"Chuckle" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... with the greatest caution, though this was altogether unnecessary, for the seals lay perfectly motionless. They crept forward in Indian fashion, with their heads down and their backs bent. This looks fine; I chuckle and laugh, but still with a certain decorum. Then there is a report. Two of the sleeping seals give a little spasm, and do not move again. It is otherwise with the third. With snakelike movements it wriggles away through the ...
— The South Pole, Volumes 1 and 2 • Roald Amundsen
... general chuckle. The minister took out his handkerchief and blew his nose sonorously. Banker Phelps closed his knife with a snap. "It's too bad the old man's sons didn't turn out better," he remarked with reflective authority. "They never hung together. He spent money enough on Harve to stock a dozen ...
— Youth and the Bright Medusa • Willa Cather
... proposition!" he said with a chuckle. "It's all of that and more. But still, I'm curious about one thing. This Morgan la fe business. If I am to wed a fairy I'll at least know why they call her one. I'll take on no ...
— Louisiana Lou • William West Winter
... vein of humor which few had been privileged to discover. The mountains had taught him to laugh in silence. With him a chuckle meant as much as a riotous outburst of merriment from another, and he could enjoy greatly without any noticeable muscular disturbance of his face. And not always was his smile a reflection of humorous thought. There were ...
— The Alaskan • James Oliver Curwood
... and sent her keen eyes ranging over the floor, walls, and furnishings. She sank on a chair and said with a chuckle, "Now you go on and tell me all about it, honey. Jest what things are and why you fixed them, ...
— The Harvester • Gene Stratton Porter
... that." Tildy's chuckle was heard down the hall, and again Miss Gibbie pressed the bell on the table. Three rings were sounded this time, and Jackson, hearing his signal, hurried to her sitting-room, and at the open door stood waiting until she ...
— Miss Gibbie Gault • Kate Langley Bosher
... cloth, gold lace, silken facings, beautiful bright buttons, sash, belt, gauntlets—the leaves rustled loudly, but a chuckle from Jim in the background and a murmured "Dat are sumpin' like!" was the only audible utterance. With empressement each article was lifted from the box by Major Heros von Borcke and laid upon the pine boards beneath Stonewall ...
— The Long Roll • Mary Johnston
... triumphed, then! He concluded that the latter must be aboard, though Hanky had not seen him go on the boat. He thought of Lord Featherstone and all those fine relations and friends of Angela's. How they would chuckle when they heard that she had escaped from her "impossible husband"! His gorge rose as he visualized the scene. They had sold him something only to get it back again for nothing. It wasn't straight dealing—it wasn't on the level. They had bargained on this ...
— Colorado Jim • George Goodchild
... played with the thin fingers of her idol boy, and laughed with an idiotic chuckle as she looked upon the white face, calling him her "gentleman," and wondering "how he came to have such a delicate skin, when his father ...
— The Elm Tree Tales • F. Irene Burge Smith
... of all the land about Altacoola that can be used," said Stevens. "I have had Norton, the Congressman from Langdon's district, working on it. There isn't a foot of land there which we do not now control under options, and," he added, with a chuckle, ...
— A Gentleman from Mississippi • Thomas A. Wise
... high-powered engine being thrown into low gear and buzzing like angry hornets because the wheels did not at once grip and thrust the car forward. Sand would do that. While Starr listened, he heard the chuckle of the car getting under way, and a subdued purring so faint that, had there not been a slow, quiet breeze from that direction, the sound would never have reached his ears at all. Even so, he had no more than identified it when the silence flowed in and covered it as a lazy tide covers a pebble ...
— Starr, of the Desert • B. M Bower
... her ear, she heard a low chuckle. She started violently; in all her life she had never heard anything so evil, so appalling, as that chuckle. It had come from the window at her left. She turned mechanically, her spirits ...
— The Californians • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
... he looks round at night. Plainly, there was nothing of this in his life, and years and loneliness hung heavily on his old arms. He was seventy-six, he told me; and nobody would give a day's work to a man that age: they would think he couldn't do it. "And, 'deed," he went on, with a sad little chuckle, "'deed, I doubt if I could." He said good-bye to me at a foot-path, and crippled wearily off to his work. It will make your heart ache if you think of his old fingers groping in ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XXII (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... and then both children beamed at the priest cordially, and the long-suppressed chuckle escaped ...
— The Heavenly Twins • Madame Sarah Grand
... when he applied the threatened stick the bag burst, and all the filth came out, which he was compelled to lick up by the enraged populace." At the close of the story the cigarettes glow, the white teeth gleam, the bushy whiskers wag, the old women chuckle, the girls giggle, and the youths snigger, and as the short twilight is now over, the group breaks up, and each vanishes into his or her own vermin-pasture to sleep until amanha has actually become to-day, and the sun shines on another exact ...
— Spanish Life in Town and Country • L. Higgin and Eugene E. Street
... you to chuckle with me over the notion I find a great many people entertain—that the address is dead against your views. The fact being, as they will by and by wake up [to] see that yours is the only hypothesis which is not negatived ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 1 • Leonard Huxley
... the Colonel procured a brief candle and set it into the powder. His plan was to light the candle, dispatch a porter with the message, and bolt for home. Having completed his preparations, he leaned back in his easy chair and smiled. He smiled a long time, and even achieved a chuckle. For the first time in his life, he felt a serene sense of happiness in being particularly wide awake. Then, without moving from his chair, he ignited the taper, and put out his hand toward the bell-cord, to summon the porter. At this stage of his vengeance the Colonel ...
— Cobwebs From an Empty Skull • Ambrose Bierce (AKA: Dod Grile)
... bowling the wicket down with a shooting ball, he would sacrifice the other chances to the glory of that achievement. Many a time have I seen our General twig this prejudice in the old man when matched against us, and chuckle at it. But I believe it was almost the only mistake he ever made, professional or even moral, for he was a most ...
