Tib

“ For that end she put her into a sack, and having tied the mouth of the same, she went to the grove to cut a stick; but while she was gone, Tib with a penknife opened the sack and got out; and put the dog and cat into it, filling it up with pans, pipkins, etc., then dragged it to the door, that the old woman might not come in to miss them, who, on her return, thinking that Tib had rolled thither, began to lay on like fury, when the dog howled, the cat mewed, and the pipkins cracked; while the old woman cries out, "Ah! ”

“ Tib Talk. Ah, each finger is a thumb to-day, me-think:
I care not to let all alone, choose it swim or sink.
They sing the fourth time.
Pipe, merry Annot, &c.
Trilla, Trilla, Trillary.
When, Tibbet? when, Annot? when, Margery?
I will not,—I can not,—no more can I.
Then give we all over, and there let it lie!
[Let her cast down her work.
Tib. Talk. There it lieth! the worst is but a curried coat.
Tut, I am used thereto: I care not a groat.
[74]
An. Alyface. Have we done singing since? then will I in again:
Here I found you, and here I leave both twain. ”

“ The big cats, white with dark polka-dots, about five feet in length and with abnormally long tails, now saw us, and after a few preliminary snarls began circling the palisades, desirous of pouncing upon us from behind, true to their feline idea of propriety. I wanted to get my back against the stockade, but Tib, with less strabismus in his intellect, restrained me. We'd seen enough of leopards to realize these beauties had been kept in a cage and were used to men, and we believed they had been starved for just some such purpose as this. ”

“ Tib. 'Tis well: 'tis very well: there's half a Bisket,
Break't amongst ye all, and thank my bounty.
This is Cloaths and Plate too; come no more quarrelling.
Amin. But ha! what things are these,
Are they humane creatures?
Enter Sebastian and Nicusa.
Tib. I have heard of Sea-Calves.
Alb. They are no shadows sure, they have Legs and Arms.
Tib. They hang but lightly on though.
Amint. How they look, are they mens faces?
Tib. They have horse-tails growing to 'em. ”

“ Upon the Rood day, [190] four young Bucky lasses were away early in the morning with their creels full of fish, and about a mile from the town, they saw coming down a brae like a man driving a beast, when they came near Tardy-Tib says, ’tis a man driving a big mauken Tib flang her creel and fish away, the other three ran anther way, and got clear; they said it was a horned devil. Tib told the frightsome story, and many ran to see the poor cadger man and his ass driving the auld mauken. ”

“ Having referred to Gilbert and Gib the cat, we must needs notice ‘Theobald’ and ‘Tib.’ ‘St. Theobald,’ if he has not himself given much prominence to the title, nevertheless represents a name whose susceptibility to change was something amazing. The common form with the French was ‘Thibault’ or ‘Thibaud,’ and this is represented in England in such entries as ‘Tebald de Engleschevile,’ ‘Richard Tebaud,’ or ‘Roger Tebbott.’ A still curter form was ‘Tibbe’ or ‘Tebbe;’ hence such registrations as ‘Tebbe Molendinarius’ or ‘Tebb fil. ”

“ But all in vain and without help your nee'le is where it was.
Gammer. Alas, my nee'le, we shall never meet! adieu, adieu, for aye.
Tib. Not so, Gammer, we might it find, if we knew where it lay.
Cock. Gog's cross, Gammer, if ye will laugh, look in but at the door,
And see how Hodge lieth trembling and tossing amids the flour.
Raking there some fire to find among the ashes dead,
Where there is not one spark so big as a pin's head:
At last in a dark corner two sparks he thought he sees,
Which were indeed nought else but Gib our cat's two eyes. ”

“ The splash was Tibe's, the cry his mistress's, and in an instant we were in a flutter, for the dog was in the lake.
Close to shore the water is coated over with lily-pads, mingling with a bright green, beady vegetation; and Tibe mistook it for a meadow. Standing at a considerable elevation on the road above, he leaped down with happy confidence, only to be deceived as many wiser than he have been, by appearances. Bulldogs have virtues all their own, but they are not spaniels ”

“ Tib hesitated, then opened for one dog. My owner came back with a five-dog boost to draw cards. Tib met it after pondering a bit, and raised it two pups. Back came the limit, and back it went. This cleaned old Copperskin out of quadrupeds, and he bet no more, although he chuckled hoarsely as Tib motioned for three cards. Copperskin then laid his hand face down and signified he was satisfied with what he had. Tib's owner, fearing all was lost, began to growl and apply the point of his spear. Tib waved the weapon aside and bet an infant bow-wow. ”

