening, and Jan saw at once that the Falla folk were displeased at his coming to the parsonage. Eric did not beckon to him to come and help with the horse, but unharnessed the beast himself, and the mistress of Falla, drawing the child closer to her, crossed the yard and went into the parson's kitchen, without saying a word ...
— The Emperor of Portugalia • Selma Lagerlof
... all her flowers, And length of days, and immortality Of thought, and freshness ever self-renew'd. For Time and Grief abode too long with Life, And like all other friends i' the world, at last They grew aweary of her fellowship: So Time and Grief did beckon unto Death, And Death drew nigh and beat the doors of Life; But thou didst sit alone in the inner house, A wakeful port'ress and didst parle with Death, 'This is a charmed dwelling which I hold'; So Death gave back, and would no further ...
— The Suppressed Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson • Alfred Lord Tennyson
... continued the other, impressively, "you'd better keep your hand on that shotgun of ours all the while, until you see me beckon to you again." ...
— The, Boy Scouts on Sturgeon Island - or Marooned Among the Game-fish Poachers • Herbert Carter
... men say, 'Hush, make no noise. De pilot am as watchful as a cat. Dey had tied tings round de oars dat dey should make no noise, and when dey get to de side ob de ship dey lay dem in very quiet, hook on de tackle and hoist her up. De hatchway were off, and de men beckon to Sam, and two ob dem go down wid him, and ...
— By Sheer Pluck - A Tale of the Ashanti War • G. A. Henty
... fortune to him. If he were not Lord Drake Selbie, but simply Mr. Drake Vernon, he could manage to live upon it. The vision of a slim and graceful girl, with soft black hair and violet-gray eyes, rose before him. It seemed to beckon him, to beckon him away from the hollow, heartless world in which he had hitherto lived. He rose and flung open wide the window of his sitting room, and the breath of air which came through the London streets seemed fragrant with the air which wafted ...
— Nell, of Shorne Mills - or, One Heart's Burden • Charles Garvice
... but to beckon him from the window, and send him fifty yards, and he returns with a guard of men, and I deliver up to him the body of the person calling himself James the Third, for whose capture Parliament hath offered a reward of 500L., as your Royal Highness ...
— The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. • W. M. Thackeray
... stood appalled, looking into the green wood, aware of the mysterious life in the branches; and then lay down to watch the insect life among the grass—a beetle pursuing its little or great destiny. But he was too exalted to remain lying down; the wood seemed to beckon him, and he asked if the madness of the woods had overtaken him. Further on he came upon a chorus of finches singing in some hawthorn-trees, and in Derrinrush he stopped to listen to the silence that had suddenly fallen. A shadow floated by; he ...
— The Lake • George Moore
... Oxford, and that the Cathedral spires were fine in the gathering dusk, as one emerged from the Fifth Avenue entrance. The return to the world of men stimulated him, and the long undulating waves of electric lights seemed to beckon to him hopefully as ...
— Flint - His Faults, His Friendships and His Fortunes • Maud Wilder Goodwin
... picturesque scenery of Ohio, should visit Highland county. Here both Nature and history have done everything to make this a journey never to be forgotten. The round browed hills lift themselves in "bold bastions" and parapets of green that seem to beckon to you to come up higher. Sometimes you see a wide plain with its far flashing stream and homes here and there, or clusters of wooded heights with now and then a single pointed summit rising above and behind the rest. The roads are made up of innumerable loops and curves, ...
— See America First • Orville O. Hiestand
... I come; thy last glance guideth me! Drawn, too, by webs of shadow, like thine hair; For, Sweet, the mystery Of thy dark hair the deepening dusk hath caught. In early moonlight gleamings, lo, I see Thy white hands beckon to the garden, where Dim day and silvery darkness are inwrought As our two lives, where, joining soul with soul, The tints shall mingle in a fairer whole. Oh! dost thou hear? I call, beloved, I call, My stout ...
— Along the Shore • Rose Hawthorne Lathrop
... stagnate and the young people with visions go away to the cities where opportunity seems to beckon. Ninety-nine out of a hundred of them will jostle with the straphangers all their lives, mere wheels turning round in a huge machine. Ninety-nine out of a hundred of them might have had a larger opportunity right back in the home town, had the town been awake ...
— The University of Hard Knocks • Ralph Parlette
... an hour of his wit and his fancy. How eagerly we would seek him out! And yet we have him—the very best of him—at our elbows from week to week, and hardly trouble ourselves to put out our hands to beckon him down. No matter what mood a man may be in, when once he has passed through the magic door he can summon the world's greatest to sympathize with him in it. If he be thoughtful, here are the kings of thought. If he be dreamy, here are the masters of fancy. Or is it amusement ...