— Highways and Byways in Surrey • Eric Parker
... row of busy bookkeepers Dick caught a chuckle from one, while another, under cover of his big open ledger thrust out his hand and seizing on the sleeve of Dick's coat gave it several little nudges as if trying to indicate how thoroughly they enjoyed his independent way of taking the supercilious nabob down ...
— Dick the Bank Boy - Or, A Missing Fortune • Frank V. Webster
... pot was scraped, she lighted a potent pipe, and, taking her stand at the kitchen door, laded the soft evening air with its pungent odors. If we surprised her at these supreme moments, she took the pipe from her lips, and put it behind her, with a low mellow chuckle, and a look of half-defiant consciousness; never guessing that none of her merits took us half so much as the cheerful vice which she only ...
— Suburban Sketches • W.D. Howells
... gave a chuckle, and Lestrange looked pained, "Oughtn't one to have a code of honour?" ...
— Father Payne • Arthur Christopher Benson
... it for money, he says," returned Louise. "The funniest thing about him is his absolute frankness after he is found out in any trick. He doesn't seem to have any sense of shame, and will fairly chuckle in my father's face as he is owning up ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 7 • Various
... originally instinctive in them, in the same way as it is so plainly instinctive in {216} young pheasants, though reared under a hen. It is not that chickens have lost all fear, but fear only of dogs and cats, for if the hen gives the danger-chuckle, they will run (more especially young turkeys) from under her, and conceal themselves in the surrounding grass or thickets; and this is evidently done for the instinctive purpose of allowing, as we see in wild ground-birds, their mother to fly away. But this instinct retained by our chickens has ...
— On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection • Charles Darwin
... forehead—vara gude indeed. Causative organs large, perceptive ditto. Imagination superabundant—mun be heeded. Benevolence, conscientiousness, ditto, ditto. Caution—no that large—might be developed," with a quiet chuckle, "under a gude Scot's education. Just turn your head into profile, laddie. Hum, hum. Back o' the head a'thegither defective. Firmness sma'—love of approbation unco big. Beware o' leeing, as ye live; ...
— Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet • Rev. Charles Kingsley et al
... night and our work next day that to neglect to do so is a crime against nature. And laugh! Man alive, if you are not in the habit of laughing, get the habit. Never miss a chance to laugh aloud. Smiling is better than nothing, and a chuckle is better still—but out and out laughter is the real thing. Try it now if you dare! And when you've done it, ...
— Laugh and Live • Douglas Fairbanks
... he replied with a dry little chuckle in his throat. "Whoever built this fortress built it strong, and we have blocked the gates. Also, they caught no one outside; all are within the walls, together with the sheep and goats. Lastly, we have sent most ...
— Benita, An African Romance • H. Rider Haggard
... pause and a little chuckle; then: "Now, Bob, that won't do. You must tell me all about it to-morrow. Call for us in time to catch ...
— The Girl and The Bill - An American Story of Mystery, Romance and Adventure • Bannister Merwin
... him chuckle throatily. "You don't know me—I'm Big Aleck, general of the Soviet brothers in this county." He juggled ...
— The Sagebrusher - A Story of the West • Emerson Hough
... 'Tis true, to her cottage still they came, And ate her muffins just the same, And drank the tea of the widowed dame, And never swallowed a thimble the less Of something the reader is left to guess, For all the deafness of Mrs. S. Who SAW them talk, and chuckle, and cough, But to SEE and not share in the social flow, She might as well have lived, you know, In one of the houses in Owen's Row, Near the New River Head, with its water cut off! And yet the almond oil she had tried, And fifty infallible things beside, Hot, and cold, and ...
— Playful Poems • Henry Morley
... the country over. Almost numberless letters have been received by the publishers, making this eager demand; for Dick Prescott, Dave Darrin, Tom Reade, and the other members of Dick & Co. are the most popular high school boys in the land. Boys will alternately thrill and chuckle ...
— Uncle Sam's Boys as Sergeants - or, Handling Their First Real Commands • H. Irving Hancock
... He saw no use of life 110 But, while he drove a roaring trade, To chuckle, "Customers are rife!" To chafe, "So much hard cash outlaid Yet zero in ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning
... your heart, for you?" said Corson as the noise fell away a little. "I tell you what—" he broke off with a chuckle, seeing that she had taken a pencil and a piece of paper from her purse and was scribbling hastily: "Taking notes on the Wild ...
— Alcatraz • Max Brand
... after I had gone about two hundred yards, I reached a point where the wind seemed to beat down on me from above. I put up my hands and found two openings about two yards apart, through which the air sucked steadily. I moved out of the current with a chuckle in my throat and a grin on my face. I had passed under the gate in the school-wall, and I knew now why the piers that held it had been built so high,—they were hollow and were the means of sending ...
— The House of a Thousand Candles • Meredith Nicholson
... Mr. Bullsom said. "If you'll excuse my saying so, it don't sound like common-sense. You can live on what terms you please with your father, but you ought to let people know who you are. Great Scott," he added, with a little chuckle, "what will ...
— A Prince of Sinners • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... laughed a little at the tone. But he guessed that the neutral wouldn't even have to lie very much. Fellows like that, unless caught in the very act, felt themselves pretty safe. They could afford to chuckle. That fellow was probably chuckling to himself. It's very possible he had been before at the game and didn't care a rap for the bit of evidence left behind. It was a game in which practice made ...
— Tales Of Hearsay • Joseph Conrad
... grudge on account of his discomfiture that morning beside the spring, but rather thought of it with appreciation as a further evidence of his favourite's cunning and prowess; and he foresaw, with a chuckle, that there were painful surprises in store for the bears of the Ringwaak range. He had made a wise purchase indeed when he saved that splendid beast ...
— The Watchers of the Trails - A Book of Animal Life • Charles G. D. Roberts
... grimly. "I had a hand in it. Her father had a hand in it. She was a straw in a mad stream. I can't blame her. I can't even be angry. I pity her. I'd save her if I could, but it is too late. The insane set that helped to wreck her life will chuckle and ...
