“Ben Weatherstaff scolds him and makes fun of him, and he hops about and looks as if he understood every word, and I know he likes it.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

She gave him three cards, telling him to play them one after the other, at the same time exacting from him a solemn promise that he would never play at cards again as long as he lived.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

I know not how it is, but in scrutinizing her strange model and singular cast of spars, her huge size and overgrown suits of canvas, her severely simple bow and antiquated stern, there will occasionally flash across my mind a sensation of familiar things, and there is always mixed up with such indistinct shadows of recollection, an unaccountable memory of old foreign chronicles and ages long ago.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

I did not suspect you of being so able a Logician.' 'Ah!
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

Do you think I am ever caught napping at such an hour, and that I have not got lungs and a larynx as well as yourself?
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

The most valuable of these presents, however, were two round plates, one of gold, on which was a sun with rays and the zodiac; this weighed above one hundred marks: the other was of silver, which in a similar manner represented the moon, weighing above fifty marks: both were massive, and of the thickness of the Spanish coin of four silver reals, and as large as a waggon wheel.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

But it is likely that now thou must turn thyself elsewhere, and not against us with thy violence, and not go altogether against law, as thou art now doing."
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

Since the conversion of the Armenians and Iberians, these nations considered the Christians as the favorites, and the Magians as the adversaries, of the Supreme Being: the influence of the clergy, over a superstitious people was uniformly exerted in the cause of Rome; and as long as the successors of Constantine disputed with those of Artaxerxes the sovereignty of the intermediate provinces, the religious connection always threw a decisive advantage into the scale of the empire.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

He did wait, however, and at last a small hired vehicle pulled up at the bottom of the hill, and a person alighted, the conveyance going back, while the passenger began ascending the hill.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

If we don't, they grow presumptuous," and she shot an arch look at Boehmer, who returned it, fingered his beard, and murmured: "Cruel—cruel!" "And even if I wanted to go when the time came, how do you expect me to know so long beforehand?
— from Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson

At this Piédagnel approached Abbé Lantaigne and bowed to him with a half-graceful clumsiness.
— from The Elm-tree on the Mall by Anatole France

‘This was presently reported to the Duke of Buckingham, and, a little after, to the King, who were both very curious to know the circumstances of the business; which was, that after dinner, I took the garter out of the water, and put it to dry before a great fire.
— from Eighteenth Century Waifs by John Ashton

It is now time to tell you next, (according to promise) some observations of the Salmon ; But first, I wil tel you there is a fish, called by some an Umber , and by some a Greyling , a choice fish, esteemed by many to be equally good with the Trout : it is a fish that is usually about eighteen inches long, he lives in such streams as the Trout does; and is indeed taken with the same bait as a Trout is, for he will bite both at the Minnow , the Worm , and the Fly , both Natural and Artificial : of this fish there be many in Trent , and in the River that runs by Salisbury , and in some other lesser Brooks; but he is not so general a fish as the Trout , nor to me either so good to eat, or so pleasant to fish for as the Trout is; of which two fishes I will now take my leave, and come to my promised Observations of the Salmon , and a little advice for the catching him.
— from The Complete Angler 1653 by Izaak Walton

On either side of the street (which was called "the Street of the Pump"), as far as eye could reach looking west, were dwelling-houses just like our own, only agreeably different; and garden walls overtopped with the foliage of horse-chestnut, sycamore, acacia, and lime; and here and there huge portals and iron gates defended by posts of stone gave ingress to mysterious abodes of brick and plaster and granite, many-shuttered, and embosomed in sun-shot greenery.
— from Peter Ibbetson by George Du Maurier

I exposed my ropes and straps for their inspection, and, after a long and careful investigation of all points, they retired, quite satisfied with their visit.
— from My Experiences as an Executioner by James Berry

Some of them will wash a place which is their length, and then will pray vpon the earth with their armes and legs at length out, and will rise vp and lie downe, and kisse the ground twentie or thirtie times, but they will not stirre their right foote.
— from The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 10 Asia, Part III by Richard Hakluyt

lift thy head From dust, and darkness, and the dead; Though humbled long, awake at length, And gird thee with thy Savior's strength.
— from The Otterbein Hymnal For Use in Public and Social Worship by Edmund S. (Edmund Simon) Lorenz

On returning home after a long absence he learns that his father has provided for a cast-off mistress by marrying her to an unsuspecting man who is an old friend of Gregers’.
— from The New Spirit Third Edition by Havelock Ellis

And above all, I said, and as the result of all, see how sensitive the citizens become; they chafe impatiently at the least touch of authority, and at length, as you know, they cease to care even for the laws, written or unwritten; they will have E no one over them.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato