Chimney sweeper

“ He fastens his sharp claws into the rough bricks, and props himself firmly with his spiny tail. Even when the young swift is but two weeks old, he crawls out of the nest and hangs himself up under it. He seems to like that for a change from forever lying in a narrow bracket.
Chimney swifts are social birds. They can't bear to be alone. They are almost always seen flying about in small parties, and calling to each other as they go, a strange, chattering cry. They are of a sooty color suitable to their sooty home, and the pair are alike. ”

“ The chimney swift is, properly speaking, not a swallow at all, though chimney swallow is its more popular name. Rowing towards the roof of your house, as if it used first one wing, then the other, its flight, while swift and powerful, is stiff and mechanical, unlike the swallow's, and its entire aspect suggests a bat. The nighthawk and whippoorwill are its relatives, and it resembles them not a little, especially in its nocturnal habits. ”

“ The Swift builds, as is well known, in the flues of chimneys. It is often seen in May, dashing past the dead twigs of some tree, and then off to the chimney, where the twigs are glued together and to the bricks by the help of saliva secreted by the bird. A common and distressing experience after a storm in summer is the discovery of the young Chimney Swifts at the wrong end of the chimney,—on the hearth, in other words. Even in their proper place in the chimney, the young birds can make their presence very well known by beginning, as soon as it is light, an incessant clamor for food. ”

“ The Chimney Swift is often called the chimney swallow, but it is very easy to tell one from a swallow. One way is, that when a swift is flying about over our heads, he looks as if he had no tail. The tail is very short, not half so long as the wing. He looks more like a bat than a bird. ”

“ For a moment he brightened, but a sudden thought obscured him like a cloud.
“Not places with twisted chimneys!” he groaned.
That brought me up short. I stubbed my brain against the twisted chimney! But when I'd rubbed it—my head, not the chimney—I recovered.
“Yes, places with twisted chimneys! At least, one such place.” ”

“ Where the top of a Chimney is commanded by high buildings, by clifts, or by high grounds, it will frequently happen, in windy weather, that the eddies formed in the atmosphere by these obstacles will blow down the Chimney, and beat down the smoke into the room.—This it is true will be much less likely to happen when the throat of the Chimney is contracted and properly formed than when it is left quite open, and the Fire-place badly constructed ”

“ In a small nook at the end he makes the nest.
"These swallows are but five inches long and feed on insects as do all swallows. They are found in [309] North America and migrate as far south as Brazil in winter.
"A bird sometimes called chimney swallow is also known by the name of chimney swift. It nests in the chimneys now, but in days when few white folks lived in America it lived in hollow trees or caves."
The girls sat with eyes intent on the Guide as she paused and Jane said, "Fine, Miss Miller, but you still have four more stories." ”

“ The Chimney Swallow is crepuscular, rather than nocturnal, in its habits, preferring to hunt for its insect prey in dull and cloudy weather, or in the early morning and the latter part of the afternoon. ”

“ Sometimes the shanty has a window, sometimes only an open doorway, which admits the light and lets out the smoke*. A rude chimney, which is often nothing better than an opening cut in one of the top logs above the hearth, a few boards fastened in a square form, serves as the vent for the smoke; the only precaution against the fire catching the log walls behind the hearth being a few large stones placed in a half circular form, or more commonly a bank of dry earth raised against the wall. ”

“ Another cause of smoky chimneys is, too short a funnel. This happens necessarily in some cases, as where a chimney is required in a low building; for, if the funnel be raised high above the roof, in order to strengthen its draft, it is then in danger of being blown down, and crushing the roof in its fall. ”

“ Chimkent is visited by consumptive patients who wish to try the koumiss cure. It has cotton mills and soap-works.
CHIMNEY (through the Fr. cheminée, from caminata, sc. camera, a Lat. derivative of caminus, an oven or furnace) , in architecture, that portion of a building, rising above the roof, in which are the flues conveying the smoke to the outer air. Originally the term included the fireplace as well as the chimney shaft. At Rochester Castle (1130) and Heddington, Essex, there were no external chimney shafts, and the flue was carried through the wall at some height above the fireplace. ”

