"Possum" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... I'se struck all of a heap. I jes done see whar de possum is dis minute. What an ole black fool I was, sure 'nuff. I tho't he'se de mos 'bligin man I eber seed afore," and he told her how Arden had served her in ...
— What Can She Do? • Edward Payson Roe
... I tole you dat I know'd whar dere's a possum? Did I tole you dat I know'd whar dere's a coon? Oh, mah lady, come out soon! Oh, mah honey, come out soon! While de Mocker, while de Mocker Am a-singin' ...
— Citizen Bird • Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues
... "Si possum me jac&ebreve;re circum vitrum Rhenovini[71] Es ist mir wurst si Papa est originis divini: Deus se fecit olim homo, et nahm dis irds'che Leben,[72] Et nunc Papa noster will sich ...
— The Breitmann Ballads • Charles G. Leland
... busy.' Master Bean's admirably dignified reply was that he understood how great was the pressure of Mr Ferguson's work, and that he would wait till he was at liberty. Liberty! Talk of the liberty of the treed possum, but do not use the word in connexion with a man bottled up in an office, with Roland ...
— The Man Upstairs and Other Stories • P. G. Wodehouse
... fallen soundly asleep, however, when I again heard the tapping at the window. A sly impulse, suggested probably by Halstead's demeanor, prompted me to play 'possum and pretend that I had not waked this time. I even went on breathing ...
— When Life Was Young - At the Old Farm in Maine • C. A. Stephens
... in the roof. He cocked his head to one side, shut one eye, and put the other to the hole, like a 'possum ...
— The Ontario Readers - Third Book • Ontario Ministry of Education
... procorum Ante suas agmen Lais habere fores, Hoc Veneri speculum; nolo me cernere qualis Sum nunc, nec possum cernere ...
— Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 - The Works Of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., In Nine Volumes • Samuel Johnson
... children, delighted at the novelty of the thing, all started off "'possum-hunting," for Mammy was helping unpack the dinner-baskets, and was not watching them just then. They wandered off some distance, climbing over logs and falling into mud-puddles, for they all had their heads thrown ...
— Diddie, Dumps, and Tot • Louise-Clarke Pyrnelle
... no more for the 'possum and the coon, On the meadow, the hill, and the shore; They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon, On the bench by the old cabin door. The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart, With sorrow, where all was delight; The time has come when the darkeys have to part:— ...
— Poems Every Child Should Know - The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library • Various
... engage Mandy Berry, colored, to fry for them some spring chickens and make for them a few pones of real cornbread. In Creole Louisiana they should sample crawfish gumbo; and in Georgia they should have 'possum baked with sweet potatoes; and in Tidewater Maryland, terrapin and canvasback; and in Illinois, young gray squirrels on toast; and in South Carolina, boiled rice with black-eyed peas; and in Colorado, ...
— Europe Revised • Irvin S. Cobb
... self-reliance, to the degree of standing by his own judgment, though it stand alone. Not that he deems himself infallible; too many mistakes in following trails prove the contrary; but he thinks that nature destines such sagacity as she has given him, as she destines it to the 'possum. To these fellow-beings of the wilds their untutored sagacity is their best dependence. If with either it prove faulty, if the 'possum's betray it to the trap, or the backwoodsman's mislead him into ambuscade, there are consequences ...
— The Confidence-Man • Herman Melville
... can time the first application accurately by spreading a sheet on the ground beneath an infested tree and lightly jarring the branches to dislodge the weevils. When the weevils are disturbed they fall and "play possum" and can be easily collected. When a minimum of six weevils can be taken by jarring the branches on any one tree, it is time to ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting • Various
... mill-stone, and she'd shove me the right way. If I go a huntin', I may flounder into a steel trap; if I stand still, wuss may happen. Mars Lennox is too much for me. I wouldn't trust him no further 'n I would a fat possum. I am afeard of his oily tongue. He sot out to hang that poor young gal, and now he is willing to pay two hundred and fifty dollars to show the court he was a idjut and a slanderer! I ain't gwine to set down on no such ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson
... sports he had as pleasant an outing as his overlord. While the one may have spent the day in fox hunting or deer driving, when nightfall came the Negro was apt to emerge from his quarters followed by his faithful dog in search of possum or coon. While the master may have enjoyed a feast of venison at his table the Negro was just as well satisfied with the less valuable but savory game that ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 • Various
... bold fellow. That was a new feeling for Happy Jack. He knew that all his neighbors considered him rather timid, and many a time he had envied, actually envied Jimmy Skunk and Reddy Fox and Unc' Billy Possum and even Sammy Jay because they did such bold things and had dared to visit Farmer Brown's dooryard and henhouse in spite of ...
— Happy Jack • Thornton Burgess
... sat up. It was bright moonlight, and he could see plainly. He could see Jacob, and the forms of the Indians stretched around. He moved more. Nobody else stirred, not a breath was interrupted. Then, to find out if the Indians were playing 'possum, ...