— The Desired Woman • Will N. Harben
... some one the other day she was five years younger than she is. That's a sure sign," and her son laughed an amused little chuckle. ...
— The Primrose Ring • Ruth Sawyer
... had you been in my place; but my astonishment was at its height, when the partners, keeping side by side as closely as the Siamese twins, stepped gracefully over the fender, and taking a seat directly opposite me, addressed me in a voice broken by an irrepressible chuckle— ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... With a chuckle John advanced to Clara's room. As he closed the door behind him she rose. His face was mottled; there were tear-stains about his eyes, and he had a wild, ...
— The Nether World • George Gissing
... and North Carolina; and still more gratified at the news from Thomas, in Tennessee, because it fulfills my plans, which contemplated his being able to dispose of Hood, in case he ventured north of the Tennessee River. So, I think, on the whole, I can chuckle over Jeff. Davis's disappointment in not turning my Atlanta campaign ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan
... Dr. Winter, whom we had asked out of courtesy to be present, introduced into the wound a finger which seemed to our excited senses to be about nine inches long, and hooked out the stone at the end of it. "It's always well to bring one in your waistcoat-pocket," said he with a chuckle, "but I suppose you youngsters ...
— Round the Red Lamp - Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life • Arthur Conan Doyle
... solitary, unknown, inapproachable. He has no youth, no play, no joy except to eat; he associates with nobody, not even with his own kind; and when he catches a fish, and beats its head against a limb till it is dead, and sits with head back-tilted, swallowing his prey, with a clattering chuckle deep down in his throat, he affects you as a parrot does that swears diabolically under his breath as he scratches his head, and that you would gladly shy a stone at, if the owner's back were turned ...
— Secret of the Woods • William J. Long
... Malmaison over a cup of tea that evening. "The child's no changeling; but he's changed, and changed for the better, too, by Gad! He can tell a bad egg from a good one now," continued the Doctor, with a significant chuckle, the significance of which, however, Lady Malmaison perhaps failed to perceive. But the fact was, the Honorable Richard Pennroyal had never been an especial favorite with ...
— Archibald Malmaison • Julian Hawthorne
... with a hoarse chuckle. "You knows the way. First turn to the left. I'll ride inside, like a lord, or a fashionable doctor, and keep my ...
— M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur." • G.J. Whyte-Melville
... in a tone of banter, and was cut short by a curious, prolonged chuckle, which differed from laughter in the feeling it produced in the hearer that the mirth did not spring from the open, obvious humor of the situation, but from some whimsical thought which was the more relished because its nature was concealed from ...
— An Adventure With A Genius • Alleyne Ireland
... a Mexican dime out here. You can't cash in on a good outlook," returned Bet with a chuckle. "It's the mine that counts. Now tell us, don't you think we made a good ...
— The Merriweather Girls in Quest of Treasure • Lizette M. Edholm
... admiring biographers have noticed, with something of a chuckle, the revenge which Perceval, who was the chief object of Plymley's sarcasm, took, without in the least knowing it, on his lampooner. Had it not been for the Clergy Residence Bill, which that very respectable, if not very brilliant, ...
— Essays in English Literature, 1780-1860 • George Saintsbury
... bad as that?" His tone would usually have sent her off in an amused chuckle; now she was miserably silent, pressing ...
— Polly of Lady Gay Cottage • Emma C. Dowd
... one sniff, then holds it at arm's length while he runs it through. Gets a chuckle out ...
— Wilt Thou Torchy • Sewell Ford
... felt," said Lucile with equal earnestness, while Evelyn could not repress a chuckle at the memory of their first meeting with Jim. "Has he anything else ...
— Lucile Triumphant • Elizabeth M. Duffield
... love him?' he cried. Then, with a chuckle of fiendish exultation: 'Because he bit ...
— The President - A novel • Alfred Henry Lewis
... with the smell of upturned sods and heavy leaf-mould in one's nostrils, that even Lucifer himself is not as deep or strong or wise as is patient furrowed earth and her blundering children. A rough earth-hint, a Rabelaisian ditty, a gross amazing jest, a chuckle of deep Satyric humour;—and the monstrous "thickness" of Life, its friendly aplomb and nonchalance, its grotesque irreverence, its shy shrewd common-sense, its tough fibres, and portentous indifference to "distinction"; tumbles us over in the mud—for ...
— Visions and Revisions - A Book of Literary Devotions • John Cowper Powys
... the R.N.V. And ventured out upon the sea, The war-tried Subs. R.N. and Looties Who guided me about my duties Were wont to wink and chuckle if I found the going rather stiff; And when, upon the Nor'-East Rough, My legs proved scarcely firm enough To keep me yare and head-to-wind The very nicest ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, May 28, 1919. • Various
... looked straight at him, he dropped the glass in embarrassed confusion, forgetting for the instant that at that distance, with his gray and yellow clothing so matching the ground and rock, he would not be noticed. With a low chuckle at his absurd situation he recovered himself and again lifting the glass turned it upon Barbara, who was now riding swiftly toward the mouth of a little canyon that opened behind ...
— The Winning of Barbara Worth • Harold B Wright
... continued Mr Budge, tapping his snuff-box complacently, his brown eyes twinkling with the pleasure of doing a kind act, for his green specs were in their well-worn case at his elbow—'My friend is about my age—a sober chap, you see, Mrs Deborah; 'here a chuckle—'and he has no wife and no child to take care of him'—here a slight sigh: 'he has lately bought a beautiful estate, called Sorel Park, and it is there you will live, with nobody to interfere with you, as the lady-relative who will reside with my friend is a most ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448 - Volume 18, New Series, July 31, 1852 • Various
... said Lawrence, and dismissed him with a chuckle. "Shouldn't ever have thought him your style, Dune . . . but you're a clever feller and clever fellers always see more in stupid fellers than ordinary fellers do . . . come out and ...
