He could talk of nothing else, and asked endless questions about it, and they told him that this strange thing was nothing but the Mirage, but of course that was not telling him enough, so that he was left to puzzle his little boy-brains over this new mystery, just as they had puzzled before over the mystery of the echoes.

I recall how half-heartedly he approved of the scheme, which had its origin in the fertile brain of Mr. Collins there.

Try to put a curb on your tongue, and let your reflections mature in your busy brain.

I did not call them, but they seemed to come forth as a regulator for my tired brain, as if they had been set sentinel-like to watch a proper time to appear.

" His dull brain worked slowly, and he stared at me, his eyes ugly, his grin becoming savage with a display of teeth.

I fain would think that study hath o'erwrought Your heated brain to this short fever fit, That soon may pass and leave your vision clear.

Quaint and curious were the thoughts that puzzled the solitary girl's weary brain, but prominent and ever-recurring was the sentence that had trembled upon Thursday Smith's lips: "It was a close call, dear!"

Many brilliant ideas were due to Captain Ryan's clever brain.

For an instant the Boy still thought it a spectre, the delusion of a bewildered brain, till the girl cried out, "Brother Paul!" and fell forward on the floor, hiding her face in her hands.

At that moment, like an inspiration, a thought flashed into my troubled brain.

At the most they are only the figments of an over-excited or diseased brain.

It did not last, long, for to my dizzy brain there came the air which Elspeth had sung, that song of Montrose's which had been, as it were, the star of all my wanderings.

As a rule, a large, healthy brain stands for a vigorous and superior intellect.

He was to be introduced to the magnates of the dramatic profession, to become a clubman in the world's most hospitable city, to mix freely in the circles where he would find himself in constant association with the keenest brains and most brilliant men of letters in the world.

But he had counted without that troublesome guest who comes and places himself as a third between the creature and the Creator, and who, more powerful than the God of legend, quickly banishes him, for he is the principle of life and the other is the principle of death; it is the fruitful love and the other is the wasting barren love; it is present and active, while the other is inert, dumb and in the clouds of your sickly brain.

" "Be that as it may," said Sir Henry, "the diseased brain can give such torture to its victim that death is preferable.

Or one, perchance, with clouded brain From some unholy banquet reeled, And since, our devious steps maintain His track across the trodden field.

And cool brains, such as Nitti and Einaudi, reinforced all this with logical demonstrations of the economic impossibility of a separate peace, with the enemy Powers strained to the utmost by the blockade and Italy dependent on the Allies for shipping, food and coal.

By Louisa M. Alcott Author of "Little Women," etc. Originally published under the title "PROVERB STORIES" 1882 [Illustration: Deeper in the wood sounded the measured ring of axes] PREFACE Being forbidden to write anything at present I have collected various waifs and strays to appease the young people who clamor for more, forgetting that mortal brains need rest.

Suppose yourselves in some stately palace, amid marbles and bronzes, statues and pictures, and all that cunning brain and cunning hand, when wedded to the high instinct of beauty, can produce.

Shakspeare again: I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain phantasy, Which is as thin of substance as the air, And more inconsistant than the wind.

These Stories are the Fantoms of mad Brains, To puzzle Fools withalthe Wise laugh at 'em Come, Sir, you shall no longer be impos'd upon.

No one in the North cares a rap for Acts of Parliament, but there is a mystery about martial law which carries terror into the hardest heart and the most stupid brain.

They had been under the impression that his public career had been one long orgie of conscientious objection to everything that did not emanate from his own capacious brain.

It is not necessary to assume he has a better brain.