"Fret" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... on pinions of silver descending, Had brought me a gem from the fret-work of heaven; And smiles, with his star-cheering voice sweetly blending, The blessings of Tighe ...
— Poems 1817 • John Keats
... SEA-FRET. A word used on our northern coasts for the thick heavy mist generated on the ocean, and rolled by ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth
... cut in tartly, not liking the tone of her; "and just plain American make. But don't you fret, my money's on ...
— The Range Dwellers • B. M. Bower
... remotest verge of the sea: but there a power steps in, that limits the arrogance of raging passions and furious elements, and says, "So far shalt thou go, and no farther." Who are you, that should fret and rage, and bite the chains of Nature? Nothing worse happens to you than does to all nations who have extensive empire; and it happens in all the forms into which empire can be thrown. In large bodies, the circulation of power must be less vigorous at the ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... in her brow of youth; With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks; Turn all her mother's pains and benefits To laughter ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson
... impertinence that should have made hideous with hate the insulted features, but instead turned them for a thrilling instant of suspense into marble. Indeed, none of our petty vulgarities could jar or even fret the majestic calm of the desert and the stone Mystery among its billows. The Sphinx gazed above and past us all. She was like some royal captive surrounded by a rabble mob, yet as undisturbed in soul as though her puny, hooting tormentors ...
— It Happened in Egypt • C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson
... lip in vexation; but soon I smiled again. Were such little things to fret me? Did we not ride to Pagliano and to Bianca de' Cavalcanti? At the very thought my pulses would quicken, and a sweetness of anticipation would invade my soul, to be clouded at ...
— The Strolling Saint • Raphael Sabatini
... he recognized the futility of expecting restful sleep to follow a day of fret and ...
— Why Worry? • George Lincoln Walton, M.D.
... brother must neither fret nor fume. If our prince but asked me, I'd fight in the ranks for him, and carry musket or pike ...
— Our Home in the Silver West - A Story of Struggle and Adventure • Gordon Stables
... grooms are the very devil for superstition. And once a horse gets a bad name with them, good-by to him. Miller knew how to ride, of course, but like many another of them, was too damned over-confident. I warned him more than once for getting young horses into a fret, and I'm willing to lay a ten-pound note that he angered Pollux. 'Od's life! He is a vicious beast. So was his father, Culloden, before him. But here's luck to you, sir!" says Mr. Astley, tipping his glass; "having ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... shall get over it as other fellows do. At any rate, I know that we shall always be dear friends, and you need not fear that I shall mope over my misfortune. I shall run up to town for a bit, and as you are going up for the season next week, I shall no doubt often meet you. Don't fret about me. I have been hit pretty hard several times, though not in the same way, and I have always gone through it, and no doubt I ...
— The Queen's Cup • G. A. Henty
... a little they were quiet, while Johnnie tried to study out a way of helping her. But he failed. And soon she began to fret, and move impatiently, now sobbing softly, as if to herself, ...
— The Rich Little Poor Boy • Eleanor Gates
... when he went along to the Universities that evening, he found he had missed his man—by only a minute or two. He was surprised and troubled; he knew how Lionel would fret. The hall-porter did not know whither Lord Rockminster had gone; that is to say, he almost certainly did know, but it was not his business to tell. Luckily, at this same moment, there was a young fellow leaving the club, and, as ...
— Prince Fortunatus • William Black
... Nance," said Phil Rawson, putting his arm round the angry damsel's waist, and drawing her gently down. "Every one to his taste, an freckles an yellow hure are so to mine. So dunna fret about it, an spoil your protty lips wi' pouting. Better ha' freckles o' your feace than spots o' your heart, loike that ill-favort ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth
... on my back, which had only saved him; for having stifled envy in gladness for his sake, when (in those bits of our different holidays which overlapped each other) I saw and felt the contrast between our opportunities; for having suffered my harder lot in silence that my mother might not fret, when I felt certain that my father would not interfere! My heart beat as if it would have pumped the tears into my eyes by main force, but I kept them back, and said steadily ...
— We and the World, Part I - A Book for Boys • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... Rico grew more and more necessary every day. Early in the morning he began to fret for him; and when his pain came on he became very restless, and could not be pacified until Rico came. For, since Rico had mastered the language thoroughly, he had developed an inexhaustible fund of stories that delighted ...
— Rico And Wiseli - Rico And Stineli, And How Wiseli Was Provided For • Johanna Spyri
... brought down, and the horses, that were beginning to fret, dashed off. A smart little groom rode behind, and on reaching the farm they found another with two saddle-horses, one of them, a small, gentle Arab gelding, had a side-saddle. They rode all over the farm, and ...
— A Perilous Secret • Charles Reade
... some excuse for coming. He'll be none the wiser. Even if he should be here," added the man after a pause, "he is probably asleep. After a hard day's work a boy his age sleeps like a log. There'll be no waking him, so don't fret. Come! Let's ...
— Ted and the Telephone • Sara Ware Bassett
... lay motionless in the snow on the forest's edge, and Geraldine was beginning to fret at the prospect of her being too benumbed by the cold to use her rifle, when Duane touched her on the arm and drew her ...
— The Danger Mark • Robert W. Chambers
... Tom?" asked Pearson; "have the other lads been plaguing? Such a big, hearty fellow as you ought not to fret for that." ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various
... faintin' spells or hysterics, either. I said we weren't thinkin' of offerin' charity and if it would please her to have us run an expense book we'd do it, of course. She asked what the doctor said about her condition. I told her he said she must keep absolutely quiet and not fret about anything or she'd have an awful relapse. That was pretty strong but I meant it that way. Answerin' questions that haven't got any answer to 'em is too much of a strain for ME. You try it some time ...