— Boys' Book of Frontier Fighters • Edwin L. Sabin
... Chloe, and through her I became acquainted with the Creole delicacies of "gumbo", "fish chowder," fricasseed frogs, hot "waffles," stewed tomatoes, and many other dainties of the Louisiana cuisine. From the hands of Scipio himself I did not refuse a slice of "roasted 'possum," and went even so far as to taste a "'coon steak,"—but only once, and I regarded it as once too often. Scipio, however, had no scruples about eating this fox-like creature, and could demolish the greater part of one at a ...
— The Quadroon - Adventures in the Far West • Mayne Reid
... crab, with the bulky claws so gayly mottled with yellow and black, lurks in that hole at the base of the cliff nearly all day long. His name is 'Possum; for at the slightest sign of danger he doubles up his claws like a dead spider, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, February, 1858 • Various
... Fuller, "if I must out with it, I must. I think that 'ere Ingian must have been the devil, or how could he come so sudden and unbeknownst upon me, with the head of a 'possum: and then, agin, how could he get away from the craft without our seeing him? and how came the ghost ...
— Wacousta: A Tale of the Pontiac Conspiracy (Complete) • John Richardson
... that ever breathed!" said he, recollecting the craftiness imputed to those animals, and searching in vain for his game. "If ever I come across another, he'll not come the 'possum over me, I'll answer for it!" he continued, somewhat vexed. At this juncture Glenn's gun was heard, and Joe observed a majority of the deer leaping affrighted in the direction of his position. The foremost passed ...
— Wild Western Scenes • John Beauchamp Jones
... in Pimlico or further Kensington,' scoffed Biddy. 'Ordering sprats and plaice for dinner and pretending they're soles and whitebait. Perambulators stuffing up the hall; paying your own books and having your gown made at home! No, thank you. 'Possum skins and a black's gunya—that's Australese for a wigwam, isn't ...
— Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land • Rosa Praed
... the woods a-callin'. I 'spectcd it was dad, but I didn't dare to holler or make any noise. I heered 'em callin' agin and agin; putty soon I jist looked out'er ther corner of my eye, and see the bar was gone. At first I couldn't believe it, and 'spected he was playin' 'possum—waitin' ter see ef I moved, afore he went for me. Well, I kep' putty still for a while, but not hearin' anything from the bar, I finally looked up, and see that he'd gone for good, and then I got up and started for ...
— The Young Trail Hunters • Samuel Woodworth Cozzens
... inquam, "commemoras, o uirtutum omnium nutrix, nec infitiari possum prosperitatis meae uelocissimum cursum. Sed hoc est quod recolentem uehementius coquit. Nam in omni aduersitate fortunae infelicissimum est genus infortunii fuisse felicem." "Sed quod tu," inquit, "falsae opinionis supplicium luas, id rebus iure imputare non possis. ...
— The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy • Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
... put out because I had no fare for him that I gave him my case-knife. The next evening I had the only taste of meat of this thirteen days' journey, which I got from an old negro whom I found alone in his cabin eating possum ...
— Famous Adventures And Prison Escapes of the Civil War • Various
... creature. His eyes flew wide open, his talons clutched my finger, his ears were depressed, and every motion and look said, "Hands off, at your peril." Finding this game did not work, he soon began to "play 'possum" again. I put a cover over my study wood-box and kept him captive for a week. Look in upon him at any time, night or day, and he was apparently wrapped in the profoundest slumber; but the live mice which I put into his box from time to time found his sleep was easily broken; there would be a sudden ...
— A Year in the Fields • John Burroughs
... many enemies to watch out for as has Whitefoot. There are ever so many who would like nothing better than to dine on plump little Whitefoot. There are Buster Bear and Billy Mink and Shadow the Weasel and Unc' Billy Possum and Hooty the Owl and all the members of the Hawk family, not to mention Blacky the Crow in times when other food is scarce. Reddy and Granny Fox and Old Man Coyote ...
— Whitefoot the Wood Mouse • Thornton W. Burgess
... days gone by, before Dan became such a rascal as he was now, he had often accompanied Don and Bert on their 'coon and 'possum hunting expeditions, and the old dogs in the pack were almost as well acquainted with him as they were with their master. Bose recognised him at once, and appeared to be glad to ...
— The Boy Trapper • Harry Castlemon
... terror. They knew what lockjaw was—Uncle John Quarles's black man, Dan, was subject to it. Sometimes when he opened his mouth to its utmost capacity he felt the joints slip and was compelled to put down the cornbread, or jole and greens, or the piece of 'possum he was eating, while his mouth remained a fixed abyss until the doctor came and restored it to a natural position by an exertion of muscular power that would ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine
... looked for help to Harry, who made a mischievous movement of his lips, as if prompting, and, deceived by it, he said boldly, "From op-possum." ...