— The Prelude to Adventure • Hugh Walpole
... to call upon Kwaque for his story. It carried him back to his boyhood when he had been excited by tales of wild cannibals in far lands and dreamed some day to see them for himself. And here he was, he would chuckle to himself, with a real ...
— Michael, Brother of Jerry • Jack London
... said not a word for what seemed to Patricia a very long minute; then she gave her deep chuckle and said decisively, "I'll go as Sinbad the Sailor. I've a picture of him at home, and I know just how he's dressed. He's so everlastingly muffled up about his shanks that I used to think he was a lady when I was ...
— Miss Pat at School • Pemberton Ginther
... an' he chuckled softly—I liked that chuckle. It was boyish an' friendly, but most of all it showed a good foundation. He was new to the game, but he was the kind ...
— Happy Hawkins • Robert Alexander Wason
... that his mammy taught him," said Grandfather Frog, with another chuckle way down ...
— Mother West Wind 'Why' Stories • Thornton W. Burgess
... Agnetta was quite ready to meet. She would do it. Lilac had only to run down to the farm early next morning, and, after she was made fashionable, she could go straight on to the artist. "And won't he just be surprised!" she added with a chuckle. "I don't expect he'll hardly ...
— White Lilac; or the Queen of the May • Amy Walton
... you do!" said the money-lender, with his gastric chuckle. "How've you got on with that little bit ...
— Mr. Justice Raffles • E. W. Hornung
... indulged in a ridiculous chuckle, holding the banana cleverly in one foot, while Angela laughed and chattered more and more nervously, but only succeeded in disgusting the visitors by what Susan at least took ...
— Modern Broods • Charlotte Mary Yonge
... the little Frenchman chuckle over the idea that when the Friar saw him in the broad-barred waistcoat, he would mentally exclaim, 'Is that my Patron! THAT distinguished man!' and would be covered with confusion. Ah! never was the Frenchman so deceived. As our friend the Cappuccino advanced, with folded arms, he looked ...
— Pictures from Italy • Charles Dickens
... and the throng, after yet another outbreak of cheering, dispersed. Followed a silence in the darkness under the platform, broken only by the distant thudding bass of the roundabout's steam organ; and then between the boards there sounded a liquid chuckle, much like a blackbird's, and a ...
— True Tilda • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... they were beginning to turn green in the late rains. He had been among the first to convert these virgin wastes into rich meadow-lands, supplementing the natural pasturage with alfalfa. Where one beast had found sustenance before, he now had three. "The table is set," he would chuckle, "we must now go in search of the guests." And he kept on buying, at ridiculous prices, herds dying of hunger in others' uncultivated fields, constantly increasing his opulent ...
— The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... I have you now," he said, with a chuckle. "There's a duel afoot. Those two youngsters are off for the other side of the Channel, to let out some angry blood, and the other goes along as second or surgeon. It's very neat, but the law says nay; and I know my duty. I am not to be bought off ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 4 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris
... the chuckle of satisfaction and then he gasped, for the old man rose from his cot and tried to grapple with the younger man, who gave him a brutal push, throwing him back onto ...
— The Ranger Boys and the Border Smugglers • Claude A. Labelle
... chatted with the driver, or he made acquaintances, male and female, on the cosy cross seats just broad enough for two. The London panorama under a sky of June feasted his laughing eyes. Now he would wave a hand to a friend on the pavement or borne past on another bus; now he would chuckle at a bit of comedy in real life. Huge hotels and brilliant shops vividly impressed him, though he saw them for the thousandth time; a new device in advertising won his ungrudging admiration. Above all he liked to find himself in the Strand at that hour of the day ...
— The Town Traveller • George Gissing
... glanced at all the sober faces before him and burst into a rollicking laugh. Perhaps I should say it was half laughter and half a chuckle of merriment, for the sounds he emitted were quaint and droll and tempted every ...
— Rinkitink in Oz • L. Frank Baum
... for a moment speechless, gazing with woebegone expressions on their faces at the wreck of their hopes and handiwork; then the silence was broken by a subdued chuckle coming from the other side of the wall on their left, and every one, with a start and a sudden clinching of fists, cried simultaneously: ...
— The Triple Alliance • Harold Avery
... the notes a mournful cadence like the memories of joy that are past, a lament for the destruction of the grass among which last year's dome-shaped nests were hidden. The swamp pheasant also utters a contented, self-complacent chuckle, that resembles the "Goo! goo! goo!" of a happy infant, and occasionally a succession of grating, discordant, mocking sounds, "Tcharn! tcharn! tcharn!" The chuckle may be an expression as if gloating ...
— The Confessions of a Beachcomber • E J Banfield
... the last Bassett was brought back from his ecstasy by an impatient movement of Ngurn. He had quite forgotten the old devil-devil one. A quick flash of fancy brought a husky chuckle into Bassett's throat. His shot-gun lay beside him in the litter. All he had to do, muzzle to head, was to press the trigger and ...
— The Red One • Jack London
... are satisfied now, Phil," added Mr. Whippleton, turning to me with something like a chuckle, as though he had done ...
— Desk and Debit - or, The Catastrophes of a Clerk • Oliver Optic
... With a satanic chuckle Tomlin drew back, leaving his friends to fight themselves weary, his own rapier ever presented toward them, urging them on with lashing tongue. And Venner flashed a look at him as Caesar did at Brutus, and ...
— The Pirate Woman • Aylward Edward Dingle
... glance of sympathy reached me, where I sat, demolished before the rebuke of the great man. I distinctly heard a chuckle from a feminine member. Yet, what had the dissenter done, or tried to do? To be quite honest, only, in a little matter where affectation would have been the flowery way; and I must say that I have never loved the Father of English Poetry any ...