— Kent Knowles: Quahaug • Joseph C. Lincoln
... be dear (Call once more) to a mother's ear: Children's voices wild with pain. Surely she will come again. Call her once, and come away. This way, this way. 'Mother dear, we cannot stay.' The wild white horses foam and fret, Margaret! Margaret! ...
— The Children's Garland from the Best Poets • Various
... bespangle, powder; embroider, work; chase, emboss, fret, emblazon; illuminate; illustrate. become &c. (accord with) 23. Adj. ornamented, beautified &c. v.; ornate, rich, gilt, begilt[obs3], tesselated, festooned; champleve[Fr], cloisonne, topiary. smart, gay, trickly[obs3], flowery, glittering; new gilt, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... answered. "You did the square thing by me once, and now I'll see you through; don't you fret." ...
— Soldiers of the Queen • Harold Avery
... put a high price upon my goodness, I fancy.' He laughed a little bitterly. 'I certainly meant to do them some good, and I even thought I had succeeded. My dear aunt, people don't always like being done good to. I remember that myself when I was a small boy. I used to fret and fume at the things which were done for my good; that was because I was a child. The ...
— The Dictator • Justin McCarthy
... to womanhood, he saw his own practical tact and talent, nothing more. She seemed the living representative of the years spent in strife for profit, power, and place; the petty cares that fret the soul, the mercenary schemes that waste a life, the worldly formalities, frivolities, and fears, that so belittle character. All these he saw in this daughter's shape; and with pathetic patience bore the daily trial of an over active, ...
— Moods • Louisa May Alcott
... songs for every son o' you, and all have silver linings! Good gentlemen, good gentlemen, it's close, your London air; If I'm mixing up the proverbs, 'tis because my roads run shining Through the fret of far-off pine-woods, and I'm wishful to be there; Or at hand among the hop-poles when the ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 8, 1914 • Various
... could play it low-down on you with me roosting close at hand. Putting two plain facts together it works out right natural and simple that he's on the square. As easy as that," he finished triumphantly. "So don't you fret. And in case he acts up I'll clamp down on him real sudden," he added by ...
— The Settling of the Sage • Hal G. Evarts
... and cries when it is taken away. He often forms the habit of sucking his fingers immediately after. He begins to fret half an hour or an hour before the next feeding ...
— The Care and Feeding of Children - A Catechism for the Use of Mothers and Children's Nurses • L. Emmett Holt
... tender memory of the dead I hold So precious through the fret and change of years! Were I to live till Time itself grew old, The sad sea would ...
— Choice Specimens of American Literature, And Literary Reader - Being Selections from the Chief American Writers • Benj. N. Martin
... axe, the mill, All kinds o' labor an' all kinds o' skill, Would be a rabbit in a wile-cat's claw, Ef't warn't for thet slow critter, 'stablished law; Onsettle thet, an' all the world goes whiz, A screw is loose in everythin' there is: Good buttresses once settled, don't you fret An' stir 'em: take a bridge's word for thet! Young folks are smart, but all ain't good thet's new; I guess the gran'thers they knowed ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, February, 1862 • Various
... "You needn't fret," said the old gray buccaneer; "he's got us as fast as two and two make four. For us to be wondering why he doesn't come around is as though a coop full of turkeys went wondering why the poulterer didn't ...
— The President - A novel • Alfred Henry Lewis
... Herein we may see the World moralized, or emblematically described, where most are short, over, wide or wrong-Byassed, and few justle in to the Mistress Fortune: On one side we find Heraclitus and his Followers fret, vex, rail, swear and cavil at every thing; on the other side Democritus, and his Company rejoice and laugh, as if they were created for that purpose. On one side you may see the Mimick screwing and twisting his Body into several Postures, which he perswades himself adds ...
— The School of Recreation (1684 edition) • Robert Howlett
... life, without ice or proper food, or sickroom comforts of any sort. Ah! Fort Samila, with the sun glaring up from the sand!—however, it is a long time ago now. I trusted the baby willingly to Mrs. Berry and to Providence, and did not fret; my capacity for worry, I suppose, was completely absorbed. Mrs. Berry's letter, describing the child's improvement on the voyage and safe arrival came, I remember, the day on which John was allowed his first solid mouthful; it had been a long siege. 'Poor little wretch!' ...
— The Pool in the Desert • Sara Jeannette Duncan
... is no coal for the grate, and no clothes for the bed, and the thin bones are seen through the ragged clothes, does the rich man share his plenty with me, as he ought to do, if his religion wasn't a humbug? When I lie on my death-bed and Mary (bless her!) stands fretting, as I know she will fret," and here his voice faltered a little, "will a rich lady come and take her to her own home if need be, till she can look round, and see what best to do? No, I tell you it's the poor, and the poor only, as does such things for the poor. Don't ...
— Mary Barton • Elizabeth Gaskell
... Nelly fret and moan over the invalid condition for which there was neither palliation nor remedy? Nay, a blessing upon her at last; she began to witness a good testimony to the original mettle and bravery of her nature. She accepted the tangible evil direct from ...
— Girlhood and Womanhood - The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes • Sarah Tytler
... fret yourself on that account!" he said. "My wife will treat my friends exactly as ...
— The Top of the World • Ethel M. Dell
... and walloped them, of course," cried the man. "Quite nat'ral. What boy wouldn't who had got any stuff in him at all? There, don't you fret yourself about it, lad. The master will grumble at you a bit, of course, same as he does at me; but he's a right to, and it's only his way as he's got into now since he took to his books and writing. But there was a time—ah! And not so very long ago, my lad— when if he'd caught ...
