"Swim" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Bill succeeded in calming down the excited landscape. He willed the trees to stop dancing, and they came reluctantly to a standstill. The world ceased to swim and flicker. ...
— Uneasy Money • P.G. Wodehouse
... admitted Charley, sadly. "All they have to do is to swim to shore and make their way out ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... in charge. As they started to follow him the prisoner came face to face with Joyce, who was just coming out of the house. She looked at the young miner and at the rifles, and her eyes dilated. Under the lowered lights of evening she seemed to swim in a tide of beauty rich and mellow. The young man caught his breath at the ...
— The Highgrader • William MacLeod Raine
... Whoop!" exclaimed Martha, as she went off in wild screams of laughter. "Kin you swim?" she asked, with the coolness of the ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1885 • Various
... never had much confidence in my ability as a cook, but as a camp cook! Ah, me! Everything seemed to swim before my eyes, and I fancied that the other women were looking at me from their tents. Bowen was very civil, turned back the cover of the mess-chest and propped it up. That was the table. Then he brought me a tin basin, and some flour, some ...
— Vanished Arizona - Recollections of the Army Life by a New England Woman • Martha Summerhayes
... intelligent eye revealed fine faculties crushed by necessity struggled with in vain, saying nothing of his sufferings, and nearly dead for lack of an opportunity to squeeze between the bars of the vast stews where the wretched swim round and ...
— The Commission in Lunacy • Honore de Balzac
... Persian and Greek fleets lay of old, to imagine the narrow strait once more choked with upturned keels, and fighting or flying triremes, to picture Greeks leaping into the sea in full armour to swim to Psyttaleia and grapple with the Persians who paced the beach in insolent assurance. The wind whistled in their ears, freighted, as it seemed to them, with the full-throated shout which, according to the AEschylean story, ...
— Roads from Rome • Anne C. E. Allinson
... Alligators swim rapidly against the strongest current; and when they reach the shore they dart forward with the quickness of an arrow towards the object at which they aim, when excited either by rage or hunger. Under ordinary circumstances ...
— The Young Llanero - A Story of War and Wild Life in Venezuela • W.H.G. Kingston
... at any rate, moribund Brandenburg has got its Hohenzollern Kurfuerst, and started on a new career it little dreamt of; and we can now, right willingly, quit Sigismund and the Reichs-History, leave Kaiser Sigismund to sink or swim at his own will henceforth. His grand feat in life, the wonder of his generation, was this same Council of Constance; which proved entirely a failure; one of the largest wind-eggs ever dropped with noise and travail in this world. Two hundred thousand human creatures, ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various
... "No; there are deep channels where it would be over our heads. I can't swim a stroke, no more ...
— A Chapter of Adventures • G. A. Henty
... remembrance of that summer is the lovely weather we had, and the joy of the Passy swimming-bath every Thursday and Sunday from two till five or six; it comes back to me even now in heavenly dreams by night. I swim with giant side-strokes all round the Ile des Cygnes between Passy and Grenelle, where the Ecole de Natation was moored for the ...
— The Martian • George Du Maurier
... primary quality. When therefore she had to do with a girl who did not acknowledge the jurisdiction of the law to which she bowed as supreme, she was out of her element—had got, as it seemed to her, into water too shoal to swim in; whereas, in fact, she had got into water too deep to wade in, and did not ...
— Weighed and Wanting • George MacDonald
... me a bowl with lus'y wine, Till I may see the plump Lyoeus swim Above the brim: I drink as I would write, In flowing measure ...
— The Poetaster - Or, His Arraignment • Ben Jonson
... let me go, I am not a real fish but an enchanted prince. What good shall I be to you if you land me? I shall not taste well; so put me back into the water again, and let me swim away." ...
— Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm • Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
... daughter of Eliza Pinckney, and so completely exhausted was he that he fell asleep in his chair while she was preparing him a meal. Suddenly she heard the approaching British. She awakened him, told him to follow the path from her kitchen door to the river, swim to an island, and leave her to deceive the soldiers. She then met at the front door the British officer Tarleton, who leisurely searched the house, ate the supper prepared for Marion, and went ...
— Woman's Life in Colonial Days • Carl Holliday
... easy enough to say that I may depart; but how shall I do it?" added the planter with a smile. "I cannot swim ashore." ...
— Stand By The Union - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray—Afloat • Oliver Optic
... see a river, I have chills that make me shiver, For I never can forget All the water's very wet. If my patches get a soak It will be a sorry joke; So to swim I'll never try Till I ...
— The Patchwork Girl of Oz • L. Frank Baum
... have been much more sensible had we left ourselves there," rejoined Fred, who was struggling with might and main for the land in front; "there's no time, Terry, to waste in talk; we've got to swim as never before, for nothing ...
— The Hunters of the Ozark • Edward S. Ellis
... Macedonia crossed over to begin his march of conquest which was to extend his power as far as India. And about this narrow strait is centered the ancient Greek myth about Hero and Leander, which inspired Byron to swim ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume II (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various
... heaven—want to swim there. An' if they find too much lan' after they get there, they'll spen' the res' of ...