“ You said the only other twisted chimney was there.”
“The advertisement said that.”
“Well——”
“It's a pity,” I admitted, “that I thought of the twisted chimney. It was an unnecessary extravagance, though I meant well. But it never would have occurred to me as an extra lure if I hadn't known about a house where such a chimney exists. The one house of the kind I ever heard of, except Hampton Court.”
Terry sprang to his feet, a changed man, young and vital.
“Can we get it?”
“Ah, if 1 knew! But we can try. If you don't care what you pay.” ”

“ A chimney is a pump—first, by reason of the suction or approach to a vacuum made at the open top of any tube across which the wind blows directly; and, secondly, because the flue is usually occupied, even when there is no fire, by air somewhat warmer than the external air, and has therefore, even in a calm day, what is called a chimney-draught proportioned to the difference. ”

“ The Chimney Swallow is, on the head, neck, back, and rump, of a shining black colour, with purple gloss and sometimes with a blue shade; the throat and neck are of the same colour; the breast and belly are white, with a dash of red. The tail is forked, and consists of twelve feathers.{241} The wings are of the same colour with the back. Swallows feed upon flies and other insects; and generally hunt their prey on the wing ”

“ "Leave a chimney-sweep alone when you see him, Chiltern. Should he run against you, then remember that it is one of the necessary penalties of clean linen that it is apt to be soiled." ”

“ Master Jasper, it will be seen, was a sensible youth, as well as amiable and agreeable.
So once again Sweep set out with his smart little donkey cart all filled with brooms and brushes. He found many a housewife angry because he had delayed her spring house-cleaning; but when these angry housewives looked at Sweep's black face, so sad and sorrowful, they had not the heart to upbraid him. Now, strange to say, though Sweep was thus so dull and disconsolate, his trade of sweeping down tall chimneys thrived as it never had thrived before. ”

“ The townsfolk, the few passers-by in the street, and also some young ladies whom the noise had brought to a window went into fits of laughter. The sweeper himself, in spite of his awkward position, could not help smiling at the energy with which the figure, with its coat-tails flying, made erratic and angry dashes at the ground.
"Is that the way you sweep?—ah!" (Terrible bang with the broom.) "That is the way—ah!" (another bang) . "That is the way to sweep!—ah!"
Not until worn out, heated, and nearly falling from fatigue, did the mayor hand back the broom, and take up his tasseled stick again. ”

“ Then, with Sammy Simpson off his mind for four years at least, Quinbey returned, and married the woman he loved, feeling that he had now earned happiness and the right to remain on land—and smoke.
But he was not born for happiness, and did not recognize it when it came to him. He opened up his house on the hill, fired up the base-burner, and the two sat around it for a month trying to assimilate each other; but they could not. He knew nothing of women; she nothing of such men as him. ”

“ Rich, now autocrat of the theatrical world, began to torment the actors, who, as there was no hostile theatre to take refuge in, were obliged to submit to his perverseness; everything fell into confusion, and the manager was happy. The actors complained to the Lord Chamberlain, who issued an order to close the house. Meanwhile Swiney's powers were enlarged, and he treated with the ejected actors for the production of plays at the Haymarket. Cibber's influence had been strongly, though secretly at work through all these shifting circumstances. ”

“ There was one point which Mr Swiveller deemed it unnecessary to enlarge upon, and that was the fact of the modest quencher, which, by reason of its intrinsic strength and its coming close upon the heels of the temperate beverage he had discussed at dinner, awakened a slight degree of fever, and rendered necessary two or three other modest quenchers at the public-house in the course of the evening. ”

“ Oh, well, the Lord will provide. If we propose to heat up the great American outdoors, Quimby, I think it's time we had a fire."
Mr. Quimby went out without comment, and left Magee to light his first candle in the dark. For a time he occupied himself with lighting a few of the forty, and distributing them about the room. Soon Quimby came back with kindling and logs, and subsequently a noisy fire roared in the grate. Again Quimby retired, and returned with a generous armful of bedding, which he threw upon the brass bed in the inner room. ”