— Marcus: the Young Centurion • George Manville Fenn
... play the player, And, free from censure, fret, sweat, strut, and stare; Garrick[276] abroad, what motives can engage To waste one couplet on a barren stage? Ungrateful Garrick! when these tasty days, In justice to themselves, allow'd thee praise; When, at thy bidding, Sense, for twenty ...
— Poetical Works • Charles Churchill
... Sally, already on her feet. "You don't suppose I'm going to stick in here and get frozen stiff. There's nothing to do indoors. I got no sewing. Only makes me fret if I stay at home. I'm ...
— Coquette • Frank Swinnerton
... The fret and chafe that wait on service scorned, Justice denied, and truth to silence driven; From men we left him to appeal to Heaven, 'Gainst fraud set ...
— The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol. II • Thomas Lord Cochrane
... and everything. I am happy all the day long and I never fret or worry. On this day I was so happy over the beautiful sunshine and flowers that I ...
— Hazel Squirrel and Other Stories • Howard B. Famous
... not take it. She does nothing but fret for Monsieur, and say dreadful things about ma fille"—then she stopped in a ...
— A Little Girl in Old Quebec • Amanda Millie Douglas
... be allowed to go wrong, then, old man," he exclaimed almost fiercely. "Don't you fret. But, by Jove, we will be late for dinner!" and afraid to trust himself to say another word, he turned to one of the groups near and at last got from the room. He did not go up to his own, but on into the front hall, and so out into the night. A brisk wind was blowing, and the moon, a young, ...
— The Man and the Moment • Elinor Glyn
... frontiersmen pressed into the West, they continued to fret and strain against the Spanish boundaries. There was no temptation to them to take possession of Canada. The lands south of the Lakes were more fertile than those north of the Lakes, and the climate was better. The few American ...
— The Winning of the West, Volume Four - Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807 • Theodore Roosevelt
... is easy enough to see the real explanation of such cases as those mentioned near the beginning of this discussion. The mothers who fret and rebel over their maternity, she found, are likely to bear neurotic children. It is obvious (1) that mothers who fret and rebel are quite likely themselves to be neurotic in constitution, and the child naturally gets its heredity from them: (2) that constant fretting and rebellion ...
— Applied Eugenics • Paul Popenoe and Roswell Hill Johnson
... savers is elimination. Every man should try to operate along lines of the least resistance, eliminate the deterrent influences and all things that fret him. ...
— Dollars and Sense • Col. Wm. C. Hunter
... not to deny it,' he replied; 'therefore fret not thyself, good friend,—my worldly name is James Westrop. And I will tell thee what thou askest not, that my errand hither is to this young man, Andrew Golding. I have now told him my message, so I am free to depart; and if thou ...
— Andrew Golding - A Tale of the Great Plague • Anne E. Keeling
... comfort her. "Don't you fret about them," he said. "They're as dead as they can be, all of 'em, and in purgatory or a worse place, and you can't get 'em out no matter how hard you pray. Come on; let's go look ...
— The Italian Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins
... of the day fret you, and begin to wear upon you, and you chafe under the friction,—be calm. Stop, rest for a moment, and let calmness and peace assert themselves. If you let these irritating outside influences get the better of you, you are ...
— The Majesty of Calmness • William George Jordan
... how far Soul, which, Plato says, Abhors restraint, can act in stays— Might now, if gifted with discerning, Find opportunities of learning: As these two creatures—from their pout And frown, 'twas plain—had just fallen out; And all their little thoughts, of course. Were stirring in full fret and force;— Like mites, through microscope espied, A world ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al
... swept up to the hotel. He could not remember when he had felt so completely baffled; the incident of the girl and the ceremony was growing to something very like a calamity, and the mystery which surrounded it began to fret him intolerably; and the very unusualness of a trouble he could not settle with his fists whipped his temper to the point of explosion. He caught himself wavering, nevertheless, before the wind-swept porch of the hotel "office." That, too, was ...
— The Uphill Climb • B. M. Bower
... "Don't you fret!" Neifkins interrupted impatiently. "You've worried until you're all worked up over somethin' that hasn't happened and ...
— The Fighting Shepherdess • Caroline Lockhart
... this Oswald, the old Reve, "I pray you all that you yourselves ne'er grieve, Though my reply should somewhat fret his nose; For lawful 'tis with force, force to oppose. This drunken Miller hath informed us here How that some folks beguiled a carpenter - Perhaps in scorn that I of yore was one. So, by your leave, him I'll requite anon. In his own churlish language will ...
— Playful Poems • Henry Morley
... "'Don't fret about that, child,' says Aunt Maggie. 'I don't send out invitations—I issue orders. I'll have fifty guests here that couldn't be brought together again at any reception unless it were given by King Edward or William Travers ...
— Roads of Destiny • O. Henry
... proximity. To woman love is a cloyless thing. Man distinctly does tire. No matter how much he may love a woman, too much lovemaking becomes cloying to him, and he wants to get away. Even mere proximity, if too prolonged, becomes irksome to him, and he begins to fret and fidget, and pull at his chains, even if the chains are but of gossamer. Woman should know ...
— Woman - Her Sex and Love Life • William J. Robinson
... until the dinner-bell rang, and I had to invite my guests to remain. Indeed, I was not sorry, for all old men need some one to talk to and at, else they fret and grow peevish. Besides, I was anxious to put my young masters to the test. I have a grand piano of good age, with a sounding-board like a fine-tempered fiddle. The instrument, an American one, I handle like a delicate thoroughbred ...