— The Bishop of Cottontown - A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills • John Trotwood Moore
... have suffered terribly," said Fris. "It would almost have been better for him if he hadn't been able to swim." ...
— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo
... far as I'm concerned," added Frank, "I wouldn't drop a single tear if the whole shooting match of rascals dropped into Hudson Bay, and couldn't swim a stroke." ...
— Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay - The Disappearing Fleet • G. Harvey Ralphson
... a peculiar training. She had in one sense belonged to the ranks of the fully sophisticated, who are supposed to swim on the surface of things and catch all the high lights of existence, like bubbles, and in another sense it had been very much the reverse. She might, so far as one side of her character was concerned, have been born and brought up in East Westland, as her mother had been before ...
— The Shoulders of Atlas - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... night was warm all indulged in a delicious swim after the supper dishes were cleared up. At nine o'clock they turned in and tied the tent flaps shut. Even this precaution was felt to be unnecessary, since the very loneliness of the place was a ...
— Canoe Boys and Campfires - Adventures on Winding Waters • William Murray Graydon
... moan, and sank down slowly on her knees, like some tender tree felled by a rude stroke; her eyes seemed to swim in a mist, she tried to read the cruel words again but could not; she put her hands ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade
... others of her set, was propped up in the centre of it, on a couple of paper volumes. My own head was aching violently now, and after a time the woman's figure on the glossy, sun-flecked surface of the card began to sway and swim before my eyes as I looked ...
— To-morrow? • Victoria Cross
... of the vessel, quickly, and bid her swim out to it. Let her use some of the cunning that is in her pretty little head, and make them wonder what else our island has to offer in dainties. Then, ere evening, I shall have work for thee that shall complete what Pascherette begins. Command the minx to bring forth all ...
— The Pirate Woman • Aylward Edward Dingle
... I 'member when Aunt Charity an' Winnie McInnis, two niggers on our plantation, tried to swim some of our hosses cross de riber to save 'em frum de soljers an' dey rode 'cross in a little boat. Well, when de hosses got in de middle of de water, up comes a' gator[FN: alligator], grabs one hoss by de ear, an' we ain't neber seed ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Mississippi Narratives • Works Projects Administration
... hearts now beat quick with fear of those tortures we expected to receive; nor were our apprehensions lessened by hearing the boys consult what they should do with us, 'I,' said one, 'will throw mine into the pond, and see how he will swim out again.' 'And I,' said the other, 'will keep mine and tame it.' 'But where will you keep it?' inquired his companion. 'Oh,' replied he, 'I will keep it under a little pan till I can get a house ...
— The Life and Perambulations of a Mouse • Dorothy Kilner
... which of the four, Sink, circle, or swim, or come floating ashore? Which is the fortune you keep for my life, Old maid or young mistress ...
— The Manxman - A Novel - 1895 • Hall Caine
... little swim himself, though he kept close to the shore, and felt much refreshed by it. When he had been dried by the sun and was bade in his clothes, he stretched himself luxuriously near the rangers on the slope, taking an occasional glance at the sun from ...
— The Rulers of the Lakes - A Story of George and Champlain • Joseph A. Altsheler
... another matter which calls for notice, and it is that of early morning exercise. Now, I am quite willing to admit that there are many who derive great benefit from their early morning swim, their matutinal walk, or their tennis before breakfast. But it should be distinctly borne in mind that there are others with whom such early morning exercise does not agree. They get as a result a weary, languid feeling which ...
— The Art of Living in Australia • Philip E. Muskett (?-1909)
... has subsided. (I am indebted for this fact to Dr. E. Dieffenbach. I may add that there is a tradition, that the islands of San Lorenzo and Fronton were once joined, and that the channel between San Lorenzo and the mainland, now above two miles in width, was so narrow that cattle used to swim over.) I have shown that the island of San Lorenzo has been upraised eighty-five feet since the Peruvians inhabited this country; and whatever may have been the amount of recent subsidence, by so much more must the elevation have exceeded the eighty-five feet. In several places in ...
— South American Geology - also: - Title: Geological Observations On South America • Charles Darwin
... an inch long, prayed upon the Velellae. At another time, among many other pelagic crustacea, we obtained three kinds of Erichthus, a genus remarkable for the glassy transparency of its species, also Hyalaea inflexa and H. tridentata, curious pteropodous molluscs which swim ...
— Narrative Of The Voyage Of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By The Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During The Years 1846-1850. Including Discoveries And Surveys In New Guinea, The Louisiade • John MacGillivray
... obliged to begin by chance, and continue on how he could.... "A prodigious risk, however," said some one. "Not at all," exclaims Johnson, "no man, I suppose, leaps at once into deep water who does not know how to swim."' Piozzi's Anec. p. 30. ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 • Boswell
... that Dudley seemed incapable of keeping himself up, and in one second he threw off his jacket, and dived head foremost off the bridge to the rescue. The current of the river was strong here, for a mill wheel was only a short distance off; and it was hard work to swim safely ashore. Roy accomplished it successfully amidst the cheers of the admiring group on the bridge; and when once on dry ground again, neither of the boys seemed the worse for the wetting. In ...
