Duster

“ If you choose to use a feather duster instead, as the lazy woman does, you only chase the dust and the germs from one corner to another, and in doing so you afford yourself the opportunity of swallowing a few germs in the passing. ”

“ On we went, Dorothy and the Imp in front, while Lisbeth and I brought up the rear, and she slipped her hand into mine. In the porch we came upon an aged woman busy with a broom and a very large duster, who, catching sight of us, dropped first the duster and then the broom, and stood staring in open-mouthed astonishment. ”

“ Well, it goes into the duster, and there it gets more chaff blowed off'n it. And from the duster it goes into the hopper, and down in betwixt the stones; and them stones grind, grind, grind, till you'd think the life was ground clear'n out of it. But 'tain't so; contrary! That's affliction; the upper and nether millstone—Scriptur! Maybe sickness, maybe losin' your folks, maybe business troubles,—whichever comes is the wust, and more than any mortal man ever had to bear before. Well, now, see! That stuff goes in there, grain; it comes out wheat flour! ”

“ Germs love the dark, sunless corners where the dust is. Housewives should, therefore, go into the dark corners with a moist duster, and wipe them clean, then boil the duster and hang it in the sunlight to dry until needed again. ”

“ Whatever other things there are, and however many of them in the closet, the whole dust-raising kit is incomplete without the Dustless-Duster.
For the Dustless-Duster is final, absolute. What can be added to, or taken away from, a Dustless-Duster? A broom is only a broom, even a new broom. ”

“ Dusting should be done with a damp cloth, wiping up the dust, not brushing it into the air, from which it will settle upon some other object. When you have finished, wash the duster and hang it to dry. Never use a feather duster. With it one simply brushes the dust from one place only to have it settle in another. ”

“ The ordinary cleaning of casts is best done in this way also. A feather duster is an instrument of evil. It scatters the dust and the little bones in each feather are always sharp enough to scratch any object they may touch. ”

“ To any one unused to the mysteries of dusting, it is surprising to find how easily the ornaments of a drawing-room may be kept in order, and how well the gilt frames of pictures preserved, by a light play of the feather-brush every morning. The French use the plumeau in nearly all cases where we rub with a hard duster, and with great advantage, especially in the case of gilding.
A man or woman hired once a month will keep the windows bright ”

“ The man who operates the duster should have leather lungs.
Overhead is a long room where thirty girls are busily sorting the rags for the various grades of papers. That the dusting machine is no more perfect than a human machine is evinced by the murky atmosphere of this room, by the particles that lodge in the throat of the visitor, and by the frequent coughing of the sorters. They protect their hair with turbans of veiling, occasionally decorated with a bit of bright color. ”

“ He is not afraid of a kitten.
THIS is Miss Moppet jumping just too late; she misses the Mouse and hits her own head.
SHE thinks it is a very hard cupboard!
THE Mouse watches Miss Moppet from the top of the cupboard.
MISS MOPPET ties up her head in a duster, and sits before the fire.
THE Mouse thinks she is looking very ill. He comes sliding down the bell-pull.
MISS MOPPET looks worse and worse. The Mouse comes a little nearer.
MISS MOPPET holds her poor head in her paws, and looks at him through a hole in the duster. The Mouse comes very close. ”

“ Polly began to straighten the books and put the magazines in even piles and put away the candy box. She picked up for herself and all the family, and she heard a voice say,
“A duster makes old things just shine ”

“ I sat in a Plymouth Duster I had rented from Avis with my Diners’ Club card, I had a paper tube in my mouth. It was stuffed with leaves. I set it on fire. It was a soigné thing to do. ”

“ The dust which the hot wind brings with it is, however, a nuisance. There is more than enough dust at the best of times; and the difficulties—already considerable—of keeping a Karroo house neat and clean, are not lessened by the fact that, ten minutes after a careful progress round the room with that most perfect of dusters, a bunch of ostrich-feathers, you can distinctly sign your name with your finger on the little black writing-table, or make a drawing on the piano. ”

“ The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. ”