— The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations • Charlotte Yonge
... ter me erbout yoh tahrpin en clam-bakes en yoistah fries!" exclaimed a recently arrived Guthrie coon. "Des' gib me sweet-'taters smotahed in 'possum gravy en all baked brown like we uster hab 'em down in ole Mississip! Go' way, niggah! Dat wuz high-libben like de real ahticle, I done ...
— Oklahoma Sunshine • Freeman E. (Freeman Edwin) Miller
... exclaimed Basil. "You, Francois, who every year eat such quantities of shell-bark nuts, and pecans, and red mulberries, too!—you who suck persimmons like a 'possum!—no ...
— The Boy Hunters • Captain Mayne Reid
... isn't seriously injured by that," said the surgeon, holding up the needle. "But I do not think he is 'playing possum.'" ...
— Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies - The Missing Pearl Necklace • Alice B. Emerson
... white and colored people. Slaves, who are lucky enough to have a few shillings, are sure to spend them for good eating; and many a turkey and pig is captured, without saying, "By your leave, sir." Those who cannot obtain these, cook a 'possum, or a raccoon, from which savory dishes can be made. My grandmother raised poultry and pigs for sale and it was her established custom to have both a turkey and a pig ...
— Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Written by Herself • Harriet Jacobs (AKA Linda Brent)
... sounds like a merry Christmas. But I was not alone. I had noted the fresh tracks beneath the tree before I climbed up, and now I saw that the snow had been partly brushed from several of the large limbs as the 'possum had moved about in the tree for his Christmas dinner. We were guests at the same festive board, and both of us at Nature's invitation. It mattered not that the 'possum had eaten and gone this hour or more. Such is good form in the woods. He was ...
— Modern Prose And Poetry; For Secondary Schools - Edited With Notes, Study Helps, And Reading Lists • Various
... with a faint scent like our bay, which comes from a woody bush called sweet-fern. That, and the strong smell of the bluish, short-needled pine, was ever clogging my nostrils and confusing me. Once I thought to scent a 'possum, but the musky taint came from a rotting log; and a stale fox might have crossed to windward and I not noticed, so blunted had grown my nose ...
— The Maid-At-Arms • Robert W. Chambers
... never went to school a day in my life. Old Miss would carry me to church sometimes when it was hot so we could fan for her. We used palmeter fan leaves for fans. We ate pretty good in slavery time, but we did not have all of this late stuff. Some of our dishes was possum stew, vegetables, persimmon pie and tato bread. Ma did not allow us to sit around grown folks. When they were talking she always made us get under the bed. Our bed was made from pine poles. We children ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - Volume II. Arkansas Narratives. Part I • Work Projects Administration
... would go up to Farmer Brown's henhouse and scare Farmer Brown's boy so that he would keep away from there. It would be a favor to me which Ah cert'nly would appreciate," said Unc' Billy Possum when he ...
— The Adventures of Buster Bear • Thornton W. Burgess
... at that Gray Squirrel!" shouted Billie. "What a beautiful bushy tail he has!" Then, after a pause he added, "Mother, what is its tail for? Why is it so big and fluffy? I know a 'Possum has a tail to hang on a limb with, and a Fish can swim with his tail, but why is a Gray Squirrel's tail so bushy ...
— Woodland Tales • Ernest Seton-Thompson
... to sit up for an hour before the piece began, and Rubach had to leave him. It was midnight before the faithful chum returned, and after looking in on the invalid, who seemed to slumber calmly, sat down for a final pipe by his own bedside. But Christopher was only 'playing 'possum,' as our playful American cousins put it, and, his anxiety over-riding his desire for quiet, he ...
— Cruel Barbara Allen - From Coals Of Fire And Other Stories, Volume II. (of III.) • David Christie Murray
... a few times like a 'possum falling off a limb. He landed on the hard sand of the ...
— Lady Luck • Hugh Wiley
... he's crazy, if you ask me," said he. "And yet he was just as earnest about it as if it were really so. I think he must have eaten something that has gone to his head. There's Unc' Billy Possum over there. Let's ask him ...
— The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad • Thornton W. Burgess
... banks of snow that remained, and straightway they melted and disappeared. She kissed the eight babies of Unc' Billy Possum, and they kicked off the bedclothes under which old Mrs. Possum had tucked them and scrambled out of the big ...
— The Adventures of Johnny Chuck • Thornton W. Burgess
... dis ain' Frien'less,' he says. 'Frien'less has a white foot on de off front laig and besides dat he has a rough-feeling scab on de belly whar he done rip hisself somehow befo' I gits him. Dis dawg am smooth as a possum.' ...
— Blister Jones • John Taintor Foote
... and yawning prodigiously. "I wonder why it is I always have to wake up first," and then, her eyes happening to fall on Evelyn at this precise moment, she cried, "Oh, I saw you wink, Evelyn; you can't fool me! You're playing possum," and, springing quickly out of bed, she gave that young lady a vigorous shake, which caused her to open her ...
