birch-broom

• “But next morning they would get up at dawn, as usual, sweep out the rooms with a birch-broom, empty the slops, and clean up after lodgers.”

  The Brothers Karamazov

• “When the seed has been shaken from the plant, the tops are brought together, and form those excellent besoms which, throughout southern Europe, supply the place of birch-broom, than which they are more elastic, not so brittle, and much cleaner.”

  Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 361, November, 1845.

• “So, shouldering my father's tools, I journeyed west until I came to her place, and found her trying to break in a new birch-broom that was still too green and full of sap to be easily mastered; and she was in a very bad temper.”

  Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard

• “Was just considering the possibility of outflanking the birch-broom, which had taken up an advantageous position by the kitchen window, when”

  Salthaven

• “His irons were tied up with the daintiest blue bows, and in the breast of his coat he carried a bundle of flowers as large as a birch-broom.”

  A Book of Scoundrels

• “But once he comes down to live with us he's as rough and prickly as a birch-broom.”

  By Berwen Banks

• “On your nob, and a rumpling your 'air till it's like a birch-broom in a fit!”

  Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, October 15, 1892

• “Crash went Mrs Puss right through the prickly branches of the cedar, and came down with her back across the handle of the birch-broom, which still stuck in the tree, and made her give such an awful yowl, that the birds all came flocking up in time to see Mrs”

  Featherland How the Birds lived at Greenlawn

• “Even the master of Greenlawn opened his window and looked out and wondered, and at last crabby old Todkins, the gardener, opened _his_ window, and even called the birch-broom boy up to listen; but they could not make out what the noise was.”

  Featherland How the Birds lived at Greenlawn

• “The birch-broom scattered the birds for a while, but they soon came back, for they were not going to be frightened away by a bundle of twigs, when they did not even care for a scarecrow, but used to go and sit upon its head; while the tomtit declared it was a capital spider trap, and used to pick out no end of savoury little spinners for his dinner.”

  Featherland How the Birds lived at Greenlawn

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