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a little saucer of brown
The girl worked busily, dabbing a twist of cloth into a little saucer of brown dye that holds longer than any walnut-juice.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling

another little smudge of blood
Boots had then run down the lane, and another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been hurt.
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Illustrated by Arthur Conan Doyle

a little Spanish owl but
I have been a vixen and a griffin these many days—Sattin has had power to temp me in the shape of van Ditton, the young ‘squire’s wally de shamble; but by God’s grease he did not purvail—I thoft as how, there was no arm in going to a play at Newcastle, with my hair dressed in the Parish fashion; and as for the trifle of paint, he said as how my complexion wanted touch, and so I let him put it on with a little Spanish owl; but a mischievous mob of colliers, and such promiscous ribble rabble, that could bare no smut but their own, attacked us in the street, and called me hoar and painted Issabel, and splashed my close, and spoiled me a complete set of blond lace triple ruffles, not a pin the worse for the ware—They cost me seven good sillings, to lady Griskin’s woman at London.
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

a little ship or boat
A common one is a little ship or boat.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

a long spurt of blood
He put down the body and it began to waddle—with only a long spurt of blood where the head had been; it began to pad away without a sound towards the steep bank that led to the stream. . . .
— from Bliss, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

a large splash of blood
Next morning, at half-past seven, the postman who conveyed letters to the village noticed at the cross-road, not far from the high road, a large splash of blood not yet dry.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

and long stockings of brown
She watched the rough horses, one of which was clipped smooth on the belly, so that he wore a jacket and long stockings of brown fur, stand kissing each other in the wintry morning by the church-yard wall.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

A long series of brilliant
A long series of brilliant engagements will follow, in which the finest talent of the Empire will take part After which the celebrated Infant Prodigy known as “THE YOUNG ACHILLES,” will engage four tiger whelps in combat, armed with no other weapon than his little spear!
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

a little shower of bell
Its music changed as the horses came to a stand, and subsided to a gentle tinkling, except when a horse tossed his head or shook himself and sprinkled off a little shower of bell-ringing.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

a little spent or by
He would have some discreet men to dissuade them, after the fury of passion is a little spent, or by absence allayed; for it is as intempestive at first, to give counsel, as to comfort parents when their children are in that instant departed; to no purpose to prescribe narcotics, cordials, nectarines, potions, Homer's nepenthes, or Helen's bowl, &c. Non cessabit pectus tundere , she will lament and howl for a season: let passion have his course awhile, and then he may proceed, by foreshowing the miserable events and dangers which will surely happen, the pains of hell, joys of Paradise, and the like, which by their preposterous courses they shall forfeit or incur; and 'tis a fit method, a very good means; for what [5699] Seneca said of vice, I say of love, Sine magistro discitur, vix sine magistro deseritur , 'tis learned of itself, but
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

a light stumbling over boxes
CHAPTER XII THE SUBMARINE BELL Kennedy groped about for a light, stumbling over boxes and bags.
— from The Social Gangster by Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve

a land should only be
I sat in the fading light, looking at the beautiful scenery around me, which now for the first time gladdened the eyes of Europeans; and I wondered that so fair a land should only be the abode of savage men; and then I thought of the curious paintings we had this day seen, of the timid character of the natives, of their anomalous position in so fertile a country, and wondered how long these things were to be.
— from Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1 by Grey, George, Sir

advance led steadily onwards by
Driesch's conclusions continue to advance, led steadily onwards by his experimental studies.
— from Naturalism and Religion by Rudolf Otto

a long strip of beautiful
Georgie, kept at home by a delicate baby, sent one delightful box after another; Mary Lou sent a long strip of beautiful lace, wrapped about Ferd's check for a hundred dollars.
— from Saturday's Child by Kathleen Thompson Norris

a little spot of black
Silent, calm as a deep-sea bottom, his glance fixed unwaveringly on a little spot of black earth near Koyala's foot, he awaited her reply.
— from The Argus Pheasant by John Charles Beecham

a living spring opened beside
As men followed this novel route to happiness, a living spring opened beside their way, the spring of charity; and out of this spring arose those two heavenly visitants, Charis and Irene, grace and peace , which enraptured the poor wayfarer, and filled him with a joy which brought all the world after him.
— from St. Paul and Protestantism, with an Essay on Puritanism and the Church of England by Matthew Arnold

a lurid spot of blue
He saw a lurid spot of blue-white flame.
— from The Invaders by Murray Leinster

and lost sight of by
I believe that there is not now in existence—unless it be in a workhouse and unknown to his fellows, or engaged in some other avocation and lost sight of by them—any one who sold “second editions” (the Courier evening paper being then in the greatest demand) at the time of the Duke of York’s Walcheren expedition, at the period of the battle of the Nile, during the continuance of the Peninsular war, or even at the battle of Waterloo.
— from London Labour and the London Poor (Vol. 1 of 4) by Henry Mayhew

a little spot of blood
When his head at last lay back against the chair, the paroxysm over, a little spot of blood showed and spread upon his white lips.
— from The Pomp of the Lavilettes, Complete by Gilbert Parker


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