"Tat" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... after a time got into that part of the town where Elma lived. By dint of asking half a dozen children and three or four policemen she at last reached Constantine Road, and presently found the right house. She ran up the steps and sounded a rattling rat-tat on the knocker. The moment she did so a girl with a mop of untidy red hair peeped up at her from ...
— Wild Kitty • L. T. Meade
... did not visit the Priory that day, but on the morrow, after lunch, I took my heavy stick and strode up the gravel path and gave a very important rat-a-tat-tat at the great oak door. The servant who answered my summons informed me, much to my disappointment, that both Mr. Johnson and his son had gone to Liverpool the previous day, the former to see the latter off. Something ...
— Jethou - or Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles • E. R. Suffling
... my chair to go and look at him, and with a candle in my hand I leaned over him. Seeing him breathing quietly I felt reassured, when he coughed a third time. It gave me such a shock tat I started backward, just as one does at sight of something horrible, ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant
... digestion de la viande, rsulte de l'action du suc gastrique acide sur le tissu connectif qui se dissout d'abord, et qui, par sa liqufaction, dsagrge les fibrilles. Celles-ci se dissolvent ensuite en grande partie, mais, avant de passer l'tat liquide, elles tendent se briser en petits fragments transversaux. Les 'sarcous elements' de Bowman, qui ne sont autre chose que les produits de cette division transversale des fibrilles lmentaires, peuvent tre prpars ...
— Insectivorous Plants • Charles Darwin
... fix together, bind up together together; embody, reembody^; roll into one. attach, fix, affix, saddle on, fasten, bind, secure, clinch, twist, make fast &c adj.; tie, pinion, string, strap, sew, lace, tat, stitch, tack, knit, button, buckle, hitch, lash, truss, bandage, braid, splice, swathe, gird, tether, moor, picket, harness, chain; fetter &c (restrain) 751; lock, latch, belay, brace, hook, grapple, leash, couple, accouple^, link, yoke, bracket; marry &c (wed) 903; bridge over, span. braze; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... curled still more deeply, as after a pause, he replied: "Or excommunication and a fitting punishment will fall upon you and the vagabond doctor. Tit for tat. We have grown tender-hearted, and it is long since a Jew has been burned for an example ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... much charge last night when Dan got sick," said Felix maliciously. Felicity had told him at tea that night he was getting fatter than ever. This was his tit-for-tat. "You were pretty glad to leave it ...
— The Story Girl • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... this world to the kingdom which the gods had given him and began to reign over the dead. He was absolute king of this realm, just as Ra the Sun-god was absolute king of the sky. This region of the dead, or Dead-land, is called "Tat," or "Tuat," but where the Egyptians thought it was situated is not quite clear. The original home of the cult of Osiris was in the Delta, in a city which in historic times was called Tetu by the ...
— The Book of the Dead • E. A. Wallis Budge
... "Fat is tat you say? Dare you cock your peaver? I will teach you, sir, Fat is coot pehaviour! You shall not exist For another day more; I will shoot you, sir, Or stap ...
— The Bon Gaultier Ballads • William Edmonstoune Aytoun
... I toose; undt tat's te fust time I effer tit vanted a toctor. Undt you mus' ugscooce me, Toctor, to callin' on you, ovver I vish you come ...
— Dr. Sevier • George W. Cable
... colloquialism," said Henry, "we fairly reek with prosperity, and we're going to double our business. That is, unless you Leaguers stop all forms of amusement but tit-tat-toe ...
— Rope • Holworthy Hall
... at every creak of the garden-gate, as he waited for the last post. When at length a step was heard crunching on the gravel, he rushed from the room, and Mrs. Cohn heard the hall-door open. Her ear, disappointed of the rat-tat, morbidly followed every sound; but it seemed a long time before her boy's returning footstep reached her. The strange, slow drag of it worked upon her nerves, and her heart grew ...
— Ghetto Comedies • Israel Zangwill
... a sight! There's sound! The greyheaded woodpecker tapping the hollow tree! Blind and dumb might well be envied now. See! that thing rests on two line-tubs, full of tow-lines. A most malicious wag, that fellow. Rat-tat! So man's seconds tick! Oh! how immaterial are all materials! What things real are there, but imponderable thoughts? Here now's the very dreaded symbol of grim death, by a mere hap, made the expressive sign of the help and ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville
... June in the year '84, he was interrupted whilst equipping himself for dinner abroad, by a thunderous rat-tat-tat. ...
— Born in Exile • George Gissing
... Rat-a-tat-tat! Jack hardly comprehended what this new noise meant when it grew in volume. Then a horseman rode into the yard ...
— The Submarine Boys for the Flag - Deeding Their Lives to Uncle Sam • Victor G. Durham
... my husband, for that he did what he did in his shop, and God hath retaliated upon him in this world.' And it is related that the goldsmith, when his wife told him how the water-carrier had used her, said, 'Tit for tat! If I had done more, the water-carrier had done more.' And this became a current ...
— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume IV • Anonymous
... starting-points of philosophy and he had to show that they supported his views. Hence his interpretation often seems forced and perverse. The most extraordinary instance of this is his explanation of the celebrated phrase in the Chandogya Upanishad Sa atma tat tvam asi. He reads Sa atma atat tvam asi and considers that it means "You are not that God. Why be so conceited as to suppose that you are?"[598] Monotheistic texts have often received a mystical ...
— Hinduism And Buddhism, Volume II. (of 3) - An Historical Sketch • Charles Eliot
... 'Precisely what made me consider the thing so fair and easy. There is no obligation on either side. You have money, and Miss Madeline has beauty and worth. She has youth, you have money. She has not money, you have not youth. Tit for tat, quits, a match of Heaven's ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens
... out of my mouth afore they did ring, and if they 'ad been selling muffins they couldn't ha' kept it up harder. And all the time the umberella was doing rat-a-tat tats on the gate, while a voice— much too loud for the ...
— Deep Waters, The Entire Collection • W.W. Jacobs
... the very utmost; and I also am to read the Proof sheets. The edition is of Seven Hundred and Fifty; which Fraser thinks he will sell. With what joy shall I then sack up the small Ten Pounds Sterling perhaps of "Half-Profits," and remit them to the man Emerson; saying: There, Man! Tit for tat, the reciprocity not all on one side!—I ought to say, moreover, that this was a volunteer scheme of Fraser's; the risk is all his, the origin of it was with him: I advised him to have it reviewed, as being a really noteworthy ...
— The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, - 1834-1872, Vol. I • Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson
... a flash, and wait till Fritz quit. Fat would be in a shell hole almost as soon as the first shot was fired, and would laugh at Bink looking for a hole to hide in. Bink would get sore; all you could hear was the rat-tat-tat of the machine gun and in between "Tee hee, tee hee" from Fat as he lay and watched Bink crawling around looking for a hole. Some of the boys would lie in the hole and wave their legs in the air hoping to get a bullet through them so that they ...