— Through the Magic Door • Arthur Conan Doyle
... the right hand spread open is the gesture of bounty, liberality, and a free heart; and thus we reward, and bestow gifts. Placing with vehemence the right fist in the left palm is a gesture commonly used to mock, chide, insult, reproach, and rebuke. To beckon with the raised hand is a universal sign of craving audience and entreating a favorable silence. To wave the hand from us, the palm outward, is the gesture of repulsion, aversion, dismissal. To shake the fist at one signifies anger ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick
... Christiana must be gone. So the road was full of people to see her take her journey. But behold, all the banks beyond the river were full of horses and chariots, which were come down from above to accompany her to the city-gate. So she came forth, and entered the river with a beckon of farewell to those that followed her to the river-side. The last word she was heard to say was, I come, Lord, to be with thee, ...
— A Book of English Prose - Part II, Arranged for Secondary and High Schools • Percy Lubbock
... her bowed head being scarcely above the level of the banister-rail. At the first landing she stopped and beckoned us forward encouragingly towards the open door of the dead-room. My aunt went in and the old woman, seeing that I hesitated to enter, began to beckon to me again repeatedly with ...
— Dubliners • James Joyce
... were you, when ladies at the play, Sir, Beckon and nod, a melodrama through, I would not turn abstractedly away, ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various
... not to be turned off, and 'twere a ladder, so it be in my humor, or the Fates beckon to me. Nay, pray, sir, if the Destinies spin me a fine thread, Faulkner flies another pitch; and to avoid the headache hereafter, before I'll be a hairmonger, I'll be ...
— Sir Thomas More • William Shakespeare [Apocrypha]
... We hunger to inquire of each other, to compare notes and assure ourselves that it was all really true, as one by one the scents and sounds and names of long-forgotten places come gradually back and beckon ...
— The Wind in the Willows • Kenneth Grahame
... have but one chance left,—and that is going to Florence. But it is cruel to turn. The mountains seem to demand me,— Peak and valley from far to beckon and motion me onward. Somewhere amid their folds she passes whom fain I would follow; Somewhere amid those heights she haply calls me to seek her. Ah, could I hear her call! could I catch the glimpse of her raiment! Turn, however, I must, though it ...
— Amours de Voyage • Arthur Hugh Clough
... on the game to leave, even for refreshments. Now and then I saw him beckon to an attendant, who brought him a stiff drink of whiskey. For a moment his play seemed a little better, then he would drop back into his hopeless losing. For some reason or other ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds
... upward, saw him rise and beckon them, while with his other hand he pointed wildly westward. With springing steps they rushed to his side, and joined in his delight and his thanks to God as the marvellous spectacle met their eyes. Heaps of stones were piled up to show that ...
— Historical Tales - The Romance of Reality - Volume III • Charles Morris
... Thought was a torturing thing. When I looked back, memory drew fearful pictures, the lines of lurid flame, and, whenever I dared anticipate the future, hope refused to illumine my onward path. I dwelt in one awful present; nothing to solace me—nothing to beckon me onward to ...
— Stories of Achievement, Volume III (of 6) - Orators and Reformers • Various
... confines of the empire by only a narrow isthmus, Egypt loomed on the horizon, and appeared to beckon to her rival. Her natural fertility, the industry of her inhabitants, the stores of gold and perfumes which she received from the heart of Ethiopia, were well known by the passage to and fro of her caravans, ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) • G. Maspero
... said Uncle Josiah; and he went on and entered the office, to come out at the end of a few minutes and beckon ...
— The Adventures of Don Lavington - Nolens Volens • George Manville Fenn
... be the vision of a magnificent man larger and more beautiful than any mortal; and then Larry would hold his breath in ecstasy, while the man's face grew graver and darker, and his strong arm seemed to lift and beckon to something from afar, and then from out a great stack of clouds would break one milk-white one which, when Larry looked closer, would prove to be a colossal steed; and in an instant, in the most remarkable way, the form of the man would be mounted upon the back of the courser and then ...
— Dreamland • Julie M. Lippmann
... than mortal, but, at the delivery of each gift, he beheld a third part of the vigour of animal life fade away, as the eye, the bright, the unfading, but fatal eye, was placed in his trembling hand, he saw the spark of life quivering like a lamp in the socket. The priest had just time to beckon to him his lovely daughter, when, placing her hand in that of ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones
... through no grasping spirit, but with a view to obvious national interest and security, and in a manner entirely consistent with the strictest observance of national faith. We have nothing in our history or position to invite aggression; we have everything to beckon us to the cultivation of relations of peace and amity with all nations. Purposes, therefore, at once just and pacific will be significantly marked in the conduct of our foreign affairs. I intend that my Administration shall leave no blot upon our fair record, and trust I may safely ...
— U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses • Various
... broken souls. And as the ghastly chorus rose and fell, there came also the faces of the lost and unhappy creatures to whom they belonged, and, against that curtain of pale grey light, he saw float past him in the air, an array of white and piteous human countenances that seemed to beckon and gibber at him as though he were already one ...
— Three More John Silence Stories • Algernon Blackwood
... of yon ransomed ones around the throne. They beckon my spirit from these dark places ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... Nan—and yet proudly. "If I loved anybody, I'd let him walk over me. That's what Charlotte would say. Can't you hear her? It isn't for my sake. It's for his. Do you think I'd bamboozle him and half beckon and half persuade, the way women do, and trap him into the great enchantment? It is an enchantment. You know it is. But I'd rather he'd keep his grip on things—on himself—and walk away from me, if that's where it took him. I'd rather he'd walk straight off ...
— Old Crow • Alice Brown
... pull them off. And he soon began to think that they were having more fun than he was. He grew tired of sitting still in one place. And just a little distance away he noticed a clump of fine clover. As the tops waved gently in the breeze they seemed to beckon ...
— The Tale of Billy Woodchuck • Arthur Scott Bailey
... call the thrushes; "Wilder! Freer!" breathe the trees; And the purple mountains beckon ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 2 (of 4) • Various
... in two hours either; those are very large canoes. However, there is no time to be lost. While I watch them for a few minutes till I make them more clearly out, do you run up to the house and beckon your father to come down to me; and then, William, get all the muskets ready, and bring the casks of powder, and of made-up cartridges, from the old house into the stockade. Call Juno, and she will help you. We shall have time enough to do everything. ...
— Masterman Ready • Captain Marryat
... he looked at the side paths among the trees, which seemed to beckon to ever more enticing vistas beyond. There were the miniature landscapes, with their mountains and lakes. There were the small cottages, where one could sit and enjoy a cooling drink. He smiled wryly and ...
— The Best Made Plans • Everett B. Cole
... to the cottage' entrance, stood Opposite, by Ulysses plain discern'd, But to his son invisible; for the Gods Appear not manifest alike to all. The mastiffs saw her also, and with tone Querulous hid themselves, yet bark'd they not. She beckon'd him abroad. Ulysses saw The sign, and, issuing through the outer court, Approach'd her, whom the Goddess thus bespake. Laertes' progeny, for wiles renown'd! 200 Disclose thyself to thy own son, that, death Concerting and destruction to your foes, Ye may the royal ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer
... absurd 'distribution' had got hold of her, and she would not be satisfied till she had transferred that strange ticket, No. 2,973, to me, writing the indorsement which you have heard. I had had a longing to visit New York and Hoboken again. This ticket seemed to me to beckon me. I had money enough to come, if I would come cheaply. I wrote to my father's business partner, and enclosed a note to his only sister. She is Mrs. Mason. She asked me, coldly enough, to her house. Old Mr. Grills always ...
— The Man Without a Country and Other Tales • Edward E. Hale
... Carmen, I thrust red flowers into my bosom. I move my head languidly, letting my white teeth gleam between red lips. I study my profile with a hand glass, getting the double reflection. I smile and beckon with my eyes. Yes, I am a beautiful woman—primeval, ...
— Possessed • Cleveland Moffett
... boy with whom she had made friends eying her rather wistfully. He had danced a quadrille with a princess, and the experience seemed so to have shattered his nerve that he was not equal to making his way to her to ask her to bear him company again, and she could not very well beckon him, as she felt inclined to do. The ball became rather dull, although she looked a good deal at the King and Queen and thought how extraordinary it was that she should be in ...
— The Squire's Daughter - Being the First Book in the Chronicles of the Clintons • Archibald Marshall
... was near sunset. She looked about her for some sign of the monster's approach; she wondered, then, if her grievous trial had been but a dream. Near by she saw a sheltering forest, whose young trees seemed to beckon as one maid beckons to another; and eager for the protection of the ...
— Good Stories For Great Holidays - Arranged for Story-Telling and Reading Aloud and for the - Children's Own Reading • Frances Jenkins Olcott
... members. Decked like an altar before them, there stood the green earth, and above it Heaven opened itself, as of old before Stephen; there saw they Radiant in glory the Father, and on his right hand the Redeemer. Under them hear they the clang of harp-strings, and angels from gold clouds Beckon to them like brothers, and fan with their pinions of purple. Closed was the Teacher's task, and with heaven in their hearts and their faces, Up rose the children all, and each bowed him, weeping full sorely, Downward to kiss ...
— The Song of Hiawatha - An Epic Poem • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
... reflection. I cannot say, but there it was, always before him, a face as of a beautiful boy, with tumbled hair and laughing lips, its figure clothed in a fluttering dress of lights and shadows. It also seemed to beckon to him with its hand, and encourage him to run on after it with its ...
— A Little Boy Lost • Hudson, W. H.
... significance. To abandon the obvious weights and measures was to find herself buffeted and astray in a chaotic and menacing universe. Goodness was her guide, and she could cling to it if the enchanting will-o'-the-wisp did not float into sight to beckon and bewilder her. She indignantly repudiated the conception of a social order founded on charm rather than on solid worth; yet, like other frail mortals, she found herself following what allured her nature rather than what responded to the neatly tabulated theories of her mind. It was her beliefs ...
— Franklin Kane • Anne Douglas Sedgwick
... behold from their martyr graves Russell, Sidney, Eliot arise, and with phantom fingers beckon England on! From the fields of their fate and their renown, see Talbot and Falkland, Wolfe and de Montfort arise, regardful of England and her action at this hour. And lo! gathering up from the elder centuries, a sound like a trumpet-call, clear-piercing, far-borne, mystic, ineffable, ...
— The Origins and Destiny of Imperial Britain - Nineteenth Century Europe • J. A. Cramb
... stands upon a damasked bed Of flowers that glow beneath his welcome tread, And softly sink with 'luring odors round, And beckon him to them upon the ground. Amid rare pinks and violets he lies, And one sweet pink low bending near, he eyes. With tender petals thrilling on its stem, It lifts its fragrant face and says to him, "Dear King, wilt thou love me as I do thee? ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Literature • Anonymous
... Lille that—-But the train is slowing down. There is the slope of the hillside, black against the night sky, and among the trees I see the glimmer of a light beckoning me as the lonely lamp in Greenhead Ghyll used to beckon Wordsworth's Michael. The night is full of stars, the landscape glistens with a late frost: it will be a jolly two miles' tramp to that beacon ...
— Pebbles on the Shore • Alpha of the Plough (Alfred George Gardiner)
... Beckon in vain for her thou wilt, My everlasting shame, my guilt! Me forget thou shalt for aye, But thee forget shall not I; Shelter thou shalt receive from strangers; Who'll say: Thou art none of ours! Thou wilt ask: Where are my parents? But for thee no ...
— Lectures on Russian Literature - Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy • Ivan Panin
... like Joan's old memories. The straight, braided hair, the little touch of white at the throat, the dark, searching eyes. A nurse, a trim upheld figure in blue, stood a little behind the couch out of sight of Aunt Janet's eyes, so that she could frown and beckon to Joan to come forward unseen by the woman on the couch. But Aunt Janet had noticed the slight hesitation, her face broke into the most wistful smile that ...
— To Love • Margaret Peterson
... was turned to him. He heard an occasional deep sigh come from her, but he was too busy now with his own sensations to trouble much about her. Looking past her he saw the sea of green leaves dancing lazily in the sunshine. Something seemed to beckon him from beyond the high wall, and he longed to go out and play in the shade of the elms and hawthorns; for the horror of the Empty House was closing in upon him steadily but surely, and he longed for escape into a bright, unhaunted atmosphere, more than anything ...
— Jimbo - A Fantasy • Algernon Blackwood
... to scope. This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, With one man beckon'd from the rest below, Bowing his head against the steepy mount To climb his happiness, would be well express'd In ...
— The Life of Timon of Athens • William Shakespeare [Craig edition]
... feeling lonesome for Rebecca and wishing I might assist Tim who seemed busy in some undertaking. I watched him tie down a canvas covering over a loaded cart and caught his glance, which seemed to beckon me. I walked over to the mule's side and patted ...
— The Blue Birds' Winter Nest • Lillian Elizabeth Roy
... from these feelings, and did be intent to another matter; for it did seem to my spirit that there was some danger anigh to us; and I had a thought of the Humpt Men, and lookt well about, and did beckon the Maid to come nigh, because that the trees did be plentiful thereabout, to ...
— The Night Land • William Hope Hodgson
... fierce Hannibal were come With all his Punic host? By land and sea Caesar shall fly! Fly? Though in adverse war Our best had fallen, and the savage Gaul Were hard upon our track, we would not fly. And now, when fortune smiles and kindly gods Beckon us on to glory! — Let him come Fresh from his years of peace, with all his crowd Of conscript burgesses, Marcellus' tongue (12) And Cato's empty name! We will not fly. Shall Eastern hordes and greedy hirelings keep Their ...
— Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars • Lucan
... home to me." By every god that rules the sea or sky, The perjured villains promise to comply, And bid me hasten to unmoor the ship. With eager joy I launch into the deep; And, heedless of the fraud, for Naxos stand: They whisper oft, and beckon with the hand, And give me signs, all anxious for their prey, To tack about, and steer another way. 80 "Then let some other to my post succeed," Said I, "I'm guiltless of so foul a deed." "What," says Ethalion, ...
— The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase • Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Sommerville
... toward her, and the rippling scarf seemed to beckon him on. Lydia stepped back. "But if you touched me, Jeff," she said, "if you kissed me, I'd kill you. I'm glad you did it once when you didn't think. But if we ...
— The Prisoner • Alice Brown
... loveliest woman in the world," I said, without any sort of warning. "Ah, Louise—surely I may call you that now—how I adore you! I cannot any longer keep back what is in my heart. See yonder where the sun has set—that is where La Tournoire is. It seems to beckon us—not me alone, but us—together. When will you come?—when may I take you to my father and mother, and hear them say I could not have found a sweeter wife ...
— The Bright Face of Danger • Robert Neilson Stephens
... our Maker set For all that in this world are met. To seats around the first The skilful, vigilant, and strong are beckon'd: Their hunger and their thirst The rest must quell with ...