— Lucile Triumphant • Elizabeth M. Duffield
... a clear, cold, sharp, invigorating winter morning. The snow was crusted over with hoar frost, and the bare forest trees were hung with icicles. The cunning fox, the 'possum and the 'coon, crept shivering from their dens; but the shy, gray rabbit, and the tiny, brown wood-mouse, still nestled in their holes. And none of nature's small children ventured from their nests, save the ...
— The Missing Bride • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
... simple. What food they had left was thrust up in the crotch of a big tree, so that it might not be carried off by any wandering wild animal, though they had no reason to believe there was anything larger than a 'coon' or a 'possum' around that region. The blankets and a few other things of value were also placed in safety, while Alec again tested the supports of his "clothes line" on which those precious films ...
— The Boy Scouts with the Motion Picture Players • Robert Shaler
... Quinte, facit, Qui, quacumque aliquid reperitur non bene factum, Ad me omnes clamant: ianua, culpa tuast.' Non istuc satis est uno te dicere verbo, 15 Sed facere ut quivis sentiat et videat. 'Qui possum? nemo quaerit nec scire laborat.' Nos volumus: nobis dicere ne dubita. 'Primum igitur, virgo quod fertur tradita nobis, Falsumst. non illam vir prior attigerit, 20 Languidior tenera cui pendens sicula beta Numquam se mediam sustulit ad tunicam: Sed pater ...
— The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus • Caius Valerius Catullus
... Possum bene blackere shoas, et locus shoe-blackissis vacuus est. Makee me shoeblackum si hoc tibi placeat, precor te, quia desidero ...
— Samuel Butler's Cambridge Pieces • Samuel Butler
... Let me catch breath and see, What is this confine either side of me? Green pumpkin vines about me coil and crawl, Seen sidelong, like a 'possum in a tree,— Ah me, ah me, that pumpkins are ...
— The Re-echo Club • Carolyn Wells
... that he could not go 'possum hunting on Sundays any more, but shortly after he got religion, his rheumatism seemed to take a turn for the better and he felt that the result was worth the sacrifice. But as the pain decreased in his legs and arms, the longing for his old wicked ...
— The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories • Paul Laurence Dunbar
... the 'possum suppers, the hoe-downs and jubilees in the negro quarters, the banquets in the plantation-house hall, when invitations went for fifty miles around; the occasional feuds with the neighboring gentry; the Major's ...
— The Best American Humorous Short Stories • Various
... scope for the talents of the "log-roller," here defined as an especially wily and persuasive person, who could depict the merits of his scheme with roseate but delusive eloquence, and who was said to carry a gourd of "possum fat"—wherewith he "greased and swallowed" his prey. One of the largest of these gourds was carried by "honest Abe," who was especially active in "log-rolling" a bill for the removal of the seat ...
— Lectures and Essays • Goldwin Smith
... hotel, I found Scip awaiting me. "Massa," he said, "we better be gwine. Dat dar sesherner am ugly as de bery ole debble; and soon as he knows I cum de possum ober him 'bout de Cunnel, he'll ...
— Among the Pines - or, South in Secession Time • James R. Gilmore
... somewhere in those years too. He was very black, the darker for being engaged in the interesting but uncertain occupation of "burning off" in his spare time—which wasn't particularly limited. He combined shepherding, 'possum and kangaroo hunting, crawfishing, sleeping, and various other occupations and engagements with that of burning off. I was very white, being a sickly town boy; but, as I took great interest in burning off, and ...
— Over the Sliprails • Henry Lawson
... very snug here," he said, smiling down my apologies. "I'm a 'possum for adapting myself to any ...
— The Queen of Sheba & My Cousin the Colonel • Thomas Bailey Aldrich
... papa is very sick, and I want you to go for Dr. Possum." Then Buddy jumped up very quickly and began to dress, for he loved his papa very much, and would do anything in the world for him. When Buddy was ready to start he heard Dr. Pigg groaning very ...
— Buddy And Brighteyes Pigg - Bed Time Stories • Howard R. Garis
... minute that I hadn't fixed all that the first thing? Mrs. Cherry held back a bit but I rabbit-footed the old lady into being wild to go and then wheedled the correct hostess some; and there you are! Caroline is to send them out in her motor and I'm going to make Hob and Tom chase the possum in company of the merry widow and Mrs. Big Bug. Now give ...
— Andrew the Glad • Maria Thompson Daviess
... to the pub. He's sure to get screwed to-night. There's a fool feller there from McInnes, knockin' down a cheque an' shoutin' mad. Hamlet'll get his share in spite of all, an' he'll be as tight as a brick by ten o'clock. You know my joey 'possum? Well, I'll fix him up into the awfullest kind of a blue devil, with feathers an' things. We'll push him into Jo's room, and when Jo comes home an' strikes a light he'll spot him, an' think he's got delirious trimmens again. ...
