"Good turn" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... make a good turn, but—the public aren't educated up to it yet. It's beyond 'em. If it wasn't, that red dub on the Bench would be worth fifty ...
— A Diversity of Creatures • Rudyard Kipling
... my medical man. He is an old chum of mine, and feels my pulse, and looks at my tongue, and talks about the weather, all for nothing, when I fancy I'm ill; so I thought I would do him a good turn by going to him now. "What a doctor wants," I said, "is practice. He shall have me. He will get more practice out of me than out of seventeen hundred of your ordinary, commonplace patients, with only one or two diseases each." ...
— Three Men in a Boa • Jerome K. Jerome
... Ronicky. "I've seen square things done in my life, but I've never yet seen a girl throw up all she had to do a good turn for a gent she's seen only once. You follow me, lady? I pretty near guess the ...
— Ronicky Doone • Max Brand
... adventure. If the revival of the Whartons' book were to serve no other purpose than to send some laughter loving souls to the heady well-spring of Theodore Hook's merriment, it would have done the mirthful a good turn and ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 1 • Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton
... poor thing has a bedridden father and mother and a little crippled brother and a little sister that isn't well, and she's working hard to send them all to school—I mean the children, not her parents; so I saw the chance to do her a good turn, and I hope you'll feel that you can work harmoniously with her. I know I'm too darned human to be in this business—" Baird looked aside ...
— Merton of the Movies • Harry Leon Wilson
... times to inquire into subjects of complaint, anxious at all times to redress any legitimate grievances. To them and to many other less prominent but no less worthy officials of the Transvaal Civil Service, whom it is impossible to name and to whom it might prove to be no good turn if they were named, is due an expression of regret that they may perhaps suffer by references which are not directed against them but which are justified by a rotten system and are called for by the action of others over whom these men have no control. Nobody but one intimately ...
— The Transvaal from Within - A Private Record of Public Affairs • J. P. Fitzpatrick
... said the old man, with a catch in his voice, as if he was deeply touched. "Ye'll do a good turn fer me an' little Bill here. Bill, we'll git ...
— Ted Strong's Motor Car • Edward C. Taylor
... of money put by and here was the chance to go into hops with the certainty that hops would quadruple and quintuple in price inside the year. No, it was my chance, and though they didn't mean it by a long chalk, the railroad people did me a good turn when they gave me my time—and the tad'll ...
— The Octopus • Frank Norris
... sea-ulster Hetty sat huddled up in the lea of the deck-house, sick at heart and miserable. She reproached herself for the scurvy trick she was playing on him, reviled herself and yet pitied herself. After all, she was doing him a good turn in forcing him to despise her for the shameless way in which she treated his devotion, his fairness, his loyalty. He would be happier in the end for the brief spasm of pain and disgust he was to experience in this second ...
— The Hollow of Her Hand • George Barr McCutcheon
... good-natured and manly boy, to whom Sundays passed a trifle slowly, sprang up with such alacrity that I laughed as I said, "No need of words, Reuben, but I owe you a good turn all the same." Then turning to Miss Warren, ...
— A Day Of Fate • E. P. Roe
... lucky in one way. The chief told Vic that if we had gone yesterday we should all have been killed, as without knowing anything about it, we should have got there just after the fight. So for once fever had done me a good turn, a "providencia," I think Vic called it, as I should have reached my destination the previous day if I had not been delayed by fever. Out of curiosity to see what the chief would say, I told Vic to tell him that I would help him with my gun, but the chief ...
— Wanderings Among South Sea Savages And in Borneo and the Philippines • H. Wilfrid Walker
... it is a question of being a help to the rest of the world, or a burden on it, a Girl Scout is always to be found among the helpers. The simplest way of saying this, for very young Scouts, is to tell them to do a GOOD TURN to someone every day they live; that is, to be a giver and not a taker. Some beginners in Scouting, and many strangers, seem to think that any simple act of courtesy, such as we all owe to one another, counts ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts
... whole hut may be carried away. Gather your traps together and call Wharton or Stevens—or both of them—to come and help you take them up to Aldercliffe. I'll attend to notifying the mills. You've done us a good turn, my boy." ...
— Ted and the Telephone • Sara Ware Bassett
... is to know if you'll marry me. If there was anything else, I'd tell you so; but there ain't. Come to my age, a man knows the things that matter and the things that don't; that's about the only good turn life does us." ...
— Summer • Edith Wharton
... the "little men" story had turned out-as expected—a dud, Koehler had done me a good turn. An old friend, William E. Barrett, well-known fiction writer, now lived in Denver. Thanks to Koehler's gag, I had a pleasant visit with ...
— The Flying Saucers are Real • Donald Keyhoe
... course that was different'; and his voice was somewhat strained as he spoke. 'I—I ought not to have said that, Luscombe. When one man owes another his life, he—he should be careful. If I can do the fellow a good turn, I will; and since in these days anybody can become an officer in the British Army, I—I——' He stammered uneasily, and then went on: 'Of course it is different when you have to meet a man as an equal in a friend's ...
— "The Pomp of Yesterday" • Joseph Hocking
... next moment informed her that maybe when she was anointed she might find herself cured out an' out, as many a wan had before her, an' wasn't it well known that them that the priest laid his holy hands on, as likely as not took a good turn immaydiate? ...