— Old Fogy - His Musical Opinions and Grotesques • James Huneker
... "Don't fret about such trifles," they said. "We will find you some place less cold and dismal than Mademoiselle Gamard's gloomy house. If we can't find anything you like, one or other of us will take you to live ...
— The Vicar of Tours • Honore de Balzac
... followed slowly. The night-life of the great glaring city poured on unceasingly—the stream of souls all hurrying by divers routes and means toward a state where they sought to lose themselves—to forget the pressure of the bars that held them—to escape the fret and worry of their harassing personalities, and touch some fringe of happiness! All so sure they knew the way—yet hurrying really in the wrong direction—outwards instead of inwards; ...
— The Centaur • Algernon Blackwood
... happened, most of Kara's valuable and confidential possessions were at the bank. In a fret of panic and at considerable cost he had the safe removed and another put in its place of such potency that the makers offered to indemnify him against ...
— The Clue of the Twisted Candle • Edgar Wallace
... is musked and fair: Araby-sweet is the spice on the air: Ah, softly tread, have gentle care, Love's handmaid has passed this way. Did the long miles fret or the red suns beat? Did the great stones tear at her little white feet? Did the storm winds harry with stinging sleet, Or the ...
— In the Great Steep's Garden • Elizabeth Madox Roberts
... for a needle in a haystack, going out to find a man in that wilderness," said Helm with optimistic cheerfulness; "and besides Beverley is no easy dose for twenty red niggers to take. I've seen him tried at worse odds than that, and he got out with a whole skin, too. Don't you fret ...
— Alice of Old Vincennes • Maurice Thompson
... him curiously—the order and beauty of it, the signs of loving care. It gave him a key, he fancied, to the lives of the cultured English people, for there was no sign of strain and fret and stress and hurry here. Everything, it seemed, went smoothly with rhythmic regularity, and though it is possible that many Englishmen would have regarded Garside Scar as a very second-rate country house, and would have seen in Major Radcliffe and his wife nothing more than a somewhat ...
— Masters of the Wheat-Lands • Harold Bindloss
... "But why fret and worry?" she said, answering, rather, the objections of her own mind than addressing herself to M. de Tregars. "Things are just as they are, ...
— Other People's Money • Emile Gaboriau
... never tears in my aching eyes, No more the trouble ever to hide from my asking folk Beat of my heart at click o' the latch, and throb if his name is spoke; Never the need to hide the sighs and the flushing thoughts and the fret, And after awhile my heart will hush and my hungering hands forget . . . Peace on my ways, and peace in my step, and maybe my heart grown light — (Mary, helper of heartbreak, send him ...
— The Second Book of Modern Verse • Jessie B. Rittenhouse
... Horace Walpole and his "Gothic" ruin on Strawberry Hill; and we are of the twentieth century, and have discovered the beauty of docks and harbours and tall factory chimneys and railway stations, under the guidance of Whistler and Brangwyn and such folk, and we do not fret at laying a railway through Perthshire or the Lake District, because railways are fast becoming almost as romantic and old-fashioned to us as stage-coaches (in these days of aeroplanes and automobiles); but at least let us remember that it is to the nineteenth century that we owe that ...
— Lynton and Lynmouth - A Pageant of Cliff & Moorland • John Presland
... speak in temper, I'm afraid, Patty, and that would spoil all. I'm sorry you can't go up to Ellen's," she sighed, turning back to her work; "you don't have pleasure enough for one of your age; still, don't fret; something may happen to change things, and anyhow the weather is growing warmer, and you and I have so many more outings in summer-time. Smooth down your hair, child; there are straws in it, and it's all rough with the wind. I don't like flying ...
— The Story Of Waitstill Baxter • By Kate Douglas Wiggin
... right; but was it right that these occupations should have so crowded out the very principle that would have given a holy harmony to her life, and been a fountain of strength to meet the cares and worries that will fret the stream of the most prosperous course? Sacred words, learned in her childhood, recurred to her mind: "And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things, entering in, choke the word, and it ...
— Lucy Raymond - Or, The Children's Watchword • Agnes Maule Machar
... nothing at all to tell you now but that Mary Taylor is better, and that she and Martha are gone to take a tour in Wales. Patty came on her pony about a fortnight since to inform me that this important event was in contemplation. She actually began to fret about your long absence, and to express the most eager wishes for your return. My own dear Ellen, good-bye. If we are all spared I hope soon to see ...
— Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle • Clement K. Shorter
... be satisfied if I ever learn to be half as good and patient and unselfish as she is. I don't see how she can be so good and patient and happy when she has to lie still year after year and suffer so much, I should get cross and fret about it, for I can't bear to be sick a day. But she never thinks of her own troubles, but is so afraid she will make us care or trouble. When the pain is very bad she likes to hear music or poetry. It ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, Nov 1877-Nov 1878 - Scribner's Illustrated • Various
... done my share. Nothing is going to harm Marie Louise. I thought about all that, do not fret. So the last time Pere Antoine passed in the road—going down to see that poor Pierre Pardou at the Mouth—I called him in, and he blessed the whole house inside and out, with holy water—notice how the roses have bloomed ...
— At Fault • Kate Chopin
... to me. What didn' you know? That Tom was a scholar? A handsome scholar he'd have been, but for going to sea early when his father died. I wonder sometimes if he worries over it and the chances he missed. But Quebec's the postmark; and that means he's right and safe, thank the Lord! I don't fret so long as he's aboard a well-found ship. 'Twas his signing aboard the One-and-All—' Rosewarne's coffin,' they call her—that nigh broke me. He didn' let me know till two nights afore he sailed. 'Beggars can't be choosers,' he said; ...