— The Gold-Stealers - A Story of Waddy • Edward Dyson
... fooling with me, Doc,' I answers, 'you're no better than the United States. But as you say it's the last chance, hurry up and swear me. I always did like corn whisky and 'possum anyhow. I believe I'm half Southerner by nature. I'm willing to try the Klu-klux in place of the ...
— Roads of Destiny • O. Henry
... there, asleep, or playing possum?" thought the young skipper as he peered into the blackness and listened. No sound of any kind came up to him. At last, a short step at a time, Halstead descended into the motor room, groping cautiously about. Finally, he became confident enough to feel in the galley ...
— The Motor Boat Club and The Wireless - The Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise • H. Irving Hancock
... in its authority, in its duration, in its perpetuity, in its morality, in its conduct, in its doctrine, in its effects. The frightful darkness of the Jews was foretold: Eris palpans in meridie.[276] Dabitur liber scienti literas, et dicet: Non possum legere.[277] While the sceptre was still in the hands of the first foreign usurper, there is the report of ...
— Pascal's Pensees • Blaise Pascal
... 'possum you an' him ketch, you bring that 'possum 'round an' me an' you'll talk business. Maybe we'll strike a bargain. Got any good sweet potatoes? Well, you bring four or five bushels along to eat that 'possum with. Haulin' any wood these days? Bring me a load or two of good, ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various
... squatters at that time in the southern portions of the Florida peninsula. Or, what was more probable still, it might be only the pathway used for ages by innumerable four-footed denizens of the swamp,—deer, panthers, raccoons, 'possum, foxes, wildcats ...
— Eagles of the Sky - With Jack Ralston Along the Air Lanes • Ambrose Newcomb
... quidem. Si vero Academiam veterem persequamur, quam nos, ut scis, probamus, quam erit illa acute explicanda nobis! quam argute, quam obscure etiam contra Stoicos disserendum! Totum igitur illud philosophiae studium mihi quidem ipse sumo et ad vitae constantiam quantum possum et ad delectationem animi, nec ullum arbitror, ut apud Platonem est, maius aut melius a dis datum munus homini. 8. Sed meos amicos, in quibus est studium, in Graeciam mitto, id est, ad Graecos ire iubeo, ut ea a fontibus potius hauriant ...
— Academica • Marcus Tullius Cicero
... Cumberland Mountains between the Folwell and the Harkness families. The first victim of the homespun vendetta was a 'possum dog belonging to Bill Harkness. The Harkness family evened up this dire loss by laying out the chief of the Folwell clan. The Folwells were prompt at repartee. They oiled up their squirrel rifles and made it feasible for Bill Harkness ...
— The Voice of the City • O. Henry
... two remain of what was once the "big house" on the hill; possibly it is still standing, but as forlorn and lifeless as a dead tree. The muscadine grapes still grow in the swale and the persimmons in the pasture field, but neither 'possum nor 'coon is left to eat them. The last deer vanished years ago, the rabbits died in their baby coats and the quail were killed in June. Old "Uncle Ike" has gone across the "Great River" with his master, and his grandson glances at you askance, nods sullenly, ...
— Our Vanishing Wild Life - Its Extermination and Preservation • William T. Hornaday
... about, in great amazement, he suddenly receives a gripe on the hand; the twinkling of the half-closed eye, and the breathing of the creature, evince that it is not dead: and he adds a new term to the vocabulary of his language, that of "playing possum." ...
— Choice Specimens of American Literature, And Literary Reader - Being Selections from the Chief American Writers • Benj. N. Martin
... for, captain?" the man asked, glancing at the prostrate figure of the bush ranger, as he proceeded to obey Reuben's instructions; "because if you ain't certain about it, I had better put a bullet into him. These fellows are very fond of playing 'possum, and then ...
— A Final Reckoning - A Tale of Bush Life in Australia • G. A. Henty
... notice it, because the man was very sensitive on the subject. He told us his story. The man had been fishing with some friends, near an Indian settlement, when the Indians attacked them and killed the others outright. The baggage-master saved his life by "playing 'possum" (as Mr. K. called pretending to be dead), and the Indians scalped him with a broken tin can. If he had made the slightest movement they would have despatched him. How horrible! We wondered if ...
— The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912 • Lillie DeHegermann-Lindencrone
... was a long way from town, Li'l' Hannibal met a Possum loping along by the edge of the road, and the Possum stopped and looked ...
— The Book of Stories for the Storyteller • Fanny E. Coe
... Non possum, docti confreri, En moi satis admirari Qualis bona inventio Est medici professio; Quam bella chosa est et bene trovata. Medicina illa benedicta, Quae, suo nomine solo, Surprenanti miraculo, Depuis si longo tempore, Facit a gogo vivere Tant de gens ...