— North, South and Over the Sea • M.E. Francis (Mrs. Francis Blundell)
... so kindly helped me to pull my sheep out of the ditch, I would have said to you nay," replied Math; "but as one good turn deserves another, I will even give you my true shepherd's suit for your finery." So saying, he exchanged ...
— The Children's Portion • Various
... seemed to me to be a matter eminently suited to the machinery of our Foreign Office. Though the Foreign Officer is as formidable as a Bishop in his own cathedral, he is, to those who persist in knowing him personally, a man much like oneself, fond of his glass of beer, ready to exchange one good turn for another. It happens that I have assisted the F.O. to make peace much as I have helped the W.O. to make war. In the sacred precincts I reminded my friend of this fact, and impressed upon him that the consolidation of the entente between Geraldine and ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, July 7th, 1920 • Various
... know what is for our good, short-sighted mortals as we are!" observed Mr Campbell. "Had not this estate come to us, I should, by following up my profession as surgeon, in all probability, have realised a good provision for my children; now, this seeming good turn of fortune leaves me poor. I am too old now to resume my profession, and, if I did, have no chance of obtaining the practice which I left. You see that which appeared to us and everyone else the most fortunate occurrence ...
— The Settlers in Canada • Frederick Marryat
... to Rein. Not that she had expected the least attention to be offered her, and hoped that it was not intended as a different mode of payment for her carrying a lady's handbag. Although we had felt that one good turn deserved another, we made her mind easy on that score, ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 30. September, 1873 • Various
... but he stopped when he saw me looking up, and I went on gathering and putting them in the basket. Not one of them that had been thrown down had hit me, so I concluded that the monkey had no evil design, but that, on the contrary, he was trying to do me a good turn. ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, January 1878, No. 3 • Various
... doing a good turn again is cancelling an obligation? I don't think an obligation can ever be RETURNED in the sense of being got rid of. But I ...
— Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood • George MacDonald
... "One good turn deserves another," said the man; "we are going to dinner just now, and shall leave off work—wait for me here, and I'll make it ...
— The Parent's Assistant • Maria Edgeworth
... you found the seal of my watch, which I dropped at your schoolroom door—one good turn deserves another. If it is possible it shall be done—I will inquire of madame's woman."—"Follow me upstairs," said he, returning in a few minutes; ...
— Murad the Unlucky and Other Tales • Maria Edgeworth
... rich dower of these two girls. I need much self-examination to weed out worldly thoughts. Alas! Alas! I would rather be the humblest aunt in our kitchen than the Lady Superior of the Ursulines. Blessed old Mere Marie used to say 'a good turn in the kitchen was as good as ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby
... o'clock;" and just as we were starting, she came up and said low to Heloise, who was beside me, "J'espere que tout va bien, Adele l'a remplace, et ne veut plus de lui! Oh! la bonne fille!" So whoever "Adele" is, I suppose she has done Victorine a good turn. I asked Heloise on our way home if "Adele" was a relation of the Marquis's, and she went into fits of laughter and said, "Oui, une tres proche," but I can't see anything to laugh at, ...
— The Visits of Elizabeth • Elinor Glyn
... difference. He improved in his English. Something of that missing quality which Moody called ambition, and to which Hose Ransom gave the name of imagination, seemed to awaken within him. He saved his wages. He went into business for himself in a modest way, and made a good turn in the manufacture of deerskin mittens and snow-shoes. By the spring he had nearly three hundred dollars laid by, and bought a piece of land from Ransom on the bank of the ...
— The Ruling Passion • Henry van Dyke
... it's far too much in your line." She even flattered me: "You'd do it awfully well too, you know; but I have a sort of sentimental regard for her—not admiration, or anything of that kind, but an indefinite feeling that noblesse oblige. In her own extraordinary way she did us a good turn, and however carefully you wrapped it up she might recognise her portrait and feel embarrassed. It's she that I'm thinking of, not Arthur. Arthur was too young at the time to realize what was happening, and if he saw your picture of two women desperately ...
— The Tragic Bride • Francis Brett Young
... "We did him a good turn when we got him to marry us. He'd be on one of the steamers bound for nowhere, to-night, instead of snug at Green Bay, if we hadn't started him on the road to what King Strang ...
— The King Of Beaver, and Beaver Lights - From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899 • Mary Hartwell Catherwood
... missed the chance which had come to them by fear or selfishness. And from that day for seven years to come anyhow it did seem as if they were specially befriended, everything went well with them, and so far as I remember what my grandmother said, this good turn helped Robin on through his life. He was a grandfather himself when he told the story, much respected through the country-side—a good, kind man, as he had been a ...
— Miss Mouse and Her Boys • Mrs. Molesworth
... in a difficulty, and it has occurred to me that you can help me out of it better than anyone else I know," said the smooth, trained voice. "It is a little diplomatic errand you will have to undertake for me tomorrow, if you want to do me a good turn." ...