— McClure's Magazine, Volume VI, No. 3. February 1896 • Various
... small boats, and is a very graceful stream on which to idle and watch the few kingfishers that man has spared. One may walk by its side for miles and hear no sound save the music of repose—the soft munching of the cows in the meadows, the chuckle of the water as a rat slips in, the sudden yet soothing plash caused by a jumping fish. Around one's head in the evening the stag-beetle buzzes with its multiplicity of wings and ...
— Highways & Byways in Sussex • E.V. Lucas
... to say, the experienced waiter was not wrong. For bringing in the breakfast, followed by an underling with a great pomp of plated covers, he informed Ferdinand with a chuckle, that a gentleman was enquiring for him. 'Told you your ...
— Henrietta Temple - A Love Story • Benjamin Disraeli
... it, sir," Mr. Wickham would return with an easy chuckle, "you will find the world full of young men who will be happy to relieve you of every ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, November, 1878 - of Popular Literature and Science • Various
... the old gentleman, "there's no other. Not but what," he added with a chuckle, "it gave them more pleasure to row their races with lots of pretty faces to look on. Lor' bless you, I don't object to 'em. It's the prettiest scene in the world when the sun shines as it sometimes does. And that's enough talking for one afternoon." ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, Jan. 29, 1919 • Various
... with his usual chuckle; "if God had willed you to be born a snail, you would have crept out of your house, so careless are ...
— The Buccaneer - A Tale • Mrs. S. C. Hall
... outcry and the movement of the finger towards the child's breast were so unexpected by the boy that he trembled and gave a choking sound. Some one behind him laughed, another gave an amused chuckle. Doulebova exchanged glances with Kerbakh and shrugged her shoulders; ...
— The Created Legend • Feodor Sologub
... as I was saying, bless the babies. I can't begin to tell you how very much I long to see them, to make their acquaintance, to chuckle 'em and punch 'em and see 'em laugh, and to see just what ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II • Burton J. Hendrick
... Duchess was not likely to be able to understand the Caucus. Forster was her friend, going and sitting with her almost every day, and chuckling over her politics with his extraordinary chuckle, and playing cards with her at night. To his card-playing, indeed, he ultimately owed his life, for the Invincibles in Dublin used to wait for him night after night outside his club to murder him (as afterwards came out in the Phoenix Park trial), and, tired out with waiting, ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke V1 • Stephen Gwynn
... aristocratic acquaintance did not, as a general rule, come out ahead in these little encounters and I more than once was obliged to suppress a chuckle at my plucky relative's spirited retorts. Frances, too, seemed to appreciate and enjoy the Yankee victories. Her prejudice against America had, so far as outward expression went, almost disappeared. She was more likely to champion than criticize ...
— Kent Knowles: Quahaug • Joseph C. Lincoln
... like Old Lame-Boy," Hal heard the head designer say with a chuckle, and his father reply: "If I could I'd start another proprietary as big ...
— The Clarion • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... a little chuckle. 'She certainly does not mean what she says.—You'd better read your Bible again, and you'll see that stalled oxen is what we eat, ...
— Sarah's School Friend • May Baldwin
... Darrah, the new star cook-lady, to feed him up, I think we can go about our own affairs unworried over him." The sweet smile that Phoebe bent upon the widow was so delicious that the major rattled the sugar tongs on the tea-tray by way of relief from an unendurably suppressed chuckle. ...
— Andrew the Glad • Maria Thompson Daviess
... and when he was well out of earshot Bud began to whistle. Now and then he stopped to chuckle, and sometimes he frowned at an uncomfortable thought. But on the whole he was very well ...
— Cabin Fever • B. M. Bower
... as the monumental money-lender suppressed a chuckle. Then he turned over, and his stertorous inhalations soon suggested ...
— The Story of the Foss River Ranch • Ridgwell Cullum
... festivity, not by any means that beautiful radiance of the human spirit which in another man was said to make his face at the age of seventy-two "a thanksgiving for his former life and a love-letter to all mankind," but rather the expression of a mental chuckle, as though he had suddenly seen something to laugh at in the very character of the universe. The face has plumped and reddened, the light-coloured eye has acquired a twinkle, the firm mouth has relaxed into a sportive smile. You can imagine him now ...
— The Mirrors of Downing Street - Some Political Reflections by a Gentleman with a Duster • Harold Begbie
... much good ever comes of setting anything afire," answered Tucker with his amiable chuckle; "the danger is that you're apt to cause a good deal of trouble somewhere, and it's more than likely you'll get singed yourself in putting out the flame. You needn't worry about Lila, Christopher; she's the kind of woman—and they're rare—who doesn't have to have her ...
— The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields • Ellen Glasgow
... for that, miss," he said with a hoarse chuckle. "Don't you worry about me. I'll just sit here and ...
— The Angel of Terror • Edgar Wallace
... The vice-president tore it open and read rapidly through the file of letters it had enclosed, tearing them one by one from the hold of the brass fastener at the upper left-hand corner as he glanced them over. "The chuckle-headed fools!" he gritted, apostrophizing the writers of the letters. And then: "Gibbert, I'd like to go into this a little deeper, if we had time; I'd like to know why in hell every man in this State with whom we've had a private business arrangement found ...
— The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush • Francis Lynde
... take his stand just underneath the window of Mrs Davis's bedroom, and when that energetic woman tossed the bales out she pitched them straight into Blunt's willing arms. The accommodating man waited until he had received all that appeared likely to be delivered to him, and then with a quiet chuckle bore them, as we have ...
— The Iron Horse • R.M. Ballantyne
... ring. You perhaps remember the wording of the will? Before I left home to go abroad, so long ago, when I bade good-by to old Mr. Gilpin, he said to me, with that odd chuckle of his, 'Allan, I want Celia to have the ring when I die,' I replied that I hoped he would leave it to you in his will. Again, as I was leaving him, he called after me, 'Remember, Celia is to have the ring,' It escaped ...
— Mr. Pat's Little Girl - A Story of the Arden Foresters • Mary F. Leonard
... entered that apartment she found her brother apparently in a convulsion; but he was only vainly endeavoring to prevent his merriment from developing into an outrageous chuckle, for he too had ...