— Into the Jaws of Death • Jack O'Brien
... punctured by quick sharp explosions of sound. Guns. Those few remaining of the fighting Earthmen farther up the valley, no longer menaced by the futile fliers, had come down to help their weaponless brethren. Wat's voice was shrill in the land, yelling, exhorting, screaming. A familiar rat-a-tat-a-tat came down the wind. The submachine gun was spitting steel-jacketed death. Where was ...
— Slaves of Mercury • Nat Schachner
... through the village the reflections of star-shells threw weird lights on half-ruined houses; an occasional shell screamed overhead, to burst with a dull, echoing sound within the shattered walls of former cottages; and one could hear the rat-tat-tat of machine-guns. These had a nasty habit of spraying the village with indirect fire, and it was, as always, a relief to enter the recesses of Wood Street without having any one hit. This communication trench dipped into the earth at right angles to ...
— Attack - An Infantry Subaltern's Impression of July 1st, 1916 • Edward G. D. Liveing
... serious business was about to begin. Dawson gave us a few seconds of apprehension, and then laughed grimly. From his waistcoat pocket he drew a key, and the fetters were removed almost as quickly as they had been clapped on. "Tit for tat," said he. "You have had your fun with me. ...
— The Lost Naval Papers • Bennet Copplestone
... which the routine of duty is conducted on board a man-of-war, every officer and man, from the captain down to the smallest "powder-monkey," was in his proper place and at his station before the rat-tat-tat of the drum had ceased reverberating fore and aft; albeit, most of the hands had only recently joined the ship, while some, indeed, had ...
— Crown and Anchor - Under the Pen'ant • John Conroy Hutcheson
... heart with ta one hand while you'll pe clapping her head with ta other," said the piper. "Ton't be taking her into your house to pe telling her she can't see. Is it that old Tuncan is not a man as much as any woman in ta world, tat you'll pe telling her she can't see? I tell you she can see, and more tan you'll pe think. And I will tell it to you, tere iss a pape in this house, and tere was pe none when ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald
... said the boy, 'but they calls me "Tat" for short, because I used to hang about outside Tattersall's and run errands. I picked up most of my education there. There ain't many of 'em as can teach me anything.' He broke off short in his confidences at the ...
— Despair's Last Journey • David Christie Murray
... Smith's successor, he was turned out-of-doors by Brigham Young with the taunting words, "Brother Sidney says he will tell our secrets, but I would say, ' 'O don't, Brother Sidney! Don't tell our secrets—O don't.' But if he tells our secrets we will tell his. Tit for tat! President Fairchild's argument that several of the original leaders of the fanaticism must have been "adequate to the task" of supplying the doctrinal part of the book, only furnishes additional proof of his ignorance of early Mormon history, and his further assumption that "it ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn
... sang by Dan's ear, and another spurted up the chalk dust a few feet ahead of Dennis, and as the vicious rat-tat of the machine-gun farther down the trench opened, they found themselves at the edge of a deep crump-hole, ...
— With Haig on the Somme • D. H. Parry
... good, I fear I made but an indifferent bad ploughboy when walking, and found a difficulty in dealing with my hands, not knowing how ploughboys are wont to carry them. So I came round in front of the house, and gave a rat-tat on the door, while my pulse beat as loud inside of me as ever did the knocker without. The sound ran round the building, and backwards among the walks, and all was silent as before. I waited a minute, and was for knocking again, thinking there might be no one in the house, and then heard a light ...
— Moonfleet • J. Meade Falkner
... and says: 'Ah, so I thought when I was your age.' It is not thought an answer at all, if the young man retorts: My venerable sir, so I shall most probably think when I am yours.' And yet the one is as good as the other: pass for pass, tit for tat, a Roland for ...
— The Pocket R.L.S. - Being Favourite Passages from the Works of Stevenson • Robert Louis Stevenson
... A rat-tat-tat-tat ensued, and the Earl of Harcourt was announced. When he had paid his compliments to Mrs. Cholmondeley, speaking of the lady from whose house he was just come, ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 1 • Madame D'Arblay
... Bauldoyn Prince Chre||stien tat fameux & renomme tenoit || l'Empire de Constatinople, assavoir || en Pan de l'incarnation de nostre || Saulueur mil deux cens soixante & || neuf, deux nobles & prudes citoyes || ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... at the rest of the runners. "Behold me, for I am a man! [b] my feet are as swift as the West wind. With the coons and the beavers I ran; but where is the elk or the cabri? [80] Come!—where is the hunter will dare match his feet with the feet of Tamdka? Let him think of Tat [c] and beware, ere he stake his last robe on the trial." "Oh! Ho! H-hca!" [d] they jeered, for they liked not the boast of the boaster; But to match him no warrior appeared, for his feet wore the wings of ...
— Legends of the Northwest • Hanford Lennox Gordon
... person. His wife's buckets served as a continual remembrancer. But Mrs. Moggs never exulted over his defeat; and, though once compelled to harshness, continued to be to Montezuma a most excellent wife. The shop looks lively now—and the bell to the door is removed; for Moggs, with his rat-tat-tat, is ever at his post, doing admired execution on the dilapidated boots and shoes. The Moggses prosper, and all through the efficacy of a bucket of cold water. We should not wonder if, in the end, the Moggs family were ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol. XXXII No. 2. February 1848 • Various
... wakened by a sound, and, recognizing the delicate 'rat-tat' of her husband's knock, did not answer, indifferent whether he came in or no. He entered noiselessly. If she did not let him know she was awake, he would not wake her. She lay still and watched him sit down astride of a chair, cross his ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... fire, was lying upon the ground, his heart's blood oozing upon the snow. Patrick Carr and Samuel Caldwell, who also had come to put out a fire, were dying, and six others were wounded. The soldiers were reloading their guns, preparing for another volley. Robert heard the rat-a-tat of a drum, and saw the Twenty-Ninth Regiment march into the street from Pudding Lane, the front rank kneeling, the rear rank standing, with guns loaded, bayonets fixed, and ready ...
— Daughters of the Revolution and Their Times - 1769 - 1776 A Historical Romance • Charles Carleton Coffin
... a mountain homestead he beat his rat-tat-tat to bring the girls out, and they stood and hung about and gaped after him at all ...
— Weird Tales from Northern Seas • Jonas Lie
... sailed as a general thing but fish, a pair of canoeists could not be thus vulgarly explained away; we were strange and picturesque intruders; and out of people's wonder sprang a sort of light and passing intimacy all along our route. There is nothing but tit- for-tat in this world, though sometimes it be a little difficult to trace: for the scores are older than we ourselves, and there has never yet been a settling-day since things were. You get entertainment pretty much in proportion as you give. As long as we were a sort of odd wanderers, to be ...
— An Inland Voyage • Robert Louis Stevenson
... the distribution of tragedy, comedy, melodrama, and farce throughout the country and throughout the world. To whose door has not Destiny come in the disguise of a postman, and slipped its decree, with a double rat-tat, into the letter-box? Whose heart has not sickened as he heard the postman's footstep pass his door without pausing? Whose hand has not trembled as he opened a letter? Whose face has not blanched as he took in its import, almost without reading the words? ...
