"How shiftless!" cried Annie, indignantly. "What do these men mean by letting their machinery lie out that way? I should think one winter of lying out would hurt it more than three summers of using."英文原著 · 《A Mountain Woman》
"It may seem strange, but I'll explain--I want to learn who are my friends and who are not. I am afraid I wasn't very highly thought of when I left Burton. I was considered rather shiftless.英文原著 · 《Cast Upon the Breakers》
This afternoon I went over my linen supply, and made the shocking discovery that we have only sheets enough to change the children's beds every two weeks, which, it appears, is our shiftless custom. While I was still in the midst of my household gear, with a bunch of keys at my girdle, looking like the chatelaine of a medieval chateau, who should be ushered in but Jimmie?英文原著 · 《Dear Enemy》
His conscience suffered few, if any, twinges for letting this man rest under the shadow of the murder. He genuinely believed that there was not evidence enough to convict; nor was it in him to appreciate the tortures of a vagabond shut up. The scamp deserved what he had got, for robbing a dead body; and in any case such a scarecrow was better off in prison than sleeping out under archways in December. Sentiment was foreign to Keith's character, and his justice that of those who subordinate the fates of the weak and shiftless to the needful paramountcy of the strong and well established.英文原著 · 《Five Tales》
When the wife and children of Galileo's shiftless brother came to take up their abode in the philosopher's home, Sister Maria Celeste feels glad to think that her father has now some one who, however imperfectly, may fulfil the duty of looking after him. A graceful note on Christmas Eve accompanies her little gifts. She hopes that--英文原著 · 《Great Astronomers》
"Just like some folks' shiftlessness."
"They /asked/ it. They asked Mr. Evringham if that girl couldn't ride Essex Maid while he was in the city!"
'Zekiel lifted his eyebrows politely. "Where are their remains to be interred?" he inquired with concern. "Well, not in /this/ family vault, you may be sure. He gave it to them to-night for a fact." Mrs. Forbes smiled triumphantly. " 'I didn't know Eloise remembered her father,' " she mimicked.英文原著 · 《Jewel》