— The Fables of La Fontaine - A New Edition, With Notes • Jean de La Fontaine
... all swagger—he knew that very well. Various unpleasant recollections began to rise in his mind. He remembered how that Indian spy had stalked the settler's cabin at Earl's Court. He could see him now, stealing over the sand, then listening with his ear to the ground, and turning to beckon on the ambushed warriors. He even remembered the way the yellow and red striped blinds of the log hut flapped in the wind, and how the horse that was hobbled outside raised his head from his hay, and pricked his ears uneasily, as the foe came gliding nearer and nearer. Then ...
— The Talking Horse - And Other Tales • F. Anstey
... "You may beckon and shriek and howl as much as you like," cried Rupert. "We are not going to allow you to murder these people if we ...
— Hendricks the Hunter - The Border Farm, a Tale of Zululand • W.H.G. Kingston
... the way appear Steps unto heaven; All that thou sendest me In mercy given; Angels to beckon me Nearer, my God, to ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner
... The sulphate ions wandering around in the weak solution of sulphuric acid come along beside the zinc plate and beckon to its atoms. The sulphate ions had a great deal rather play the game called "zinc sulphate" than the game called "hydrogen sulphate." So the zinc atoms leave their places to join with the sulphate ions. But wait a minute! The ...
— Letters of a Radio-Engineer to His Son • John Mills
... player goes from one to another, saying, "Pussy wants a corner!" The player to whom this is addressed replies, "Go to my next-door neighbor." Any two of the other players meanwhile watch their opportunity to beckon to one another for exchanging places. They try to make this exchange of signals and to dash across from place to place when the attention of Puss is attracted in some other direction, as Pussy must try to secure ...
— Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium • Jessie H. Bancroft
... Africa, page 242, furnishes the following complete illustration of the effect produced by horsemen and fire-arms upon savage warriors. "The commando approached within 150 yards with a view to beckon some one to come out. On this, the enemy commenced their terrible howl, and at once discharged their clubs and javelins. Their black, dismal appearance and savage fury, with their hoarse and stentorian ...
— Mexico and its Religion • Robert A. Wilson
... followed Tex after the chairs he noticed the sheriff beckon to one of the men who sat near him. As they returned with the chairs someone was leaving ...
— The Untamed • Max Brand
... and to their surprise Wright, who stood there alone (for with a pocket telescope they clearly made out that it was Wright), still continued to wave his arms and beckon them in a manner which they at first thought ridiculous, but which soon ...
— Eric, or Little by Little • Frederic W. Farrar
... Captives, Kings and meane men; I saw no inequality in their places. Casting mine eye on the other side the Palace, Thousands I saw my selfe had sent to death; At which I sigh'd and sob'd, I griev'd and groan'd. Ingirt with Angels were those glorious Martyrs Whom this ungentle hand untimely ended, And beckon'd to me as if heaven had said, "Beleeve as they and be thou one of them"; At which my heart leapt, for there me thought I saw, As I suppos'd, you two like to the rest: With that I wak'd and resolutely vow'd To prosecute what I in ...
— Old English Plays, Vol. I - A Collection of Old English Plays • Various
... poison being prepared—so openly prepared that everyone knows for which child it is being mixed. We must stand and wait and do nothing. We must see the little girl led up to the cup and persuaded to taste it. We must watch her gradually growing to like it, for it is flavoured and sweet. We must not beckon to her before she has drunk of it and say, "Come to us and we will tell you what is in that cup, and keep you safely from those who would make you drink it"; for "any attempt to induce the child to come to you, or any assistance ...
— Lotus Buds • Amy Carmichael
... all golden with welcome—the lights of the inn; And poisonous hell-flowers, lit doorways that beckon to sin; Soft vesper flowers of the Churches with dark stems above; Gold flowers of court and of cottage made one flower by love; Beacons of windows on hillside and cliff to recall Some wanderer lost for a season—Night's ...
— A Cluster of Grapes - A Book of Twentieth Century Poetry • Various
... Tuesday morning as she was coming to work, she spied a bill poster announcing the appearance of the "Rag-Time Follies." Rows upon rows of saucy girls in crimson tights and gauzy wings smiled down upon her, smiled and seemed to beckon. ...
— Calvary Alley • Alice Hegan Rice
... predestined sway: all other things, Except by leave of us, could never be. For Destiny is but the breath of God Still moving in us, the last fragment left Of our unfallen nature, waking oft 30 Within our thought, to beckon us beyond The narrow circle of the seen and known, And always tending to a noble end, As all things must that overrule the soul, And for a space unseat the helmsman, Will. The fate of England and of freedom ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell
... as if sheathed in burnished gold. Sunshine and distance had dispelled all traces of the region's barrenness, and for a few memorable moments, while we watched it breathlessly, its sparkling bastions seemed to beckon us alluringly to its magnificence; then, fading like an exquisite mirage created by the genii of the desert, it swiftly sank into the desolation from which the sun had summoned it, to crown it briefly with supernal glory. Turning at last from ...
— John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Vol. 10 (of 10) - Southern California; Grand Canon of the Colorado River; Yellowstone National Park • John L. Stoddard
... beckon him, that each day mankind and the claims of mankind slipped farther from him. Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and the beaten earth around it, and to plunge into the forest, ...
