She'd left Britain halfway through high school and she'd never felt at home here, no matter that she'd married a boy from Petaluma and raised a son here.
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

He captured various specimens and returned, and some had eyes and some hadn't.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Now we are making a railway, are standing here philosophising, but two thousand years will pass—and of this embankment and of all those men, asleep after their hard work, not one grain of dust will remain.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

When I got back to the count’s I was told he was in the country, and would not be back till the next day, and that in the meantime my trunks had been taken to the inn where a room and supper had been ordered.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

It was further made interesting, by the remarkable experiences of Jesse Hexam in having rescued from the Thames so many dead bodies, and for whose behoof a rapturous admirer subscribing himself 'A friend to Burial' (perhaps an undertaker), sent eighteen postage stamps, and five 'Now Sir's to the editor of the Times.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

The spontaneous bounty of nature appears to have bestowed the harvests of Ukraine, the produce of a rude and savage husbandry; and the endless exportation of salt fish and caviare is annually renewed by the enormous sturgeons that are caught at the mouth of the Don or Tanais, in their last station of the rich mud and shallow water of the Mæotis.
— 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 spoke in wrath and high disdain; And, laying down his golden chain, Gift of his sire Mahendra, dared The demon, for the fray prepared; Seized by the horns the monster, vast As a huge hill, and held him fast, Then fiercely dragged him round and round, And, shouting, hurled him to the ground.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

And ocean with a roar and swell Heaved wildly when the mountains fell.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

I would have made a few comments, and requested a short history of the place from the surly owner; but his attitude at the door appeared to demand my speedy entrance, or complete departure, and I had no desire to aggravate his impatience previous to inspecting the penetralium.
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

In one of these cells were several globes, or balls, of a most ponderous metal, about the bigness of our heads, and required a strong hand to lift them; the other cell contained a heap of certain black grains, but of no great bulk or weight, for we could hold about fifty of them in the palms of our hands.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World by Jonathan Swift

At this Aladdin fled in terror, but the Dervish, powerless to effect his purpose without the boy’s aid, flew after him in a rage, and smote him over the head, so that he fell to the ground stunned.
— from Sindbad the Sailor, & Other Stories from the Arabian Nights by Anonymous

She walked on, and reached a station, hot and cross.
— from To Let by John Galsworthy

If one is taking part in a campaign where there is a probability of a reverse, a sound horse may be useful; but one felt on the present occasion that, if any running away was to be done, it would not fall to our lot.
— from The Downfall of the Dervishes; or, The Avenging of Gordon by Ernest Nathaniel Bennett

It is surmounted first by a lintel, the stones above which are wedges forming a ‘flat arch,’ and then by a round arch so high as to run up behind the westernmost arch of the arcading.
— from Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ripon A Short History of the Church and a Description of Its Fabric by Cecil Walter Charles Hallett

"That's it—something against all reason; and so he lost his practice here and went up to Lunnun.
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XI.—April, 1851—Vol. II. by Various

Russia Asia Rwanda Africa Saint Helena Africa Saint Kitts and Nevis Central America and the Caribbean Saint Lucia Central America and the Caribbean Saint Pierre and Miquelon North America Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Central America and the Caribbean Samoa Oceania San Marino Europe Sao Tome and Principe Africa
— from The 2003 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

How faultily faultless and repellent are some, how strangely some charm us and appeal to us!
— from One Year Abroad by Blanche Willis Howard

And so the folks from Maine, who had made a rough and simple house in the wilderness into a home, began to gather together their belongings and pack up.
— from Roosevelt in the Bad Lands by Hermann Hagedorn

"Then, if you please, sir, since I am rather awkwardly situated here, I should like very much to see Miss Grace this morning."
— from The Way of a Man by Emerson Hough

“I trow, Mother,” answered Robin, again smiling, “he searched every whither but the right.
— from Robin Tremayne A Story of the Marian Persecution by Emily Sarah Holt