— His Big Opportunity • Amy Le Feuvre
... uncle saved him from sacrifice, or something, in a place where they worship these things, and he has been with us ever since. It is a fetish with magical powers and all the rest of it. I believe they call it the Swimming Head and other names. If you look at it, you will see that it seems to swim between the shoulders, ...
— The Yellow God - An Idol of Africa • H. Rider Haggard
... sleek, spindle-shaped, and in some cases over three meters long, their pectoral fins gifted with remarkable strength, their caudal fins forked. Like certain flocks of birds, whose speed they equal, these tuna swim in triangle formation, which prompted the ancients to say they'd boned up on geometry and military strategy. And yet they can't escape the Provenal fishermen, who prize them as highly as did the ancient inhabitants of Turkey ...
— 20000 Leagues Under the Seas • Jules Verne
... rather stake my chances on a long swim even than perish by inches on the floe, as there was no likelihood whatever of being seen and rescued. But, keenly though I watched, not a streak even of clear water appeared, the interminable sish rising from below and filling every gap as it appeared. We were now resting ...
— Adrift on an Ice-Pan • Wilfred T. Grenfell
... on every airth a limb, Then, open all my veins, that I may swim To thee, my Maker! in that crimson lake; Then place my parboiled head upon a stake— Scatter my ashes—strew them in the air: Lord! since thou know'st where all these atoms are, I'm hopeful ...
— Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and Other Poems • W.E. Aytoun
... on! She did indeed. Fra Battista, leaning against the lintel, kept his eyelids on the droop, seemed to find his toes of interest. But now and again he would look delicately up, and so sure as he did the brown eyes and the grey seemed to swim towards each other, to melt in a point, swirl in an eddy of the feelings, in which Vanna found herself drowning and found such death sweet. La Testolina still ran on, but now in a monologue. Fra Battista looked and longed, and Vanna looked again and thrilled. ...
— Little Novels of Italy • Maurice Henry Hewlett
... By this evening you must have made it a garden well planted with fruit-trees and having a fish-pond in the middle, where ducks and other water-fowl may swim. Here are your tools." ...
— Legends & Romances of Brittany • Lewis Spence
... is left which can be closed by lowering one of the bamboo nets heavily weighted, vertically down. Platforms are erected ten or twelve feet high to raise or lower these nets and the whole structure is ingeniously and strongly put together. The fish are thus allowed to swim up and are then enclosed in a section of the river, when they are easily caught in baskets. All the riverside population engages in fishing. On the way I shot a toucan, which must have weighed ten or twelve pounds, with number five shot which happened to be in the gun at the time. ...
— A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free State • Marcus Dorman
... raged fiercest, there he was studying its great problems. Now it was the problem of slavery; again the problem of government, or commerce, or education,—whatever touched the lives of men. He kept his hand upon the pulse of events. He was in the swim of things. The great, busy, ambitious world was everywhere throbbing ...
— Pushing to the Front • Orison Swett Marden
... such an one. Thou wicked one, thou lovest not me, my ways, nor my people; thou castest my law and good counsel behind thy back. Come, I will dispose of thee in my wrath; thou shalt be turned over to the ungodly, thou shalt be put to school to the devil, I will leave thee to sink and swim in sin, till I shall visit thee with death and judgment. This was, therefore, another judgment that did come upon ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... whirlwind; it turned all sorts of colours, mostly yellow and green, and parts of it looked like barber's poles revolving at a terrific speed. He became dizzy as he gazed at it; his head began to swim; the cloud was coming down closer and closer upon him, and whirling about more and more wildly; he crouched down lower, and became dizzier and dizzier. The counter and the shelves began to go round and round, so that ...
— The Old Tobacco Shop - A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure • William Bowen
... the swollen river had already done a great deal of mischief. It was evidently too deep for Jason to wade and too boisterous for him to swim; he could see no bridge, and as for a boat, had there been any, the rocks would have broken it to pieces in ...
— Myths and Legends of All Nations • Various
... centerpiece (A, Fig. 2) can be made of colored stones held together by cement, and an inverted jar can be supported in the position shown at B. If the mouth of the jar is below the surface of the water it will stay filled and allow the fish to swim up inside as shown. Some washed pebbles or gravel should be placed on the bottom, and, if desired, a few Chinese lilies or other plants may ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics
... was but just discernable. Some weeds swam by us so that we did not doubt but we should quickly see land. On the 27th also some weeds swam by us, and the birds that had flown along with us all the way almost from Brazil now left us, except only 2 or 3 shearwaters. On the 28th we saw many weeds swim by us and some whales, blowing. On the 29th we had dark cloudy weather with much thunder, lightning, and violent rains in the morning; but in the evening it grew fair. We saw this day a scuttle-bone swim by us, and some of our young ...