— Play-Making - A Manual of Craftsmanship • William Archer
... developed, completely automated and efficient system, mainly buried cables domestic: nationwide cellular telephone system; buried cable international: 3 channels leased on TAT-6 coaxial submarine ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... gallows. Round this shoulder of the house, and into the main yard (that turn'd churlishly toward the hillside), the wind howled like a beast in pain. I climb'd off Molly, and pressing my hat down on my head, struck a loud rat-tat on the door. ...
— The Splendid Spur • Arthur T. Quiller Couch
... slammed the kitchen door behind him when the clatter and stamp of a horse's hoofs were heard Outside, followed by an impatient rat-a-tat-tat on the knocker. ...
— Kennedy Square • F. Hopkinson Smith
... suits her. She is delighted with herself for having called Mrs. Bethune "horrid," and given him such a delicious tit-for-tat. She looks full of fun and mischief. There is no longer an atom of rancour about her. Rylton, in spite of himself, acknowledges her charm; but what does she mean by this sudden sweetness—this sudden sauciness? ...
— The Hoyden • Mrs. Hungerford
... her daughter: 'My dear Melanie, we have fallen up to our necks in the mire, we cannot be very particular about the hand that is to drag us out. Lorand will never come back again, Gyali has deceived us; but only tit for tat,—for we deceived him with that tale of the regained property in which only one man believes,—honorable Sarvoelgyi. If you accept his offer, you will be a lady of position, if not, you can come with ...
— Debts of Honor • Maurus Jokai
... an hour Cochrane was about to fire again. But they heard the hysterical rat-tat-tat of firing. It seemed no nearer, but it could only be ...
— Operation: Outer Space • William Fitzgerald Jenkins
... wheel, and pay out him and a lot of those other prigs like Oaks and Rowlands, I couldn't have told you; but now the thing's as easy as pat. They'll find out they haven't cold-shouldered me at every turn and corner for nothing. I'll give them tit for tat, and after Christmas, when I've left this beastly place, I'll write and tell them ...
— The Triple Alliance • Harold Avery
... what talks we have had on such occasions, and on what various subjects! and not unfrequently, too, when the room was Mill's, Grote, the historian, would join us, first announcing his advent by a peculiar and ever-welcome rat-tat with his walking-stick on the door. I must not dwell longer over these recollections; but there are two special obligations of my own to Mill which I cannot permit myself to pass over. When, in 1856, he became examiner, he had made it, ...
— John Stuart Mill; His Life and Works • Herbert Spencer, Henry Fawcett, Frederic Harrison and Other
... The rat-tat-tat of gunfire suddenly ceased. Jack could no longer cover the spot where the two Huns were hiding behind the tree-trunks, and consequently it would be a sheer waste of ...
— Air Service Boys Over the Atlantic • Charles Amory Beach
... not correctly printed in any of the texts that I have seen. The Burdwan Pandits read tat-samim. This I think, is correct, but then asasada in the singular when the other verbs are all dual seems to be correct. The poet must have used some other verb ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... sir," said Disco. "It's lucky you have always carried the physic in your pockets, 'cause you'll need it, an' it's lucky, too, that I am here and well enough to return tit for tat and nurse you, 'cause you'll have that 'ere pain in your spine creep up your back and round your ribs till it lays hold of yer shoulders, where it'll stick as if it had made up its mind to stay there for ever an' a day. Arter ...
— Black Ivory • R.M. Ballantyne
... "Tit for tat," exclaimed. Bumpus; "what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. After this we'll call it off, fellows, remember. It was give and take, and now ...
— The, Boy Scouts on Sturgeon Island - or Marooned Among the Game-fish Poachers • Herbert Carter
... local Foreign Service Corps. Its C.O. has been boasting that it's en tat de partir, and Bayley's going to take him at his word and have a kit-inspection this afternoon in the Park. I must tell their drill-hall. Look over yonder between that brewery chimney and the ...
— Traffics and Discoveries • Rudyard Kipling
... four started in their saddles, and Sadie gave a sharp cry of dismay. In the hush of the night there had come from behind them the petulant crack of a rifle, then another, then several together, with a brisk rat-tat-tat, and then after ...
— The Tragedy of The Korosko • Arthur Conan Doyle
... years of practice until expert proficiency had made eyes unnecessary. She tatted while she read, tatted while she taught, tatted while she watched the potatoes boiling for dinner. Some even asserted that they had seen her tat on horseback with all the diligence attributed to Bertha the beautiful queen of old Helvetia, who spun from a distaff fastened to the saddle of her ...
— Virginia of Elk Creek Valley • Mary Ellen Chase
... non-pear-bearing peach-tree in the columns of their valuable journal? This is the drift of the fault found with Thackeray. He is not Fenelon, he is not Dickens, he is not Scott; he is not poetical, he is not ideal, he is not humane; he is not Tit, he is not Tat, complain the eminent Dabs and Tabs. Of course he is not, because he is Thackeray—a man who describes what he sees, motives as well as appearances—a man who believes that character is better than talent—that there is a worldly ...
— Literary and Social Essays • George William Curtis
... is good upon principle in every relation in life?" Lady Mary is also extremely severe on the novelist's attempt to paint Italy; when he talks of it, says she, "it is plain he is no better acquainted with it than he is with the Kingdom of Mancomingo." It is probable tat Richardson could not say more for his Italian knowledge than did old Roger Ascham of Archery fame, when he declared: "I was once in Italy, but I thank God my stay there was only nine days." "Sir Charles Grandison" has also the substantial advantage ...
— Masters of the English Novel - A Study Of Principles And Personalities • Richard Burton
... there was a loud rat-tat at the front door, and Jack Glover hastened into the hall to answer. But it was not the policeman he had expected. It was a girl in a big sable coat, muffled up to her eyes. She pushed past Jack, crossed the hall, and walked straight ...
— The Angel of Terror • Edgar Wallace
... the two most famous of the twelve paladins of Charlemagne. To give a "Roland for an Oliver" is to give tit for tat, to give another as good a drubbing ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer
... Cock Robin peeped out of his cabin To see the cold winter come in. Tit for tat, what matter for that? He'll hide ...
— The Little Mother Goose • Anonymous
... and twa, Te twenty-tird o' May, man; She twell amang te Heelan hills, Ayont the reefer Spey, man. Tat year tey foucht the Sherra-muir, She first peheld te licht, man; Tey shot my father in tat stoure— A plaguit, vexin' ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various
... law of tit-for-tat! And I will persevere till I have attained my end, unless you should become extremely ugly.—I shall succeed; and I will tell you why," he went on, resuming his attitude, and looking at Madame Hulot. "You will not meet with such an old man, or such a young lover," ...
— Cousin Betty • Honore de Balzac
... Russell Ministry had been defeated upon the Militia Bill ("my tit-for-tat with John Russell," as Palmerston called it), the victors were very unlikely to hold office for long. In spite of Disraeli's praise of Free Trade during the General Election, a right-about surprising and disconcerting to his ...
