It was a boy less than ten years of age, ragged, very small, yellow, with an odd phiz, a vivacious eye, an enormous amount of hair drenched with rain, and wearing a contented air.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

this animal feeds on flesh, roots, bugs, and wild fruits.—it is very clumsy and runs very slow.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

The lesions of the stomach are neither characteristic nor, as a rule, very striking.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess

slǽpan , pt. slép ; a reduplicating verb, see Douse, p. 48.
— from A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580 by A. L. (Anthony Lawson) Mayhew

“What garden?” he said in a rough voice, stopping his digging for a moment.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

If I had been born of a more irregular complexion, I am afraid I should have made scurvy work; for I never observed any great stability in my soul to resist passions, if they were never so little vehement: I know not how to nourish quarrels and debates in my own bosom, and, consequently, owe myself no great thanks that I am free from several vices: “Si vitiis mediocribus et mea paucis Mendosa est natura, alioqui recta, velut si Egregio inspersos reprehendas corpore naevos:”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

The most natural, though not ultimately the most defensible, hypothesis to adopt in the first instance, at any rate as regards visual sense-data, would be that, though physical objects cannot, for the reasons we have been considering, be exactly like sense-data, yet they may be more or less like.
— from The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

But tho' there is so little Care, as I have observed, taken, or Observation made of the natural Strain of Men, it is no small Comfort to me, as a Spectator , that there is any right Value set upon the bona Indoles of other Animals; as appears by the following Advertisement handed about the County of Lincoln , and subscribed by Enos Thomas , a Person whom I have not the Honour to know, but suppose to be profoundly learned in Horse-flesh.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

She ensconced herself on a red velvet seat, and gazed at the Turners with unseeing eyes until she saw the familiar figure enter the room.
— from The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

"The seed sown was afterwards fertilized by some monks preaching a kind of half truth, as regarded doctrine, and reproving vices; so that in a little time we saw (in that country) a strange alteration.
— from Letters of John Calvin, Volume II Compiled from the Original Manuscripts and Edited with Historical Notes by Jean Calvin

A large tablet, beautifully executed in relief, stood behind the altar, representing various saints, with an inscription stating that it was erected by Governor Francisco Antonio del Valle and his wife in 1761.
— from The Old Santa Fe Trail: The Story of a Great Highway by Henry Inman

Austria's hopes and aims are reflected very strikingly in an Order of the Day, dated June 14, compiled from Field Marshal Boroevic's proclamation and circulated among the troops of the 3d Regiment over Commander Mitteregger's signature.
— from New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, No. 1, July 1918 by Various

Of these landscape drawings, some are of extended and really vast stretches of country.
— from Scribner's Magazine, Volume 26, July 1899 by Various

There was an allusion, vague and delicate in itself, to the eventful conversation with Waife in reference to Sophy—a sombre, solemn farewell conveyed to her and to hope—a passionate prayer for her happiness—and then an abrupt wrench, as it were, away from a subject too intolerably painful to prolong—an intimation that he had succeeded in exchanging into a regiment very shortly to be sent into active service; that he should set out the next day to join that regiment in a distant part of the country; and that he trusted, should his life be spared by war, that it would be many years before he should revisit England.
— from What Will He Do with It? — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

Listen," said the lady in a resolute voice, stopping short, facing Pasha.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

“This is a regular valet, sir.”
— from The Queen's Scarlet The Adventures and Misadventures of Sir Richard Frayne by George Manville Fenn

Soon after his arrival, a three days’ fast was observed throughout the dukedom, and in every church, from the Cathedral of Bayeux to the smallest and rudest village shrine, crowds of worshippers were kneeling, imploring, many of them with tears, that God would look on them in His mercy, restore to them their Prince, and deliver the child out of the hands of his enemies.
— from The Little Duke: Richard the Fearless by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge