I took the vessel in my hands, holding the little billet conspicuous between my stained fingers.
My fingers trembled as I took the precious billet from the hands of the postmaster.
Every billethad a swarm of unconventional flappers, who smoked the Tommies' Woodbines with gusto, and donned their coats and caps, to the amusement of the crowd.
For example, Captain Coronet was one day met at the corner of the billet by Private Micky Malone, who carried a black-bordered envelope in his hand.
Could you not furnish me with a billet to this Villequier, or some one?
And when the last billet of wood fell, they heard a deep groaning, as though some one were dying hard, and when all was quiet once more, the whole sea was the color of blood, as far as eye could reach.
When the last billet fell, they again heard a deep groan, and then all was still.
The boy ordered them to throw the first cord of birch-wood overboard, billet by billet, one at a time and never two, and he did not let them touch the other two cords.
But the boy told them to throw the last cord of wood overboard, billet by billet, and no two billets at once.
When the last billet fell they heard a groaning, as though some one were wrestling with death, and then the squall had passed.
Now they obeyed him to the letter, and did not laugh; but cast out the birch-wood billet by billet.
While it was at its worst, the boy told them to throw overboard the second cord; and they threw it over billet by billet, and took care not to take any from the third cord.
Then, getting out of bed, he laid a billet in the bed in his stead, and hid himself in a corner of the room.
Then the stepmother hated her more for the beauty of her hair; so she said to her, "I cannot part your hair on my knee, fetch a billet of wood.
Now," said the wicked woman, "lay your head down on the billet whilst I part your hair.
As these thoughts passed through his mind, Patch, who had waited for a favourable moment to approach him, delivered him a small billet carefully sealed, and fastened with a silken thread.
This billet was read and re-read by the young earl with feelings of indescribable transport; but a little reflection damped his ardour, and made him fear it might be a device to ensnare him.
The Duke, with politeness, asked permission of my mother to write a billet to his brother, with a report of Lord Walwyn, at the writing- table in the room.
She wrote a billet to him demanding a personal interview with him that he might explain the insinuations which concerned the honour of herself, her son, and her daughter.
He gave me the means of writing a billet to my mother from his little Advocate's portfolio, and he promised himself to convey it to her and assure her of our safety, a message which I thought would make him welcome even to her.
We waited only for tidings which her son had promised to send, and they came at last in a small billet sent by one of his clerks.
I cast my billet from the window, and it was soon taken up.
She thanked me graciously for my gallantry; I gave her the billet I had received, and she returned my handkerchief.
Ay, that I was; John Fry had got it, like a billet under his apron, going away in the gray of the morning, as if to kindle his fireplace.
Rollo stopped at one of these places and procured a small billet of the Alpine wood, as large as he could conveniently carry in his pocket, intending to have something made from it when he should get home to America.
The woodman, at Henry's request, cut out this billet of wood for Rollo, making it of the size which Rollo indicated to him by a gesture with his finger.
I had worn out my boots paddling up office stairs, and I seemed just as far from getting a billet as ever.
I had been added to the personnel of an infantry regiment, which meant I could not steal an occasional ride while moving from one billet to another on the jolting limber of a field gun.
And I mean no irreverence as I liken the barbed wire to the Crown of Thoms and think of two cross-pieces of ugly wood out of a barrack or a rest-billet as being erected into the shape of The Cross.
He is comfortably clothed and comfortably shod--his officers see to that; and he is housed in as comfortable a billet as it is possible to provide, the state of the country being what it is.
We came out of a colonel's billet in a narrowshouldered old two-story house, my companion and I; and crossing the little square we passed through what once upon a time had been the front wall of the principal building in the place.
I am," said the man, "a detective, and I have to present your Highness with this billet from the Prefect of Police.
But at least he still lives and still hopes, as this billet sufficiently proves.
When, however, I recollected the circumstances in which we formerly met, I could not doubt that the billet was most probably designed for him.
Wentest thou not from the masque with thy pretty love-billet behind thy stomacher?
From this tower of observation he kept a wary eye, more particularly towards the window whence the billet was thrown, expecting to behold some token of his mistress's presence.
Hark thee, wench; I'll render his love-billet to thine ear.
The fire was nigh extinguished, for who durst fetch the billet from the stack?
She took the billet from her bosom; the moonlight alone fell upon it; but the words were so indeliby fixed upon her imagination that she fancied she could trace every word on that mystic tablet.
I have finish'd my stent of sewing work for this day & wrote a billet to Miss Caty Vans, a copy of which I shall write on the next page.
My Billet to Miss Vans was in the following words.
Last saturday I sent my cousin Betsy Storer a Billet of which the following is a copy.
A German shell burst in a billet where a platoon of our men were sheltering in the cellar, and those who were not killed by the shell were crushed to death by the fall of the house.
In the dead of night a party of machine gunners, just returned from the firing-trench, stood outside their billet in our village square debating if they should make a cup of tea before turning in to sleep.
When I returned in the evening to our billet I told the transport officer of the magnificent bravery of the artillery drivers.
On every march, in every billet and mess, there is the sound of singing.
The presence of Spring is first and most surely revealed by the flowers in our gardens and lanes; and the soldier is most clearly seen in the little things that happen on the march--in his billet or in the Dressing Station.
One of them had, ten days before, shown me to my billet thirty yards farther up.
So he wrote a short billet to his councillor, to be shown to Secretary Neu.
I cannot quite believe in the French companies," said the Advocate in a private billet to Ledenberg.