— From Jest to Earnest • E. P. Roe
... bad of blood will always be glad to mention one of the few good sides of a generally detestable character; and a person of humour must always chuckle at some of the ways in which Calvin's services to ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury
... seemed to come to the girl, for John could hear her desperate chuckle as she went out with ...
— The Opened Shutters • Clara Louise Burnham
... Daisy cashed the Micro check for ten hundred silver smackers, which she hid in a broken radionic coffee urn. Gusterson sold his insanity novel and started a new one about a mad medic with a hiccupy hysterical chuckle, who gimmicked Moodmasters to turn mental patients into nymphomaniacs, mass murderers and compulsive saints. But this time he couldn't get Fay out of his mind, or the last chilling words the nervous ...
— The Creature from Cleveland Depths • Fritz Reuter Leiber
... a chuckle in his throat, but kept his outward gravity. The stranger eyed the two malevolently, helplessly, and began once more, holding his rage with ...
— The City of Fire • Grace Livingston Hill
... in the following which seems to be inimitable. Lord Norbury was travelling with Parsons; they passed a gibbet. "Parsons," said Norbury, with a chuckle, "where would you be now if every one had his due?"—"Alone ...
— Law and Laughter • George Alexander Morton
... tresses, green tresses. Slow dipping, caressing, I've heard A whisper, a chuckle of laughter, a scamper; and high, High up in the air the cry, the call of a bird. And when the night came with a flicker of wings I have heard the earth breathing quiet and slow Like a pulse in the tiny, ...
— Miscellany of Poetry - 1919 • Various
... said old Asher as he struck the log, "I wish for the good of the horses and cows and all the other live things and," with a terrific chuckle of mystery, "I wish for ...
— When the Yule Log Burns - A Christmas Story • Leona Dalrymple
... with a low chuckle of delight, "I've got word my party is coming all right. Haight just got a telegram from Rivers, that Winters had wired him that he and his son and the expert would be in Silver City, on to-morrow's train, so I ...
— The Award of Justice - Told in the Rockies • A. Maynard Barbour
... chuckle over the mishap of the sheriff who tried to get possession of a large warehouse through a secret aperture in the cellar wall. He did succeed in effecting an entrance, with several of his deputies. But as soon as they were inside the building, the patriots outside closed ...
— Captains of Industry - or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money • James Parton
... great deal more! For with each chuckle, from the top of her red head to her very feet, she grew ...
— The Poor Little Rich Girl • Eleanor Gates
... fired, with conquest's ecstasy. JOHN of Newcastle, reins a restive horse; He's none too eager for another course. The one-armed Irish Chief looks pale and grim; E'en cheery LARRY, of the cynic whim, Hath a less careless chuckle than his wont. "Beshrew me! but they bear a gallant front!" Mutter the pikemen ranged in order round. Sore-battered RITCHIE,—may he soon be sound!— Bates not a jot of courage; that stark fighter And shifty swordsman, JOACHIM: the Reiter, Snuffs the air proudly; with ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 103, August 13, 1892 • Various
... big office of the Berg, Shriner Advertising Company they had begun to chuckle a bit over the McChesney solicitor's reports. Those same reports indicated that young McChesney was beginning to find the key to that maddening jumble of complexities known as human nature. Big Sam Hupp, who was the pet caged copy-writing ...
— Personality Plus - Some Experiences of Emma McChesney and Her Son, Jock • Edna Ferber
... fetchin' in th' ice cream freezers," he said, with his booming chuckle. "I guess I'm 's well 's c'n be expected, under th' circumstances, ma'am.... An' that r'minds me, parson, a little matter was s'ggested t' me. In fact, I'd thought of it, some time ago. No more 'n right, in view o' th' facts. If you don't ...
— An Alabaster Box • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Florence Morse Kingsley
... chuckle came from the man who had risen from the bench. "Dey don't seem ter be no flies on dis party, Pete!" he said, with a ...
— Tin-Types Taken in the Streets of New York • Lemuel Ely Quigg
... jumped out of the window into the mews behind the house, in an agony of surprise—his behaviour would have been much less inexplicable to Mr. Calton than it was, when he put his hands into his inexpressible-pockets, and said with a half-chuckle, 'Just so.' ...
— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens
... agree—subjects upon which they argued long and loud and often in the old days; and it sometimes happens that Bill across an article or a paragraph which agrees with and, so to speak, barracks for a pet theory of his as against one held by Jim; and Bill marks it with a chuckle and four crosses at the corners—and an extra one at each side perhaps—and sends it on to Jim; he reckons it'll rather corner old Jim. The crosses are not over ornamental nor artistic, but very distinct; Jim sees ...
— While the Billy Boils • Henry Lawson
... waiting at the gate for them and, as he opened the door, cried out in his cheery voice, "Back again, my children," but, to his surprise, there was no response and, seeing Mrs. Whyte signal him to be quiet, he gave a low whistle and murmured under his breath, with a chuckle, "a lover's quarrel, ...
— Australia Revenged • Boomerang
... it!" said Gaffer Hodge, with a senile chuckle. "I said they was from Lunnon this afternoon when I seen them fust! Glad to meet ...
— Facing the German Foe • Colonel James Fiske
... perchance, in years to follow, I shall watch your plump sides hollow, See Carnifex (gone lame) become a corse— See old age at last o'erpower you, And the Station Pack devour you, I shall chuckle then, ...
— Departmental Ditties and Barrack Room Ballads • Rudyard Kipling
... a grim chuckle, as he looked, first, at the friendly ravine, and then at the savages below, "the Philistine rascals is in our hands, and we will ...