— Lady John Russell • Desmond MacCarthy and Agatha Russell
... Viceregal Life, has some excellent instances of the same sort. "Your Enormity" is a delightful variant on "Your Excellency;" and there is something really pathetic in the Baboo's benediction, "You have been very good to us, and may Almighty God give you tit for tat." But to deride these errors of idiom scarcely lies in the mouth of an Englishman. A friend of mine, wishing to express his opinion that a Frenchman was an idiot, told him that he was a "cretonne." Lord R——, preaching at the French Exhibition, implored his ...
— Collections and Recollections • George William Erskine Russell
... long story for tell dat night On poor leetle Rose Elmire, An' she say she 's sorry about de fight We 're doin' so well down here— But it 's not our fault an' we can't help dat, De law she is made for all, So our duty is wait for de rat-tat-tat Of drum ...
— The Voyageur and Other Poems • William Henry Drummond
... much violence that every one expected they would fall in pieces." For an hour together, as the worthy Mr. Mompesson repeated to his wondering neighbours, this infernal drummer "would beat 'Roundheads and Cuckolds,' the 'Tat-too,' and several other points of war, as cleverly as any soldier." When this had lasted long enough, he changed his tactics, and scratched with his iron talons under the children's bed. "On the 5th of November," says the Rev. ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds • Charles Mackay
... Unstooping All But Blind Nicholas Nye The Pigs and The Charcoal Burner Five Eyes Grim Tit for Tat Summer Evening Earth Folk ...
— Peacock Pie, A Book of Rhymes • Walter de la Mare
... them back, jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and raiment. In fact they "spoiled the Egyptians." In recent times the modern Egyptians have wiped off that old score by spoiling a few Jewish moneylenders, and so returned tit for tat. ...
— Bible Romances - First Series • George W. Foote
... morning. When an adversary suddenly and brutally assaults us, his ferocity springing from the instinct of a lower civilisation—as when a farm-dog leaps upon us in the road—our first instinct is to fall back and meet him on the ground of his own savagery, to give him an exact tit for his tat. But can you not see that, as we do this, and in proportion as we do it, we allow him to impose himself on us and relinquish our main advantage? It is idle to practise a higher moral code, if we abandon it hurriedly as soon as it ...
— Nicky-Nan, Reservist • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)
... we heard the Lewises giving the recall signal. A good gunner gets so he can play a tune on a Lewis, and the device is frequently used for signals. This time he thumped out the old one—"All policemen have big feet." Rat-a-tat-tat—tat, tat. ...
— A Yankee in the Trenches • R. Derby Holmes
... tat!" There broke from Lord Theign, in his solitude, with the young man out of earshot, that vague ironic comment; which only served his turn, none the less, till, bethinking himself, he had gone back to the piece of furniture used for ...
— The Outcry • Henry James
... sir, if you please! I can get away from here without tearing myself, which is more than you can boast. Any fool can see why you are here. Stop, I take that back, sir! I don't play tit-for-tat ...
— The Cavalier • George Washington Cable
... czar took occasion to engage in negotiations not only with Thibet, but with Afghanistan also, at the very moment when England was suffering her most serious disasters and embarrassments of recent history, and is getting tit for tat. Before Colonel Younghusband's expedition was dispatched the British ambassador at St. Petersburg was instructed to inquire if the Russian government had any relations with Thibet or any interests there, and was officially informed that it had ...
— Modern India • William Eleroy Curtis
... at last. Mrs. Ready had been absent on a visit to London; and the moment she heard of the intended emigration of the Lyndsays to Canada, she put on her bonnet and shawl, and rushed to the rescue. The loud, double rat-tat-tat at the door, announced an arrival of more ...
— Flora Lyndsay - or, Passages in an Eventful Life • Susan Moodie
... of thing'll never do with us, you know," continued the old gentleman, when he had diverted Bean's attention from the interesting map. "Never do at all; not at all; not-tat-tall. Preposterous! My ...
— Bunker Bean • Harry Leon Wilson
... gun "rat-tat-tat-tated" close to us, and three rockets, like a flight of startled birds, rose suddenly together ...
— The Dark Forest • Hugh Walpole
... roar of laughter. This was exactly the sort of "tit-for-tat" humor that appeals to a Yankee crowd. The motion was seconded half a dozen times. Moderator Knowles grinned and shook ...
— Cy Whittaker's Place • Joseph C. Lincoln
... an evening he had the run of the smoking room. After ten p.m. the 'open sesame' to our door was a rattle on the letter box and Louis' fancy for the mysterious was whetted by this admittance by secret sign, and we liked his special rat-a-tat for it was the forerunner of an hour ...
— The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls • Jacqueline M. Overton
... exploration into the interior of the continent. In the course of one of my rambles amid a dense mass of tropical foliage, I suddenly found myself face to face with a gigantic stone Sphinx, which I at once recognized and identified. It was Tat-Nuada, an Atlantean deity, elaborately described in one of the burned books. Much excited, I set to work, and, after clearing the base of the idol of fungi and other vegetable growth adhering to it, ...
— The Sorcery Club • Elliott O'Donnell
... 'Tit for tat,' said the marquis when she had recounted her adventures. 'Thou and the roundhead are well matched. There is no avoiding of it, cousin! It is your fate, as clear as if your two horoscopes had run into one. Mind thee, hearts are older ...
— St. George and St. Michael • George MacDonald
... Dreda's return home a sharp rat-tat sounded at the door, and Maud, flattening her nose against the window, made one of her ...
— Etheldreda the Ready - A School Story • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... hireling, traitor, and turncoat,— A base apostate who had sold His very teeth and claws for gold;— 30 And then his feathers!—sharp the jest— No doubt he feather'd well his nest! 'A Tit indeed! aye, tit for tat— With place and title, brother Bat, We soon shall see how well he'll play 35 Count Goldfinch, or Sir Joseph Jay!' Alas, poor Bird! and ill-bestarr'd— Or rather let us say, poor Bard! And henceforth quit the allegoric, With metaphor and simile, 40 For ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... they're begun, things soon will come about, And ve shall be the upper class, and turn the others out; Their laws ve'll execute ourselves, and raise their hevelation, That's tit for tat, for they'd make that the ...
— Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs - and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] • John S. Farmer
... when men of Protestant sentiments appealed to the Articles, Homilies, and Reformers, in the sense that if they had a right to speak loud I had both the liberty and the means of giving them tit for tat. I thought that the Anglican Church had been tyrannised over by a Party, and I aimed at bringing into effect the promise contained in the motto to the Lyra: "They shall know the difference now." I only asked to be allowed to ...
— The Oxford Movement - Twelve Years, 1833-1845 • R.W. Church
... after her; and there came the loud rat-tat of the lawyer at the front door. They ran into the drawing-room and Eglantine opened the window gently. The detective knocked at the back door; the lawyer knocked again, louder. Pollyooly leaned out of the window, weighing her chances. She saw that to get to the little gate into the ...
— Happy Pollyooly - The Rich Little Poor Girl • Edgar Jepson
... Two. Tri Three. Ch'air, or k'hair Four. Cood Five. She, or shay Six. Schaacht, or schach' Seven. Ocht Eight. Ayen, or nai Nine. Dy'ai, djai, or dai Ten. Hinniadh Eleven. Do yed'h Twelve. Trin yedh Thirteen. K'hair yedh, etc. Fourteen, etc. Tat 'th chesin ogomsa That belongs to me. Grannis to my deal It belongs to me. Dioch maa krady in in this nadas I am staying here. Tash emilesh He is staying there. Boghin the brass Cooking the food. My deal is mislin I am going. The nidias of the kiena don't The people of the house don't know ...
— The Gypsies • Charles G. Leland
... anxiously than ever. The tell-tale thump of the oars had ceased. The only sounds in the bayou were the trickle of water from the tidal pools, the wind in the tree-tops, the rat-tat-tat of a woodpecker, and the scream of a bob-cat. With a foolish air of chagrin, Trimble Rogers rubbed his ...
— Blackbeard: Buccaneer • Ralph D. Paine
... those eminent furnishers of funerals, Mr. Mould and Messrs. Omer and Joram. All the mixed mirth and sadness of the story are skilfully drawn into the handling of this portion of it; and, amid wooings and preparations for weddings and church-ringing bells for baptisms, the steadily-going rat-tat of the hammer on the ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster
... shouted Taro. The drummer boy began, "rat-a-tat-tat," and the whole victorious army marched down the street and ...
— THE JAPANESE TWINS • Lucy Fitch Perkins
... grunted suddenly and pointed to the box. There was a sound that seemed to come from inside. Something made a rat, tat, tat on the cover of ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack's • Laura Lee Hope
... gentle rat-tat-tat on the door. It was so gentle that Luther thought his ears were deceiving him, for while he stopped reading, he made no motion to rise, but sat listening. Again they came, three polite taps, seeming to say, "I should like to get in, ...
— The Soldier of the Valley • Nelson Lloyd
... jealous—so ridiculously jealous—of that lord of hers, for whom all the time she has the impudence to pretend not to care more than I do for the sole of my boot," said Mrs. Freke, striking it, with her whip; "but she hasn't the courage to give him tit for tat: now this is what I call weakness. Pray, how do she and Clarence Hervey go on together?—Are they out o' the ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. III - Belinda • Maria Edgeworth
... on the plain the howitzers were lobbing 60-pound shells into the German Askaris, the Nigerians were advancing by sharp rushes and the rat-tat of the machine guns and the crackle of musketry broke very faintly. Airplanes sailed above us. A message came from the Nigerians, "We are going to take the enemy's trenches; please lift gunfire." The order was passed along, "All ...
— Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights • Kelly Miller
... home, in the year 18—, but went all together to the farm of our uncle Richard, who was of the Episcopal Church, for the celebration of Christmas; for many of his persuasion, at that time, regarded "Thanksgiving" pretty much as the Highlander, in Scott's novel, did "ta little government Sunday, tat tey call ta Fast." He was a well-to-do farmer, at a place within easy reach of the town in which we lived, and where very few were at all rich, even according to the former moderate standard of wealth, and most ...
— Old New England Traits • Anonymous
... is familiar enough for "using bad grammar," which the book-keeper very likely did; but the explanation may be more remote. "Like a ghost from the tomb" though not "quoted" is, of course, his beloved Shelley's ("The Cloud"). "Biped knock" merely "double"—the peculiar rat-tat which postmen have mostly forgotten or not learnt—perhaps regarding it as a badge of slavery like "tips." The Fatal Dowry—attributed to (Field and) Massinger, and spoilt by Rowe into his nevertheless popular Fair Penitent,—is one of the finest examples of the second ...
— A Letter Book - Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing • George Saintsbury
... killing the cat and tying its tail to the fence to see him kick before he died. He and Bob and a lot of the fellows all together in Smith's field, I think he said. Bob knew Smith. And the way they played tit-tat-too on the window pane on All Hallows' Eve, and they got caught that night too." (At Barking, where my uncles lived as children, there is a field called Smith's field, but my Uncle does not remember the cat incident.) "Aunt Anne wants to know about ...
— Mrs. Piper & the Society for Psychical Research • Michael Sage
... determined stride with which the stranger who preceded them divided the press, shouldering from him, by the mere weight and impetus of his motion, both drunk and sober passengers. "He'll be a Teviotdale tup tat ane," said the chairman, "tat's for keeping ta crown o' ta causeway tat gate—he'll no gang far or he'll get somebody to bell ta ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott
... Rat-a-tat-tat at the first dim hint of dawn went the chamberlain's knuckles upon the door. To Nick it seemed scarce midnight yet, so sound had ...
— Master Skylark • John Bennett
... of this remark was another "Pshaw!" But Mrs. Peck went on: "When you've lived opposite to people like that for a long time you feel as if you had some rights in them—tit for tat! But she didn't take it up today; she didn't speak to me. She knows who I am as well as she knows ...
— The Patagonia • Henry James
... into this inlet at and near its head, the largest of which, Tat-lim-in, we ascended about one-eighth of of a mile to rapids, with the canoe, and three miles further on foot, finding a succession of rapids, shoals and log-jambs. Ma-min River, about sixty feet wide and filled with logs to near its mouth, empties ...
— Official report of the exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands - for the government of British Columbia • Newton H. Chittenden
... bad Fox had crept up the hill, and into the garden, and if the Cock and Mouse hadn't been asleep, they would have seen his sharp eyes peeping in at the window. "Rat tat tat, Rat tat tat", the ...
— The Cock, The Mouse and the Little Red Hen - an old tale retold • Felicite Lefevre
... tat! Surprised, Gombauld turned his eyes towards the door. Nobody ever disturbed him while he was at work; it was one of the unwritten laws. "Come in!" he called. The door, which was ajar, swung open, revealing, from the waist upwards, the form of Mary. She had ...
— Crome Yellow • Aldous Huxley
... gloomy. Not long after eight the housemaid brought in a lighted lamp, and set it, as usual, upon the little black four-legged table in the drawing-room. And in the same moment the knocker of the front door sounded a vigorous rat-tat-tat, a visitor's summons. ...
— The Paying Guest • George Gissing
... not, no, that I could'nt, refuse any one who asked me so pretty as that lady did you. If she had been angry, and commanded you back, why bad begets bad, and tit for tat you know, and I should not so much have wondered: but, Miss, you should not vex her. No, don't be angry with an old man, I have seen so much of the evils of young folks taking their own way. Look here, young lady," said the weather beaten sailor, as he pointed to a piece ...
— Emilie the Peacemaker • Mrs. Thomas Geldart
... his answer, but not from Peter, and, being a Frenchman, smiled, bowed again, and discreetly left the room; for Elsie, turning to Peter cried: "Did you do it—even the wattle?" and kissed him heartily. He kissed her back, and caught hold of Julie. "Tit for tat," he said to her under his breath, holding her arms; "do you remember our first taxi?" Then, louder: "Julie Is responsible for most of it," and he ...
— Simon Called Peter • Robert Keable
... rifle and need not be counted. Another had fled from flames and might be ignored for some moments, anyhow. But a blast-bolt struck the ship's metal hull only feet from Calhoun, and he whipped around to the other side and let loose a staccato rat-tat-tat of fire which emptied the rifle of ...
