putterings, 421
all ready now
about the fire with a show of keeping himself occupied ₁
about the table, he came over to ₂
little lamps with steel instruments like knitting-needles. She saw ₃
parts of the gliders Humphrey had been puttering with for a long time.
Three years, he had once said ₄
over her make-up box.
She seemed really confused.
Finally she turned, said, with averted glance ₅
“Stop puttering. Come over here.” ₆
—
sources, all Samuel Merwin
- The Road to Frontenac (1901) : 91
NYPL copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link - His Little World : The Story of Hunch Badeau (1903) : 23
NYPL copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link - The Charmed Life of Miss Austin (1914) : 17
NYPL copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link -
Henry is Twenty : A Further Episodic History of Henry (1918) : 215
NYPL copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link - The Moment of Beauty (1925) : 294
U Michigan copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link - The Citadel : A Romance of Unrest (1912) : 407
LoC copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
—
more at 421