— The Powers and Maxine • Charles Norris Williamson
... he went on with a change of tone, slipping his arm amicably within the Major's, "I've an idea. Comrades in adversity, you know, and all that sort of thing. I've taken a liking to you, and can do you a good turn. Drop that yarn of yours—'yarn,' seafaring expression; odd how one catches the colour, so to speak. Drop that yarn of yours. You're one of us, understand? The Captain'll believe that; indeed, he believes it already—called you a damned low-comedy man in ...
— The Mayor of Troy • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... a good turn of expression and sweet cadence at the end of it, begged for a twelve-sous piece between them for the love of heaven. I thought it singular that a beggar should fix the quota of an alms, and that the sum should be twelve ...
— The Lock and Key Library • Julian Hawthorne, Ed.
... have improved considerable since I was here before and our baseball team is much better. Also the concerts and so on. Grub also up to standard. I never eat better grub at the Ritz-Carlton. Which is no lie either. Well, Mr. Yollop, before closing I want to say you done me a mighty good turn when you thought of them two wives of mine. If it had not been for them two women I guess it would have been all off with me. I wish you would drop in here to see me if you are ever up this way so as I can thank you in person. Which reminds ...
— Yollop • George Barr McCutcheon
... stand by me, Phipps. It's just here, my boy. If you swear, through thick and thin, that you saw these men sign this paper, six years ago or more, that you signed it at the same time, and stand by your own signature, you will sail through all right, and do me a devilish good turn. If you balk, or get twisted up in your own reins, or thrown off your seat, down goes your house. If you stand by me, I shall stand by you. The thing is all right, and just as it ought to be, but it's a little irregular. It gives me what belongs to me, but the law ...
— Sevenoaks • J. G. Holland
... a line where you are at, and if Lovell wants four good men, I can let him have them about the first of December. You through lads are liable to be scared over the coming winter, and a few acclimated ones will put backbone in his outfit. And tell the old man that if I can ever do him a good turn just to snap his fingers and I'll quit the government—he's a few shades whiter ...
— The Outlet • Andy Adams
... an unexpected good turn, though it looked like making more trouble for us at the time. They began to complain of lack of exercise, and to grow actually sick for want of it. Because of that, and jealousy, they raised a clamor about our freedom to go anywhere within township limits as against their strict confinement ...
— The Ivory Trail • Talbot Mundy
... added. "Just keep this to yourself, won't you? There's nothing crooked about it—I'm trying to do some one a good turn. Tell them to keep the taxi ready, no matter ...
— Traffic in Souls - A Novel of Crime and Its Cure • Eustace Hale Ball
... dead," coolly buttoning his coat again. "I suppose you believe what you say. But he was in Delaware, I tell you, last October. If he asks about me, tell him I only acted as a messenger in the matter. I've no objection to doing him that good turn." ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Volume 11, No. 26, May, 1873 • Various
... "you kids have done us a good turn. We were in a precious awkward box, and I don't know how we should have got out of it if ...
— The Triple Alliance • Harold Avery
... portion they could give me. The fellow was rich, Miss, and so the ould couple, ready to bounce at him, came out again. Come, Alley, here's Con Coghlan back. Well, then, says I, he knows the road home again, and let him take it. One good turn desarves another. When he could get me he wouldn't take me, and now when he would take me, he won't get me; so ...
— The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton
... the plates and hold up the edition at my own expense until I should have had time to polish off your interrogations. Before starting in let me say to you that if you will find a way of getting my answers out into the open under oath, I shall consider that you have done me and my work a good turn. ...
— Frenzied Finance - Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated • Thomas W. Lawson
... "Well, one good turn deserves another. I buried his brat, he shall bury me. Only he won't get as much for doing for me as ...
— Jack Harkaway and his son's Escape From the Brigand's of Greece • Bracebridge Hemyng
... or comfort. When in doubt as to which of two things to do she must think, "Which is my duty?" which means, "Which is the best for other people?" and do that at once. She must be prepared at any time to save life or help the injured. She should do at least one good turn ...
— How Girls Can Help Their Country • Juliette Low
... Later on, for another offence, in which many were concerned, and of which it is doubtful if Gordon really was guilty, he was deprived of half a year's seniority in the army. This punishment really did him a good turn, for it enabled him to secure a commission in the Royal Engineers instead of the Royal Artillery, to which he would ...
— General Gordon - A Christian Hero • Seton Churchill
... fourteen-hour trip to Hull often takes us forty now. Every passage is different, too. It isn't only on the sea that the Germans try to bother us; they also keep after us when we are in port here. Only yesterday the Dutch inspectors did us a good turn by arresting five spies monkeying around the boat—three Germans ...
— The Land of Deepening Shadow - Germany-at-War • D. Thomas Curtin
... Matt Dickey's little game," said Frank. "He is evidently trying to run things at Enderly Road school and revenge himself on the teacher. Let us put a spoke in his wheel and do Maggie a good turn as well." ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1905 to 1906 • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... it is no sin," observed the second; "for hang he must; that's settled; such a villain as him can do no less. So, as matters stand, I don't see but it will be doing him a good turn to toss him into ...