“ On Tiber's banks, Tiber, whose waters glide
In slow meanders down to Gaigra's side;
And circling all the horrid mountain round,
Rushes impetuous to the deep profound;
Rolls o'er the ragged rocks with hideous yell;
Collects its waves beneath the earth's vast shell;
There for a while in loud confusion hurl'd,
It crumbles mountains down and shakes the world.
Till borne upon the pinions of the air,
Through the rent earth the bursting waves appear ”

“ Tibert replied, “You speak like a noble gentleman; and me-thinks it is best now to go forward, for the moon shines as bright as day.”
“Nay, dear cousin,” said the fox, “let us take the day before us, so may we encounter with our friends; the night is full of danger.”
“Well,” said the cat, “if it be your pleasure, I am content; what shall we eat?”
Reynard said, “Truly my store is small; the best I have is a honey-comb, pleasant and sweet; what think you of it?”
To which Tibert replieth, “It is meat I little respect, and seldom eat; I had rather have one mouse than all the honey in Europe.” ”

“ Tiber's dead. Little Tiber!"
His fever-hot eyes could not shed tears, but his mother cried for him, overwhelmed by the thought of his lonely sorrow. Then she tried to comfort him: "Tiber was an old dog, Maso; he was not young when we bought him, and we have had him many years. Dogs do not live very long, even the oldest; he had to die some time. And he had a very happy little life with you, always; you loved him, and gave him everything, and he loved you. No dog could have had more."
Roberta overheard this attempt ”

“ Now we follow the Tiber, a swollen, hurrying, turbid river, in which the mellowing Western sky reflects itself. This changeful mirror of swift waters spreads a dazzling foreground to valley, hill, and lustrous heaven. There is orange on the far horizon, and a green ocean above, in which sea-monsters fashioned from the clouds are floating. ”

“ It is interesting to notice amongst these somewhat secluded Saharan nomads the slow growth of culture, and the curious survival of usages which have their explanation in primitive social conditions. "The Tibu is always distrustful; hence, meeting a fellow-countryman in the desert he is careful not to draw near without due precaution. At sight of each other both generally stop suddenly; then crouching and throwing the litham over the lower part of the face in Tuareg fashion, they grasp the inseparable spear in their right and the shanger-mangor, or bill-hook, in their left. ”

“ A stiff south-westerly breeze blew up the stream of the Tiber, and tossed the little boats and flat-bottomed barges, which lay at anchor at the foot of the Aventine, [339] till they jostled and bumped each other. Sudden squalls of rain swept down at short intervals, and obliged the people to throw on their leather cowls or their long-haired woollen cloaks. [340] All the life of the streets took refuge in the arcades and pillared halls; the atria, with their slippery marble pavements, were deserted, and the water from the guttered roofs dripped dolefully into the overflowing impluvia. ”

“ Unspoiled by the influx of strangers, the simple people thronged round us, not for what they might get, but for what they could see. We were quainter to them than they to us, and Tibe was as rare as a dragon. His mistress was of opinion that they believed the noise of the motor (now stilled) to have issued from his black velvet muzzle; and when we all, including the tragic-faced, happy-hearted bulldog, got out to wander past the rows of tiny houses in the village, they swarmed round him, buzzed round him, whirled round him, to his confusion. ”

“ Through a soft lap in the wooded chain of Mount Algidus, a bright pellucid stream, after wheeling and fretting among the crags and ledges of the upper valleys, winds its way gently, toward the far-famed Tiber.
Shut in, on every side, except the south, by the lower spurs of the mountain ridge, in which it is so snugly nestled, covered with rich groves of chesnut-trees, and sheltered on the northward by the dark pines of the loftier steeps, it were difficult to conceive a fairer site for a villa, than that sweet vale. ”

“ The fishpond stream is very doleful, and wants to dance with daffodils if they would come and teach it. How happy we are in our native streams. A thunder-storm swelled the Tiber yesterday, and it rolled over its mill weirs in heaps, literally, of tossed water, the size of haycocks, but black brown like coffee with the grounds in it, mixed with a very little yellow milk. In some lights the foam flew like cast handfuls of heavy gravel. The chief flowers here are only broom and bindweed, and I begin to weary for my heather and for my Susie ”

