Begumbagh: A Tale of the Indian Mutiny, and Other Stories |
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Begumbagh: A Tale of the Indian Mutiny and Other Stories George Manville Fenn No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
Abdallah arms asked bayonet beast Begumbagh Beverley Bog of Allen called chap Chickenbody Chunder Cock Robin Colonel Maine cried dark door elephant eyes face felt fierce fire Fish River Flying Dutchman gate gave girl going gone half-a-dozen hand Harry Lant head hear heard heart horse Jennings Jenny Wren Joe Bantem Kaffir knew lads lady Lant's laughing Lesmoines Lieutenant Leigh linstock Linwood Lizzy Green look loved mahout minute Miss Ross morning Mullingar mutineers Nabob never niggers night officers once perhaps poor fellow pretty Red Peter regiment roof round says Captain Dyer says Harry says Measles seemed sentry shebeen shew side sight Sir Hercules smile Smith soldiers sort Steermann stood talk tell thing thought told took trunk turned voice walked wanted whisper wife window woman women words wounded
Popular passages
Page 7 - ... miles a day, on our way up to the station, where we were to relieve a regiment going home. I don't know what we should have done if it hadn't been for Harry Lant, the weather being very trying, almost as trying as our hot red coats and heavy knapsacks, and flower-pot busbies, with a round white ball like a child's plaything on the top; but no matter how tired he was, Harry Lant had always something to say or do, and even if the colonel was close by, he'd say or do it. Now, there happened to be...
Page 185 - re right. Our income won't bear the strain on it for six months. We must exhibit the elephant, or he'll eat us out of house and home. Why, he's worse than fourteen children and an Irish servant.
Page 189 - But suppose the keepers see me, and fire at me ?" " Oh ! you may suppose anything. Don't be a child, Chickenbody." surrender. That very night Mrs. Chickenbody drove out Chickenbody, and Chickenbody drove out the elephant, with fear and trembling, up the long dark lane leading to the park of Sir Hercules Wadlington, that terror of vagrants, and enemy of all inferior beings. Our timid little wild-beast proprietor was in a state of peculiar alarm that evening, as there was a rumour that the real Arab...
Page 180 - Chickenbody, the little weak-minded green-grocer, had actually, in defiance of his acid and 'nagging' wife, bought all the three shares of Porky Jenkins, who had parted with them with feigned reluctance, and only on receiving a bonus of one pound sterling and a glass of gin-and-bitters.
Page 190 - Urmph!' and thrashing the air with his proboscis. The ladies screamed and ran; one dandy fell into a veal-pie, and another sat down on a pile of jelly; the cornet dropped his instrument. Sir Hercules, though a peppery 'old Indian,' was no coward, and at once perceived that the elephant was a tame animal and quite harmless, and rationally concluded that he had escaped from its keeper, who could not be far off. All he had therefore to do was, he thought, to keep it at bay, and prevent its doing more...
Page 181 - Now, the Royal Imperial Olympic Centralisation Circus. Company had wandered through the home-counties with great loss, and had finally gone to pieces, and been left a. complete wreck at Pipington-cum-Tabor. The company had before this rolled on from place to place, throwing over goods to the storm, till little but the bare hulk was left for Mr Horatio Fitzjones De Beverley to steer into port. One by one the tumblers, and riders, and grooms had deserted, till only an elephant, some vans, and a few...
Page 188 - Very well,' said Mrs Chickenbody; 'let us take .advantage, Augustus, of the old grumpy's warning. Take him into the park, and let him feed there at night. It is impossible to let that horrid creature go on eating into our hundred and twenty pounds, or we shall be in the workhouse very soon. The animal has eaten fourteen sacks of potatoes in twelve days ; every sack of potatoes costs us ten shillings hard money. Look here.
Page 184 - ... Stuff and nonsense!' replied the unappeasable Mrs C. ' You '11 ruin yourself with your fancies; you '11 spend my hundred and twenty pounds in a month, in merely feeding that monster.' Mr Chickenbody, obstinate for once, went on reading : '" This gigantic and clever animal has been trained to pile logs, drag cannon, and lay building-stones. Its tusks weigh about one hundred and twenty pounds. The foot of the elephant is admirably formed, and the horny plates of the hoof are arranged on the principle...
Page 180 - ... being held — a raffle, I may say, unprecedented, whether we take into consideration the enormous nature of the prize, or the ridiculously low sum that each person engaged in it had to risk. I would give any one from Shrovetide to Shrovetide, and he would not guess what it was the small tradesmen of Pipingtoncum-Tabor were raffling for, that October night in question. A fat goose and a bottle of Old Tom ? Not a bit of it. A mangle and a garden-roller? No. A piano and a chestnut mare ? But, dear...
Page 179 - Dutchman," a public-house in the pleasant little country-town of Pipington-cum-Tabor, a little off the high-road, and about a dozen miles or so beyond the sepulchral town of St. Albans. in the sporting papers ; but having got old, puffy, and thirsty, and having sold so many fights and so many backers that no one at last could be found daring enough to either front him or back him, he had at last thrown up the sponge, and gracefully retired under the shade of his own laurels, behind the bar of private...