— Shining Ferry • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... little soul, and don't you fret over a careless speech, that meant nothing at all. I've wished him in the Red Sea more than once, but I'm blessed if I ever do it again. Come, let's go over yonder, where we caught the young owl; Dicky may have wanted to try that ...
— A Summer in a Canyon: A California Story • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... psalm, 'Fret not thyself because of evil doers.' I think he picked it out on purpose; and then he prayed that we might all lead better lives, and live in Christian fellowship with ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No 3, September 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... to be! And was he flying from the island like this? The island that had honoured him, that had rewarded him beyond his deserts, and earlier than his dreams, that had suffered no jealousy to impede him, no rivalry to fret him, no disparity of age and service to hold him back—the little island that had seemed to open its arms to him, and to cry, "Philip Christian, son of your father, grandson of your grandfather, first of ...
— The Manxman - A Novel - 1895 • Hall Caine
... from Chicago with blankets and with pillows, until the men shouted: "Three cheers for the Christian-Commission! God bless the women at home!" then sitting down to take the last message: "Tell my wife not to fret about me, but to meet me in heaven; tell her to train up the boys whom we have loved so well; tell her we shall meet again in the good land; tell her to bear my loss like the Christian wife of a Christian soldier"—and ...
— The Wedding Ring - A Series of Discourses for Husbands and Wives and Those - Contemplating Matrimony • T. De Witt Talmage
... the principle of giving them as much physical labour and exercise as possible, so as to destroy all tendency to a morbid concentration of thought; and thus Clare was kept away from books and paper, and made to go into the garden, to plant, and dig, and water the flowers. He seemed to fret at first on being deprived of the solace of his poetry, and eagerly seized every occasion to scribble verses upon odd slips of paper, or with, chalk against the wall. But as the months passed on, his new forced habits grew upon him, and he left off writing to a great extent, and was foremost among ...
— The Life of John Clare • Frederick Martin
... listened and were converted, and I became a great religious leader. But always, with a shock, I was brought back to earth, where there were no heroic deeds to do, no lions to face, no judges to defy, but only some dull duty to be performed. And I used to fret that I was born so late, when all the grand things had been done, and when there was no chance of preaching and suffering ...
— Annie Besant - An Autobiography • Annie Besant
... on the evening previous, and one of her first acts in the morning was to try them on. They did not fit! Now, Mrs. Abercrombie intended to go out on that very morning, and she wished to wear these gaiters. "Enough to fret her, I should say!" exclaims one fair reader. "A slight cause, indeed!" says another, tossing her curls; "men are ...
— Finger Posts on the Way of Life • T. S. Arthur
... Head in your hands as usual! You will fret Your life out, sitting moping in the dark. Come, it ...
— The Poetical Works of George MacDonald in Two Volumes, Volume I • George MacDonald
... turn'd to thy Amoret, in sight, Her very figure, and the Robe she wears, With tawny Buskins, and the hook she bears Of thine own Carving, where your names are set, Wrought underneath with many a curious fret, The Prim-Rose Chaplet, taudry-lace and Ring, Thou gavest her for her singing, with each thing Else that she wears about her, let me feel The first fell ...
— The Faithful Shepherdess - The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (Vol. 2 of 10). • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
... Archie realized all this as he paced his room that night: no; he was very strangely moved and excited. Something, he knew not what, had again stirred the monotony of his life. He had been sick and sad for a long time; for men are like children, and fret sometimes after the unattainable, if their hearts be set upon it. And yet, though he forbore to question himself too closely that night, how much of his pain had been due to wounded vanity and ...
— Not Like Other Girls • Rosa N. Carey
... Nor his unkindness palliates or conceals; "This is your folly," said his heartless wife: "Alas! my folly cost my Brother's life; It suffer'd him to languish and decay - My gentle Brother, whom I could not pay, And therefore left to pine, and fret his life away!" He takes his Son, and bids the boy unfold All the good Uncle of his feelings told, All he lamented—and the ready tear Falls as he listens, soothed, and grieved to hear. "Did he not curse me, child?"—"He never cursed, But could ...
— Tales • George Crabbe
... Festival of Mid-winter, the Festival of the Frost. The rime comes, or the snow, and the long lines of the buildings, the fret-work of stone, the battlements, carved pinnacles and images of saints or devils, stand up with clear glittering outlines, or clustered about and overhung with fantasies of ice and snow. Behind, the deep-blue sky itself seems to glitter too. The frozen floods ...
— The Invader - A Novel • Margaret L. Woods
... unmistakable? In such circumstances as these the course of true love would be the better of a little obstacle or two; the only difficulty was that it might run too smooth. Mrs. Warrender thought that, perhaps, it was well to permit such a little fret in the current as this dance proved to be. She could have got Dick an invitation had she pleased, but was hard-hearted and refrained. And Chatty did not enjoy it. She said (with truth) that there was very little room for dancing; that to sit outside ...
— A Country Gentleman and his Family • Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
... boy, an' when I tell Hannah Morse, she'll be pleased, 'cause a speck of dirt anywhere about the house does fret her ...
— Aunt Hannah and Seth • James Otis
... Ivanowna does not understand that sort of thing, and began so to pine and fret that she became very ill indeed; and, seeing her state, I volunteered to come to Constantinople, where I heard your ship was likely to be found, to bear a message to Lieutenant Higson; and I have been greatly anxious till I got on board lest ...
— The Three Commanders • W.H.G. Kingston
... no need for you to fret," she said, with a sort of gentle authority, as if she had been his mother. "I've got my life to live, and I've got strength enough to live it. ...