— A Voyage to New Holland • William Dampier
... in a beautiful grove of oaks, beside a swift and sparkling little river, for dinner and to rest their sweaty team. They concluded to eat doughnuts and drink milk for that meal, and this gave them time to fish a little and swim a good deal, while the horses munched hay under ...
— Short Stories of Various Types • Various
... the sight of any other, I sprang into the hold, opened a port, and dropped into the river, dived, and only rose at intervals to breathe, until I reached a ditch that had recently been made from the Rhone to the canal that runs from Beaucaire to Aigues-Mortes. I was now safe, for I could swim along the ditch without being seen, and I reached the canal in safety. I had designedly taken this direction. I have already told your excellency of an inn-keeper from Nimes who had set up a little tavern on the ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... thus indifferently she felt in her heart like one who wakes from a delicious swim in the fairest of rivers, to find that the clothes have slipped from the bed to the floor:—that was all his ...
— Thomas Wingfold, Curate • George MacDonald
... persevered in their Master's service. Poor wretches, their industry is mob-worship, place-worship, parliamentary intrigue, and the multiplex art of tongue-fence: flung into that bad element, there they swim for decades long, throttling and wrestling one another according to their strength,—and the toughest or luckiest gets to land, and becomes Premier. A more entirely unbeautiful class of Premiers was never raked out of the ooze, and set ...
— Latter-Day Pamphlets • Thomas Carlyle
... as happy with each other as we choose. We have this little lake all to ourselves, you know; it's getting cold now, and pretty soon we'll have to fly away to the south, but all this summer long we used to get up in the morning in time to see the sun rise, and to have a wonderful swim. And then we have so many things to read and study; and David talks to me, and tells me all that he knows; and besides all that we have to tell each other how much we love each other, which takes a fearful amount of time. It seems that neither of us can ever quite ...
— King Midas • Upton Sinclair
... came back to Carmichael with the vividness of a forgotten photograph, come upon suddenly: Bonn, the Rhine, swift and turbulent, a tow-headed young fellow who could not swim well, his own plunge, his fingers in the flaxen hair, and the hard fight to the landing; all this was a ...
— The Goose Girl • Harold MacGrath
... go so badly at first. The feasters swim—it is the only word—in the midst of plenty; they eat and digest like brothers. Presently, times become hard for the hostess' son; the food decreases, dearth sets in; and at length not an atom remains, although the Mason's larva has attained at most a quarter of its growth. The ...
— The Mason-bees • J. Henri Fabre
... our hopes of wealth," I thought to myself as I saw the condition of the ship. Strange that that should be the first idea which came into my head. I did not think that the ship would swim many minutes longer. I looked out for the Lowestoffe. She was not far-off, and was lowering her boats, to come to our assistance. Only one chance of saving the ship remained. We must cut away the masts. I gave the necessary order. While some of the crew set to work on the ...
— Hurricane Hurry • W.H.G. Kingston
... sleep and a swim in the St. Louis river banished all trace of toil. I left Fond-du-Lac early in the afternoon, and, descending by a small steamer the many-winding St. Louis River, soon came in sight of the town of Duluth. The heat had become excessive; the Bay ...
— The Great Lone Land - A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America • W. F. Butler
... of this exists in the swim-bladder of the fish, which there is good reason to believe is a survival of an ancient structure used for quite a different purpose. It was originally developed, in the opinion of the writer,[1] as an air-breathing organ, in a very ancient semi-amphibious class ...
— Man And His Ancestor - A Study In Evolution • Charles Morris
... or that you should seek your fortune with greater uprightness and courage. I heartily wish continued success to you who have received prizes this evening. Allow me to hint to you that you must not relax your exertions. If I may use the metaphor, you have learned to swim, but many a stroke is necessary before you can hope to reach your goal Determine what your goal shall be, and strike out straight for it. You have a variety of pursuits in this country. Determine to be of use ...
— Memories of Canada and Scotland - Speeches and Verses • John Douglas Sutherland Campbell
... disease and it seemed wildly impossible to her that this limb of hers which had been so strong and supple a month ago would become an agent of death if not amputated. She was in an agony of mind. Never to swim again! Never to run and jump and slide and skate and dance! Always to go about on crutches! Before the prospect of being crippled for life her active nature shrank in unutterable horror. Death seemed preferable to her. She buried her face in the pillow ...
— The Camp Fire Girls at School • Hildegard G. Frey
... the Barkway Road, was open and unenclosed. It was not a very savoury bath, but in its turbid depths so many boys used to disport themselves, that it was commonly remarked in the district that Royston had no water, and yet more boys learned to swim here than anywhere else in ...
— Fragments of Two Centuries - Glimpses of Country Life when George III. was King • Alfred Kingston
... curious thing about these little seal pups that though they are going to spend their lives in the water, they don't like the idea of it at all, and have to be forced into the water by their mothers, and taught to swim just as though they ...
— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 26, May 6, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various
... Satan's accurs'd desertion to supply, And fill the vacant stations of the sky; Again to kindle long-extinguish'd rays, And with new lights dilate the heavenly blaze; To crop the roses of immortal youth, And drink the fountain-head of sacred truth To swim in seas of bliss, to strike the string, And lift the voice to their Almighty King; To lose eternity in grateful lays, And fill heaven's wide circumference with praise. But I attempt the wondrous height in vain, And leave unfinish'd the too lofty ...
— The Poetical Works of Edward Young, Volume 2 • Edward Young
... ice, which cut the missionary's legs as he waded through. They swam the larger streams, and Hennepin nearly perished with cold as be emerged from the icy current. His two companions, who were smaller than he, and who could not swim, were carried over on the backs of the Indians. They showed, however, no little endurance; and he declares that he should have dropped by the way, but for their support. Seeing him disposed to lag, the Indians, to spur him on, set fire to the dry grass behind him, and then, taking him by the ...
— France and England in North America, a Series of Historical Narratives, Part Third • Francis Parkman
... Hannibal wuz help'n' de cook kyar de dinner f'm de kitchen inter de big house, en wuz gittin' close ter de do' whar he had ter go in, his feet sta'ted ter bu'n en his head begun ter swim, en he let de big dish er chicken en dumplin's fall right down in de dirt, in de middle er de ya'd, en de w'ite folks had ter make dey dinner dat day off'n col' ...
— The Conjure Woman • Charles W. Chesnutt
... there is a long slender bladder filled with air. This bladder assists in making the fish light, hence making it easier for it to support itself in the water. In certain swampy regions these lungfish swim freely in the water of the marshes. When the dry season comes, however, the water evaporates, draining the marshes completely. This would prove the death of most fishes. The lungfish have a curious habit which keeps them over the dry season. They cover themselves with a coat of ...
— The Meaning of Evolution • Samuel Christian Schmucker
... that it was too late to go to bed at all—it was really daylight—so they took bath-towels and went down to the river and had a swim, and Harry slipped back to the house at six o'clock. He said we'd repeat it all the next night, but of course we didn't. He's the kind that, as soon as he's promised to do a thing, feels at once that he doesn't ...
— The Whole Family - A Novel by Twelve Authors • William Dean Howells, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Mary Heaton Vorse, Mary Stewart Cutting, Elizabeth Jo
... that Sam found himself sitting on the deck of the tug engaged in the complicated process of restoring his faculties to the normal. In a sort of dream he perceived Mr. Swenson rise to the surface some feet away, adjust his Derby hat, and, after one long look of dislike in his direction, swim off rapidly to intercept a five which was floating under the stern of a ...
— Three Men and a Maid • P. G. Wodehouse
... can float capital in a considerable body of water. From Lat. magnus, great, and nator, to swim; a ...
— The Foolish Dictionary • Gideon Wurdz
... developments of organs took place, ending in variations sufficient to constitute a new species. Thus he thought that a bird would be driven by necessity to seek its food in the water, and that, in its efforts to swim, the outstretching of its claws would lead to the expansion of the intermediate membranes, and it would thus become web-footed. Now it is possible that wants and the exercise of faculties have entered in some manner into the production of the phenomena which we ...
— Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation • Robert Chambers
... dived off and swam under water as hard as I could to get away from the sinking ship. When I came up I looked round. I just saw the flutter of a black flag above the water and she was gone. I was a good swimmer, and got rid of my shoes and jacket, and made up my mind for a long swim, for the frigate was too busy with the brig for any one to pay attention to us, but it did not ...
— The Bravest of the Brave - or, with Peterborough in Spain • G. A. Henty
... too much for Peaches. He was out of his depth and unable to swim. He sank with a gurgle of, "I dunno what yo're ...
— The Heart of the Range • William Patterson White
... Asia Minor, a visit to Ephesus (March 15, 1810), an excursion in the Troad (April 13), and the famous swim across the Hellespont (May 3), the record is to be sought elsewhere. The stanzas on Constantinople (lxxvii.-lxxxii.), where Byron and Hobhouse stayed for two months, though written at the time and on the spot, ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various
... her back to the present, "Massa done brunged yo' up ter ride, an' shoot, an' swim 'kase he wanted a boy so bad. He wore shot leadin' a charge ag'in de Yanks, an' when de gen'ral cum later ter say how bad he feel ter lose Massa, he jes' said: 'Ah wish Ah haid uh son ter take ma place in de ranks.'" The negro paused, then continued slowly: "When yo' an' I got dar, Missy, ...
— The Lost Despatch • Natalie Sumner Lincoln
... which she had been so wickedly deprived—namely, gravity. Whether this was owing to the fact that water had been employed as the means of conveying the injury, I do not know. But it is certain that she could swim and dive like the duck that her old nurse said she was. The manner in which this alleviation of her misfortune was discovered was ...
