Sneak

“ That a sneak thief should be caught as he was escaping from a house with a few dollars’ worth of plunder, will attract the average reader much less than the fact that he jumped through a plate-glass window in his effort to escape, or that he gained access to the house by wearing a Salvation Army uniform, or that he carried away a pie as part of his booty. ”

“ Kate cried, springing to her feet in honest anger.
"It's the truth, and you know it," returned Ezra, with a sneer. "Aren't you too proud to be hanging on to a man who doesn't want you—a man that is a smooth-tongued sneak, with the heart of a rabbit?" ”

“ Gertrude let him have her hand, but she forbore to meet his eyes.
"Ill! of course she's ill!" cried Richard, passionately. "She's dying,—she's consuming herself! I know I seem to be playing an odious part here, Gertrude, but, upon my soul, I can't help it. I look like a betrayer, an informer, a sneak, but I don't feel like one! Still, I'll leave you, if you say so."
"Shall he go, Gertrude?" asked Luttrel, without looking at Richard. ”

“ Her voice broke and merged into a paroxysm of sobbing, and MacNutt looked at her bent and shaken figure with meditative coldness.
"He may have beaten me, once, long ago—but he'll never do it again. He won't even go out fightin'! He'll go with his head hangin' and his nose down, like a sneak! And you'll see him go, for you'll be tied there, with a gag in your pretty red mouth, and you'll neither move nor speak. And there'll be no light, unless he gets so reckless as to strike a match. But when the light does come, my dear, it'll be a flash o' blue flame, with a smell o' something burnin'!" ”

“ The matron added at once:
"No, since that sacred brat has been put in my room, I never feel at ease, and all my fun is spoilt."
"Yes, he's a little curse."
"I'm always so frightened that some day or other he'll wake, and then there'll be some bother."
"Oh! he always sleeps like a top."
"I'm not quite so sure of that, he's such a little sneak. For instance just before you came in, I am sure I felt a hand on my coynte."
How I pricked up my ears at the word.
"Her coynte!" Then the fur all round her slit, thought I, is called a coynte and not a pussy as the dressmaker told me. ”

“ I am acquainted with several people, who have on such an occasion run so hard as to be quite out of breath, in endeavouring to escape the snake, which moved with the swiftness of an arrow after them. If a person thus pursued can muster up courage enough to oppose the snake with a stick or any thing else, when it is either passed by him, or when he steps aside to avoid it, it will turn back again, and seek a refuge in its swiftness. ”

“ WHAT THE SNAKE SAW
A little girl and a big ugly man
Went down the road. The girl was crying
And asking to go home, but when she ran
He hit her on the head and sent her flying,
And called her a young imp, and said he'd break
Her neck unless she went with him, and then
He smacked her on the cheek.—I was a snake
At that time crawling through a robber's den,
And diamonds were sticking to my tongue—
(That's the best dodge) , but when I saw the way
He beat the little girl I up and flung
A stone at him. My aim was bad that day
Because I hit the girl ... and she did sing! ”

“ The tick of the lock is as well known to the knaves, as the blast of a trumpet to a soldier! lay down the piece—lay down the piece— should the moon touch the barrel, it could not fail to be seen by the devils, whose eyes are keener than the blackest snake's! ”

“ Their amazement knew no bounds when they saw a beautiful youth standing before their daughter with the snake’s skin lying on the floor beside him. In their excitement they burst open the door, and seizing the skin they threw it into the fire. But no sooner had they done this than the young man called out, ‘Oh, wretched people! what have you done?’ and before they had time to look round he had changed himself into a dove, and dashing against the window he broke a pane of glass, and flew away from their sight. ”

“ From parade ground to gymnasium, from gymnasium to swimming-bath, from swimming-bath to running-track, from running-track to boxing-ring, from boxing-ring to gymnasium again. Work, occupation, forgetfulness. Forget the Snake for a little while—even though it is surely lurking near—waiting, waiting, waiting; nay, even beneath his very foot and moving....
Well, a man can struggle with himself until the Thing actually appears in the concrete, and he goes mad—but Night! Oh, God grant deep sleep at night—or wide wakefulness and a light. ”