“ Henry go to the shop. She, accordingly, went with them. They opened the shop-door very carefully to keep Frink from getting out. When they were all safely in and the door was shut, they began to look about the room to find the squirrel. “There he is,” said Phonny, pointing to the beam over the shutter-window.
So saying he went to the place, and putting up his hand, took the squirrel and brought him to his mother.
“Why, how tame he is!” said Mrs. Henry.
“Yes,” said Phonny, “Stuyvesant and I tamed him. He runs all about the shop. And we have got a house for him to sleep in. ”

“ Perhaps he would get Seppi to give him some lessons in carving and pay him for them. He would speak to mother about it sometime, when he knew Seppi better and had time to begin. He would like to carve above everything. He had already bought a good many charming little carved-wood animals at Interlaken to give to sisters and friends at home, but to be able to carve them for himself would be yet more attractive and delightful.
Next day Squib was off betimes to his new valley, which in his mind he had already christened the Vale of the Silent Watchers. ”

“ Squeers is a good, black grotesque figure from the outside, but he has no inside. But Micawber and Swiveller (especially the latter) are true to the tenor life; they see the humour of their own exaggerations, they live avowedly on their own good spirits. ”

“ The tears rose in Squib’s eyes as he heard these words.
“They shan’t break Charger’s heart!” he cried indignantly. “I’m sure my father will never allow it.”
“Well, sir, I hope not, for I don’t think that horse’ll ever break, for all he’s so gentle and quiet. He’s got a spirit of his own, he has; and when a creature has never had a collar over his head up to nine year old, why, they don’t take kind to it, they don’t!” ”

“ The canoe lurched over the rounded pitch of a submerged ledge and settled to a steady keel in the lower Squawpan deadwater.
“That’s better than the trail,” said David.
Swickey glanced back at the snoring rips and brushed a spatter of water from her face.
“We’ll drift and wait for Pop,” she replied, shaking the water from her paddle and laying it in the bow. “Dave, look! Get your rifle—it’s a young bull!”
Smoke raised his head and twitched his homely nose. “Down, Smoke!” whispered Swickey. ”

“ Squib went with him a little way, but would not leave Seppi for long, and with another rather husky good-bye, he turned just as the path entered the pine wood, and ran back to Seppi.
203He found him lying on the grass, still crying; but he soon wiped away his tears and sat up.
“I shall see him again—somewhere. He said so himself; I am sure it is true. I shall see him again some day. But we shall miss him so! There is nobody else like him in the world. Oh, little Herr, I am so glad that you have seen Herr Adler!” ”

“ He too had lost his love, it seemed, and so he sought to comfort Sweep as best he could.
"Come, Sweep!" cried Master Jasper when he had heard. "All is not yet lost. If Little Sweep loved you as dearly as you say, then she will only love you ten times more, now that she is a princess! The thing for you to do is this. Go seek until you find the castle or the palace wherein she dwells. Who knows—why, even at this very moment she may be crying her eyes out, because it is her wedding day, and yet Sweep has not come!" ”

“ And when he rummaged a bureau, and brought forth an old jeweler's catalogue, asking her to choose a watch for Sammy, she felt that it was granted; but she did not yet know Quinbey.
Sammy wore the watch proudly; and for the rest of the cold weather the three sat about the base-burner, while the color came back to the little woman's face, and self-confidence to the shaken mind of Sammy. He actually began to like his rough stepfather; and only an outsider might have guessed, by the somber light in Quinbey's dark eyes when they rested upon him, that he did not like his stepson. ”

“ Often and often, when the great hunter was saddled and about to be brought round to the door, Squib would plead to be allowed to ride round upon him, and though on these occasions coachman himself would take the bridle and not permit any one else to superintend the child’s feat, it was accomplished again and again without any danger; for Squib had ridden his own pony bare-backed from the time he could get his small legs across the broad back, and was a veritable monkey for sticking on the back of anything with four legs. ”