— The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories • George MacDonald
... swamps, a stretch of yellow sand, and then the great Atlantic rollers, tumbling in upon the beach. The Indians of Nashola's village would go thither sometimes to dig for clams, to fish from the high rocks, and even, on occasions, to swim in the breakers close to shore. But they were land-abiding folk, they feared nothing in the forest, and would launch their canoes in the most headlong rapids of the inland rivers; yet there was dread and awe in their eyes when they looked out upon the sea. ...
— The Windy Hill • Cornelia Meigs
... She saw the darkness of it and the water foaming white against the cliffs. Even in the morning light it was an awesome spot, and she remembered how her friend had told her that the dragon was there when the tide was up. With a timidity half-actual, half-assumed, she began to swim back ...
— The Rocks of Valpre • Ethel May Dell
... was not Ganymede, For under water he was almost dead, He heaved him up and, looking on his face, Beat down the bold waves with his triple mace, Which mounted up, intending to have kissed him, And fell in drops like tears because they missed him. Leander, being up, began to swim And, looking back, saw Neptune follow him, Whereat aghast, the poor soul 'gan to cry "O, let me visit Hero ere I die!" The god put Helle's bracelet on his arm, And swore the sea should never do him harm. He clapped his plump cheeks, with his tresses played And, smiling wantonly, his love bewrayed. ...
— Hero and Leander • Christopher Marlowe
... above is not the only state of Ephemerids, for their entire existence really lasts a year. Linnaeus has thus summed up the total life of these little creatures: "The larvae swim in water; and, in becoming winged insects, have only the shortest kind of joy, for they often celebrate in a single day their wedding, parturition, and funeral obsequies." The eggs, in fact, give birth to more or less elongated larvae, which are always provided with three ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 • Various
... simple expedient of shutting its gates to the outside world. But, in the words of Mr. Justice Cardozo: 'The Constitution was framed under the dominion of a political philosophy less parochial in range. It was framed upon the theory that the peoples of the several States must sink or swim together, and that in the long run prosperity and salvation are in union and not division'."[955] Four of the Justices would have preferred to rest the holding of unconstitutionality on the rights of national citizenship under the privileges and ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin
... Kearny tumbled from the steamer's side into the river. He could not swim, so the crew threw him a rope and drew him back aboard. I caught his eye and his look of pathetic but still bright and undaunted consciousness of his guilty luck. I told myself that although he might be a man to shun, he was ...
— Roads of Destiny • O. Henry
... been brought into the shop, supplied with a ration container, and left to himself within this bare-walled cabin to meditate upon the folly of talking too freely. Why had he been so utterly stupid? Veeps of Wass' calibre did not swim through the murky channels of the Starfall, but their general breed had smaller but just as vicious representatives there, and he knew the man for what he ...
— Star Hunter • Andre Alice Norton
... a few days ago the officers were permitted to use a tennis court outside the enclosure, to swim in the lake, and to walk in the neighbouring woods. As four officers (one Englishman) made an attempt to escape (from the bath house) these privileges were temporarily suspended, but I was told by the Commandant, ...
— The Better Germany in War Time - Being some Facts towards Fellowship • Harold Picton
... down before him stained green with the clay that underlies the glaciers, and swollen by rain and snow. There was a big pool above him, lake-like and still, but it was too wide for any weary and shivering man to swim, and the wild, white rush of a rapid close below. Alton glanced at both of them and a cluster of smaller trees across the river, and smiled ...
— Alton of Somasco • Harold Bindloss
... general continued at Cadiz, there came to them certain poore wretched Turks, to the number of 38, that had bin a long time gally-slaues, and either at the very time of the fight by sea, or els immediately thereupon, taking the opportunity, did then make their escape, and did swim to land: yeelding themselues to the mercy of their most honorable Lordships. It pleased them with all speed to apparel them, and to furnish them with money, and all other necessaries, and to bestow on them a barke, and a Pilot, to see them freely and safely conueied ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, v. 7 - England's Naval Exploits Against Spain • Richard Hakluyt
... On the night when we beat out of the bay against a rising westerly wind we went about once under the shadow of the cliff, and, almost before we had full way on the boat, stayed her again beside the rocks. Anthony's swim, though terrifying, ...
— Our Casualty And Other Stories - 1918 • James Owen Hannay, AKA George A. Birmingham
... which island is derived, is formed from in sulo, in the sea; and, the corresponding word in Greek, is usually deduced from to swim, as appearing, and probably having been originally supposed to swim ...
— The Voyage Of Governor Phillip To Botany Bay • Arthur Phillip
... making a proper use of the freedom thus abruptly thrust upon them. "The fool in the fable," said Macaulay, when dealing with a somewhat similar question, "declared that no man ought to go into the water until he had learned to swim." Lord Grey's Ministry had apparently much the same idea about the perils of emancipation. Another part of the scheme proposed that fifteen millions should be advanced by the Government as a loan to the West ...
— A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume IV (of 4) • Justin McCarthy and Justin Huntly McCarthy
... the very centre of Barbury village, and all civic, political, family, and social life converges there, just at the public duck-pond—a wee, sleepy lake with a slope of grass-covered stones by which the ducks descend for their swim. ...