— Madelon - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... lived to be eighty-five, retained to the last the fresh and cheerful temperament of a boy. John Wesley, who died when he was eighty-eight, also had a happy disposition. "I feel and grieve," he says, "but by the grace of God I fret at nothing." Goethe, who reached his eighty-third year, is another good example. Then there is Boerhaave, one of the most celebrated physicians of modern times, who held that decent mirth is the salt of life. Indeed in the case of most old people, we believe it will be found that ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, April 1887 - Volume 1, Number 3 • Various
... weights, and the Fund gave eight hundred rupees, and the distance was "round the course for all horses." Shackles' owner said:—"You can arrange the race with regard to Shackles only. So long as you don't bury him under weight-cloths, I don't mind. Regula Baddun's owner said:—"I throw in my mare to fret Ousel. Six furlongs is Regula's distance, and she will then lie down and die. So also will Ousel, for his jockey doesn't understand a waiting race." Now, this was a lie, for Regula had been in work for two months at ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling
... and big with adventure, And ogling the stake which is fix'd in the centre. Round and round go the cards, while I inwardly damn 5 At never once finding a visit from Pam. I lay down my stake, apparently cool, While the harpies about me all pocket the pool. I fret in my gizzard, yet, cautious and sly, I wish all my friends may be bolder than I: 10 Yet still they sit snug, not a creature will aim By losing their money to venture at fame. 'Tis in vain that at niggardly caution I scold, 'Tis in vain that I flatter the brave and the bold: All play their own way, ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith • Oliver Goldsmith
... maid, all alone, 'Thout no children of her own, An' I s'pose that makes her fuss 'Round our house a-bossin' us. If she 'd had a boy, I bet, 'Tween her bossin' and her fret She'd a-killed him, jest about; So God made her do without, For he knew no boy could stay ...
— Cape Cod Ballads, and Other Verse • Joseph C. Lincoln
... And now the moon, with a silent majesty that shamed human speech, slid her bright silver plate up behind the fret of trees on the far hills. Across the river a shimmering path of light grew, broadening; and the world beamed in holy beauty, as on the ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England
... infant show this? He drains the bottle hungrily and cries when it is taken away. He may begin to fret a half hour or so before the time for the next feeding. He often sucks his fingers ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter
... gentle sister made reply, 'Fret not yourself, dear brother, nor be wroth, Seeing it is no more Sir Lancelot's fault Not to love me, than it is mine to love Him of all men who seems ...
— Idylls of the King • Alfred, Lord Tennyson
... plum trees, then by the willows it must be. Has any one picked up in there the likeness of a girl? Don't fret about meeting again; in spring its scent returns. Soon as it's gone, and west winds ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book II • Cao Xueqin
... monsieur; and Pierre is with him. I have begged milady often and often not to fret, for monsieur would surely come; miladi, see, ...
— East Lynne • Mrs. Henry Wood
... pains you to have Sidney here, I will put him to some school in the town, where they'll be kind to him. Only, if you would, Margaret, for my sake—old girl! come, now! there's a darling!—just be more tender with him. You see he frets so after his mother. Think how little Tom would fret if he was away from you! ...
— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... "don't-worry" chapters in this old Bible, one in the Old Testament and one in the New. In the Old Testament is the Thirty-seventh Psalm with its oft-repeated "fret not." The word under that English phrase "fret not" is significant. It is so blunt as to sound almost like a bit of American slang. Literally it means "don't get hot." The New Testament has the sixth chapter of Matthew with Jesus' own words. One should ...
— Quiet Talks on Service • S. D. Gordon
... bed, little person," he returned. "Scold not, nor fret. William will be himself again ere yet the morrow's sun shall clear the horizon. Let us avoid recrimination. The tongue is, or would seem to be, the most vital weapon of modern society. Therefore let us ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... of wrote you before only we was on the march and by the time night come around my dogs fret me so bad I couldn't think of nothing else and when they told us we was comeing up here I thought of course they would send us up in motor Lauras or something and not wear us all out before we got here but no it was drill every ft. of the way and I said to Johnny Alcock the night we got here ...
— The Real Dope • Ring Lardner
... marked, fret-like meanders encircle the vessel, the elements of which are ruled exclusively by the warp and woof, by the radiate and the concentric lines of construction. This is the work of the ...
— A Study Of The Textile Art In Its Relation To The Development Of Form And Ornament • William H. Holmes
... the spirit of the beer is retained, and it is thereby enabled to work the liquor clear; whereas in hot weather, the spirit quickly evaporates, leaving the wort vapid and flat, unable to work itself clear, but keeping continually on the fret, till totally spoiled. This is the obvious reason for the use of sugar, prepared for colour, because sugar will bear the heat better than malt; and when thoroughly prepared, possesses such a strong principle of heat ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton
... come in in his nervous, friendly way and try to comfort the sufferer by being talked to. "I thought this idle capacity was distinctive of little children and old maids. But it's just circumstances. I simply can't work, and things have to drift; it's no good to fret and struggle. And so I lie here and am as amused as a baby with a rattle, at ...
— The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents • H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
... Grandpa, they would have been more useful in some kind of a cabinet in the old settler's cabin, but we needn't to fret about it any." ...
— The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair - Their Observations and Triumphs • Charles McCellan Stevens (AKA 'Quondam')
... fact as something known by others, and requiring only to be studied and learned by the child, rules out such conditions of fulfilment. It condemns the fact to be a hieroglyph: it would mean something if one only had the key. The clue being lacking, it remains an idle curiosity, to fret and obstruct the mind, a dead ...
— The Child and the Curriculum • John Dewey
... "Now, dear old granny, don't you fret and worry any, For I'll soon come back and tell you whether this is work or play; There can't be mischief in it, so I won't be gone a minute"— For a minute then I started. I was ...
