Up the stump

Science is up the stump. She can't find out why green sorghum should be so quickly fatal to cattle, says an exchange.

He said old Dr. Blank had been attending to him all day, but was “up the stump” and wanted me to help.

Just today I gave his history class a few questions to answer and hand in, but when it came time to answering the last two he was up the stump.

Met him at a dance, a skinny little French-Canadian who shot her a line of bull and put her up the stump before waving goodbye from the troop train.

"I'm real glad that you told me. When your mom and I got married, it was because she was up the stump, you know that, huh?"

You're up the stump, Edith Fulton. You're going to have a baby.