— The Diary of a Goose Girl • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
... whether a greater number of individuals were saved by successfully battling with the winds, or by giving up the attempt and rarely or never flying. As with mariners shipwrecked near a coast, it would have been better for the good swimmers if they had been able to swim still further, whereas it would have been better for the bad swimmers if they had not been able to swim at all and had stuck ...
— On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection • Charles Darwin
... who calls out in turn "Here's one," until twelve are counted. The minister of Gotham preaches that men should not drink in Lent. A man, who comes for absolution, and confesses to having been drunk in Lent, replies that fish should swim. "Yes," returns the priest, "but in water." "I cannot enjoin your prayer," he adds, "for you cannot say your Paternoster. It is folly to make you fast because you never get meat. Labour hard, and get a dinner on Sunday, and I will ...
— History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) - With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange
... had to cross a stream in a small boat which was capable of carrying only 150 lbs. weight. But Mr. Softleigh and his wife each weighed exactly 150 lbs., and each of their sons weighed 75 lbs. And then there was the dog, who could not be induced on any terms to swim. On the principle of "ladies first," they at once sent Mrs. Softleigh over; but this was a stupid oversight, because she had to come back again with the boat, so nothing was gained by that operation. How did they all succeed in getting across? The reader will find it much easier than the Softleigh ...
— Amusements in Mathematics • Henry Ernest Dudeney
... risk an attempt to swim under water to the temple was crystallizing in spite of the fact that any chance Wieroo flying above the stream might easily see him, when again a floating object bumped against him from behind and lodged across his back. Turning quickly he saw that the ...
— Out of Time's Abyss • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... him. He shook himself easily free of a habit which had never gained a hold upon him, and had ever since found his abstinence a source both of vanity and of distinction. Nothing annoyed him more than to hear it put down to any ethical motive. "If I liked the beastly stuff, I should swim in it to-morrow," he would say with an angry eye when certain acquaintance—not those he made at Labour Congresses—goaded him on the point. "As it is, why should I make it, or chloral, or morphia, or any other poison, my master! What's ...
— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... where we'd elope to," she remarked, stepping one dainty foot exactly in the center of the unstable craft. "We'd either have to swim or wait for the ferry, and I don't exactly know which ...
— The Outdoor Girls in Army Service - Doing Their Bit for the Soldier Boys • Laura Lee Hope
... head of the flower. 'It's deep here, take care!' Masha cried in terror. Lutchkov with the tip of his sword brought the flower to the bank, at her very feet. She bent down, picked up the flower, and gazed with tender, delighted amazement at Avdey. 'Bravo!' cried Kister. 'And I can't swim...' Lutchkov observed abruptly. Masha did not like that remark. 'What made him say that?' ...
— The Jew And Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev
... to see," he continued, "that education of the masses was to be our only preserver, that we should have to sink or swim by that. I began to see, dimly, that this was true for other movements going on to-day. Now comes Hodder with what I sincerely believe is the key. He compels men like me to recognize that our movements are not merely moral, but religious. Religion, as yet unidentified, ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... then she looked at Vane. "Your recollections are all wrong," she said softly. The grey eyes held no hint of mockery in them now, they were sweetly serious, and once again Vane gripped the table hard. His head was beginning to swim and he felt that he would shortly make a profound fool ...
— Mufti • H. C. (Herman Cyril) McNeile
... my part, I'm willing enough to be here, just now, to enjoy the beauty that the Lord has made to delight His people's eyes. And what a glorious spot it is for a bathe! Come on, gentles; who's for a dip? There's time enough for a swim across and back again if we don't delay too long. 'Twill be delightfully cooling and refreshing after our long walk ...
— The Cruise of the Nonsuch Buccaneer • Harry Collingwood
... in sight now .... When the anchor is down, then I shall say: Farewell—a long farewell—to business! I will never touch it again! I will live in literature, I will wallow in it, revel in it; I will swim in ink!" ...
— The Boys' Life of Mark Twain • Albert Bigelow Paine
... it is worse than useless to depend upon rubber overshoes when trailing; sharp stones cut, and roots, twigs, and underbrush tear the rubber, with the result that the overshoes soon fill with water and your feet swim in little lakes. Test your shoes well before taking them to camp, be perfectly satisfied that they are comfortable and well-fitting, wear them steadily for one week or more. It is very unwise to risk new shoes on the trail, and it is of the utmost importance ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard
... vast hull loomed out of the night, showing hundreds of seamen in the hammock-nettings, some tossing over ropes, others madly flinging overboard the hammocks; but I was too far out from them immediately to reach what they threw. I essayed to swim toward the ship; but instantly I was conscious of a feeling like being pinioned in a feather-bed, and, moving my hands, felt my jacket puffed out above my tight girdle with water. I strove to tear it off; but it was ...