— Walladmor: - And Now Freely Translated from the German into English. - In Two Volumes. Vol. II. • Thomas De Quincey
... your leg,' and with these words he poured some of the precious water over the wolf's paw, and in a minute the animal was springing about sound and well on all fours. The grateful creature thanked his benefactor warmly, and promised Ferko to do him a good turn if ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang
... has fallen in love with his fair cousin, and he believes that you are his rival. He has another reason for disliking you, but of that by-and-by. I believe that I can do you a service, and certainly you can do me a considerable one. You owe me a good turn, let me tell you; for in consequence of having assisted you to escape, I was obliged to take command of a privateer, bound for the East Indies, and to make my escape from France. I was wandering about in those seas for many years; but at length, having ...
— Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships - A Story of the Last Naval War • W.H.G. Kingston
... but mind your steps, for Charlie is looking at us, and I want you to do your best. That's perfect take me quite round, for I love to waltz and seldom get a good turn except with you boys," said Rose, smiling up at him approvingly as his strong arm guided her among the revolving couples and his feet kept time without ...
— Rose in Bloom - A Sequel to "Eight Cousins" • Louisa May Alcott
... when, if the little Virginian lady is short a few hundred thousand of the necessary amount, he could, if he found a way to induce her to accept it, supply the deficiency; fatten up a good friend's bank account a million or so, and do a right good turn for the stockholders who are about to be, for the hundredth time, bled out ...
— Friday, the Thirteenth • Thomas W. Lawson
... had many a rough day together. About the time his father got into trouble, my father did more than one good turn for him. But that's ...
— The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... herself when she escaped from the others that she would do a good turn to Tita. She decided upon not caring what Rylton would think of her. Men were more easily appeased than women. She would square him later on, even if her plain speaking offended him now; and, at all events, Tita would be on her side—would acknowledge she had meant kindly towards her, and ...
— The Hoyden • Mrs. Hungerford
... "One good turn deserves another. You give me seventy pound for the shay, and I'll 'oss it for you. I told you I didn't make 'osses; but I can make 'em, to oblige ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 20 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... and good temper. Something great was always on the point of turning up in his favour. One of his grandest schemes was that for bringing fish alive to the London market; "and then," said he to his wife, "you will be better provided for than any lady in England." But the good turn never came to Sir Richard; and he died out at elbows on his wife's ...
— Thrift • Samuel Smiles
... fellow diplomats," he countered. "You did me a good turn in the Du Plesis affair; I'm trying now to show my appreciation. Moreover, it will give Snodgrass an opportunity to reflect on your beauty and fascinating ways—and to look forward to ...
— The Cab of the Sleeping Horse • John Reed Scott
... again, leaving Billy drenched with perspiration and filled with vague plans, and deep anxiety. He had got a clue but what good was it? How could he work it to the salvation of Mark? He could easily put the sissy over at the parsonage wise, do him a good turn, save his dad some money, but what good would that do Mark? Mark needed to establish an alibi, he could see that with half an eye, but how would anything Billy knew help that along unless—unless he told on himself? For a moment a long trail of circumstances ...
— The City of Fire • Grace Livingston Hill
... was going on about her expected tour in Europe. She had bored me to death, making me produce all my geographic and historic lore for her benefit; and suddenly I thought of an expedient for giving myself a little peace and a chance to talk about something else. 'Come, Nellie,' I said, 'one good turn deserves another. I have told you everything I can think of that can possibly be of interest to you about Europe; now give me some information about the other place where you are going. You must have laid up a large stock of information in ...
— Four Girls at Chautauqua • Pansy
... long afterward," he went on, "when I was able to do a good turn for George Ringo. George had made a little pile of money in beeves and he was up in Denver, and he showed up when I saw him, wearing deer-skin vests, yellow shoes, clothes like the awnings in front of drug stores, and his hair dyed so blue that it looked black in the dark. ...
— Rolling Stones • O. Henry
... allows, you're Netty, you shore did Mat a good turn killin' him 'fore he saw you. Would 'a hurt him pow'ful to see you in this bunch; hurts us ...
— The Red-Blooded Heroes of the Frontier • Edgar Beecher Bronson
... was that was running in my head, but I had to come to you all the same, just as I had to come to you to-day. I say it was different, because then I was on my own business; but this time it seemed to me that I was on yours. One good turn deserves another, as they say; and something was beating in my head that I could help you, serve as a stay; so I had to come. Where should I be now if it were not for you? I can see you're thinking that it was only nonsense that ...
— The Lake • George Moore
... said, "Widow Spoonholler—I seen you last Sunday singin' often the same book—I seen you. Hurry, Mark, hurry; and luck to you! You've done me most a mighty good turn." ...
— The Soldier of the Valley • Nelson Lloyd
... replied, "but that doesn't matter. I'd like to do you a good turn. There's a smart chap working for me now ... he can put more superlatives into a paragraph than any other man in Fleet Street, and he isn't afraid of committing himself to anything. Most useful fellow to have on your staff. He does our Literary article, and he's discovered a ...
— The Foolish Lovers • St. John G. Ervine
... of fine building, or the characteristic features of a wide-stretching landscape. This accomplishment of accurate drawing, which I achieved for the most part in my father's work-room, served me many a good turn in future years with reference to the engineering work which became the business ...