— This World Is Taboo • Murray Leinster
... middle of the afternoon of the day before the marriage, there was the loud rat-tat-tat of the brass knocker, announcing a visitor. But visitors had been constant since the arrival of Cornelia and Anna, and Katherine did not much trouble herself as to whom it might be. She was ...
— The Bow of Orange Ribbon - A Romance of New York • Amelia E. Barr
... square athwart his bows as his bowsprit came thrusting in between our fore and main masts, when we lost not a moment in lashing the spar to our main rigging. But, after all, it resolved itself into tit for tat, for the other fellow put his helm hard aport and just managed to drive square athwart our stern, where he raked us most unmercifully for fully five minutes, until he drove clear, bringing down all three ...
— A Pirate of the Caribbees • Harry Collingwood
... ata, tata; Hindustanee dada; Latin, atta, tatta; Greek atta, tatta; Albanian, Albania, at, atti; Calabria and Sicily tata; Celtic, Welsh tad; Cornish and Bret tat; Irish, daid; Gaelic daidein; English (according to Skeats of Welsh) dad, daddy; Old Slav, tata otici; Moldavian tata; Wallachian tate; Polish tatus; Bohemian, Servian Croatian otsche; Lithuanian teta; Preuss thetis; Gothic ata; Old Fries ...
— The Dakotan Languages, and Their Relations to Other Languages • Andrew Woods Williamson
... Rata-tat-tat! Those were the sounds of that battle summer, Till the earth seemed a parchment round and flat, And every footfall the tap of a drummer; And day by day down the Avenue went Cavalry, infantry, all ...
— Complete Poetical Works of Bret Harte • Bret Harte
... the good, thoughtful little missionary to the foreigner, Susan. I suppose you wanted to stay at home and tat socks while Bobbie and I dined and wined—not," was the very unappreciative answer that was made to ...
— The Daredevil • Maria Thompson Daviess
... closed with him at once, ashamed and humbled at this miserable chaffering, glad also to get a little money now and then. But this time he was obstinate, and took to insulting the picture-dealer, who, giving tit for tat, all at once dropped the formal 'you' to assume the glib 'thou,' denied his talent, overwhelmed him with invective, and taxed him with ingratitude. Meanwhile, however, he had taken from his pocket three successive five-franc pieces, ...
— His Masterpiece • Emile Zola
... speaks of this charter as settling the true meaning of the corresponding clause of Magna Carta, on the principle tat laws and charters on the same subject are to be construed with reference to each other. See 3 Christin's ...
— An Essay on the Trial By Jury • Lysander Spooner
... of mine whose name I won't mention even at this late day. I will not turn state's evidence notwithstanding the Statute of Limitations has run, as N.V. Creede advises me, against any one but Dick McGill—and the reason for my exposing him is merely tit for tat. Ma Fewkes could not unclasp the hands; but she produced an effect ...
— Vandemark's Folly • Herbert Quick
... under his breath, and, in a mechanical fashion, began to build little castles with the draughts. He was just about to add to an already swaying structure when a thundering rat-tat- tat at the door dispersed the draughts to the four corners of the room. The servant opened the door, and the next moment ushered in Mrs. ...
— Short Cruises • W.W. Jacobs
... the garden gate and down the path across the meadow, every once in a while stopping and pretending he was very angry. When he pretended this, Fido would give Raggedy Ann a great shaking, making her yarn head hit the ground "ratty-tat-tat." Then he would give his head a toss and send Raggedy Ann high in the air where she would turn over two or three times ...
— Raggedy Ann Stories • Johnny Gruelle
... begun to rebuke Michael, when "rat-tat" went the iron ring that hung at the door. Some one was knocking. They looked out of the window; a man had come on horseback, and was fastening his horse. They opened the door, and the servant who had been with the gentleman ...
— What Men Live By and Other Tales • Leo Tolstoy
... over you. Ah! I'm not such a fool, after all, perhaps, as you thought. I have it, and hang me, but I'll make use of it! You have blasted my life, and thought it good fun, no doubt. I'll see if I can't give tit-for-tat and spoil your little game, my haughty lady, with your white face and your cursed high-handed airs. Yet, how I loved them—how I loved them! Must I never see a woman again without that queenly beauty coming between me and my share of ...
— M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur." • G.J. Whyte-Melville
... with passion. "To the marrow of your bones you are false, all of you! You do not cog your dice, perhaps, but you bubble your friends with finesses, and are as much sharpers at heart as the lowest tat-mongers in Alsatia. You empty our purses, and cozen our women with twanging guitars and jingling rhymes, and laugh at us because we are honest and trust you. Seducers, ...
— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon
... to fightin' dey trains near de place where am de big field for to train hunerds of sojer boys. I likes dat, 'cause de drums goes, 'ter-ump, ter-ump, ter-ump, tump, tump,' and de fifes goes, 'te, te, ta, te, tat' and plays Dixie. One day Young massa trainin' dem sojers and he am walkin' backwards and facin' dem sojers, and jus' as him say, 'Halt,' down he go, flat on he back. Right away quick, him say, ''Bout ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves. - Texas Narratives, Part 2 • Works Projects Administration
... on the door of the pen where Dr. Pigg and his wife and Buddy and Brighteyes lived one day. "Rat-a-tat-tat," went the rapping. ...
— Buddy And Brighteyes Pigg - Bed Time Stories • Howard R. Garis
... willing animal than she is. But she is naturally a more irritable constitution than the black horse; flies tease her more; anything wrong in the harness frets her more; and if she were ill-used or unfairly treated she would not be unlikely to give tit for tat. You know that many ...
— Black Beauty • Anna Sewell
... said, 'somebody must have willed you money lately, Martha. Either that or keepin' boarders must pay pretty well.' 'Yes,' said I, 'it does. The cost of livin is comin' down all the time.' Oh, I'm havin' a beautiful game of tit-for-tat with Raish." ...
— Galusha the Magnificent • Joseph C. Lincoln
... carriage-and-four with white favours at the church-door; and of a honeymoon, which would have astonished as to honey all the bees of Hymettus. And in the midst of these phantasmagoria, which composed what Frank fondly styled, "making up his mind," there came a single man's elegant rat-tat-tat at the ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... Mary, here you are at Saxon's and my wedding supper. We're just goin' to take all your good wishes to heart, we wish you the same back, and when we say it we mean more than you think we mean. Saxon an' I believe in tit for tat. So we're wishin' for the day when the table is turned clear around an' we're sittin' as guests at your weddin' supper. And then, when you come to Sunday dinner, you can both stop Saturday night in the spare bedroom. I guess ...
— The Valley of the Moon • Jack London
... belonging to a separate salmon of gigantic size fresh run from the sea. The foaming Black Water tumbled headlong over its rocks and down its narrow channel. DONALD, the big keeper, stood industriously upon the bank arranging flies. "I hef been told," he observed, "tat ta English will be coming to Styornoway, and there will be no more Gaelic spoken. But perhaps it iss not true, for they will tell many lies. I am a teffle ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 102, April 30, 1892 • Various
... tincture of the despised race suffered alike. Some were fierce and sturdy, and played a savage tit-for-tat. Some were insensible. A few bore themselves inflexibly by dint of sheer nerve; while many, generally much more white than black, quivered and winced continually under the contumely that fell, they felt, with peculiar injustice ...