— The Imaginary Invalid - Le Malade Imaginaire • Moliere
... transformed into another creature. His eyes flew wide open, his talons clutched my finger, his ears were depressed, and every motion and look said, "Hands off, at your peril." Finding this game did not work, he soon began to "play possum" again. I put a cover over my study wood-box and kept him captive for a week. Look in upon him at any time, night or day, and he was apparently wrapped in the profoundest slumber; but the live mice which I put into his box from time to time found his sleep was easily broken; there ...
— Bird Stories from Burroughs - Sketches of Bird Life Taken from the Works of John Burroughs • John Burroughs
... answered my host, pointing to a corner of his tree-cabin. I looked and saw the skins of several animals,—among which I recognized those of the "painter," "possum," and "'coon," along with a haunch or two of recently killed venison. "I sell 'em, boy; the skins to the storekeepers, and the deer-meat to anybody ...
— Our Young Folks—Vol. I, No. II, February 1865 - An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various
... quickly and found Josiah on guard. He said, "It is all right—but for sport it beats possum-hunting. Open the door." The rain was still falling in torrents. "All right," he said to the policeman, "come and see me ...
— Westways • S. Weir Mitchell
... depot at Court and Wall Streets. What is now known as Eleventh St. was then a hickory grove—a paradise for squirrel hunters. On the ridge beginning at 7th and Mechanic Sts. were persimmon trees. This was a splendid hunting haven for the Negroes for their favorite wild animal—the o'possum. The ridge is known today as 'Possum Ridge. The section east of St. Anthony's Cemetery was covered in woods. Since there were a number of Beechnuts, pigeons frequented this place and were sought here. One could catch them faster than he could ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves: Indiana Narratives • Works Projects Administration
... fergittin'," Pop said suddenly, "an' I've paid 'em fer hit. But ef they calkerlate on yer takin' root here, they're treein' the wrong possum. You're a-goin' ...
— Miss Mink's Soldier and Other Stories • Alice Hegan Rice
... back into the window, like a rabbit's into its hole; but in another second he must have realized that it was no use playing 'possum when there, within a dozen yards, was that big scarlet runner of his, as large as life, though not running for the moment. He quickly decided to make the best of things by turning the tables upon us, and pointing the finger of derision at our automobile, which by careening ...
— My Friend the Chauffeur • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... answered. "Don't you know that all animals are protected by their peculiar markings that render them invisible? The caterpillar looks like the leaf it eats from; the scales of the fish counterfeit the glistening water of the brook; the bear and the 'possum are coloured like the tree-trunks on which they climb. There!" I added, as I concluded my ...
— Frenzied Fiction • Stephen Leacock
... be no chance in France to follow the wild bee to its tree; to track the fox or hunt the 'possum or the coon. The hum they would hear would be that of machine gun bullets; their sting, death or serious wounding. For game they would hunt the Hun; would kill ...
— History of the American Negro in the Great World War • W. Allison Sweeney
... has ben one too many for ye, arter all yer lingo. Ef a man will dance, he's got to pay the fiddler. You can't go it on tick with Natur'; she's some on a trade, an' her motto is, 'Down with the dosh.' Ef you think you can play 'possum, an' pull the wool over her eyes, jest try it on, that's all; you'll find, my venerable hero, thet you're shinnin' a greased pole for the sake of a ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864 • Various
... of dissimulation Cardan writes: "Assuevi vultum in contrarium semper efformare; ideo simulare possum, dissimulare nescio."—De Vita Propria, ch. xiii. p. 42. Again in Libellus Praeceptorum ad filios (Opera, tom. i. p. 481), "Nolite ...
— Jerome Cardan - A Biographical Study • William George Waters
... vero libertate territas? Quod si tu nolis, siliusque etiam tuus Vobis invitis, atq amborum ingratiis, Una libella liber possum fieri." ] ...
— An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African • Thomas Clarkson
... Spirit and the Word, or, when assisted by the Holy Spirit, can in some manner will and obey—to receive is the act of the will; in this I cannot concede that man is simply dead—accipere est hominis; in hoc non possum concedere simpliciter mortuum esse hominem." (Frank 1, 199.) Natural man, Strigel explained, is indeed not able to grasp the helping hand of God with his own hand; yet the latter is not dead, but still retains a minimum of power. (678.) Again: Man is like a new-born child, whose ...
— Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church • Friedrich Bente
... de simmons wuz ripe, me and de odder boys sho' had a big time possum huntin', we alls would git two or three a night; and we alls would put dem up and feed dem hoe-cake and simmons ter git dem nice and fat; den my mammy would roast dem wid sweet taters round them. Dey wuz ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States, From Interviews with Former Slaves - Virginia Narratives • Works Projects Administration
... palm-leaf fan and swaying back and forth in time to the speretual, and busybody Deacon Williams rolling his eye to see that nobody took too long a swallow out of the communion cup he passed around. She thought of possum parties, with accompaniments of sweet 'taters and possum gravy. Her lip trembled, tears rolled down her black cheeks. She had been living in the midst of air raids, her ears had been stunned with the roar of Big Bertha. Now she nevuh wanted to hear ...