“ Darker and darker under the trees! At last, so dark that you could not tell them by their shape. Yet to Dusty Star the shape did not matter, since he could feel them by their smell. Now it was hemlock; now balsam fir. And now he caught black poplar; and again the scent was birch. And so he went his way less by sight than feeling,—seeing things by their smell.
At length he came to a part of the forest so thick with undergrowth and creepers, that further progress in that direction was impossible in the dark. He decided to camp here for the night. ”

“ When the nursery still echoes With the children's merry din; Then unseen, unheard, unnoticed Comes an old man up the stair, Lightly to the children passes, Lays his hand upon their hair. Softly smiles the good old Dustman; In their eyes the dust he throws, Till their little heads are falling, And their weary eyes must close. Then the Dustman very gently Takes each little dimpled hand Leads them through the sweet green shadows, Far away in slumberland. ”

“ The creature's disappearance seemed a signal. There was a general movement on the butte. The next moment dusky bodies melted soundlessly down its furrows into the grey vastness of the prairies, and Dusty Star found himself alone. ”

“ In vain did cooks and old women throw out cock’s-heads divested of their combs, and the gizzards of ducks and fowls—in vain on the Saturday night was every gutter in the place made the receptacle of all the dust of all the houses—in vain were a number of other untidy tricks practiced to defile the highways, and offend the olfactories of the passing stranger—before the Monday morning all was clear again—except in very rainy seasons, when I have known a dust-heap lie for a fortnight. ”

“ A house, a stream, the cows in a meadow would be sufficient material for his fertile brain. Once even, when the black grimy dust had literally overpowered the fastidious little lady, and her timidity prevented her from appealing to the attendant in a waiting-room, he took her himself to a kind of pump, and dipping his cambric handkerchief into the cool water washed her hands and face so effectually that she laughed for pleasure. ”

“ Here, as then, in that far historic dawn, is dust where grass grew and water ran. Strange birds crowd the scanty pools, while among the great hordes of live stock, reared in plenteous seasons, the strong are lean and sad-eyed, the weak are perishing daily with increasing rapidity. ”

“ The sweetest flower in all the land lies low.
When, in a valley by the river-side,
Young turtle-doves a huntsman hath espied,
Some innocently drinking, others cooing,
He, through the copse-wood with his gun pursuing,
At the most fair takes aiway his first aim,—
The cruel sun had only done the same. ”

“ BRUSH.
Well, and what harm? Nuts are very wholesome food, I am sure. And don't you lay up any store of provisions for the winter, then?
TOUCHMENOT.
Not I, indeed! I am better employed in the winter than in eating. I sleep all the winter, Mr. Nutcracker! When the weather gets a little colder, perhaps in a few days, I shall creep into my snug nest which I have made under the roots of a great tree. ”

“ Their garments are thickly bestrewn with dust; their whiskers and hair look hoary; their throats are choked with the dusty atmosphere which they have left behind them. No air is stirring on the road. Nature dares draw no breath lest she should inhale a stifling cloud of dust. “A hot and dusty day!” cry the poor pilgrims as they wipe their begrimed foreheads and woo the doubtful breeze which the river bears along with it.—“Awful hot! Dreadful dusty!” answers the sympathetic toll-gatherer. ”

“ The next day I was again in this gorge, and after vainly floundering about on the spoor of a small elephant, and complimenting in suitable terms a swarm of biting ants which eventually left me indistinguishable from a splash of pickled cabbage, I saw a fine old tusker grazing in the short grass on the top of the further bank. ”

“ The more dead and dry and dusty a thing is the more it travels about; dust is like this and the thistle-down and the High Commissioner in South Africa. Fertile things are somewhat heavier, like the heavy fruit trees on the pregnant mud of the Nile. In the heated idleness of youth we were all rather inclined to quarrel with the implication of that proverb which says that a rolling stone gathers no moss. ”

“ In the village churchyard she lies,
Dust is in her beautiful eyes,
No more she breathes, nor feels, nor stirs;
At her feet and at her head
Lies a slave to attend the dead,
But their dust is white as hers. ”

