Beer glasses were emptied at a gulp and conversation became a rapid chatter.
— from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane

"I don't feel any lassitude," she explained, "all I want is a little rest; and you had better go elsewhere and come back after romping about for a while."
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao

Besides, if he had gone; what is there of warning in a Bargeman lying on his face? 'A bird flying to the hedge,' was all he thought about it; and came back, and resumed his walk.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

However, as the former had a higher dignity than the latter, this association takes, in the [Pg 278] public mind, the form of an agreement between superiors and inferiors, between patrons and clients, benefactors and recipients.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

That the capture of wild elephants had in any case become a regular practice by 300 B.C. is proved by the evidence of Megasthenes.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell

And being then, from reading Shaftesbury and Collins, become a real doubter in many points of our religious doctrine, I found this method safest for myself and very embarrassing to those against whom I used it; therefore I took a delight in it, practis'd it continually, and grew very artful and expert in drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into concessions, the consequences of which they did not foresee, entangling them in difficulties out of which they could not extricate themselves, and so obtaining victories that neither myself nor my cause always deserved.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

He really did this in not only a civil but a really kind and charitable way.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

Wild creatures found a refuge where The court, well-swept, was bright and fair, And countless birds and roedeer made Their dwelling in the friendly shade.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

These villages, both of them concealed in curves of the landscape, are connected by a road about a league and a half in length, which traverses the plain along its undulating level, and often enters and buries itself in the hills like a furrow, which makes a ravine of this road in some places.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

The romanticists of Germany do not protest against classicism, but against reason, against illumination, against taste, against the eighteenth century.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

A culvert bridged a reedy slough.
— from The Hound From The North by Ridgwell Cullum

Both are connected by a rather small, steeply ascending strip of jungle.
— from My Life and My Efforts by Karl May

At this point, however, we are checked by a reminder of the further action of Congress, "asserting its determination, when the pacification of Cuba has been accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people.
— from Problems of Expansion As Considered in Papers and Addresses by Whitelaw Reid

But there's poor William Whiffletree—he's been through the mill, fought, bled, and died (slightly) with the refined, essential oil of the agony caused by a raging tooth.
— from The Humors of Falconbridge A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes by Falconbridge

“Yes, that’s so,” admitted Charley, blinking and rubbing his chin, “but you know them women, Wiley.
— from Shadow Mountain by Dane Coolidge

He told Bowen that he was neither a deserter nor a conscript, but a refugee, and 331 owed his capture to personal enemies, who would be sure to suffer for it sooner or later; but he did not say that he intended to escape if his captors gave him half a chance, or that he had some good money in his valise.
— from Sailor Jack, the Trader by Harry Castlemon

THE MOSAIC CLUB Prescott was a staff officer and a captain, bearing a report from the Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia to the President of the Confederacy; but having been told in advance that it was perfunctory in its nature, and that no haste was necessary in its delivery, he waited until the next morning before seeking the White House, as the residence of the President was familiarly called at Richmond, in imitation of Washington.
— from Before the Dawn: A Story of the Fall of Richmond by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler

1st.--We left to-day the Duchesne fork, and, after traversing a broken country for about sixteen miles, arrived at noon at another considerable branch, a river of great velocity, to which the trappers have improperly given the name of Lake fork.
— from The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California To which is Added a Description of the Physical Geography of California, with Recent Notices of the Gold Region from the Latest and Most Authentic Sources by John Charles Frémont

It is difficult to assign any fixed proportion between income and rental to suit all cases, but a reasonable basis for the settlement of this point may be found in the assertion that while not less than one-tenth of a man's entire income need be set apart for rent, not more than a sixth, or at the very utmost a fifth should be devoted to this purpose, and this amount ought to include parochial rates and taxes.
— from Enquire Within Upon Everything The Great Victorian Domestic Standby by Robert Kemp Philp

They were very well known in Oxford, not for their beauty alone, but for their gentleness and charity, being always ready to succour the sick and afflicted, and to visit with their own presence any stricken houses where trouble of any kind had entered.
— from For the Faith: A Story of the Young Pioneers of Reformation in Oxford by Evelyn Everett-Green