— James Nasmyth's Autobiography • James Nasmyth
... much goodness of heart that he always exaggerates the services his friends render him, and hence, in my case, though it is true that I have done him a good turn, he speaks of it in far too glowing language. When the philosophers were banished from the city I was staying with him in his suburban residence, and the visit was the more talked about and the more dangerous to me, because I was praetor at the time. Moreover, as he stood in need of a considerable ...
— The Letters of the Younger Pliny - Title: The Letters of Pliny the Younger - - Series 1, Volume 1 • Pliny the Younger
... Maria. As Rawlins deduced, she must either be hysterical or signalling some one. Why should she come unless something had gone wrong the night she drugged Bobby to keep him in New York? She wasn't his enemy, because that very night she did him a good turn by trampling out his tracks ...
— The Abandoned Room • Wadsworth Camp
... want one yourself, my jewel, I'll do a good turn for your friends. I suppose you have friends around town, ...
— Plays • Alexander Ostrovsky
... Squire a good turn when he needed it, and of course he hates me for the obligation; and as for the Judge and his fine daughter, they interfered with my business—did me a great wrong—and they are only illustrating the old saying, 'Since I ...
— The Man Between • Amelia E. Barr
... don't know what you are thinking of doing with that boy of yours. Mr. Shrewsbury gives me an excellent account of him, and says that he is far and away the cleverest and most studious of the boys. I like the lad, and owe him a good turn for having broken in that pony for my daughter; besides, for his father's sake I should like to help him on. Now, in the first place, what are you thinking of ...
— A Final Reckoning - A Tale of Bush Life in Australia • G. A. Henty
... said the Jackman, "fear me not; I had the worst too surely to begin that sport again. Besides, have I not said a dozen of times, I owe you a life? and when I owe a man either a good turn or a bad, I never fail to pay it sooner or later. Moreover, beshrew me if I care to go alone down the glen, or even with my troopers, who are, every loon of them, as much devil's bairns as myself; ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott
... at first that you were trying to do me a good turn, but—but you were so persistent that you deceived us. I'm really glad ...
— The Law-Breakers and Other Stories • Robert Grant
... fellow," said Lancey, opening the door and entering. "You'll 'ave to defend yourself, for I'm neither a friend o' the Turk nor the Rooshian. They're fools, if not worse, both of 'em, in my opinion; but one good turn desarves another, so now you an' ...
— In the Track of the Troops • R.M. Ballantyne
... and a tobacco-pipe in the pocket of your kharkee jacket have done you a good turn, my lad," he said; "for the body cut has gone right through them, and might have been fatal but for that resistance. It is pretty deep as it is, but you will be all right; and your other hurts are not serious, ...
— For Fortune and Glory - A Story of the Soudan War • Lewis Hough
... Damon each had a pair, to use when the wind was strong, but the young inventor had forgotten about his. They now served him a good turn, for they turned the thoughts of the storekeeper into a new channel. The lad let it go at that, and, paying for such things as he and Mr. Damon could not carry, left ...
— Tom Swift and his Airship • Victor Appleton
... fire did the college one good turn by bringing to the notice of the general public the departments of Science. When so many of the laboratories and so much of the equipment were swept away, outsiders became aware of the excellent work which was being done in those ...
— The Story of Wellesley • Florence Converse
... assisting at the wake," said he, "of the only nation on earth that ever did me a good turn. As one gentleman to another, I am ratifying and celebrating the foreign policy of the late Jefferson Davis, as fine a statesman as ever settled the financial question of a country. Equal ratio—that was his platform—a barrel of money ...
— Roads of Destiny • O. Henry
... the law. Mike came away with a confused picture in his mind of a horde of furious prefects bent on his slaughter, after the manner of a stage "excited crowd," and Bob waving them back. He realised that Bob had done him a good turn. He wished he could find some way ...
— Mike • P. G. Wodehouse
... shilling, and putting it into her pocket—'here's your change, young man,' said she, offering me threepence. 'Pray keep that for yourself,' said I; 'you deserve it for your trouble.' 'Well, I call that genteel,' said the old woman; 'and as one good turn deserves another, since you look as if you couldn't read, I will read your letter for you. Let's see it; it's from some young woman or other, I dare say.' 'Thank you,' said I, 'but I can read.' 'All the better for you,' ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow
... reminds me of a good turn he once did me in my college examination at Cambridge. Whewell was then Master of Trinity. One of the subjects I had to take up was either the 'Amicitia' or the 'Senectute' (I forget which). Whewell, more formidable and alarming than ever, opened the book at hazard, and set me on to construe. I ...
— Tracks of a Rolling Stone • Henry J. Coke
... spirit. "My dear Holmes," he would say, "why do you break your heart about me? Let me alone, let us be friends; you are what you are because you can't help it; you can't be anything else even if you tried. I am what I am for the same reason. You get your happiness, I get mine. Do me a good turn when you can, but don't reason with me; let us enjoy each other's company and ...
— London's Underworld • Thomas Holmes
... what is going on; and, moreover, of course do not believe in a war. But I am afraid, if the good sense of England does not keep this country out of a scrape, its own good sense will hardly do it that good turn. ...
— Records of Later Life • Frances Anne Kemble
... of Donohan Fleda hoped for a good turn of affairs. But Mr. Rossitur, disgusted with his first experiment, resolved this season to be his own head man; and appointed Lucas Springer the second in command, with a posse of labourers to execute his decrees. It did not work well. Mr. Rossitur ...