— Poems of American Patriotism • Brander Matthews (Editor)
... can you do? The autumn sun and the damp are both very bad for the little fellow—for the scriptures have it: /* "In wheezing, swoon or in nervous fret, In jaundice ...
— The Post Office • Rabindranath Tagore
... things that chafe and fret, O waste not golden hours to give them heed! The slight, the thoughtless wrong, do thou forget, Be self-forgot in serving others' need. Thou faith in God through love for man shalt keep. Dwell ...
— Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul • Various
... "Allez!" I confess that a pang of jealousy shot through me. It has been observed by La Rochefoucauld that it is astonishing how cheerfully we bear the ills of others; he might well have added that, on the other hand, it is remarkable how we fret over the happiness of our neighbours. I envied Daker when I saw him drive away to the station with the gentle girl at his side; I knew that she was nestling against him, and half her illness was only an excuse to get nearer to his heart. Why ...
— The Cockaynes in Paris - 'Gone abroad' • Blanchard Jerrold
... I know?" demanded the Colonel. "I guess you've got clothes enough. Any rate, you needn't fret about it. You just go round to White's or Jordan & Marsh's, and ask for a dinner dress. I guess that'll settle it; they'll know. Get some of them imported dresses. I see 'em in the window every time I pass; lots ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells
... else but prove, Whether a little[131] thing would you move To be angry and fret; What, and if one had said so? Let such trifling matters go, And be good to men's flesh ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II • Robert Dodsley
... ideal of earthly solace. To some it is the strains of music; to some it is the interior of church edifices; to the child it is his mother; to the friend it is his friend. As soon as Alec Trenholme saw this fair woman, whom he yet scarcely knew, all the fret of his spirit found vent in the sudden desire to tell her what was vexing him, very much as a child desires to tell its ...
— What Necessity Knows • Lily Dougall
... at him curiously. "We aren't that much out of the woods," he remarked; "the other gang'll get in their work, don't you fret." ...
— The Claim Jumpers • Stewart Edward White
... her dream to her face. But to her children he told another story. "I am anxious about her," he said, "most anxious. There is no mortal ill the distempered brain may not cause. Is it not devilish we can hear nothing of him? She will fret herself into the grave, as sure as fate, if ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade
... 'Niver fret thyself, mother, about t' shirt,' said Philip. 'If I need a shirt, London's not what I take it for if I ...
— Sylvia's Lovers, Vol. II • Elizabeth Gaskell
... fret about that. Me and my friends ain't nothing partickler to do just now. We'll wait for yer. I should like yer to know ole BILL GABB. You should 'ear that feller goin' on agin the GUELPHS when he's 'ad a little booze—it 'ud do your 'art good! Well, I on'y come in 'ere as a deligate like, ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., Jan. 24, 1891. • Various
... pell-mell, and world ruled by some fiend at hap-hazard, and in all directions maladministration! The God who keeps seven worlds in right circuit for six thousand years can certainly keep all the affairs of individuals and nations and continents in adjustment. We had not better fret much, for the peasant's argument of the text was right. If God can take care of the seven worlds of the Pleiades and the four chief worlds of Orion, He can probably take care of the ...
— New Tabernacle Sermons • Thomas De Witt Talmage
... way, even now King Constantine has gone to Switzerland. Switzerland is now, I think, the theatre of important diplomatic intrigues. I think King Constantine's abdication is only temporary; I think King Alexander only reigns for the period of the war. Do not fret—King Constantine knows what he ...
— At Ypres with Best-Dunkley • Thomas Hope Floyd
... course,—il est si bon, ce pauvre Dalibard; and all men like cheerful faces. But then, poor lady,—an Englishwoman, so strange here; very natural she should fret, and ...
— Lucretia, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... life whenas evils threat; * Leave the house to tell of its builder's fate! Land after land shalt thou seek and find * But no other life on thy wish shall wait: Fret not thy soul in thy thoughts o' night; * All woes shall end or sooner or late. Whoso is born in one land to die, * There and only there shall gang his gait: Nor trust great things to another wight, * Soul ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton
... Nuns fret not at their Convent's narrow room; And Hermits are contented with their Cells; And Students with their pensive Citadels: Maids at the Wheel, the Weaver at his Loom, Sit blithe and happy; Bees that soar for bloom, High as the highest Peak of Furness Fells, Will murmur by the hour in Foxglove ...
— Poems In Two Volumes, Vol. 1 • William Wordsworth
... could not bear it, could not endure such a weight on her heart. But what could she do? Say to Mr. Graham that it was her mother and her name was Middleton? Then she would have to tell Cousin Julia everything, and she would send her away, send her off to poke and fret in Enderby, and serve tea in a conventional parsonage drawing-room. And she would never be an actress, and the true Elsie Marley would be dragged on ...
— Elsie Marley, Honey • Joslyn Gray
... thy breast? Why all this fret and flurry? Dost thou not know that what is best In this too restless world is ...
— Poems Teachers Ask For, Book Two • Various
... that sad night when he first told me what afterwards proved so terrible a secret. We had dined quite alone, and he had been moody and depressed all the evening. It was a chilly night, with some fret blowing up from the sea. The moon showed that blunted and deformed appearance which she assumes a day or two past the full, and the moisture in the air encircled her with a stormy-looking halo. We had stepped out of the dining-room windows on to the ...