— The Call of the Wild • Jack London
... and miles he went, But once looked back to beckon with his hand And cry: "Come home, O love, from banishment: ...
— Poems • Christina G. Rossetti
... they said that man would be rewarded and punished according to deeds; if they admitted that some time in eternity there would be an opportunity given to lift up souls, and that throughout all the ages the angels of progress and virtue would beckon the fallen upward; and that some time, and no matter how far away they might put off the time, all the children of men would be reasonably happy, I never would say a solitary word against the church, but just as long ...
— The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII. - Interviews • Robert Green Ingersoll
... sunny being, she comprehended nothing of care. Life was abounding in her. She knew not the disease of reflection; she felt not the perplexities of life. To sing and to laugh—to leap the stream and beckon him to leap after her, as he used in the old lover-days, when she would conceal herself from him in the folds of a water-lily—to tantalize and enchant him with a thousand coquetries—this was her idea of how they should live; and when he ...
— The Wedding Guest • T.S. Arthur
... of Joy escaped the Youth, he let his Zither fall, and with extended arms he called out the name of the enigmatical Being, who seemed to stoop lovingly to him and beckon to him in a friendly manner; indeed, if his ear did not deceive him, she called his name with unutterable sweet Whispers, proper to love. Beside himself with delight the youth lost his Senses and ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... blood of noble freemen! They were happy, the victims of ignorance, contented with the freedom their country had given them, bowing beneath the enslaving yoke of justice-boasting democracy, and ready to be sold and shipped, with an invoice of freight, at the beckon of an owner. ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams
... Father.' For if you rightly grasp the bearing of this text, and mark what follows it in our Lord's heart and thoughts, you will see these deep eyes of solemn joy turned from the heaven to you, filmy with compassion, and those hands, then lifted in rapt devotion, stretched out to beckon you and all the world to His breast, and hear the voice that rose in that burst of thanksgiving melting into tenderness as it woos you, be you wise or ignorant, to come to ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII • Alexander Maclaren
... the deadly sting! Who passes mountains, breaks through fenced walls And firm embattled spears, and with his filth Taints all the world!" Thus me my guide address'd, And beckon'd him, that he should come to shore, Near to the stony causeway's utmost edge. Forthwith that image vile of fraud appear'd, His head and upper part expos'd on land, But laid not on the shore his bestial train. His face the ...
— The Divine Comedy • Dante
... conquering hero, by his talents and his great deeds; to subdue the world and its prejudices; to bridge over with laurels and trophies the gulf which separated him from the princess. Was he not already on the way? Did not the future beckon to him with glorious promise? Must not he, who at eighteen years of age had attained that for which many not less endowed had given their whole lives in vain—he, the flattered cavalier, the scholar, and the officer of the king's guard—be set apart, elected ...
— Berlin and Sans-Souci • Louise Muhlbach
... the condemned, marching noiselessly as shades to unavoidable and everlasting misery. They seemed to me merely automata, in the hands of some ruthless and unrelenting destiny. They lived and moved, but they were without heart or hope. The illusions of the imagination, which beckon all of us forward, even over the roughest paths and through the darkest valleys and shadows of life, had departed from the scope of their vision. They knew that to-morrow could bring them nothing better than today—the same shameful, pitiable, contemptible, ...
— Caesar's Column • Ignatius Donnelly
... highest nobles in the land, the richest gentlemen, counts, foreign barons, all the flower of our knighthood. All loved me, and any one of them would have counted my love the greatest boon. I had but to beckon, and the best of them, the handsomest, the first in beauty and birth would have become my husband. And to none of them didst thou incline my heart, O bitter fate; but thou didst turn it against the noblest heroes of our land, and towards a stranger, towards ...
— Taras Bulba and Other Tales • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
... mountains, adding sullenness to the gloom, instead of dispelling it. But why describe this gloomy sunset, there are so many beautiful ones?—when, as the grand, old, dying Humboldt said, the 'glorious rays seem to beckon earth ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... moonbeam on a lake; and yet it was wondrous beautiful. A fascination stole over the senses of young Wolfgang. He stared at the lovely apparition with fixed eyes and distended jaws. She looked at him with ineffable archness. She lifted one beautifully rounded alabaster arm, and made a sign as if to beckon him towards her. Did Wolfgang—the young and lusty Wolfgang—follow? Ask the iron whether it follows the magnet?—ask the pointer whether it pursues the partridge through the stubble?—ask the youth whether the lollipop-shop does not attract him? ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray
... path, an amethystine light broke full between the arched green branches; directly in front of them glimmered a broad piece of water, and out of the purple-tinted depths rose the white, nude, lovely form of a woman, whose rounded, outstretched arms appeared to beckon them, . . whose mouth smiled in mingled malice and sweetness, . . and round whose looped-up tresses sparkled a diadem of sapphire flame. With a cry of astonishment and ecstacy Theos sprang forward: Sah-luma held him back ...
— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli
... of painted threads, Where his tireless shuttle flew, In fancy he saw the sunlit waves Beckon him ...