— The Purple Heights • Marie Conway Oemler
... queer. His clothes would hardly have passed muster in Collins Street, and would even have attracted attention in Cunjee. He was dressed entirely in skins—wallaby skins, Norah guessed, though there was an occasional section that looked like 'possum. They didn't look bad, either, she thought—a kind of sleeved waistcoat, and loose trousers, that were met at the knee by roughly-tanned gaiters, or leggings. Still, the whole ...
— A Little Bush Maid • Mary Grant Bruce
... fell. I took another shot to make sure they were not playing 'possum. As they fell, Powder Face stopped and looked around, to learn what it was all about. I called to him, and he ...
— An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill (Colonel W. F. Cody) • Buffalo Bill (William Frederick Cody)
... and strung him up like a trapped 'possum, did you?" he cried, clapping his hands in glee. "Gee! what tough luck that I wasn't around to see it. Always my bad fortune, seeing lots of game when I haven't got a gun; and never a thing when I'm ...
— Fred Fenton on the Crew - or, The Young Oarsmen of Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... Veniunt, et per Mare multa naues pro sale, qua omnes dant tributum secundum sui quantitatem. Postquam ergo recessimus de Soldaia, tertia die inuenimus Tartaros: inter quos cum intraueram, visum fuit mihi recte quod ingrederer quoddam aliud saculum. Quorum vitam et mores vobis describam prout possum. ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries - Vol. II • Richard Hakluyt
... in de canebrake wid his little dog and gun,— Sleep, Kentucky Babe! Possum fo' yo' breakfast when yo' sleepin' time is done,— Sleep, Kentucky Babe! Bogie man'll catch yo' sure unless yo' close yo' eyes, Waitin' jes outside de doo' to take yo' by surprise! Close yo' ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Practical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (of 17) - Fun and Thought for Little Folk • Various
... adustum est, hoc lautum est, parum: Illud recte: iterum sic memento: sedulo Moneo, qux possum, pro mea sapientia. Postremo, tanquam in speculum, in patinas, Demea, Inspicere jubeo, et moneo, quid ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne
... just as the body of the Amahagger, who was undermost, struck upon its point and was transfixed upon it. What happened to Job after that I am sure I do not know, but my own impression is that he lay still upon the corpse of his deceased assailant, "playing 'possum" as the Americans say. As for myself, I was soon involved in a desperate encounter with two ruffians, who, luckily for me, had left their spears behind them; and for the first time in my life the great physical power with which Nature has endowed me stood me in good stead. ...
— She • H. Rider Haggard
... was towards evening; and up to a late hour at night, the inn was filled with strangers crowding to see the Yankee rebel, as they politely termed him. These honest rustics seemed to think that Yankees were a sort of wild creatures, a species of 'possum or kangaroo. But Israel is very affable with them. That liquor he drank from the hand of his foe, has perhaps warmed his heart towards all the rest of his enemies. Yet this may not be wholly so. We shall see. At any rate, still ...
— Israel Potter • Herman Melville
... the slaves ran away, but they would catch them and bring them back, you know. Put the dogs after them. The dogs would just run them up and bay them just like a coon or 'possum. Sometimes the white people would make the dogs bite them. You see, when the dogs would run up on them, they would sometimes fight them, till the white people got there and then the white folks would make the dogs bite them and make them quit ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - Volume II. Arkansas Narratives. Part I • Work Projects Administration
... of such decayed fortunes. This, therefore, will be a good argument to us, either not to write at all; or to attempt some other way. There are no Bays to be expected in their walks, Tentanda via est qua me quoque possum ...
— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe
... non possum quid agas vt tot pecunias consumas. [23] Consumimus omnes de capitali. [24] Habeo ...
— The Age of Erasmus - Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and London • P. S. Allen
... if anything new has happened, for all the news of the neighborhood comes to the store. The storekeeper is sure to know whether the stranger seen passing along the road in the morning stopped at the York's, or went on to Possum ...
— Sergeant York And His People • Sam Cowan
... In de Corona militis, 4, after instancing Rebecca, he goes on to say of Susanna: "si et Susanna in iudicio revelata argumentum velandi præstat, possum dicere: et his velamen arbitrii fuit," etc. ...
— The Three Additions to Daniel, A Study • William Heaford Daubney
... In the apology to Charles V., speaking of a war against Henry, he had said: "Tempus venisse video, ad te primum missus, deinde ad Regem Christianissimum, ut hujus scelera per se quidem minime obscura detegam, et te Caesar a bello Turcico abducere coner et quantum possum suadeam ut arma tua eo convertas si huic tanto malo aliter mederi non possis." For thus, "levying war against his country," Pole had been attainted. The name of traitor grated upon him. To Edward, therefore, he wrote: "I invited the two sovereigns rather to win back ...
