“The noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more children there, than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count; and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not forty children conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting itself like forty.”
“After dinner the whole family stretched out on the benches and the floor of the depot and read, with the dictionary in the middle of the room so we kids could look up words we didn’t know...Occasionally, on those nights when we were all reading together, a train would thunder by, shaking the house and rattling the windows. The noise was thunderous, but after we’d been there a while, we didn’t even hear it.”
“The woman’s stomach stuck up so high I couldn’t see her face or the upper part of her body at all. She seemed to have nothing but an enormous spider-fat stomach and two little ugly spindly legs propped in the high stirrups and all the time the baby was being born she never stopped making this unhuman whooping noise.”
“The ball screamed toward the pitcher and seemed suddenly to dive down at his feet. He grabbed it to throw to first and realized to his horror that he held only the cover. The rest of it, unraveling cotton thread as it rode, was headed into the outfield.”
“A twisted dagger of smoke drifted up from the gun barrel. Fallen on one knee he groped for the bullet, sickened as it moved, and fell over as the forest flew upward, and she, making muted noises of triumph and despair, danced on her toes around the stricken hero.”
“Get to that Zone where you can shut out all the noise, all the negativity and fear and distractions and lies, and achieve whatever you want, in whatever you do.”
“You know what goes on in this world. They don’t understand. They don’t see that long after their laughter subsides, in search of the next cheap thrill, their victims are still hearing the taunts in their heads. A cacophony of degrading noise, poisoning perception.”
“The word no, so short, so easy to say, a child’s sound, a noise more than a word, a short exhalation of air: all he had to do was part his lips, and the word would come out, and—and what?”
“He felt very content. Just as he was dropping off to sleep his eyes snapped open. He had thought he heard a little noise... but no. All was quiet. His eyes closed again. In the morning there was no doubt about it. The noise actually woke him.”
“They made such a noise that Michael came running, waving his arms and blowing his whistle. He planted himself in the center of the road, raised one hand to stop the traffic, and then beckoned with the other, the way policemen do, for Mrs. Mallard to cross over.”
“By golly, what a place that kitchen was! The noise! And the steam! And the clatter of pots and pans! And the cooks all shouting! And the waiters all rushing in and out from the Dining-Room yelling the food orders to the cooks!”
“He found a very nice hidey-hole. Mop needed his afternoon nap... but there were lots of gurgly, clanky noises. Mop said he was too hot. It wasn’t quite right.”
“Little Bear’s mother turned around to see what on earth could make a noise like kuplunk!
‘Garumpf!’ she cried, choking on a mouthful of berries, ‘This is not my child! Where is Little Bear?’ She took one good look and backed away. (She was old enough to she shy of people, even a very small person like Little Sal.) Then she turned around and walked off very fast to hunt for Little Bear.”
″‘What’s that noise?’ said Mrs Hogger, sticking her comfortable round red face out of the kitchen window. ‘Listen, there ‘tis again, did you hear it, what a racket, what a row, anybody’d think someone was being murdered, oh dearie me, whatever is it, just listen to it, will?‘”
“It’s a noise that Burglar Bill has heard before; the noise of someone opening a window and climbing carefully in.
‘Blow me down,’ says Burglar Bill. ‘I’m being burgled!‘”
“They bit and scratched and clawed each other and made such a noise that the very old man and the very old woman ran into the house as fast as they could.”
“Now, freight cars are silly and noisy. They talk a lot and don’t attend to what they are doing. They don’t listen to their engine, and when he stops, they bump into each other, screaming, ‘Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Whatever is happening?’ And, I’m sorry to say, they play tricks on an engine who is not used to them.”
“The noise was glorious. Ramona yelled and screamed and shrieked and chased anyone who would run. She chased tramps and ghosts and ballerinas. Sometimes other witches in masks exactly like hers chased her, and then she would turn around and chase the witches right back.”
“And Tom, for the first time in his life, found out that he was dirty; and burst into tears with shame and anger; and turned to sneak up the chimney and hide; and upset the fender and threw the fire-irons down with a noise of ten thousand tin kettles tied to ten thousand mad dogs tails.”
“The fun and frolic seemed to grow greater the longer they played. In the excitement, time went on much faster than any of them dreamed. Suddenly, in the midst of the noise, came a sound - the sharp distinct slam of the carryall-door at the side entrance. Aunt Izzie had returned from her lecture.”
“With these three little girls and two little boys
There is sure to be plenty of laughter and noise;
But nobody minds it, because don’t you see,
At school they are quiet with lessons they say -
But when holidays come they can play the whole day.”
“I live down at the end of the hall. Sometimes I take two sticks and skidder them along the walls
And when I run down the hall I slomp my feet agains the woodwork which is very good for scuffing and noise
Sometimes I slomp my skates if I want to make a really loud and terrible racket.”
“Every night when it’s time to go to bed Nanny yawns out loud and says she is tired tired tired
I make as much noise as I possibly can by turning on the phonograph real loud and hollering a lot”
Spook’s baby sister who is very good at mimicking the noises she hears. From this point on, spreads are split with the little sister making a wonderful variety of noises which are displayed on the recto. These are sweet little stories that would even work now.
“No one can say that I am not a devoted sister...but the prospect of a visit from Edmund always fills me with alarm. My house is turned upside down, my children behave like wild things, there is nothing but noise and confusion.”
‘Was it Tiny Spook making such a noise when we came down the steps?’ asked Little Spook, ‘It was indeed,’ sighed Father Spook. ‘She makes more noise than all of us put together.’ ‘And she is very clever of copying other noises too,’ said Mother Spook.”
“The child was a little afraid to ask questions, the impressions were coming so thick and fast; they threatened to overwhelm her. The general excitement got into her blood, and she set up a fine, distinct buzzing.”
“At once the bush was filled with laughter. Wild kookaburras who were no relation to Jacko had flown into a nearby tree, and they made a terrible din, chuckling and laughing at the top of their voices. Nobody could speak for the noise.”
“Often Katy would wish that she someday could be
something quiet and simple like a lovely elm tree,
or a ramshackle barn all alone on a hill
where the noisiest thing was a squeaky windmill.”
“Her trips always ended near a city somewhere
Way out in a freight yard with smoke clouding the air,
Where a turmoil of trains made a great noisy rumble
On crisscrossing tracks, an impossible jumble.”
″ ‘From now on,’ Katy promised, ‘I shall never complain, I’ll be a happy caboose at the end of a train
And put up with the jolts, the train noise, and the rest,
All the smoke that rolls by- or at least try my best.’ ”