United States or North Korea ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The crimson cloth over the large dining-table is very threadbare, though it contrasts pleasantly enough with the dead hue of the plaster on the walls; but on this cloth there is a massive silver waiter with a decanter of water on it, of the same pattern as two larger ones that are propped up on the sideboard with a coat of arms conspicuous in their centre.
Here goes a little withered man in his threadbare coat: he has a proud and scowling face, but he pauses with a singularly sweet and gentle manner at every group of children, black or white.
In the audience the befrocked visitor from up-town sits cheek by jowl with the pigtailed Chinaman and the dark-browed Italian. Up in the gallery, farthest from the preacher's desk and the tree, sits a Jewish mother with three boys, almost in rags. A dingy and threadbare shawl partly hides her poor calico wrap and patched apron.
He now devours a crust of mouldy bread; With teeth and hands the precious boon is torn Unmindful of the storm that round his head Impetuous sweeps. God help thee, child forlorn! God help the poor! God help the poor! Another have I found A bowed and venerable man is he; His slouch-ed hat with faded crape is bound; His coat is grey, and threadbare too, I see.
Their chief advantage over the sinewy class beneath them lay in the privilege of spending more than they could afford on house and clothing; with rare exceptions they had no hope, no chance, of reaching independence; enough if they upheld the threadbare standard of respectability, and bequeathed it to their children as a solitary heirloom.
He was an old Australian, accustomed to bush life, but even he noticed how threadbare was the carpet, how poor and meagre the window curtains. Charlotte herself, too, how thin and worn she was! Could those pale and hollow cheeks mean insufficient food? "How old are you, niece Charlotte?" he suddenly demanded. "I was twenty-five my last birthday."
He was in the habit of wearing a threadbare macfarland, frayed at the edges, a large, dirty handkerchief tied around his throat, and a soft, yellow, grimy slouch hat. His daughter, Milagros by name, a slender lass as sleek as a bird, had relations with Leandro, Manual's cousin. The sweethearts had plenty of love quarrels, now because of her flirtations, now because of the evil life he led.
"Good-bye, my love soon to be my wife," he answered, stifling with a kiss the "No, no," which she tried to utter. Although he meant to go, and although she was wretchedly anxious that he should go, he was far from gone. All across the room, at every square of the threadbare carpet, they halted to renew their talk. Minutes passed, an hour had flown, and still he was there.
One yard has a level bit of grassless ground between barn and pump, and you may call it a battlefield, if you will, since famine and desire have striven there together. Or, if you choose to read fine meanings into threadbare things, you may see in it a field of the cloth of gold, where simple love of life and childlike pleasure met and sparkled for no eye to see.
The diamond ring upon his finger was altogether out of keeping with his threadbare coat, buttoned up to the chin, as if there were no waistcoat beneath it. From head to foot he looked a broken-down, seedy fellow, yet still preserving some lingering traces of the gentleman. This was Olivia's husband! A good deal to my surprise, I saw Mrs.
Word Of The Day