“ Tiber against his legs; the silence was undisturbed. He struck a match on the wall and lighted his candle-end. There, in the corner, on his little red coverlid, lay Mr. Tiber asleep. Then, as the candle burned more brightly, it could be seen that it was not sleep. There was food on the tin plate and water in the bowl; he had not needed anything. There was no sign of suffering in the attitude, or on the little black face with its closed eyes (to Maso that face had always been as clearly intelligible as a human countenance) ”

“ To-day he had claimed Tibby for a ride to the post, and as they came cantering slowly along the soft gray turf, Tibby with her riding-hat tipped back from her wide, smooth forehead, her feline eyes half closed from the sun’s bright rays, her dark hair partly escaped from comb and pin, and fluttering in curled rings about her face, her red lips half parted above the white teeth, she looked to the man a disheveled Hebe, too adorable, too incomprehensible to withstand. ”

“ The road follows the valley of the Tiber, which is bounded by low hills, descending pretty steeply towards the stream; sometimes close to the river, sometimes receding from it, and leaving a wide and fertile plain. In the first part of the way it is well cultivated, but thinly inhabited; farther on, cultivation diminishes, and ceases when we ascend an advancing and conspicuous point of these hills, and descend into the remains of the sacred wood. ”

“ Soon he came to a tall grassy place where he heard a queer sound.
“‘Tina, do you hear?’ asked Tibby.
“‘Yes, brother, what is it?’
“‘No time to ask—run, Tina!’ cried Tibby, and the two made a mighty leap just in time to escape [89] a quail that pounced down upon the tiny toads and gobbled one quickly out of sight.
“‘It was Clumsy that disappeared!’ sighed Tina, all sympathy for the awkward little toad that could not escape death.
“‘Watch out for other assassins! We know not where the next may lurk,’ whispered Tibby, for he was poetical as well as practical, you see. ”

“ He knew that his mother had no ten fat goats to give and that when Bukawai returned, little Tibo would be killed and eaten. How long he lay there he did not know, but presently he was aroused by the growling of the hyenas. They had returned through the passage and were glaring at him from beyond the lattice. He could see their yellow eyes blazing through the darkness. They reared up and clawed at the barrier. Tibo shivered and withdrew to the opposite side of the chamber. He saw the lattice sag and sway to the attacks of the beasts. ”

“ The tibia may possibly have been diminished into a little pipe by a stretch of licence, and have become tibula: [but tibulus is a kind of pine tree in Pliny] ; when Len tibula would be the lens or lentil-shaped pipe or bladder. ”

“ Men were sleeping on the grass beside their carts, in which the load of flasks sparkled in the sun; women, children, many dogs, a little black donkey, were all so still as to seem painted on the green background of the Tiber ”

“ The eye is peculiarly brilliant, and when glaring with fury it is truly demoniac. With his bristles rigid, the snarling lips drawn back, disclosing the formidable fangs, the body crouching for his spring, and the lithe tail puffed up and swollen, and lashing restlessly from side to side, each muscle tense and strung, and an undulating movement perceptible like the motions of a huge snake, a crouching tiger at bay is a sight that strikes a certain chill to the heart of the onlooker. ”

“ BIDDY TIBS, WHO CARED FOR NOBODY.
"Marry in thy youth!" This golden truth is writ in one of the "gates," or articles of the "Sadder." We know not if the eyes of Jacob Tibs ever opened upon this questionable axiom; or whether the consciousness of his own weakness was the load-star which lighted him, "poor darkened traveller," to the blessed state. Be it as it might, Jacob, though no longer in youth, and in spite of my Uncle Toby's showing that "love is below a man,"—Jacob took unto himself a wife,—an unquestionable better half, seeing his share was so small in the economy of domestic life. ”

“ Good creature! She tried to pat his neck with her numb fingers. His voice was stronger than hers. Hark! Is that an answering neigh borne to her? She cannot shout, for her voice is spent; but Tempest, good Tempest, is calling for her. She clings with desperate grip to his mane. Is that a voice coming out of the darkness of the snow-world? A roar, deeper than the roar of the storm, sounds in her ears, and she feels herself sinking, sinking, down, down.
“Tibby, Tibby!”
She hears a voice at her side and Donald is clasping 305her and enveloping her in something woolen and warm. ”