“ Snake.—This is an unpleasant sign of treachery, disloyalty, and hidden danger, sometimes caused by those whom you least suspect; if its head is raised, injury by the malice of a man is predicted; it is also an indication of misfortune and illness.
Snipe.—This bird signifies the discovery of a useful fact; if flying, hasty news of a great friend.
Snowdrops.—These are a symbol of youth and innocence; this sign may point to some event affecting you and yours which will probably take place about February; if seen in a cross it would foreshow the death of an infant or young child. ”

“ Instantly the beautiful snake lifts its head, expands its hood—a loose skin about the neck which it makes large or small at pleasure—and creeps out, waving its body gracefully while the music lasts, and when it ceases, dropping down again into the basket. ”

“ Snipe, when bleating, fly round and round in a wide irregular circle, and for a long time one will not over-step the invisible boundary so as to encroach upon the domain of the other. It seems—but the illusion will be broken after a time—as though each bird had his allotment in the fields of air and knew that he would be guilty of a rudeness in entering that of another. ”

“ A sneer gathers about the corners of her rosy mouth, and her eyes dwell upon him for an instant with an expression of intense contempt; then she shrugs her snowy shoulders, leans back in her chair, takes up the cards that lie before her, and rapidly sorts them. ”

“ In council it has been spoken. Your son can be one of us, and the men of the Snake Order will be as brothers to him if ever he comes back to the mesa where the Sun Father and the Moon Mother first looked on his face. In the days of the Lost Others, all the people had Snake Power, as they had power of silent speech with all the birds, and the four-foot brothers of the forests. Only a few have not lost it, and the Trues send all their Spirit People to work with that few. ”

“ Thick darkness broods not upon this land, for twelve great hooded snakes lie coiled upon the bank, and the breath of their mouths is a flame of fire, gleaming upon the dark water and upon those who dwell in the Duat. ”

“ I can conceive of no more terrible close-up than that of a Snake Priest, coming toward one with eyes glaring, cheeks and chin painted black, his mouth a huge white daub, and snakes, some of them with rattles, feeling around his ears, through his hair, and about his face and neck. ”

“ When worn with the black side out she would present an inconspicuous appearance, but with the grey side out and the effect of this heightened by a long grey veil hung over her hat, she would look like the grey lady I had first seen. Now, a cloak can be turned in an instant, and if she had chosen to do this in flitting through my door I would naturally find only a sedate, black-clothed woman passing up the street, when, rousing from the apathy into which her appearance had thrown me, I rushed to the front door and looked out. ”

“ It is not at all unusual for a man sleeping on the ground at night to find, on waking, that a serpent has crawled in by his side, or curled itself up on his breast for the sake of the warmth that his body supplies. I have heard a story of a man who thus entertained an unwelcome visitor. He waked during the night while lying flat on his back, and felt something heavy and cold on his chest. He moved a little as he waked, and his movement caused the snake that was lying on him to raise its head. ”

“ He would creep and crawl, in ditches and gullies; hide behind stumps and bushes, and practice so much of the cunning of the serpent, that Bill Smith and I—between ourselves—never called him by any other name than "the snake." ”

“ Here is your cloak to hide that gaudy dress. And here is a bundle of food,—all I could spare without the good man's knowledge. For it must seem that you have run away of your own accord. I know that will make him sure that you are a thief. ”

“ A fiery temper had Snake. Physical cowardice—abject terror at thought of physical injury—made him hold his temper well in hand toward men. The incident at his first visit to Clayton Springs was his only display. ”

“ From the immediate neighbourhood of the figure on the throne snakes’ heads began to peep. There was no mistake that they were all alive—oh! The evil-looking brutes began to slither over the sides. I never could abide snakes, either in a figurative or a literal sense. The mere sight of one puts my dander up. ”

