He tells me he is only a man of about seven-score pounds a-year, of little learning more than the law of a justice of peace, which he knows well: a parson’s son, got to be burgess in a little borough in the West, and here fell into the acquaintance of my Lord Arlington, whose creature he is, and never from him; a man of virtue, and comely, and good parts enough; and hath come into his place with a great grace, though with a great skip over the heads of a great many, as Chichly and Duncum, and some Lords that did expect it.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

There were twenty large chickens in one big box, and twenty-seven small ones that had been brought in a long box by themselves.
— from Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888 by Frances Marie Antoinette Mack Roe

The King and his immediate suite were quartered on one of the best boulevards in a large building—the Bank of France—the balcony of which offered a fine opportunity to observe a part of the army of the Crown Prince the next day on its march toward Vitry.
— from Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army — Complete by Philip Henry Sheridan

"Well, you needn't," said Ben, bursting into a laugh, "but you must go on the sleighing party, and without me.
— from Ben Pepper by Margaret Sidney

For years she’d been givin’ directions about where to put the floral wreaths, and listenin’ to wills being read, and all summer long she’d been buried in a little backwoods boardin’ house, where the most excitin’ event of the day was watchin’ the cows come home, or going down for the mail.
— from Odd Numbers Being Further Chronicles of Shorty McCabe by Sewell Ford

You do not reflect that their lifeless forms may be brought in and laid before your eyes at any moment.”
— from The Downfall by Émile Zola

Never more while the bells are calling Rupert's soldiers come riding down; They have ridden, with bugles blowing Into a land beyond our knowing, Never more shall their footsteps falling Haunt the streets of Newbury town.
— from Spun-yarn and Spindrift by Norah M. (Norah Mary) Holland

That is, it is not a hazardous business, but is a light business, as the insurance people call it.
— from Proceedings, Third National Conference Workmen's Compensation for Industrial Accidents by National Conference on Workmen's Compensation for Industrial Accidents

As I was speaking, a goat, the peace-offering of the king, stood before me, and several bunches of plantain lay near by, which had been brought in a little before by [280] his people.
— from The Country of the Dwarfs by Paul B. (Paul Belloni) Du Chaillu

Mrs. Kingsward looked at them from one to another, and at little Betty between busied in a little book, with that baffled feeling which arises in the mind of a delicate woman when the strong individualities and wills of her children become first developed before her, after that time of their youth when all were guided by her decision, and mamma’s leave was asked for everything.
— from The Sorceress (complete) by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant