Puddle

“ What a funny sight it is to see a brood of ducklings with a hen!
—Listen to the story of Jemima Puddle-duck, who was annoyed because the farmer's wife would not let her hatch her own eggs.
Her sister-in-law, Mrs. Rebeccah Puddle-duck, was perfectly willing to leave the hatching to some one else—"I have not the patience to sit on a nest for twenty-eight days; and no more have you, Jemima. You would let them go cold; you know you would!"
"I wish to hatch my own eggs; I will hatch them all by myself," quacked Jemima Puddle-duck.
She tried to hide her eggs ”

“ The manual and physical labour of the puddler is tedious, fatiguing, and unhealthy. The process of puddling occupies about an hour's violent labour, and only robust young men can stand the fatigue and violent heat. ”

“ Puddleford was in an uproar in the general preparation for a departure. The showmen were packing their monkeys, ostrich, and ichneumon, temporarily hobbling their elephant, and counting up the proceeds of the day, and making ready for a fresh swindle upon some adjacent town. The women were dealing out gingerbread to squalling children to fortify their stomachs against the journey of the night. The men were settling up their bills at the Eagle ”

“ I say, originally, because this fag-end had been divided up into three smaller fag-ends which were out in different parts of the new country scouring around for money. The Puddleford fag-end had a runt of a lion, who was very evidently on his last legs; for he had been travelled until his hair was worn entirely off, and his spirits exhausted. It was very clear that he was showing himself for about the last time. The elephant was diseased, and the tiger was about four times the size of a cat. ”

“ Puddleford had a population made up of all sorts of people, who had been, from a variety of causes, thrown together just there; and every person owned a number of dogs, so that it was very difficult to determine which were numerically the strongest, the inhabitants or the dogs. ”

“ They would chase a deer from morning till night on this holy day, kill him, and then throw the carcass away; but week-days they lounge about some Puddleford dram-shop, while their families were suffering. Men, too," he continued, "fish on Sundays, because the devil has informed them that fish bite better. It is the devil himself who does the biting, not the fish; it is he who is fishing for you ”

“ There is less sunshine; but there are more shiny things; such beautifully shiny things as pools and puddles and mackintoshes. It is like moving in a world of mirrors.
And indeed this is the last and not the least gracious of the casual works of magic wrought by rain: that while it decreases light, yet it doubles it. If it dims the sky, it brightens the earth. ”

“ A strange creature was kneeling behind her—a creature dressed in black sateen, and like no human being that she had ever met before. For it was two-faced!
One face (the front) was blowzy and freckled, with a small pug nose and a quarrelsome mouth. The other (the face on what, with ordinary persons, was the back of the head) was dark and forbidding, its nose a large brick-colored pug, the mouth underneath shaped most extraordinarily—not unlike a barrette, for it was wide and long, and square at the corners, and full of shining tortoise-shell teeth! ”

“ A PUG'S INTELLIGENCE. [Feb. 1, 1890.]
Several newspaper cuttings have been sent to me with the story of my dog which appeared in the Spectator of January 18th, and one or two of them suggest a doubt as to the veracity of the story. I write, therefore, to tell you that it is literally true, only that the policeman was away for his holiday instead of having influenza, and the case came off on Tuesday instead of Saturday. My dog is a pug, a very choice specimen of his kind, and was given to me by the late Dr. Wakley, editor of the Lancet, who was a great connoisseur in dogs. ”

“ SLICE THREE "After our experience of yesterday," said Bill Barnacle as the company of Puddin'-owners set off along the road with their Puddin', "we shall have to be particularly careful. For what with low puddin' thieves disguisin' themselves as firemen, and low Wombats sneakin' our Puddin' while we're helpin' to put out fires, not to speak of all the worry and bother of tryin' to get information out of parrots an' bandicoots an' hedgehogs, why, it's enough to make a man suspect his own grandfather of bein' a puddin'-snatcher." ”

“ As to poodles and pugs, it is difficult for the masculine "man of letters" to write. Fortunately, no member of my family has thus far evinced any symptom of the poodle mania, so akin to the singular malady which reduced poor Titania to the abject adoration of ass-headed Bottom. ”

“ Pug-dogs. The chin, or Japanese pug, is a delicate, timid little creature generally black and white, weighing no more than a small cat, and having goggle eyes that stick out like glass marbles. If, at birth, the nose is not considered sufficiently snub, it is pressed in with the finger. Doubtless this process, by stopping up some passage, induces the habit of constant sneezing with which many of these animals are afflicted:—"She looks like a pug sneezing," is a common phrase to denote one particular kind of ugly face. ”

“ But Bess would not hear of so slow a manner of getting the pug-puppy down. In delirious joy the little mantle was flung on the ground and her arms were tightly clasped round the basket. When one has been sent a pug-pup there is only one place to go to—home. ”

“ I am never up to my elbows, Miss, in making a pudding but one of two things do happen -- either my nose must needs begin tickling, and I can't live without scratching it, or somebody knocks at the door. ”

“ The mistress of the Establishment holds no place in our memory; but, rampant on one eternal door-mat, in an eternal entry long and narrow, is a puffy pug-dog, with a personal animosity towards us, who triumphs over Time. The bark of that baleful Pug, a certain radiating way he had of snapping at our undefended legs, the ghastly grinning of his moist black muzzle and white teeth, and the insolence of his crisp tail curled like a pastoral crook, all live and flourish. ”

“ The poodle put his front paws round her waist, clasped her tightly, and began to-ing and fro-ing, trying, as it seemed, to bend her down, or to uplift itself high enough to get his prickle into her slit. She tried to shriek, but her voice could hardly be heard, she stretched forth her hands to defend herself, then she finally pushed the loathsome dog away from her. ”

“ She plunged through a thicket of long grass, and a grey cloud of mosquitoes rose and enveloped horse and rider. The vicious insects settled like a grey cloth upon the heated mare, and Prudence’s soft flesh was punctured by hundreds of venomous needles at once. The girl swept the insects from neck and face, heedless of the torturing stings. The mare fretted and raced up the opposite slope, while the girl leant forward in her saddle and sought to relieve the staunch little creature’s agony by sweeping the poisonous insects from her steaming coat. ”

“ To have a dozen or twenty of these little painted puffins on a rock within three paces of you, in full view, with nothing whatever intervening, some standing up, others couched on their breasts, some preening, some shaking their wings, most of them unconscious of your presence, a few just looking at you, from time to time, with an expression of mild curiosity unmixed with fear, seeming to say "And who may you be, sir?" is almost a new sensation. ”

“ Presently they perceived, a long way off, an object of the most interesting and obese appearance, having a perfectly round body, exactly resembling a boiled plum-pudding, with two little wings, and a beak, and three feathers growing out of his head, and only one leg.
So after a time all the Seven young Geese said to each other, "Beyond all doubt this beast must be a Plum-pudding Flea!" ”

“ If you go directly at the heart of a mystery, it ceases to be a mystery, and becomes only a question of drainage. (Mr. Poodle had told him that if he had the pond and swamp drained, the frog-song would not annoy him.) But to-night, when the keen chirruping ceased, there was still another sound that did not cease—a faint, appealing cry. It caused a prickling on his shoulder blades, it made him both angry and tender. He pushed through the bushes. In a little hollow were three small puppies, whining faintly. They were cold and draggled with mud. ”

“ Pug was nearing the corner where the ash pile is located, and stumbling over a tin can, he fell to the ground, and we three on top of him. Being such a fat fellow, he was much more easily exhausted than we, who are lithe and agile ”

“ Furthermore, the pupa, though one in the strict sense, is capable of great freedom of movement, its head, mouth-parts, antennæ, legs and wings, ensheathed by the cuticle, being freely movable, and not rigidly attached to the body. ”

“ When full grown they leave the water, crawling out on the damp shore of the pond or stream, and burrow into the soil for a few inches. Here they molt again, or pupate as it is called, changing to a non-feeding, quiescent stage called the pupal stage. The pupa is the stage in which the great changes from wingless, crawling and swimming, short-legged, long, slender-bodied larva to winged, swimming and flying, long-legged, compact, broad-bodied adult are completed. Late in the summer or in the fall the pupal skin breaks and the adult issues. ”