— Queechy • Susan Warner
... asked Ashmedai why, when he saw the blind man straying, he so promptly interfered to guide him? "Because," he replied, "it was proclaimed in heaven that that man was perfectly righteous, and that whosoever did him a good turn would earn a title to a place in the world of the future." "And when thou sawest the man overcome with wine wandering out of his way, why didst thou put him right again?" Ashmedai said, "Because it was made known in ...
— Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and - Kabbala • Various
... peculiar parade as the three walked back up the road at a lock-step gait that was quite fast for unpracticed performers. He would have been glad to give some word of encouragement to Matt for he still remembered the good turn of the day before. But his business was to watch over the horses. It would never do to betray their hiding place to these desperate men who might overpower him and be off before the deputy could ...
— The Boy Scout Treasure Hunters - The Lost Treasure of Buffalo Hollow • Charles Henry Lerrigo
... proposed improvement. At first, many of them would not believe it; but when a small army of workmen arrived and commenced pulling down the crazy, squalid cottages, people began to understand that little Lord Fauntleroy had done them a good turn again, and that through his innocent interference the scandal of Earl's Court had at last been removed. If he had only known how they talked about him and praised him everywhere, and prophesied great things for him when he grew up, how astonished he would have been! But he never ...
— Little Lord Fauntleroy • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... ceased to hear the baying of the dog, which had been most unpleasantly clear when we got off the old hoss that had done us such a good turn. We made sure, too, that we were well ahead, for they would likely wait an hour in trying to pick up the trail again. Daylight came at last; and when it was light enough to see we stopped and took a look from a slight rise, and there, across the plain, we could see ...
— On the Pampas • G. A. Henty
... damned, Jack," he took up his parable, "I'll be damned if ever I do a woman a good turn any more. Never, never again. Gel I know—relative of mine she is, by marriage—goes a purler with a chap. Knew something of the chap too—so did you, I expect. Not a bad chap, by any means, barring this sort of thing. Well, now ...
— Rest Harrow - A Comedy of Resolution • Maurice Hewlett
... not beholden to the stuff myself; but yer honor's done me a good turn, and I couldn't see ye bringin' trouble on yerself by askin' too many questions. ...
— Harper's Young People, September 21, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... done you a good turn to-day," Bertie rejoined: "my conscience approves of my conduct." And he went ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 • Various
... on Arthur's necktie. It was hanging outside his waistcoat, with a knot in the end of it. Every boy scout has to do one good turn a day, and the knot is to remind him ...
— The Wolf Patrol - A Tale of Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts • John Finnemore
... interested will probably call in the next Jadoo-wallah that appears, to get him to give his show with the intention of checking my explanations while the tricks are being performed. I sincerely trust that this will be the case as I shall have done at least one Jadoo-wallah a good turn. ...
— Indian Conjuring • L. H. Branson
... so much of a good turn, except it was turning the bridge around and Connie Bennett said that was a good turn. He's the troop cut-up. Anyway, old Captain Savage took me up to North Bridgeboro with him and first I was kind of scared of him, because he had a big red face and he was awful gruff. But wait till you ...
— Roy Blakeley's Adventures in Camp • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... tell you all about it, mother; but, as one good turn deserves another, I shall ask you first to answer me a few questions about the ownership of this house, and cove, and orchard. When you have told your story, I am ...
— Miles Wallingford - Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore" • James Fenimore Cooper
... pounds. It was found that Major Miller's shot had struck the bear in the lower jaw, and thus disabled him. Had it not been for this, the bear would certainly have upset the boat and drowned all in it. As it was, however, his meat served us a good turn in our trip up to Stockton. At Stockton we disembarked our wagon, provisions, and instruments. There I bought two fine mules at three hundred dollars each, and we hitched up and started for the Coaumnes River. About twelve ...
— The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Complete • William T. Sherman
... extremely, but could not imagine any use for my kodak in war-time, even after I had taken a family group. Funny, simple fellows! They asked and got permission from me to sell milk, eggs, and butter in the camp, and I strolled on my way congratulating myself on the good turn I was thus able to do myself and detachment, none of whom had even smelt such ...
— The Defence of Duffer's Drift • Ernest Dunlop Swinton
... her all the time, and I shall have to look at her pictures,—I don't even know what sort of work she does yet,—and I shall have to talk about Art,—Woman's Art! Therefore, particularly and perpetually, damn all varieties of Art. It did me a good turn once, and now it's in my way. I'll go home and ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling
... sudden Westy (gee, he's a fiend for noticing things)—he said, "Dora Dane Daring, the boy scouts have to hand it to you; you've done a good turn, that's sure. This house looked like a hard proposition. All we have to do now is climb over that fence in back. We all admit you're a heroine. But there's one thing I'd like to ask you. Do you notice that big silver cup on the sideboard has D D D engraved on it? ...
— Roy Blakeley's Bee-line Hike • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... been drunk were what would keep them from being in church. Drunk or sober, it would be all the same. Few of them care to go. They are turning out better, however, than when first I came. As for the publican, who knows what chance of doing him a good turn it may put ...