— The Miracle and Other Poems • Virna Sheard
... General Bazain ordered the prisoner's removal. Then, his eyes moist, the division commander turned to beckon Dick to him. ...
— Uncle Sam's Boys with Pershing's Troops - Dick Prescott at Grips with the Boche • H. Irving Hancock
... one fell: the second Wheeled round him, twice, and was off for new luck; There in the dark her white wing beckon'd:— Drop me a kiss—I'm ...
— Poems of To-Day: an Anthology • Various
... the monarch-murder'd Soldier's tomb You wove th' unfinish'd[103:1] wreath of saddest hues; And to that holier[103:2] chaplet added bloom 30 Besprinkling it with Jordan's cleansing dews. But lo your Henderson[103:3] awakes the Muse—— His Spirit beckon'd from the mountain's height! You left the plain and soar'd mid richer views! So Nature mourn'd when sunk the First Day's light, 35 With stars, unseen before, spangling ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... that he would come out, within sight of the beckon of her hand. She dared not call, for fear of wakening her grandfather: but she very much wanted a flowering orange branch. A gay little humming-bird was sitting and hovering near her; and she thought that a bunch of fragrant blossoms would entice it in a moment. ...
— The Hour and the Man - An Historical Romance • Harriet Martineau
... white handkerchief; it was seen by the small party of Engineers who were lying outside the last parallel, and also by Lieutenant Treves, of the French Navy. At first the signal was not understood; but M. Clement continued to wave the handkerchief violently, and beckon to those who saw him to come on immediately. It was with difficulty 100 men could be collected in the trenches, but about that number advanced and occupied the deserted position. In the meantime the word was passed from post to post ...
— The Insurrection in Paris • An Englishman: Davy
... town. The faint-hearted and the cowardly bring up the rear. When the marble steps that lead up to the mansion are reached, the vanguard halts. The impetus of the entire line is arrested as if by magic. An unheard, invisible signal is obeyed, the signal of fear. Then the men in advance beckon to the ...
— The Transgressors - Story of a Great Sin • Francis A. Adams
... struggle to maintain his ideals is like a struggle for life itself. Many, alas! after a short, sharp conflict, give up the warfare and break faith and fealty with the deeper convictions. They quench the light that shone afar off to beckon and cheer them on. Persuading themselves that the ideal life is impracticable, they strike an average between their highest moods and their low-flying hours. Then is the luster of life all dimmed, and the soul is like a noble mansion in the morning after some banquet or reception. ...
— A Man's Value to Society - Studies in Self Culture and Character • Newell Dwight Hillis
... unbroken, The far fields that beckon and call; The song of the frost on the runners And the Northern Lights high over all; The trees in the bend of the river, The streams that nobody has spanned; The whisper of gold, the story half told, All this by the ...
— Rhymes of a Roughneck • Pat O'Cotter
... tangled loom of her fevered brain wove a new picture. She was back in her bedroom at Flint House, looking down at the graven face of the Moon Rock. As she looked, a great hand seemed to come out of the sea and beckon to her. The summons was one she dare not disobey. She left her bed, crept downstairs in the darkness, out to the edge of the cliff, and looked down. The face of the Moon Rock was watching her intently. She ...
— The Moon Rock • Arthur J. Rees
... influx of these into the human spirit. Similarly meaningful is another unusual way of speaking in English, of a person's being "in" faith or "in" charity, where we say that he has faith or exercises charity. The thought is that faith and charity, truth and goodness beckon to us, to ...
— Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence • Emanuel Swedenborg
... when they discussed life and love seemed capable of a double intent, and whether by freedom she meant to yield or to escape something he had never made out. All he knew was that at times she seemed to beckon him on and at others to fend him away. She was fickle as fortune which, as he plunged and covered, sometimes smiled and again wore ...
— Rimrock Jones • Dane Coolidge
... Miles, my noble-hearted, manly brother. Heaven will not desert you, unless you desert your God; it does not desert me, but angels beckon me to its bliss! Were it not for you and Lucy, and my dear, dear guardian, the hour of my departure would be a moment of pure felicity. But we will not talk of this now. You must prepare yourself, Miles, to hear me patiently, and to be indulgent to my last wishes, ...
— Miles Wallingford - Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore" • James Fenimore Cooper
... flow; The fountain falls in sweetly wavering rushes; The flower beneath the west wind's kiss bends slow; Delight from each to every thing outgushes; Grape-clusters beckon; peaches luring glow, And hide half in their leaves, up-swelling luscious; The air, which aromatic odours streak, Drinks up the glow upon ...
— Rampolli • George MacDonald
... as to the method of it. Because, when you are working with masses of men and organized bodies of opinion, you have got to carry the organized body along. The whole art and practice of government consists not in moving individuals, but in moving masses. It is all very well to run ahead and beckon, but, after all, you have got to wait for the body to follow. I have not come to ask you to be patient, because you have been, but I have come to congratulate you that there was a force behind you that will beyond any peradventure ...