— The Reign of Mary Tudor • James Anthony Froude
... mansuetudinem, tam inusitatam inauditamque clementiam, tantum in summa potestate rerum omnium modum, tam denique incredibilem sapientiam ac paene divinam tacitus nullo modo praeterire possum."—Pro Marco Marcello, 1. ...
— Caesar: A Sketch • James Anthony Froude
... that first delicious burst of aroma when the oven door is opened, would tempt an angel from heaven down to the lowly earth. A Southerner declares that his nostrils can detect at a prodigious distance the cooking of "possum and taters." A Kanaka has a cosmopolitan appetite, but the fragrance which moves him most nearly is the scent of fish baking in Ti leaves. A Frenchman waits unmoved until the perfume of some rich lamb ragout, an air laden with ...
— Trailin'! • Max Brand
... vot I does," replied Otto with a shake of his head and a determined expression; "Otto doesn't comes back till he brings some kind of animal—if it's only a 'coon or 'possum." ...
— Camp-fire and Wigwam • Edward Sylvester Ellis
... altercation with the overseer, whom he found about to flog the young negro Dan. Pearson had sent the lad half an hour before on a message to some slaves at work at the other end of the estate, and had found him sitting on the ground watching a tree in which he had discovered a 'possum. That Dan deserved punishment was undoubted. He had at present no regular employment upon the estate. Jake, his father, was head of the stables, and Dan had made himself useful in odd jobs about the horses, and expected to become one of the regular stable ...
— With Lee in Virginia - A Story of the American Civil War • G. A. Henty
... hired man set a trap in a hole in hopes of catching a skunk, but instead he caught a possum by one of its fore feet. The poor thing was badly crippled, and he kept it in a barrel for a couple of weeks and fed it, to try and make amends for the injury he had done. Then he gave it its freedom, though the injured ...
— Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers • John Burroughs
... work is to cook the victuals for the whole family, and to make mats, baskets, girdles, of possum hair, and such like. ...
— Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United States • William Henry Holmes
... were placed In state-rooms off the main saloon, Along with several rabbits chaste, A 'possum and a ...
— The Autobiography of Methuselah • John Kendrick Bangs
... the United States, so far as I know, where the cow is more versatile or ambidextrous, if I may be allowed the use of a term that is far above my station in life, than here in the mountains of North Carolina, where the obese 'possum and the anonymous distiller have ...
— Nye and Riley's Wit and Humor (Poems and Yarns) • Bill Nye
... fascination granted to the serpent. It stupefies and bewilders the simple heart, which sees it without understanding it, which touches it without being able to believe in it, and which sinks engulfed in the problem of it, like Empedocles in Etna. Non possum capere te, cape me, says the Aristotelian motto. Every diminutive of Beelzebub is an abyss, each demoniacal act is a gulf of darkness. Natural cruelty, inborn perfidy and falseness, even in animals, cast lurid gleams, as it were, into that fathomless pit of Satanic perversity ...
— Amiel's Journal • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... had plumb forgotten all about it. We better get a move on or we won't have that 'possum for breakfast. Ever go bag-baiting for 'possum?" he demanded wheeling ...
— The Pony Rider Boys with the Texas Rangers • Frank Gee Patchin
... in the camp fast asleep. Every now and again I'd get on my horse and prowl round the cattle quiet like, and they seemed to be settled down all right, and I was sitting by my fire holding my horse and drowsing, when all of a sudden a blessed 'possum ran out from some saplings and scratched up a tree right alongside me. I was half-asleep, I suppose, and was startled; anyhow, never thinking what I was doing, I picked up a firestick out of the fire and flung it at ...
— Three Elephant Power • Andrew Barton 'Banjo' Paterson
... signal from the head driver, who figures as master of ceremonies. One sings:—-"Jim Crack corn, an' I don't care, Fo'h mas'r's gone away! way! way!" Another is croaking over the time he saved on his task, a third is trying to play a trick with the driver (come the possum over him), and a third unfolds the scheme by which the extra for whiskey and molasses was raised. Presenting a sable pot pourri, they jibber and croak among themselves, laugh and whistle, go through the antics of the "break-down" dance, ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams
... cum de possum ober de Cunnel, and make him b'lieve Sam war bad. De Cunnel dunno de hull ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I. February, 1862, No. II. - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... were only two of the Germans left. You accounted for one of them yourself when you came around in back of the machine there. The other one Jacques took care of. We thought we had killed three of them before we charged, but one of those three was 'playing possum.' As soon as we passed the spot where he was lying he jumped up and grabbed you around the neck. It was a pretty clever trick on his part and he was a powerful fellow too; I thought you were done for for a ...
— Fighting in France • Ross Kay |