“ Lazily they stand, lazily they utter it, and seem as though they had taken up their roosting-place for the night. But when the night falls they will be hurrying shadows in it, and their cries will come out of the darkness, mingling with the bleatings of the snipe. ”

“ Then the nephew started dragging the sledge very swiftly around the lodge, singing as he ran, “I am dragging him on a bark sledge, I am dragging him on a bark sledge; Sʻhogonʻʹgwāʼs, who is my uncle, I am dragging him on a bark sledge; I am dragging him on a bark sledge.” The uncle kept saying, “Oh, my nephew! the sledge is now going too fast.” The youth did not slacken his terrific pace, however, and the sledge at times turned over and over. Meanwhile the old man kept saying, “Oh, my nephew! do not be so rude in this matter; it is going too fast.” ”

“ Imagine a tall and exceedingly meagre man, dressed in a rusty suit of black,—the pantaloons tight at the calf and ankle, and there forming a loose gaiter over thick shoes, buckled high at the instep; an old cloak, lined with red, was thrown over one shoulder, though the day was sultry ”

“ This upward motion is very graceful and snake-like, for, as the body rises, the long neck, which seems but an extension of it, curves backwards, upwards, and again forwards as the bird sinks back on the water, the whole motion much resembling the quick forward glide of a serpent. ”

“ We had one man at the bow to watch for "sawyers," while the others kept a vigilant look out for a place to haul up. The dense darkness of the stormy night prevented us discovering danger until we were on the point of being enveloped in it, and in several instances, our escape seemed truly miraculous. ”

“ It is true that occasionally, but seldom, the intruder is seized; but he who tries to hold him grasps a body slippery as a snake, that glides from his hands, and disappears as suddenly and silently as it came. ”

“ The snake felt all the poignant and serious displeasure of one who has answered a runaway knock.
It was late in the day; in the course of his journey he had got hopelessly entangled with a virgin forest, and saw no way to put an end to the intrigue; tired and humiliated he fell asleep.
He laid the blame for his failure upon a totally wrong cause. This tendency to blame the wrong thing is not uncommon. For instance, a piece of orange-peel, lying on the pavement, trips you up. You fall and hurt yourself. ”

“ The Scroobious Snake,
who always wore a Hat on his Head, for
fear he should bite anybody.
There was an old man in a tree,
Whose whiskers were lovely to see;
But the birds of the air, pluck’d them perfectly bare,
To make themselves nests in that tree. ”

“ In the evening, by lamp light, they become lively, and then, twisting about and flashing forth their snaky splendors, they present a fine spectacle. The snake-room, with its walls of glass, behind which the snakes live, reminded me of the old northern myth of Nastrond, the roof of which was woven of snakes’ backs, the final home of the ungodly—an unpleasant, but vigorous picture. ”

“ Neela yet kind and calm, Beholds a knot of Snakes, that fill A basket made of palm! No fear her blameless mind alarms: But quick with scornful joy, One basely holds her by the arms; One grasps her fondling boy. The sire himself, with gesture wild, His thoughtless offspring takes ”

“ At night, when sinking into a temporary oblivion of your ills, the wretches are sure to awaken you for the purpose of begging a few pice, to swear that they dare not proceed because there is no oil for the torch, or to let you and your vehicle fall heavily upon the ground, because the foremost bearer very nearly trod upon a snake. Of course you scramble as well as you can out of your cage, and administer discipline to the offenders. ”

“ But this strange illusion soon wore away, and I again saw Miss Snooks in her true character. It would perhaps be better if I said that I saw her nose—for somehow I never could look upon herself save as subordinate to this feature. It were an insult to so majestic a promontory to suppose it the mere appendage of a human face. ”

“ Occasionally a long serpentine form would suddenly wriggle itself to a height of a foot and a half above the glassy surface of the water, producing such a deceptive imitation of a snake that at first I had some difficulty in believing it to be the neck of a bird ”