— White Jacket - or, the World on a Man-of-War • Herman Melville
... to tame and breed. In Sweden this experiment was carefully tried by Tiburtius; he succeeded in rearing wild ducks for three generations, but, though they were treated like common ducks, they did not vary even in a single feather. The young birds suffered from being allowed to swim about in cold water (8/8. I quote this account from 'Die Enten- und Schwanenzucht' Ulm 1828 s. 143. See Audubon 'Ornithological Biography' volume 3 page 168 on the taming of ducks on the Mississippi. For the same fact in England see Mr. Waterton in Loudon's ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication - Volume I • Charles Darwin
... short time after this, discovered playing upon words and would pun upon "rain" and "reign", as also upon "Wales" the country (or rather province, for no patriot would admit a Divided Crown) and "Whales"—the vast Oceanic or Thalassic mammals that swim in Arctic waters. ...
— On Nothing & Kindred Subjects • Hilaire Belloc
... a large part of his command, and unloaded all his wagons, siege-guns, light artillery, etc. The mules and horses were put ashore—or rather pitched overboard with the expectation that they would swim ashore—at Siboney; but, owing to unskilful management and lack of guidance, twelve per cent. of the mules—fifty out of four hundred and fifteen—perished. Some, instead of making for the shore, swam directly out to sea ...
— Campaigning in Cuba • George Kennan
... The room seemed to swim around him. She was staring at him, but he could see in her vacant eyes that she had no conception of his secret, nor knew the extent of her revelation. Duffy had not dared to tell all! He burst into a coarse laugh. "What matters ...
— Openings in the Old Trail • Bret Harte
... cloud upon Lourdois' brow, and he shuddered at his own imprudence. The innocent jest would have been the death of his suspected credit. In such a case a prosperous merchant takes back his note, and does not offer it elsewhere. Birotteau felt his head swim, as though he had looked down the sides of a precipice ...
— Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau • Honore de Balzac
... the water was conveyed to us by letting it float on the sea, for their timidity would not let them approach us near enough to place it in our hands; but that containing the fruit, not being buoyant enough to swim, did not permit of this method, so that, after much difficulty, an old man was persuaded to deliver it. This was done in the most cautious manner, and as soon as he was sufficiently near the boat he dropped or ...
— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia - Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 • Phillip Parker King
... of May there was a hard frost, and to-day, the fourteenth, snow has fallen to the depth of three or four inches. No one speaks of spring but the ducks. Ah, what masses of ducks! Never in my life have I seen such abundance. They fly over one's head, they fly up close to the chaise, swim on the lakes and in the pools—in short, with the poorest sort of gun I could have shot a thousand in one day. One can hear the wild geese calling.... There are lots of them here too. One often comes upon a string of cranes or swans.... Snipe and woodcock flutter about in the birch copses. ...
— Letters of Anton Chekhov • Anton Chekhov
... relaxing, hence weak people should not stay long in the hot bath. Cold baths are stimulating to strong people and depressing to those who do not react well from them. Swimming is far different from taking a cold bath. A person who can swim with benefit and comfort for twenty minutes would have a chill, perhaps, if he remained for five minutes in the bath tub in water of the same temperature. Swimming is such an active exercise that it aids the circulation, keeping the blood pretty well to the surface in spite ...
— Maintaining Health • R. L. Alsaker
... upon thy mountain-heads, And gaze until mine eyes are dim; The golden morning glows and spreads; The hoary vapours break and swim. I see thy blossoming fields, divine, Thy shining clouds, thy blessed trees— And then that broken soul of mine— How ...
— Alcyone • Archibald Lampman
... girl was one of the little tribe's adepts with hook and line She raised her eyes as she heard the patter of footsteps upon the shore, but did not exhibit any alarm when she saw the two young men. The ordinary young woman of the Shell People did not worry when away from land. She could swim like an otter and dive like a loon, and of wild beasts she had no fear when she was thus safely bestowed away from the death-harboring forest. The maiden on the ...
— The Story of Ab - A Tale of the Time of the Cave Man • Stanley Waterloo
... on the run! But hold a turn! Aft, here, all of you! Jump! Lively, if you don't want to swim! Come in, port-braces! Don't let 'm get away! Lee-braces!—if you lose that turn I'll split your skull! Lively! Lively!—Is that helm hard over! Why in ...
— The Mutiny of the Elsinore • Jack London
... the nightcap distended, sinkers to keep the lower sides of the lappets under water, and floats as large as muskmelons to keep the upper sides above the water. The stupid fish come downstream, and, rubbing their noses against the wings, follow the curve toward the fyke and swim into the trap. When they get in they cannot get out. That is the philosophy of a fyke. I bought one of Conroy. "Now," said I to Mrs. Sparrowgrass, "we shall have fresh fish to-morrow for breakfast," ...
— Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor - Volume I • Various
... Evan felt his head swim. He forgave Jones the unbalanced "blotter," and had a sudden notion that he could dig up, at that moment, any difference ...
— A Canadian Bankclerk • J. P. Buschlen
... of fortunes spight am I Now to swim through! beare up yet, Jovyall heart, And while thou knowest heavenly mercy doe not start. Once more let me ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II • Various |