— Nick of the Woods • Robert M. Bird
... the sage delivered in his most emphatic and tragic tone. "Something has occurred! My dear friend, be plainer. What has occurred?" Riccabocca remained silent. "Something that induces you to bestow your daughter on me?" Riccabocca nodded, and emitted a low chuckle. ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... exactly know what to say, and I hoped that one of them would "give me a lead." I could just catch a glimpse of their faces in the moonlight. The Jook was staring straight at the window-shutter behind which I lurked, and the wrath and disgust expressed in his handsome features set me off into a silent chuckle. I was sorry for Kitty, though. Her face drooped as if it were weighed down by its own blushes, and the long lashes quivered ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118 • Various
... love," thinks I, with a cynical chuckle. "If there is any gratitude in man, that young fellow ought to be showering blessings on me for having refused to hold the noose for him ...
— Stories By English Authors: Italy • Various
... desperate, eh?" said Mr. Slater, in a tone of suspicion. "Might I ask whether you have a safe to blow or a crib to crack on your own private account? I'm a cautious man, myself," he concluded, with a harsh chuckle, "and like to know what I'm ...
— The President - A novel • Alfred Henry Lewis
... be nearer the mark, Mater," said Clarence; "never saw such a chuckle-headed lot of bumpkins in ...
— In Brief Authority • F. Anstey
... persistent feature," said Adrian, in English, with a chuckle. "The Signore's Excellency is betrayed ...
— The Lady Paramount • Henry Harland
... ledge, and Dick tossed in his oar, sprang out, sending the clear water splashing with his bare feet, as he crossed up to the kegs, and, taking one under each arm, went more slowly and cautiously back to the boat, where his messmates took them carefully, with many a chuckle and grin, to deposit them beside ...
— Cutlass and Cudgel • George Manville Fenn
... arising rather from loss of blood than from an injury to a vital part, he was sufficiently recovered even on the day after the meeting to appreciate his nurse's presence. Twice he was heard to chuckle without apparent cause; once he strove, but failed, to detain her hand; while the feeble winks which from time to time he bestowed on Mr. Thomasson when her back was towards him were attributed by that gentleman, who should have known the patient, to reflections ...
— The Castle Inn • Stanley John Weyman
... feet; he flashed in it merrily, chuckling inwardly as he found hundreds of worthy people hanging breathless on his words. A kind of Kilmer cult grew apace; he had his followers and his devotees. I mention these things because he would have been the first to chuckle over them. I do not think he would want to be remembered as having taken all that sort of thing too seriously. It was all a delicious game—part of the grand joke of living. Sometimes, among his friends, he would begin to pontificate in his platform manner. Then he would ...
— Pipefuls • Christopher Morley
... the poet, with a chuckle, "that California girl we met at Stiver's studio last week? Well, I'm on my way to see her. She repeated that poem of mine, 'The Tribute of Spring,' word for word. She's the smartest proposition in this town just at present. Say, how does this confounded tie look? I spoiled four ...
— The Voice of the City • O. Henry
... who planned and executed that robbery were two cool, level-headed, and daring scoundrels, known as 'Chuckle-luck' and 'Magpie.' They were killed soon after this occurrence, by a member of their own band, whose name was Seward. A reward of a thousand dollars had been offered for their capture, an this tempted Seward to kill them, one night when they were ...
— The Old Santa Fe Trail - The Story of a Great Highway • Henry Inman
... the shoe he withdrew his foot and looked to see what the object might be, when lo! he discovered the coin. A look of puzzled amazement came over his sad face, which made the two watchers chuckle with amusement. He turned the coin over and over in his hand, and gazed at it ...
— The New McGuffey Fourth Reader • William H. McGuffey
... he said, "I'm—I'm going to—" and then he suddenly stopped and looked at Peggy and began to chuckle, and Peggy laughed and turned lobster color, and put her face in her hands and ...
— The Whole Family - A Novel by Twelve Authors • William Dean Howells, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Mary Heaton Vorse, Mary Stewart Cutting, Elizabeth Jo
... flannel. After a few days it scarcely ever screamed, even when she washed it. It would lie on her knees during the process, striking valiantly out with its arms and legs, staring straight up at the sky. Then when she turned it on its face, it would lay its head down and chuckle, and blow bubbles at the coral of the reef, examining, apparently, the pattern of the coral with deep and ...
— The Blue Lagoon - A Romance • H. de Vere Stacpoole
... His chuckle was the rasp of a file on a block of adamant. "Shared with them! That is the bait I dangle before their noses. In reality, I shall share it only with the Lady Elza. And with you—her brother, and the mate ...
— Tarrano the Conqueror • Raymond King Cummings
... glad that Charlie has given Alured a sound thrashing. The boy is too modest. He only said a few words, last evening, about the affair, and I thought that only a blow or two had been exchanged. It was as much as I could do, not to rub my hands and chuckle, when his father told me all about it. However, I must speak gravely to Charlie. If he takes it up, every time a Whig speaks scornfully of the king, he will be always in hot water, and, were he a few years older, would become a marked man. We have got to bide our time, ...
— A Jacobite Exile - Being the Adventures of a Young Englishman in the Service of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden • G. A. Henty
... face, whilst making these significant exclamations, would have been frightened by his sneering chuckle, ...
— Messengers of Evil - Being a Further Account of the Lures and Devices of Fantomas • Pierre Souvestre
... against the pump with a drunken chuckle: "Dave Cabarreux thinks that he's dead, hey? Boyer's not the sort of man to die as long as a good thing like this is in the dice. Why, Boyer's young, sir. He's got more brains and experience and vitality than all the damned wooden Cabarreuxes ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, September, 1878 • Various
... and so soweth strife and parts friends. There are people whose mouths are as full of malicious whispers as a sower's basket is of seed, and who have a base delight in flinging them broadcast. Sometimes they do not think of what the harvest will be, but often they chuckle to see it springing in the mistrust and alienation of former friends. A loose tongue often does as much harm as a bitter one, and delight in dwelling on people's faults is not innocent because the tattler did not think of the mischief ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren
... do better than that," said Patsy, with a chuckle. "They'll be blind drunk, I'm tellin' ye, an' it's into the ould pond we'll be welcomin' them. Yous three can stan' on the wall out a' the wet, an' me an' Mike'll assist the man an' his wife to step off ...