“ Puddening, pud′ning, n. a thick pad of rope, &c., used as a fender on the bow of a boat.
Pudder, pud′ėr, n. a pother, a bustle, a tumult.—v.i. to make a tumult or bustle.—v.t. to disturb: to perplex or confound. [Pother.]
Pudding, pōōd′ing, n. a skin or gut filled with seasoned minced meat, &c., a sausage: a soft kind of food made of flour, milk, eggs, &c.: a piece of good fortune.—adjs. Pudd′ing-faced, having a fat, round, smooth face; Pudd′ing-head′ed (coll.) , stupid.—ns. Pudd′ing-pie, a pudding with meat baked in it; Pudd′ing-sleeve, a large loose sleeve ”

“ In a few seconds the pupa makes several slow, but powerful, respiratory efforts; during which the abdominal segments become more contracted along their under surface, and the wings are much enlarged and extended along the lateral inferior surface of the body, while a very transparent fluid, which facilitated the slipping off of the skin, is now diffused among the limbs, and when the pupa becomes quiet dries, and unites the whole into one compact covering. ”

“ We'd better go into the matter of Pudleigh, and at once. I'm all in favor of an early operation. It clears one's mind, and sets things really going. Let's get to ork on Pudleigh; but let's get to work on him as a paying proposition. ”

“ One bound at exactly the right moment and my feeble prey is panting under me. Oh, the ridiculous effort of a weak animal—its tiny ineffectual claws and pointed wings beating against my face! My jaws will open to the splitting point and my perfect nose wrinkle ferociously, for the joy of holding a living, terrified body. ”

“ The withers are constantly liable to injury, from saddles being wide in the tree, or coming too far forward, which letting the internal part of the pummel come into contact with the projecting point of the withers, mischief (from the pinching, pressure, or friction) frequently ensues, terminating in inflammation, laceration, tumefaction, maturation, and sometimes fistula, which see. ”

“ He looked at the bull-dog, sleeping dreamlessly on his right. He looked at the poodle, erect and haughty, on his left. Then, without a word of warning, without the shadow of a provocation, he bit that poodle’s near fore-leg, and a yelp of agony rang through the quiet shades of that lobby. ”

“ There is no doubt about the symptoms, as the body may often be felt externally, while difficulty of breathing, and violent action of the muscles of deglutition, with a view to expel the intruder, indicate what is the matter. Prompt action is necessary, as the animal, if not relieved, becomes hoven or wind blown.
Treatment.—If the obstruction be near the top of the gullet, it may be removed by the hand put through the mouth and protected by a common balling-iron. ”

“ Fleas differ much in size, according to the places which they inhabit. Dugès, of Montpellier, gives us a curious instance of this. He devoted himself to researches on the zoological characters of this genus, studying the four species which are the best known, the Pulex irritans of man, Pulex canis of the dog, Pulex musculus of the mouse, and Pulex vespertilionis of the bat. ”

“ I did not care much for any dogs in general, but at the sight of a poodle, I grew deathly pale, I trembled from head to foot, and almost fainted for fear. Still I can hardly call it fear, for it was more a kind of loathsomeness, that made me thoroughly sick, than any apprehension of danger.
I have been told that my mother—during her pregnancy—had been frightened by a poodle that my aunt had at that time, and that died shortly afterwards,—still can such a circumstance have produced so great an impression on the fœtus in the earlier stages of gestation? ”

“ When Pug, of loose tiles now perceiving a failure,
Eluded the grasp of pursuit with a hop,
And gained an adjacent and tall chimney-pot. [p 11]
Larger illustration→
It chanced that the vent of this same chimney led
Direct to a chamber, confined to his bed
Where lay an old gentleman, ill with the gout,
And wishing some bad fate might thence drag him out!
Pug, missing his footing, ’midst vapour and fume,
That instant with Puss tumbled into the room. ”

“ In the damp earth which the pupa requires the above-described hooks fulfil a purpose, unexpected by us, but, at the same time, of great importance. The skin of the pupa is very delicate. Lying on damp earth, it could hardly escape injury, and the weight of the body might easily give it a distorted shape. ”