This was the most difficult part of our duty: as it required much skill to take everything necessary off and not to cut or injure the hide.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

Especially is this so at sea, where smoke, slack wind, and intervening rigging make signals hard to read, though they are almost the only means of communication.
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

This was my dismissal, and I reentered my stateroom.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne

This, indeed, may be justly inferred from the speeches which he made upon both those occasions; as when he says, “I shall ever be the same, and shall never change my conduct, so long as I retain my senses; but to avoid giving a bad precedent to posterity, the senate ought to beware of binding themselves to the acts of (234) any person whatever, who might by some accident or other be induced to alter them.”
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

All this time the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only not under any surprise as I was; and he said a thousand kind and tender things to me, to compose and bring me to myself; but such was the flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into confusion: at last it broke out into tears, and in a little while after I recovered my speech; I then took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer, and we rejoiced together.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

He handed over the book, and I read: Moran , Sebastian , Colonel .
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

But the Scythians, whenever they saw that the Persians were disquieted, then in order that they might remain a longer time in Scythia and in remaining might suffer by being in want of everything, would leave some of their own cattle behind with the herdsmen, while they themselves rode out of the way to another place, and the Persians would come upon the cattle and take them, and having taken them they were elated at what they had done.
— from The History of Herodotus — Volume 1 by Herodotus

Precisely a century and a year after this of Puritanism had got itself hushed up into decent composure, and its results made smooth, in 1688, there broke out a far deeper explosion, much more difficult to hush up, known to all mortals, and like to be long known, by the name of French Revolution.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

Looking round as I resumed my seat, I found both the brothers intent upon me.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

"I fear she is very weak and ill," replied Mr. Seagrave; "nothing but fine weather will do her any good.
— from Masterman Ready by Frederick Marryat

And if readers mark such docility at those years, they will find considerable meaning in it.
— from History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 14 by Thomas Carlyle

The effect of the canal on live stock is thus summed up: “During this entire period Classes II and III raised more stock in proportion to their population than did Class I. At the [Pg 161] beginning of the period in 1820, Class II in Sections A and B and Class III in Section C raised the greatest number of horses.
— from The Great American Canals (Volume 2, The Erie Canal) by Archer Butler Hulbert

But in spite of all this, in spite of its pretty girls—and Jefferson insisted that in this one important particular New York had no peer—in spite of its comfortable theatres and its wicked Tenderloin, and its Rialto made so brilliant at night by thousands of elaborate electric signs, New York still had the subdued air of a provincial town, compared with the exuberant gaiety, the multiple attractions, the beauties, natural and artificial, of cosmopolitan Paris.
— from The Lion and the Mouse; a Story of an American Life by Arthur Hornblow

Fresh life came to me, and I read my second act with more confidence than the first.
— from My Memoirs, Vol. III, 1826 to 1830 by Alexandre Dumas

I tried smiling at them but they appeared too astonished to appreciate our friendliness and in return merely stared with open mouths and eyes.
— from Camps and Trails in China A Narrative of Exploration, Adventure, and Sport in Little-Known China by Roy Chapman Andrews

As soon as I recovered my senses I tore up the stairs about three at a time.
— from Confessions of a Young Lady: Her Doings and Misdoings by Richard Marsh

They have seen an angel, who has testified to them, and they will have to bear witness to the truth of what I have said, for now they know for themselves that I do not go about to deceive the people, and I feel as if I was relieved of a burden which was almost too heavy for me to bear, and it rejoices my soul, that I am no longer to be entirely alone in the work.
— from New Witnesses for God (Volume 2 of 3) by B. H. (Brigham Henry) Roberts

But bad as this may be, it can be nothing in comparison with the pains I suffered from the same cause, as I recovered my senses.
— from The Story of Francis Cludde by Stanley John Weyman