— Strange True Stories of Louisiana • George Washington Cable
... now black puffs appear in its path, the dynamite shells of our guns finding their range. Boom! boom! rat-ta-tat-boom-rat-ta-tat is the music that greets our ears and every hill is a tremble under the shock of thousands of ...
— The Greater Love • George T. McCarthy
... Age of betty tit for tat, An Age of busy gabble: An Age that's like a brewer's vat, Fermenting ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... of Henry Carson; that's the long and short of it, only more elegantly put, for the benefit of them who knows how to value the gift of language. I've been a witness beforetime myself; there's nothing much to be afeard on; if they are impudent, why, just you be impudent, and give 'em tit for tat." ...
— Mary Barton • Elizabeth Gaskell
... very long. Great is paint; nay, God is the painter; and we rightly accuse the critic who destroys too many illusions. Society does not love its unmaskers. It was wittily, if somewhat bitterly, said by D'Alembert, "Un tat de vapeur tait un tat trs fcheux, parcequ'il nous faisait voir les choses comme elles sont." I find men victims of illusion in all parts of life. Children, youths, adults, and old men, all are led by one bawble or another. Yoganidra, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various
... favour me with his views the other day. I met the gallant officer, who is, as all the world knows, one of the safest and best shots of the day, in Pall Mall. He had just stepped out of his Club—the luxurious and splendid Tatterdemalion, or, as it is familiarly called, "the Tat"—where, to use his own graphic language, he had been "killing the worm with a ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, VOL. 103, November 26, 1892 • Various
... avenging outrage. Seas, even when calmest, were to become terrible, and men's heart-beats, a bit sluggish with the fatty degeneration of a sluggard peace, to quicken and then to throb with the rat-a-tat-tat, the rat-a-tat-tat of the most peremptory, the most reverberating call to arms in ...
— Humoresque - A Laugh On Life With A Tear Behind It • Fannie Hurst
... town of Uji, in the province of Yamashiro, there lived, about six hundred years ago, a young samurai named It[o] Tat['e]waki Norisuk['e], whose ancestors were of the H['e][:i]k['e] clan. It[o] was of handsome person and amiable character, a good scholar and apt at arms. But his family were poor; and he had no patron among the military ...
— The Romance of the Milky Way - And Other Studies & Stories • Lafcadio Hearn
... to proceed from an act of reflection. Now, laughter is simply the result of a mechanism set up in us by nature or, what is almost the same thing, by our long acquaintance with social life. It goes off spontaneously and returns tit for tat. It has no time to look where it hits. Laughter punishes certain failing's somewhat as disease punishes certain forms of excess, striking down some who are innocent and sparing some who are guilty, aiming at a general result and incapable of dealing ...
— Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic • Henri Bergson
... in these unhappy self-communings, that he did not hear a vigorous "rat-tat-tat" on the door of the little back parlor. A repetition of the performance aroused him, and to his call, "Come in," ...
— Round the Block • John Bell Bouton
... afternoon, about our social duties, and rural leadership and community spirit and lots of things. They told us not to spend our time out of school tatting and making eyelet embroidery, when there were neighborhoods to be awakened and citizens to be made. That suits me fine, for I can't tat anyway. One of the girls tried to show me, but gave it up after three or four tries. She said some could learn, and some couldn't. ...
— Purple Springs • Nellie L. McClung
... "Clean tit for clean tat," he said, touching Halby's fingers, and then, with a gesture and an au revoir, put his horse to the canter, and soon a surf of snow was rising at two points on the prairie, as the Law ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... O.S.A., of Villanova College, and father Fray Juan but no Mateos, of the same order, of the Escorial, but now (May, 1905) at Villanova, for valuable help in the translation of this pasquinade. As much of the subject matter of the lampoon is local tit-tat, and as many of the meanings (although they would be perfectly apparent to the Manila populace) are purposely veiled, assurance cannot be given that the present interpretation is correct in every ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 • Various
... of tit for tat, I suppose," said Dunston Porter. "You can thank your stars that you got away so quickly. A little later and you would have missed the train,—and we would have missed it, too—for I should not ...
— Dave Porter at Star Ranch - Or, The Cowboy's Secret • Edward Stratemeyer
... me astray." She answered, "Go thy ways, the sin was not in thee, but in my husband, for that he did what he did in his shop, and Allah hath retaliated upon him in this world." And it related that the goldsmith, when his wife told him how the water-carrier had used her, said, "Tit for tat, and blow for blow!; had I done more the water-carrier had done more";—which became a current byword among the folk. Therefore it behoveth a wife to be both outward and inward with her husband; contenting herself with little from him, if he cannot give ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... tat," he replied, "can't she, then she'll teach you the step herself. This is the way," and his feet approached so near the solemncolly man that he retreated a step or two as if to protect his shins. Everybody ...
— Nature and Human Nature • Thomas Chandler Haliburton
... eight o'clock, or more, for the twilight had come down, and my books and little pictures were looking misty, when a rat-tat-tat rang at the door. I didn't hear the car, for the road was muddy, I suppose; but I straightened myself up in my arm-chair, and drew my breviary towards me. I had read my Matins and Lauds for the following day, before dinner; ...
— My New Curate • P.A. Sheehan
... behaved like a Cretan.' Cf. the English saying 'to give tit for tat'. Erasmus means that he gave the messenger full measure ...
— Selections from Erasmus - Principally from his Epistles • Erasmus Roterodamus
... Canada sparrows fluting their clear call from the tree tops, flycatchers darting and tumbling in their zig-zag, erratic flights, and sometimes a big golden-wing woodpecker running up and down a tall, dead trunk which stood close by, and rat-tat-tat-tatting in a most businesslike and determined manner. But the Child was not, as a rule, so interested in birds as in the four-footed kindreds. Just now, however, a bird came on the scene which interested him extremely. It was a birch-partridge (or ruffled grouse) hen, accompanied by ...
— Children of the Wild • Charles G. D. Roberts
... though Stella was eagerly pointing and explaining, 'Tat Tella's boat—tat Tedo's—tat brothers—tat Angel,' and so on, the word foolish was not directed to the little one, but to the gray eyes heavy with unshed tears, that rested wistfully upon a wreck that had caught upon a nail ...
— The Pillars of the House, V1 • Charlotte M. Yonge
... of those in Norfolk-street would have half the house go together. It would be too much for your description therefore: and I suppose, tat when you think fit to declare your marriage, you ...
— Clarissa, Volume 3 (of 9) • Samuel Richardson
... muttered something under his breath, and, in a mechanical fashion, began to build little castles with the draughts. He was just about to add to an already swaying structure when a thundering rat-tat-tat at the door dispersed the draughts to the four corners of the room. The servant opened the door, and the next moment ushered in Mrs. ...