— The Vicar's Daughter • George MacDonald
... right! I'm glad to do a good turn for yez, being as you're a poor body like mesilf, even if ...
— The Long Day - The Story of a New York Working Girl As Told by Herself • Dorothy Richardson
... "Wal, one good turn deserves another, Mrs. Arnold, for Miss Verne praised up that consarn so that I went right off and got all I could to join it, so you see all through this life ...
— Marguerite Verne • Agatha Armour
... wouldn't look nice in moving pictures," Blake went on with a laugh. "You did me a good turn," he said to Ramo a little later, as he shook hands with the dusky guide. "I ...
— The Moving Picture Boys at Panama - Stirring Adventures Along the Great Canal • Victor Appleton
... is the same kaiemkam who sent Khalid a year ago to prison, maugre the efforts and importunities and other inducements of Shakib. And this time, he will do him and his friend a good turn. He was thinking of the many misfortunes of this Khalid, and nursing a little pity for him, when Shakib entered to offer a written complaint against a few of the more noted instigators of the assailants of his friend. His Excellency puts this in his ...
— The Book of Khalid • Ameen Rihani
... about honor, but I want to tell you, that doesn't look to me like honor." She insisted upon truthfulness, treated boasting with fine ridicule, and was chary of compliments. But when she did praise it was effective. She did me many a good turn, and not until late in life, when I was past fifty, did I meet another woman, this time an elderly lady, who exerted such an educational influence upon me. Even now I am still taking lessons and learn from people who are young enough to be ...
— The German Classics Of The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries, Volume 12 • Various
... that Alice and Ruth proved, not only their versatility as actresses, but also that they could be brave and resourceful in the face of danger. And they more than repaid the old sailor, Jack Jepson, who saved their lives, by doing him a good turn. ...
— The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays - Or, The Sham Battles at Oak Farm • Laura Lee Hope
... trans-Atlantic cousins say, "size him up." Norman's manner and queer life puzzled Paul not a little, and not being very worldly himself he was anxious to have the advice of his old school friend, who seemed desirous of doing him a good turn, witness his desire to buy the brooch so that Paul might be supplied with money. So Beecot wrote to Grexon Hay at his Camden Hill chamber and told him he intended to go to Gwynne Street on a certain day at a certain time. To this Grexon responded by saying that he was at Paul's ...
— The Opal Serpent • Fergus Hume
... sat and watched him creep about the room, it suddenly came to me that here was a chance of doing him a real good turn in spite of himself. Fred was upstairs, and Fred, as I knew by experience, was the easiest man to get along with in the world. Nobody could be shy with Fred. I felt that if only I could bring him and the man together, they would get along splendidly, and it would ...
— The Man with Two Left Feet - and Other Stories • P. G. Wodehouse
... time present I can fit you. Turk, Arab, Copt, and Druse, I know every one of them, and can make you as well acquainted with them as myself. Without stirring a step beyond your threshold, you shall know Syria as well as I do.—But one good turn deserves another—in that case, you must have the goodness to ...
— St. Ronan's Well • Sir Walter Scott
... seems to agree with him. There is not much the matter with Peppino's health nor with his banking account nor with his conscience, so far as I can judge. Every one in the town is fond of him and he is always happy and ready to do any one a good turn. Indeed, his popularity is the only thing that causes me any uneasiness about him. There is generally something wrong about a man who has no enemies—but there are exceptions ...
— Diversions in Sicily • H. Festing Jones
... penitent's eye twinkled with momentary vanity. "I fastened a tea-cup to an iron rake, and filled the cup with powder; then I passed it in, and spilt the powder out of cup, and raked it in to the smithy slack, and so on, filling and raking in. But I did thee one good turn, lad; I put powder as far from bellows as I could. Eh, but I was a bad 'un to do the like to thee; and thou's a good 'un to come here. When I saw thee lie there, all scorched and shaking, I didn't like ...
— Put Yourself in His Place • Charles Reade
... for the instruction of the boys. I can assure you, Elsie, that neither I nor my friends will have the least objection to your girls and her boys playing games together and meeting at each other's homes. And now I think I have done you a good turn. I have saved Ardshiel from ruin, and The Paddock, or, if you prefer it, the Annex, will hold the boys, old or young, who may wish to go there. Please send Mrs Constable to see me, for I must immediately communicate with my friends. Ardshiel will be packed ...
— Hollyhock - A Spirit of Mischief • L. T. Meade
... said Abner, compassionately. "He fout side o' me tew Stillwater, an Perez was t'other side. Perez done me a good turn that day, ez I shan't furgit in a hurry. Gosh, he'd take it hard ef he hearn ez haow Reub wuz in jail! I never seed tew fellers set more store by another 'n ...
— The Duke of Stockbridge • Edward Bellamy
... dirty as they like to be, happy as the day's long; and here am I, John Carrickfergus—Don Juan all the country over, my surname no native can pronounce—respected, feared, loved; a man his neighbour can rely on to do him a good turn; one who never hesitates about putting a bullet in any vulture, wild cat, or assassin that crosses his path. ...
— The Purple Land • W. H. Hudson
... fairest cousin: The sun has started on his course, and I must start to-day. If you have done me one good turn you've done me many a dozen, And I shall often think of ...