— The Lost Stradivarius • John Meade Falkner
... novelty that is very pleasing. You would like a drawing-room in the latter style that I fancied and have been executing at Mr. Rigby's, in Essex. it has large and Very fine Indian landscapes, with a black fret round them, and round the whole entablature of the room, and all the ground or hanging is of pink paper. While I was there, we had eight of the hottest days that ever were felt; they say, some degrees beyond the ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2 • Horace Walpole
... had gone out, Marion spoke to David. "Do be sensible, sir," she said, "or the mistress will fret herself to death. Make some money to pay off your debts, and then you can try to ...
— Eve and David • Honore de Balzac
... Despite the fret I had put him in, he was cautious. Nevertheless I compelled the play to be rapid, and in the dim light, depending less than usual on sight and more than usual on feel, our ...
— The Jacket (The Star-Rover) • Jack London
... enough. We pass town and hamlet. Advertisement hoardings, grotesque flat images of cows, outrageous commendations of whisky or pills, appear in the fields. We are getting near London. Pipes are laid by. We fidget and fret. The houses we pass are closer together, get closer still, merge into a sea of grey-slated roofs. The air is thick, smoke-laden. The train slows down, stops, starts again, draws up ...
— A Padre in France • George A. Birmingham
... began to chafe at his lack of occupation, and to fret about their future, she went to the factory and invaded the office where the usurper, Jabez Pittinger, sat enthroned at the hallowed desk, tossing copious libations of tobacco-juice toward a huge new cuspidor. She demanded a job for Eddie and bullied Jabez ...
— In a Little Town • Rupert Hughes
... "Don't fret," she said, while tears rolled down her own face; "there's three on 'em yet, as wants their mother to take care ...
— A Canadian Heroine, Volume 2 - A Novel • Mrs. Harry Coghill
... fret, we fume, we scoff, we sneer, And evil fate upbraid; Your care is for the ginger-beer, The milk, the lemonade. To come and go, and come again With coffee that you keep hot, And watched by silent gentlemen, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, March 25, 1893 • Various
... to lighten the ship, but not by throwing overboard the ordnance; for you can but drop them close to the ship's side, and where the water is shallow they will lie up against the side of the ship and fret it, and with the working of the sea make ...
— A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. • Bulstrode Whitelocke
... arched form. The beton pavement of the corridors and balcony is made of annular fragments, facets upward, of black, red, white and slate-colored marbles, feldspar and other stones. It is as hard as natural rock and as smooth as half-polished marble. A tessellated fret pattern is made along the borders of the corridor floor, consisting of triple rows of smooth cubes of marble inserted in the cement. The square balusters are of red-mottled marble, with base and entablature of dull rose. The square corner pillars support figures allegorizing ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 • Various
... "Don't fret about me, dear; the way will open. Thy father has thought and planned for us; have patience while I tell thee. Thee knows Walter Evesham's pond is small and his mill is doing a ...
— Stories by American Authors (Volume 4) • Constance Fenimore Woolson
... a clean cloth he washed my wound so gently that I scarcely could believe his great, coarse hands were actually at work on me. "Dah you is," he murmured, bending over the red, shallow gash that the bullet had cut, "dah you is. Don' you fret. Ah's gwine git you all tied up clean an' han'some, ...
— The Mutineers • Charles Boardman Hawes
... of leaving Patty alone, but now you are here to show her the ways of The Priory, I'm sure she'll be all right. Muriel will be able to tell you everything, Patty, so I give you into her hands. Now good-bye, my darling child! Don't fret, and write to us as soon as you can. We shall be looking forward to your first letter, and please let it be a ...
— The Nicest Girl in the School - A Story of School Life • Angela Brazil
... and Lovel suddenly saw his prospects less bright. The murderers were being given a chance to escape, and to his surprise he found himself in a fret to get after them. Oates had clearly no desire for their capture, and the reason flashed on his mind. The murder had come most opportunely for him, and he sought to lay it at Jesuit doors. It would ill suit his plans if only two common rascals were to swing for it. Far better let it remain a ...
— The Path of the King • John Buchan
... part of human life. But here I am drifting into an error against which I warned the reader,—of making an entity of a conception. People are patient or impatient, but not necessarily throughout. There are men and women who fuss and fume over trifles who never falter or fret when their larger purposes are blocked or deferred. Some cannot stand detail who plan wisely and with patience. Vice versa, there are meticulous folk, little people, whose petty obstacles are met with patience and cheerfulness, who revel in minute detail, but who want returns ...
— The Foundations of Personality • Abraham Myerson
... when it is all settled, and let you know what I think of her. I dare say a good, honest country lass will suit John far better than a beautiful woman of the world, who would be sure to be miserable with him. Don't fret, little mother; make the best ...
— Vera Nevill - Poor Wisdom's Chance • Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron
... I was able to bear witness to the general discontent that reigns there. Yet nothing is done yet. The Emperor is discouraged; the people fret and publicly demand his abdication; the sympathies for Your Majesty are spreading visibly throughout the entire Empire; in Venetia a whole population wishes to ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle
... those who fled consulted the gods on the plain, and Gat answer Fret[Sec.] from that the day was propitious to battle; There the war-leader saw how mighty were the corse-ribs; The gods of the temple would thin lives in Gautland. A Sword-Thing held the Earl there where no man afore him With shield on arm had durst to harry; No one ere this so far inland had ...
— The Sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and of Harald The Tyrant (Harald Haardraade) • Snorri Sturluson
... "Don't fret, pretty child, whatever happens. Go to bed and to sleep,—I'll make the biscuit." And alert and ...
— Say and Seal, Volume I • Susan Warner
... she hurried him away to his breakfast, and then away with his play. He would rather have stayed and begun turning it into a story at once. But she would not let him; she said it would be a loss of time, and she should fret a good deal more to have him there with her, than to have him away, for she should know he was just staying to ...
— The Story of a Play - A Novel • W. D. Howells |
