But the youngest child in the room, a boy, with large, earnest eyes, mounted upon a chair behind the window curtains, and looked out into the yard, where the moon was pouring a flood of light on the old gravestone,—the stone that had always appeared to him so dull and flat, but which lay there now like a great leaf out of a book of history.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

Still, “she is a good woman at bottom,” said the lodgers who believed that the widow was wholly dependent upon the money that they paid her, and sympathized when they heard her cough and groan like one of themselves.
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

I happened to come home several hours before my usual time, when I found four gentlemen of the cloth at whist by my fire;—and my Hoyle, sir—my best Hoyle, which cost me a guinea, lying open on the table, with a quantity of porter spilt on one of the most material leaves of the whole book.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

"No, but I read all her pieces, and I know a fellow who works in the office where this paper is printed." "Do you say she makes a good living out of stories like this?"
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

As the army advances and removes farther from its base, it becomes the more necessary to have a good line of operations and of depots which may keep up the connection of the army with its base.
— from The Art of War by Jomini, Antoine Henri, baron de

When a given line of observation seemed to lead to some very dreadful inference they always gave us the benefit of the doubt, leaving it open to further knowledge.
— from Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

First.—The expedition had a great leader, one of those knights combining sagacity with resolution, who glorify the brief period when Spanish prestige was highest.
— from A History of the Philippines by David P. Barrows

I could make a good lesson out of it if I were a parson; but, as it is, I can’t get a tail to my sentences—only I’m sure you feel what I want to say.
— from Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

The language used as to Governor Curry in the North American Review article referred to was as follows: If the inhabitants of these regions were told by a man whom they liked and would believe, as they would Curry, that they were to have autonomous governments like one of the Western Territories of the United States, at the very earliest possible moment, and urged to get ready for it, they could and would, under his guidance.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

Betty Murdoch—round-figured, rosy, high-spirited, a great lover of out of doors, and aged now twenty-two—had been much exercised in her mind as to what Finn would think of her, when he arrived at Nuthill, after the long railway journey from Plymouth.
— from Jan: A Dog and a Romance by A. J. (Alec John) Dawson

Beauty is a thing of great recommendation in the correspondence amongst men; ‘tis the first means of acquiring the favour and good liking of one another, and no man is so barbarous and morose as not to perceive himself in some sort struck with its attraction.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

This is a convenience in some instances, but the unstable nature of the case support is liable to be a disadvantage; a full case suddenly tilted is likely to cause types to be thrown into adjoining boxes; or a galley, leads, or other material on top of the case may slide down back when the case is tipped forward.
— from Type Cases and Composing-room Furniture A Primer of Information About Type Cases, Work Stands, Cabinets, Case Racks, Galley Racks, Standing Galleys, &c. by A. A. (Alexander A.) Stewart

Some shy deer peered out at us from their paddock, and a doe, less timid than the rest, approached us and gave me a good look out of her meek, beautiful eyes.
— from Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 22, August, 1878 by Various

I cherish a great love of old Scottish language.
— from Reminiscences of Scottish Life & Character by Edward Bannerman Ramsay

And thus, surrounded by gipsy, heydukes, jester, peasant-girls, and greyhound, lay one of the wealthiest magnates of Hungary!
— from A Hungarian Nabob by Mór Jókai

I'm just one of the lucky few who has been able to make a good living out of my hobby; I have no axes to grind."
— from The Final Figure by Sam Merwin

It contained a great litter of odd baggage and two Hindu officers who were very luxuriously fitted up with beds and a table.
— from A Dweller in Mesopotamia Being the Adventures of an Official Artist in the Garden of Eden by Donald Maxwell

There will be the same American groups looking out over them, and rocking and smoking, though, alas!
— from Complete Project Gutenberg William Dean Howells Literature Essays by William Dean Howells