As we passed Mr. Barley's door, he was heard hoarsely muttering within, in a strain that rose and fell like wind, the following Refrain, in which I substitute good wishes for something quite the reverse:— “Ahoy!
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Upon that, agitated anew by their attachment to him, yet honourably disposed to her, Marian uncorked the penny ink-bottle they shared, and a few lines were concocted between the two girls.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy

One at a time, and with great difficulty and labor, the old sails were unbent and sent down by the bunt-lines, and three new topsails, made for the homeward passage round Cape Horn, and which had never been bent, were got up from the sailroom, and under the care of the sailmaker, were fitted for bending, and sent up by the halyards into the tops, and, with stops and frapping lines, were bent to the yards, close-reefed, sheeted home, and hoisted.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

The wines of a happier climate are the most grateful present, or the most valuable commodity, that can be offered to the Tartars; and the only example of their industry seems to consist in the art of extracting from mare's milk a fermented liquor, which possesses a very strong power of intoxication.
— 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 had read only a few lines when he turned pale and his eyes opened wide with fear and joy.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

The publicans and their retainers rule the ward meetings (for everybody else hates the worry of politics and stays at home); the delegates from the ward meetings organize as a nominating convention and make up a list of candidates—one convention offering a democratic and another a republican list of incorruptibles; and then the great meek public come forward at the proper time and make unhampered choice and bless Heaven that they live in a free land where no form of despotism can ever intrude.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

And thus he rails at drinking all before ‘em, And for lewd women does be-whore ‘em, And brings their painted faces and black patches to th’ quorum. VI.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

A few scraggy lines, a few sentences now and then, hurriedly written and mailed—often to ease a troubled conscience—mere apologies for letters, which chill the mother heart.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

He stepped in-doors, brought out a book, and when Mrs. Frost arrived to congratulate and be congratulated, she found Mary still on the step, gazing on without seeing the trees and flowers, listening without attending to the rich, soothing flow of Lope de Vega's beautiful devotional sonnets, in majestic Spanish, in Louis's low, sweet voice.
— from Dynevor Terrace; Or, The Clue of Life — Volume 2 by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

Wherefore, forgetting her lover, from that time forth she discreetly forbore both from making mock of others and from loving, whilst the scholar, hearing that the maid had broken her thigh, held himself fully avenged and passed on, content, without saying otherwhat thereof.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

It is only where ores are fortunately located with reference to consuming centers that the low-grade deposits can be used.
— from The Economic Aspect of Geology by C. K. (Charles Kenneth) Leith

A few logs were stranded along shore.
— from The Rules of the Game by Stewart Edward White

Mr. Hazeldean therefore, caught at the proposal even as a fair lady, who has refused the best offers in the kingdom, catches at last at some battered old Captain on half-pay, and replied that, as for rent, if the solicitors client was a quiet respectable man, he did not care for that.
— from International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1, No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850 by Various

And whenever Hiawatha Came from fishing or from hunting, When the evening meal was ready, And the food had been divided, Gliding from their darksome corner, Came the pallid guests, the strangers, Seized upon the choicest portions Set aside for Laughing Water, And without rebuke or question Flitted back among the shadows.
— from The Story of Hiawatha, Adapted from Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I amused myself with a calculation of the probable number of persons who thus every day, between eight and six, pass to and from London within a distance of seven miles.
— from A Morning's Walk from London to Kew by Phillips, R. (Richard), Sir

There were also a few ladies who had not been imported.
— from The Simple Adventures of a Memsahib by Sara Jeannette Duncan

Not, however (as he acknowledged to himself), that that would have been of much advantage; for Leonard was too much absorbed in ‘love’s young dream’ to be likely to discuss such things coolly and critically.
— from The Devil-Tree of El Dorado: A Novel by Frank Aubrey