Use of quote marker と before unusual verbs

Question

I'm happy with the purpose of と when it precedes verbs like 言う、聞く、思う etc. The following sentence puzzles me:

おじいさんは「雀は大丈夫かな。」と、大変がっかりしました。

I understand that the man feels disappointed and wonders if the sparrow is alright, but I can't make a sensible translation. Did he say it while feeling disappointed, or did he say it in a disappointed manner? Please explain if this is a shorthand way of saying a longer expression or whether it is common to be able to quote feelings in Japanese.

Here's a slightly different one:

「舌切り雀のお宿はどこだ、ちゅんちゅんちゅん。」と探し回りました。

I know that と is used with sound effects (for want of a better word) so ちゅんちゅんちゅん needs it, but there's a whole sentence in quotes and it needs to be 'said' or 'asked' or 'thought'. It doesn't make sense for it to be 'looked around-ed'.

Answer 1

You can replace と with と思いながら or と思っていて etc if that helps structure them for you. Though I like the elegant ambiguity of not knowing for certain if he's thinking silently or thinking aloud.

I think there is some similarity in English though, when books use italics to represent thoughts without explicitly saying "he thought" or "she thought".

Edit, as requested, example translations:

おじいさんは「雀は大丈夫かな。」と、大変がっかりしました。

Little sparrow, are you ok? worried the old man.

The old man felt miserable. Would the sparrow be all right?

「舌切り雀のお宿はどこだ、ちゅんちゅんちゅん。」と探し回りました。

Chun chun chun the old man searched, Snipped-tongue Sparrow, where are you?

Snipped-tongue Sparrow, where are you hiding? the old man searched. Here? Chun-chun. Here? Chun-chun. Or here? Chun-chun-chun