— Poems • Christina G. Rossetti
... said; "you are almost always ready to do me a good turn, Lu. But, in fact, I'm taking this walk quite as much to please myself as you. It's a very pleasant one on a morning like this, and Uncle Lester and Aunt Elsie ...
— The Two Elsies - A Sequel to Elsie at Nantucket, Book 10 • Martha Finley
... I know you don't like me, but—well, I have an odd sort of wish to do you a good turn. You had better have nothing to do ...
— The Splendid Folly • Margaret Pedler
... If I can do you any little good turn in the way of table scraps, Babe, don't hesitate to mention it." And Cicely departed in search of ...
— Phebe, Her Profession - A Sequel to Teddy: Her Book • Anna Chapin Ray
... continued Jimmy. "You may have noticed that a lot of these round-bellied men have quite a good turn of speed for a short course. In spite of his fur coat he led by a yard or two: but this was partly because I hung back a little, on the chance of having to ...
— Foe-Farrell • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... I think," he said, "and the night, perhaps. But I'd advise you to look in on him now and then, just the same. He did us a good turn last night. It's the second good turn he's done for me, Joe. And now perhaps the chance has come to even up the score a little. You would know, wouldn't you, Joe, just how many drinks to prescribe for a man who has been as—as ill ...
— Then I'll Come Back to You • Larry Evans
... out that this contemptible governor did Franklin a good turn in sending him to London, though the benefit came in a fashion not anticipated by either. For Franklin, not yet much wiser than the generality of mankind, had to go through his period of youthful folly, and it was good fortune for him that the worst portion of this period fell within ...
— Benjamin Franklin • John Torrey Morse, Jr.
... have got away. I should say as it wur more likely as he got on board one of the boats. It seems to me as though he might have come to warn us—that is to say, to warn them, I mean—just to do em a good turn, as he was always ready to do if he had the chance. But he wouldn't have had anything to do with the scrimmage, and might have been standing, quiet like, near the boats, when the other lot came along the shore, and then, seeing as the game was up, he might, likely ...
— With Wolfe in Canada - The Winning of a Continent • G. A. Henty
... to have a bully good time," declared Bobbins. "But we'll do this Jerry Sheming a good turn, too, if ...
— Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island - The Old Hunter's Treasure Box • Alice Emerson
... longer, than where the art ain't so well practised. The mark o' mouth is kept up in a hoss here by the file, and a hay-cutter saves his teeth, and helps his digestion. Well, a dentist does the same good turn for a woman; it makes her pass for several years younger; and helps her looks, mends her voice, and makes her as smart as ...
— The Attache - or, Sam Slick in England, Complete • Thomas Chandler Haliburton
... promise that I would write to you you did me a good turn, for, while my first report was rendered, from a sense of duty, I am making this one with a sense of relief—a somewhat scandalous admission. Of course a really good footman would keep his mouth shut. But then I am but ...
— Anthony Lyveden • Dornford Yates
... he casts his eye back upon himself, he wonders where he was and how he came there; and grants that if there were not some witchcraft in sin, he could not have been so sottishly graceless. And now, in the issue, Satan finds (not without indignation and repentance) that he hath done him a good turn in tempting him: for he had never been so good if he had not sinned; he had never fought with such courage, if he had not seen his blood and been ashamed of his folly. Now he is seen and felt in the front of the spiritual ...
— Character Writings of the 17th Century • Various
... good, benefit, advantage; improvement &c 658; greatest good, supreme good; interest, service, behoof, behalf; weal; main chance, summum bonum [Lat.], common weal; consummation devoutly to be wished; gain, boot; profit, harvest. boon &c (gift) 784; good turn; blessing; world of good; piece of good luck [Fr.], piece of good fortune [Fr.]; nuts, prize, windfall, godsend, waif, treasure-trove. good fortune &c (prosperity) 734; happiness &c 827. [Source of good] goodness &c 648; utility &c 644; remedy &c 662; pleasure giving &c 829. Adj. commendable ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... though she were the sort of girl who can't take care of herself," said Lady St. Craye to the Inward Monitor who was buzzing its indiscreet common-places in her ear. "I've really done her a good turn by sending her to Grez. No—it's not in the least compromising for a girl to stay at the same hotel. And besides, there are lots of amusing people there, I expect. She'll have a delightful time, and get to know that Temple boy really ...
— The Incomplete Amorist • E. Nesbit
... him a cuff and imposed silence on him. Then he brought him a splendid dress and made him put it on, and giving him a lighted flambeau, said to him, "Know that I have brought thee hither, meaning to do thee a good turn for the love of God; so take this torch and mingle with the people at the door of the bath and accompany them to the house of the wedding festival. Then advance and enter the hall and fear none, but sit down on the right hand of the humpbacked ...
— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume I • Anonymous
... have a sprouting," concluded their guardian as if she did not know how to compromise with her conscience, "but since you meant to do a good turn instead of ...
— Old Caravan Days • Mary Hartwell Catherwood
... you a good turn by bringing you off from that muddy fishing-hole," he was pleased to observe presently. "Now you are likely to see some service, and, if luck serves, to bring home a good share ...
— Athelstane Ford • Allen Upward |