— The Weans at Rowallan • Kathleen Fitzpatrick
... coming and going through its doors, yet all in sobriety and peace, Ascalon passed the burning, rainless summer days. But not without a little cheer in the hard glare of the parching range, not without a laugh and a chuckle, and a grin behind the hand. The town knew all about the rainmaker at work behind the shielding rows of tall corn in Judge Thayer's garden. An undertaking of such scope was too big to sequester in any ...
— Trail's End • George W. Ogden
... he had should all go to outwit the Trades, and turn that old ruffian's church into his own smithy. This double master-stroke, by which he was to defeat one enemy, and secretly affront another, did make him chuckle one or twice, not with joy, but ...
— Put Yourself in His Place • Charles Reade
... which he paid for the Turkey, and the chuckle with which he recompensed the boy, were only to be exceeded by the chuckle with which he sat down breathless in his chair again, and chuckled till ...
— A Budget of Christmas Tales by Charles Dickens and Others • Various
... Bland, straightening himself up to his full height; "but I ought to be. If I was in your army I would have been a Major General, and in command of your army." Then with a merry chuckle added, "Perhaps then you would not have gotten such a d—-n bad whipping at Chancellorsville." ...
— History of Kershaw's Brigade • D. Augustus Dickert
... to a burst of merriment, so genuine and honest that the judge and jury joined in automatic sympathy. When silence was restored an explanation was asked by the Judge. But there was no response from the prisoner except a subdued chuckle. ...
— Frontier Stories • Bret Harte
... noise rose into an uproar, Misrule for the time was king; The clown with a foolish chuckle Bolted into the ring. But as, with a squeak and flourish, The fiddles closed their tune "You'll hold him as if he were made of glass?" Said the clown ...
— Songs of the Cattle Trail and Cow Camp • Various
... the heads had closed eyes and open mouths, and the occasional breathing that suggested a coming snore was marked enough to cause nervous nudges from convenient elbows, and make small boys who were looking on chuckle with delight. ...
— Divers Women • Pansy and Mrs. C.M. Livingston
... may (I think) say, both he laughs and cries, May well be guessed at by his watery eyes. Some things are of that nature as to make One's fancy chuckle while his heart doth ake. When Jacob saw his Rachel with the sheep, At the same time he did both ...
— Bunyan Characters (Second Series) • Alexander Whyte
... tedious lapse of ten minutes). Strange! I expected him back before this. But he is an absent-minded, chuckle-headed chap. Very likely he is staring at a downfallen horse and has forgotten this affair. I had better go in search of him. What? you will come, too. Capital! Then if you go to the right, and I to the left, we ...
— Baboo Jabberjee, B.A. • F. Anstey
... Harleston gave a faint chuckle. They would find nothing in his pocket-book but some visiting and membership cards, a couple of addresses and a ...
— The Cab of the Sleeping Horse • John Reed Scott
... Ned with a low chuckle of satisfaction. "Now catch hold of the knife and cut the ...
— Jack at Sea - All Work and no Play made him a Dull Boy • George Manville Fenn
... stopped; he had money enough, and he would venture no farther. He "was going to retire and eat peanuts," he said with a chuckle. ...
— The Quest of the Silver Fleece - A Novel • W. E. B. Du Bois
... say, Both his laughs and cries, May well be guess'd at by his wat'ry eyes. Some things are of that nature, as to make One's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache. When Jacob saw his Rachel with the sheep, He did at the same time both kiss ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... automobiles now, and, looking back, I saw Mr and Mrs Ford walking up the drive. Sam followed my gaze, and I heard him chuckle. ...
— The Little Nugget • P.G. Wodehouse
... when I fall asleep," he replied, with a chuckle; and with this understanding I sat down again—not ...
— The Vanishing Man • R. Austin Freeman
... Leger quitted the room Senor Montalvo gave vent to a chuckle of delighted self-gratulation, much to the surprise, and somewhat to the annoyance, of his Excellency, Don Sebastian Salvador Alfonso de Albareda, Governor of the city of Nombre ...
— The Cruise of the Nonsuch Buccaneer • Harry Collingwood
... question with an admiring chuckle. "Do you really mean you think he's been abroad with her ...
— The Wheel of Life • Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
... and maybe he mistook the signal. Anyway, the machine gives a groan and a jerk and we begins skimmin' along the asphalt at double speed. That don't check the moltin' process any, and Dyke was gettin' real excited, when we hears a chuckle from ...
— Odd Numbers - Being Further Chronicles of Shorty McCabe • Sewell Ford
... frosty humour in his eye as he said this, and in the silence which followed I could hear him chuckling to himself, and tasting the words over again as though they were good wine. I sat fingering my pistol and waiting for him to speak again. When he did so, it was with another dry chuckle and a long puff of ...
— Noughts and Crosses • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... as her little friend came she sat down upon her throne, and called all her court round to enjoy the fun; and the nurse stood by her side with the baby in her arms, as if it was quite ready to be given up. Then the little man began to chuckle at the thought of having the poor child, to take home with him to his hut in the woods; and he cried out, 'Now, lady, what is my name?' 'Is it JOHN?' asked she. 'No, madam!' 'Is it TOM?' 'No, madam!' 'Is it JEMMY?' ...
— Grimms' Fairy Tales • The Brothers Grimm
... the papers to Jethro and came upon Mr. Sutton's speech. There were four columns of it, but Jethro seemed to take delight in every word; and portions of the noblest parts of it, indeed, he had Cynthia read over again. Sometimes, in the privacy of his home, Jethro was known to chuckle, and to Cynthia's surprise he chuckled more than ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... marched the other two back and, for a wonder, did not punish them, probably because he was so rejoiced at his success in capturing them. He was beaming with delight when he returned them to our squad, and said, with a chuckle: ...
— Andersonville, complete • John McElroy |
