We see in needle-works and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work, upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work, upon a
lightsome ground: judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart, by the pleasure of the eye.
Through a world of toil and care she flitted with a dreamlike smile, and came hither to find a home among the
lightsome hearts of Merry Mount.
Indeed, there was too
lightsome a tone of flippancy all through the paper.
But while they spoke softly, and he was watching the happy sadness, the
lightsome shadows, the shy yearnings of a maiden's nature, the wind through the Notch took a deeper and drearier sound.
Up comes the bright sun, drawing everything up with it--the Wills and Sallys, the latent vapour in the earth, the drooping leaves and flowers, the birds and beasts and creeping things, the gardeners to sweep the dewy turf and unfold emerald velvet where the roller passes, the smoke of the great kitchen fire wreathing itself straight and high into the
lightsome air.
Well, as I advanced, it seemed to me the stair grew airier and a thought more
lightsome; and I was wondering what might be the cause of this change, when a second blink of the summer lightning came and went.
I have never forgotten them or his quiet smile, but have seen them every day, side by side with those of my own dear children, dead and gone since I was a
lightsome young creature.' Running on thus, and now holding Oliver from her to mark how he had grown, now clasping him to her and passing her fingers fondly through his hair, the good soul laughed and wept upon his neck by turns.
She had gone singing through the dim rooms, and moving with gay and
lightsome step among their dusty treasures, making them older by her young life, and sterner and more grim by her gay and cheerful presence.
On the contrary, there was no other man in the city, we are bold to affirm, of so much as half his years, who enjoyed so many
lightsome and griefless moments as himself.
In the great stone fireplace a log fire was spurting and crackling, throwing out a ruddy glare which, with the four bracket-lamps which stood at each corner of the room, gave a bright and
lightsome air to the whole apartment.
What if we tell you that a poor unfortunate boy: a child in everything but never having known one of those tender endearments, or one of those
lightsome hours which make our childhood a time to be remembered like a happy dream through all our after life: a warm-hearted, harmless, affectionate creature, who never offended you, or did you wrong, but on whom you have vented the malice and hatred you have conceived for your nephew, and whom you have made an instrument for wreaking your bad passions upon him: what if we tell you that, sinking under your persecution, sir, and the misery and ill-usage of a life short in years but long in suffering, this poor creature has gone to tell his sad tale where, for your part in it, you must surely answer?'
His drawing-rooms were the prettiest, little, modest salons conceivable: they were decorated with the greatest taste, and a thousand knick- knacks from Paris, by Rebecca: and when she sat at her piano trilling songs with a
lightsome heart, the stranger voted himself in a little paradise of domestic comfort and agreed that, if the husband was rather stupid, the wife was charming, and the dinners the pleasantest in the world.
lightsome - moving easily and quickly; nimble; "the dancer was light and graceful"; "a lightsome buoyant step"; "walked with a light tripping step"
lightsome - carefree and happy and lighthearted; "was loved for her blithe spirit"; "a merry blithesome nature"; "her lighthearted nature"; "trilling songs with a lightsome heart"