— Short Cruises • W.W. Jacobs
... dieser Idee stellten sich jedoch unberwindliche Schwierigkeiten entgegen, so dass der Erfinder den Eisenring einfach mit isoliertem Drahte bewickelte und in geeigneter Weise auf der Welle befestigte und so den ganzen Anker vor den Polen des Feldmagneten rotieren liess. In der Tat[6] wurde dadurch dieselbe, von ihm wohl[7] nicht vorhergesehene Wirkung erzielt, als wenn der Eisenkern oder die Drahtspirale fr sich allein rotierten. Durch die Einwirkung der Pole des Feldmagneten werden nmlich[8] auch in dem rotierenden ...
— German Science Reader - An Introduction to Scientific German, for Students of - Physics, Chemistry and Engineering • Charles F. Kroeh
... to me. And still I conned the matter over and over, vainly convincing myself that the situation had cleared. Notwithstanding all my effort, I somehow felt that an incentive had vanished, leaving a gap. The affair now had simmered down to plain temper and tit for tat. I championed ...
— Desert Dust • Edwin L. Sabin
... the [v]sextant, which shook in his trembling hand. Presently a loud buzzing was heard in the sky, followed by the measured crackling of a machine gun; from the hull of the boat came a sharp rat-a-tat, as if some one was throwing dry peas on it. A hydroplane was ...
— The Literary World Seventh Reader • Various
... harm tat ta folk will speak of Miss Sheila," said the gillie with some show of resentment: "it iss no harm tey will be sorry she is gone away—no harm at all, for it wass many things tey had to thank Miss Sheila for; and now it ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 11, No. 24, March, 1873 • Various
... the next morning the whole Leon household was roused by a thunderous double rat-tat at the door. Addie was even heard to scream. A housemaid knocked at Raphael's door and pushed a telegram under it. Raphael jumped out of bed and read: "Third of column more matter wanted. Come at ...
— Children of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill
... the belt. At that moment Gladwin made a quick, slight signal. Immediately from the passage with out came the sound of grounding arms, and the rat-tat of a drum. Pontiac stood rigid, as one turned to stone. Then after a moment's deathly silence he ...
— This Country Of Ours • H. E. Marshall Author: Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall
... a whisper.] Rat-tat, says the postman! [Catching hold of ROPER and swinging him round.] ...
— The 'Mind the Paint' Girl - A Comedy in Four Acts • Arthur Pinero
... but young Malcolm and old Tuncan hasn't made teir prayers yet, and you know fery well tat she won't sell pefore she's made her prayers. Tell your mother tat she'll pe bringin' ta blackin' when she comes to look to ...
— Malcolm • George MacDonald
... Hyjuaje, the tyrannical Governor of Coufeh, and the Young Syed." For the difference between the "Sayyid" (descendant of Hasan) and the "Sharif," derived from Husayn, see vol. v. 259. Being of the Holy House the youth can truly deny tat he belongs to any place or race, as will ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... "Rat-a-tat!" came a knock on the door of the hollow stump bungalow, where Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, lived in the woods with Nurse Jane Fuzzy ...
— Uncle Wiggily in the Woods • Howard R. Garis
... 'Tat Savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah prakodayat.'—Colebrooke, 'Miscellaneous Essays,' i. 30. Many passages bearing on this subject have been collected by Dr. Muir in the third volume of his ...
— Chips From A German Workshop - Volume I - Essays on the Science of Religion • Friedrich Max Mueller
... Durchlaucht werden sich zweifelsohne mit uns erfreuen, dass der kleine Printz (PRINZ) Fritz nuhnmero (NUNMEHR) 6 Zehne (ZAHNE) hat und ohne die geringste incommoditet (-TAT). Daraus kann man auch die PREDESTINATION sehen, dass alle seine Bruder haben daran sterben mussen, dieser aber bekommt sie ohne Muhe wie seine Schwester. Gott erhalte ihn uns noch lange zum trohst (TROST), in dessen Schutz ich ...
— History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. III. (of XXI.) - Frederick The Great—The Hohenzollerns In Brandenburg—1412-1718 • Thomas Carlyle
... The rat-a-tat at the door was now constant. Judge Bowman and old Dr. Wallace and four or five of the young men, with the young girls, entered, all with expressions of delight at Oliver's return home, and later, with the air ...
— The Fortunes of Oliver Horn • F. Hopkinson Smith
... man'ger ban'ter mar'gin flat'ter quak'er ban'ner ar'dent lat'ter qua'ver hand'y ar'my mat'ter dra'per man'na art'ist pat'ter wa'ger can'cer har'vest tat'ter fa'vor pan'der par'ty rag'ged fla'vor tam'per tar'dy rack'et sa'vor plan'et ar'dor van'ish ma'jor ham'per car'pet gal'lant ca'per stam'mer ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey
... impossibilities seemed to overwhelm every succeeding though successless suggestion. At the critical moment when it appeared perfectly clear to me either that I was fit for nothing or nothing was fit for me, the authoritative "rat-tat" of the general postman closed the argument, and for a brief space distracted the intense contemplations ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, November 6, 1841, • Various
... at him, smiled inwardly. No Dovenilid could be so obviously superior and still only a lowly student. Well, considering Harrison's qualifications, it might still not be tit for tat. ...
— Citadel • Algirdas Jonas Budrys
... Democracy and People's Livelihood or ADPL [Frederick FUNG Kin-kee, chairman]; Citizens Party [Alex CHAN Kai-chung]; Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong or DAB [MA Lik, chairman]; Democratic Party [LEE Wing-tat, chairman]; Frontier Party [Emily LAU Wai-hing, chairwoman]; Liberal Party [James TIEN Pei-chun, chairman] note: political blocs include: pro-democracy - Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood, ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... I went back to the standing, and at one point in the ground, where there was a windlass and chain, lowered myself down a 'cut'—a small pit sunk perpendicularly to a lower coal-stratum, and here, almost thinking I could hear the perpetual rat-tat of notice once exchanged between the putt-boys below and the windlass-boys above, I proceeded down a dipple to another place like a standing, for in this mine there were six, or perhaps seven, veins: and there immediately I came upon the acme of the horrible drama of this Tartarus, for ...
— The Purple Cloud • M.P. Shiel
... so bad as that then? Oh well, there are other girls just as pretty as Arline; and you've always been a great favorite with them, Paul; but hold on, why not let me try to straighten this thing out? You've helped me all right; and tit for tat is fair play." ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts - Or, The Struggle for Leadership • George A. Warren
... tel tat de choses, l'opinion que vous a communique M. le Comte de Strmer, nous a paru celle qui offre le plus de chances de succs. Cette opinion est d'ailleurs conforme aux vues que j'ai t dans le cas de vous dvelopper sur la mme matire ...
— Correspondence Relating to Executions in Turkey for Apostacy from Islamism • Various
... when on a never-to-be-forgotten afternoon toward the end of April, I sat mooning disconsolately in my private room and a timid rat-tat at the outer door of the apartment roused Theodore from his brutish slumbers. I heard him shuffling up to the door, and I hurriedly put my necktie straight and smoothed my hair, which had become disordered despite ...
— Castles in the Air • Baroness Emmuska Orczy |
