mettle's

Updated: June 8, 2025

She smoothed the dew from her skirt and walked swiftly down the slope. At the foot of it Johnny Whitelamb had risen and was holding his drawing aslant, in some hope, perhaps, that the angle might correct the perspective of old Mettle's portrait. Certainly it was a villainous portrait, as he acknowledged to himself with a sigh.

Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch - Hetty Wesley

And the old dame would accompany the boast with a fresh attempt at agility; to which Paddy would respond by "cutting the buckle," and snapping his fingers, whilst fifty voices, amidst roars of laughter, were loud in encouraging each. "Handle your feet, Kitty, darlin' the mettle's lavin' him!" "Off wid the brogues, Paddy, or she'll do you. That's it; kick off the other, an' don't spare the flure."

William Carleton - The Hedge School; The Midnight Mass; The Donagh: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of: William Carleton, Volume Three