Chapter 4 of Dick o' the Fens is here in full — 405 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter IV
Chapter 4 of Dick o' the Fens is here in full — 405 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself. "Howd tight, lad!" The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope. "All together, lads! Haul!"
Chapter 4 of Dick o' the Fens is here in full — 405 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/81 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
cause to slow down or get stuck
From this reading “The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.”
the activity of flying a glider
From this reading “The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.”
draw slowly or heavily
From this reading “Haul!"”
plural of “lad” — a boy or man
From this reading “"All together, lads!”
a strong line
From this reading “The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.”
to grasp hastily or eagerly
From this reading “Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.”
move fast, noisily, and heavily
From this reading “Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.”
closely constrained or constricted or constricting
From this reading “"Howd tight, lad!"”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
later than; following
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
(quantifier) used with either mass or count nouns to indicate the whole number or amount of or every one of a class
From this reading "All together, lads!
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
earlier than; in front of
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
cause to slow down or get stuck
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
inflected form of “bring” — take something or somebody with oneself somewhere
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
someone who is a detective
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
without deviation
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
United States actor (born in Ireland); father of Georgiana Emma Barrymore (1827-1862)
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
mat together and make felt-like
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
the activity of flying a glider
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
(with “in”) guardianship over; in divorce cases it is the right to house and care for and discipline a child
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
draw slowly or heavily
From this reading Haul!"
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
the male already mentioned, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
used when the man or boy doing the action is also its object
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
cause to continue in a certain state, position, or activity; e.g., “keep clean”
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Howd tight, lad!"
a boy or man
From this reading "Howd tight, lad!"
plural of “lad” — a boy or man
From this reading "All together, lads!
prefer or wish to do something
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
a particular point in time
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
immediately following in time or order
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
above and across; more than
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
a point located with respect to surface features of some region
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
a strong line
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
(of fluids) moving or issuing in a stream
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
the state of being certain that adverse effects will not be caused by some agent under defined conditions
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
to grasp hastily or eagerly
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
yielding readily to pressure or weight
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The next moment Dick felt himself gliding over the soft bog, and directly after Dave had hold of one of his hands and drew him to a place of safety before running back to the rope.
subsequently or soon afterward (often used as sentence connectors)
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
move fast, noisily, and heavily
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
closely constrained or constricted or constricting
From this reading "Howd tight, lad!"
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
in contact with each other or in proximity
From this reading "All together, lads!
the distinctive quality or pitch or condition of a person's speech
From this reading Then he felt a snatch, and a voice like thunder brought him to himself.
Chapter 4 of Dick o' the Fens by George Manville Fenn holds 405 sentences, grouped into 81 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 4 holds 405 sentences of Dick o' the Fens, unabridged, divided into 81 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 4 of Dick o' the Fens by George Manville Fenn exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 405 sentences, grouped into 81 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 81 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 81 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 4 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading Dick o' the Fens by George Manville Fenn on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 6997 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #21306 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #21306, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 583 minutes of reading across 1400 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Dick o' the Fens section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 17 chapters of Dick o' the Fens to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in Dick o' the Fens, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
