He kept his love of horsemanship, but he rarely allowed himself a day's hunting; and when he did so, it was remarkable that he submitted to be laughed at for cowardliness at the fences, seeming to see Mary and the boys sitting on the five-barred gate, or showing their curly heads between hedge and ditch.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

The dewy woodland, as he threaded it, was solitary and still: the green fields that succeeded the trees were his own to do as he liked with; the road itself, when he reached it, in that loneliness that was everywhere, seemed, like a stray dog, to be looking anxiously for company.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

I shot head-first off of the bank like a frog, clothes and all on, and struck out for the canoe.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

They will all adhere to the original impression, enriching it with an individuality which will render it before long a familiar complex in experience, and one easy to recognise and to complete in idea.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

At first sight, Pfuel, in his ill-made uniform of a Russian general, which fitted him badly like a fancy costume, seemed familiar to Prince Andrew, though he saw him now for the first time.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

"When all is done (he concludes), human life is at the greatest and the best but like a froward child, that must be played with, and humoured a little, to keep it quiet, till it falls asleep, and then the care is over."
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

The persecutions, too, which have crowned the martyrs, and which Christians of all kinds suffer, try both buildings like a fire, consuming some, along with the builders themselves, if Christ is not found in them as their foundation, while others they consume without the builders, because Christ is found in them, and they are saved, though with loss; and other buildings still they do not consume, because such materials as abide for ever are found in them.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Little by little a film covered his eyes.
— from The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

You must bring a decoy-bird with you, and the instructions which I collected say that you should on arriving enter the circle, holding the bird like a fighting cock , and repeat these lines:— “Ho, Si Lanang, Si Tĕmpawi, Come and let us play at cock-fighting On the border-line between the primary and secondary forest-growth.
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

In the latter case, blasting may be used to loosen the dirt, or the miners may undermine the bank, leaving a few columns of dirt for support; and then these being washed away by the pipe, the whole bank comes tumbling down.
— from Hittel on Gold Mines and Mining by John S. (John Shertzer) Hittell

Episcopal Rites by Law and Free Civil or Religious Celebration by Custom in South Carolina and Georgia 260-263 Chapter XIV.
— from A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3 by George Elliott Howard

My first thought was to deny, but like a flash came the words of Jesus, "He that denieth me before men, him will I also deny before my Father and his holy angels.
— from A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland by Laura S. (Laura Smith) Haviland

Therefore, Mr. Britt lighted a fresh cigar and blew visible smoke rings and inflated invisible mental bubbles and did not pay any more attention to what Prophet Elias was saying outside.
— from When Egypt Went Broke: A Novel by Holman Day

Fire-lighting, however simple, is an operation requiring some skill; a fire is readily made by laying a few cinders at the bottom in open order; over this a few pieces of paper, and over that again eight or ten pieces of dry wood; over the wood, a course of moderate-sized pieces of coal, taking care to leave hollow spaces between for air at the centre; and taking care to lay the whole well back in the grate, so that the smoke may go up the chimney, and not into the room.
— from The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton

Been left a fortune? CRAWSHAW (simply).
— from First Plays by A. A. (Alan Alexander) Milne

Add the chicken with 1 carrot, 1 onion, 2 stalks of celery chopped fine, 1 herb bouquet, 1 bay leaf, a few cloves and allspice and 2 blades of mace, 2 sprigs of parsley and 1 cup of hot water.
— from 365 Foreign Dishes A Foreign Dish for Every Day in the Year by Unknown

Its bark, leaves, and fruit contain an abundant acrid principle with which the Indians of Brazil prepare a slow but certain poison.
— from The Desert World by Arthur Mangin