“ Their feet as they go strike the dust from the sunbaked path into a cloud behind them. The herd-girl herself looms large across the pasture—all things grow quickly dim, as if the air were filled with rising dust. ”

“ When they were far out to sea the elder man dropped his boar tusk overboard, as though by accident, and he cried to his brother, "Look, the boar tusk has fallen into the sea. Dive quickly for it, before it is gone." ”

“ Dustacre, as he rose from his seat, and gave evidence that he had brought the interview to an end, and was about to quit the house, and imitate the juggling trick of covering the ostrich's egg with his hat. ”

“ It is the flock of sheep that afterwards raise or make a dust. It may be thought I am "making a dust," to use a familiar phrase, about a trifle; but I wished to point out that unless we could say in English, "the sun that dusts and the grass that greens," we cannot approach the terse and graphic description of dear Sister Anne. ”

“ Dusty Star remembered that Lone-Chief once presented to him a piece of very old Indian wisdom: "Bear won't bother you, if you don't bother bear." But in case you did meet a bear that seemed determined to be bothered, another piece ran: "If Bear is angry, make medicine with your mouth." ”

“ On one occasion a heap of hay was delicately covered with a clean white cloth, lest the stubbly ends should trouble our slumbers—a woman’s attention you may be sure—while on another, we slept on the bare boards, with no other pillows than our knapsacks, in a room, the air of which was at fever heat from recent bread-baking, and where the fierce flies made circular sweeps at our ears, and droned about our nostrils. ”

“ During the day, it lurks generally in some obscure nook or dark corner; but at dusk sallies forth in search of prey, running up or down the steepest walls with wonderful swiftness, and giving utterance to a quick shrill noise by smacking its tongue against its palate. ”

“ Towards dusk it swells in a wave heavier than any that has yet come. All through the second night the inferno lasts. In the grey dawn of the second day it increases in a manner almost unbelievable—the dust of it covers everything ”

“ The Jolly Dust Brothers “All the dust in the world belongs to the Family of the Dust Brothers—just as every little Toad or Frog belongs to the Toad or Frog family,” said daddy. “One day not long ago, a group of the Dust Brothers had moved to all the window sills in a little house they thought was very nice. Some of them had chosen to hide behind pictures, and under chairs, and on the glass mirrors. The ones who hid on the glass mirrors thought they would have lots of fun because folks could not see themselves so plainly—and then they would see the new-comers to the mirrors. ”

“ The bird that is able to fall deepest into the earth shall be your king." [240]
The Rooster had a plan of his own in mind when he said this. As all the birds began to look about for places to jump into deeper places, and the Duck tried to see how long he could hold his head under water, the Rooster called to the Hen. He instructed the Hen to scratch, and when she had made a deep hole, he hid himself in it. ”

“ The Hen smelt the strong roast-meat, and sprang up to a higher peg, and said, half asleep—
"Faugh, what a nasty smell!
What a nasty smell!"
"Oh, stuff," said the Fox; "it's only the smoke driven down the chimney; go to sleep again, and hold your tongue." ”

“ Slowgoe. Why, really, Mrs Nutts, I’ve a great respect for any duchess—nevertheless, the game-laws is, I must say it, a solemn matter; mustn’t be tampered with because of the vulgar. If duchesses will insist upon using powder—I mean, in course, gunpowder—they must be properly authenticated so to do.
Nutts. But if ladies will shoot—if the taste’s coming up that way—why don’t they shirk the licence, and sport with poultry? Aren’t there hens, and ducks, and geese to be killed for the kitchen? I don’t see why the fashion shouldn’t go up from chickens to bullocks. ”

“ And there came to me the jaded voices of men, in curse and snarl of slow-plodding, jaded animals.
I opened my eyes, that were inflamed with dust, and immediately fresh dust bit into them. On the coarse blankets on which I lay the dust was half an inch thick. Above me, through sifting dust, I saw an arched roof of lurching, swaying canvas, and myriads of dust motes descended heavily in the shafts of sunshine that entered through holes in the canvas. ”