The unit plan seems a heaven-born solution of many of the knotty problems of the farm.

Ever and anon, a petal would drop from the flower; this was always succeeded by a shuddering tremor throughout Iridion's frame and a more forlorn expression on her pallid countenance: while Pan's jovial features assumed an expression of deeper concern as he pressed his knotty hand more resolutely against his shaggy forehead, and wrung his dexter horn with a more determined grasp, as though he had caught a burrowing idea by the tail.

The point was too knotty to be solved in the agitated state of his feelings.

So simple were the poor boy's words, and so deep his sorrow, that even Little John felt a certain knotty lump rise in his throat.

Report, of course, gave out the back knotty and livid.

I have known him double his knotty fist at a poor trembling child (the maternal milk hardly dry upon its lips) with a "Sirrah, do you presume to set your wits at me?"Nothing was more common than to see him make a head-long entry into the school-room, from his inner recess, or library, and, with turbulent eye, singling out a lad, roar out, "Od's my life, Sirrah," (his favourite adjuration)

" "The lady hath a lineage and riches, and an excellence of person, that might render her of great account in some of these knotty negotiations which so much fetter our movements of late.

The knotty oak and wainscot old

As Hilda looked at Sarah Gailey's bowed head, but little greyed, beneath the ray of the lamp, and at her shrivelled, neurotic, plaintive face in shadow, and at her knotty hands loosely clasped, she contrasted her companion and the scene with the youthfulness and the spaciousness and the sturdy gay vigour of existence in the household of the Orgreaves.

Or you have a knotty problem to decide.

question, query, problem, desideratum, point to be solved, porism^; subject of inquiry, field of inquiry, subject of controversy; point in dispute, matter in dispute; moot point; issue, question at issue; bone of contention &c (discord) 713; plain question, fair question, open question; enigma &c (secret) 533; knotty point &c (difficulty) 704; quodlibet; threshold of an inquiry.

nice point, delicate point, subtle point, knotty point; vexed question, vexata quaestio [Lat.], poser; puzzle &c (riddle) 533; paradox; hard nut to crack, nut to crack; bone to pick, crux, pons asinorum

awkward, unwieldy, unmanageable; intractable, stubborn &c (obstinate) 606; perverse, refractory, plaguy^, trying, thorny, rugged; knotted, knotty; invious^; pathless, trackless; labyrinthine &c (convoluted) 248; intricate, complicated &c (tangled) 59; impracticable &c (impossible) 471; not feasible &c 470; desperate &c (hopeless) 859.

His body was large and knotty, but the head was small, and the face had sensitive and delicate features.

"Now let us to this knotty affair of the headsman.

Far too bewildered to solve the knotty point of cipher versus monogram, he muttered some incoherent syllables, and only began to recover when he had stared blankly for a good five minutes at the off-horse's ears, from the driving-seat of his phaeton.

" When the good cook had gone to speak with Mrs. Drane, Mike repaired to the woodshed, where, picking up an axe, he stood for some moments regarding a short, knotty log on end in front of him.

Poor Aaron's face and head, however, was left in a pitiable condition after such a pummeling with a knotty stick.

" In spite of this noble stranger's goodwill and prowess, we still found Fort Sumter a knotty question.

He finds that, even on knotty questions of trade and legislation, he can, without reading ten pages, or thinking ten minutes, draw forth loud plaudits, and sit down with the credit of having made an excellent speech....

In the list of subscribers for the reprint of the Tract, occurs "Jacob Chandler, basket-maker:" in our times this would be considered a knotty work for any but a professional reader.

I have seen some gardens which look very bad, covered with briars and weeds, the grass growing in the paths, and the knotty weeds choking the few puny flowers that are drooping and dying out.

As is the case with less profound natures, the mind grew on what it fed upon; reasoning, and the elucidation of knotty mathematical problems, became her delight; and, by general consent, she ranked as one of the first philosophers of her time, if not indeed the very first.

He stood with his hands in his pockets, frowning down at the dim steaming railway and the busy ironworks beyond, frowning as if he were thinking out some knotty problem.

After dinner the outer work for the Society was put aside, and we gathered in H.P.B.'s room where we would sit talking over plans, receiving instructions, listening to her explanation of knotty points.