— President Wilson's Addresses • Woodrow Wilson
... he never looked at the dancing, wriggling stripes without a surge of emotion. Its every flaunt seemed to beckon brave worshippers from far across the sea to the forlorn island on which it was ...
— Nedra • George Barr McCutcheon
... capable,—could destroy England's commerce, and in a long peace could consolidate the empire he had already won. His empire thus consolidated, he would be virtual master of half the solid earth in the Eastern hemisphere. If ambition should still beckon him on, he would still be young; he could then consider the next ...
— The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte - Vol. III. (of IV.) • William Milligan Sloane
... broken only by the chime of bells and the feet of church- goers, brooded over the city; sunshine made golden shadows on the grass; the sweet wind brought spring odors from the woods; and every flower seemed to nod and beckon, as if welcoming the new ...
— The Louisa Alcott Reader - A Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of School • Louisa M. Alcott
... tints shot on the midnight air Herald the moon that loiters far away? Or moony sea-gleams peep and beckon there From sapphire ...
— Songs, Sonnets & Miscellaneous Poems • Thomas Runciman
... he, half laughing at himself; "do you see, Leonore, how the tops of the fir-trees there in the churchyard bow themselves in the wind and beckon? I cannot conceive why, but this nodding and beckoning distresses me wonderfully; I feel ...
— The Home • Fredrika Bremer
... luscious cactus fruit gingerly in her fingers, trying to open it without getting the tiny pronged spikes in their fingers. The driver climbed into his place and set the car going once more, headed toward the hills that seemed to beckon them. ...
— The Merriweather Girls in Quest of Treasure • Lizette M. Edholm
... with a certain air of eagerness and joy as if they were glad to be on their way to an appointed place. They did not stay to speak to him, but they looked at him often and spoke to one another as they looked; and now and then one of them would smile and beckon him a friendly greeting, so that he felt they would like him ...
— The Unknown Quantity - A Book of Romance and Some Half-Told Tales • Henry van Dyke
... he saw Ruth beckon to him. Then he made his way quickly to the tent, and started in just as Dorothy resumed her ...
— Glenloch Girls • Grace M. Remick
... Not until Hosea confessed that he was induced to take this step by his father's command did he beckon to the high-priest, who began in ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... Where I with empty cheer was soon dismiss'd: "The Emperor at present was engaged; Some other time he would attend to us!" I turn'd away, and passing through the hall, With heavy heart, in a recess I saw The Grand Duke John[*] in tears, and by his side The noble lords of Wart and Tegerfeld, Who beckon'd me, and said, "Redress yourselves. Expect not justice from the Emperor. Does he not plunder his own brother's child, And keep from him his just inheritance?" The Duke claims his maternal property, Urging he's now of age, and 'tis full time, ...
— Wilhelm Tell - Title: William Tell • Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
... distance to God, as there is difference in the distance to the sun from the slates and from the cellar. Let us live near God, and so aspiration will come in the place of satisfaction, and the unattained will gleam before us, and beckon us not in vain, and the man that sees what an infinite stretch there is before him will be delivered from the temptations of self-conceit, and will say, 'Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfected, but ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John • Alexander Maclaren
... Over the river they beckon to me, Loved ones who've crossed to the farther side, The gleam of their snowy robes I see, But their voices are lost in the dashing tide. There's one with ringlets of sunny gold, And eyes the reflection of heaven's own blue; He ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 - Sorrow and Consolation • Various
... And the wild car the exulting Panthers bore, Announced the Presence of the Rapture-Bringer— Bounded the Satyr and blithe Fawn before; And Maenads, as the frenzy stung the soul, Hymn'd, in their madding dance, the glorious wine— As ever beckon'd to the lusty bowl The ruddy ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 • Various
... "Not a sign, Buck! Beckon he must have dug a hole and pulled it in after him. But we've got to find out what's the matter with the pipe line. There's only a few days' supply of water in the reservoir. Rustle out some grub, and we'll ride over ...
— The Boy Ranchers in Camp - or The Water Fight at Diamond X • Willard F. Baker
... sobbing, and ready to die with grief; but Sidonia bade her not take on so; for perhaps, after all, the old hag had not told the truth, at least concerning the dear, worthy abbess; but two witnesses would be sufficient testimony. Whereupon she bid Wolde watch for Anna Apenborg from the window, and beckon to her to come in if she ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold
... great Estate in the West. "Thus," he wrote, "have I made your fortunes, sons and brothers! But truly not without you and your love and strengthening could I have made aught! A brother indeed for my left hand and my right hand, and to beckon me on, two ...
— 1492 • Mary Johnston
... Blank gives you one of his charming little essays, a certain amount of thought goes on before pen is put to paper. One cannot write "Scene I. An Open Place. Thunder and Lightning. Enter Three Witches," or "As I look up from my window, the nodding daffodils beckon to me to take the morning," one cannot give of one's best in this way on the spur of the moment. At least, others cannot. But when I have a new nib in my pen, then I can go straight from my breakfast to the blotting-paper, ...
— Not that it Matters • A. A. Milne |
