HE whole sky had been overcast with rain-clouds from early morning; it was a still day, not hot, but heavy, as it is in grey dull weather when the clouds have been hanging over the country for a long while, when one expects rain and it does not come.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

But even supposing that this sensation of being "overwhelmed" were really able to suggest religious ideas, it could not have produced this effect upon the primitive, for he does not have it.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

Its yellow rays partially illumined the spacious kitchen, dying duskily away into remote corners, except where they settled in mellow radiance on the broad side of a flitch of bacon or were reflected back from well-scoured utensils that gleamed from the midst of obscurity.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

The motive of the Apostle here is at once to emphasize the universality of the genuine Gospel, which has been offered without reserve to all alike, and to appeal to its publicity, as the credential and guarantee of its truth: see the notes on ver.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon A revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations by J. B. (Joseph Barber) Lightfoot

When he turned the tap, however, lo and behold, the best of wine ran out!
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

For instance, it is supposed that the myth of Demeter and Persephone was explained by the teachers of the Mysteries to signify the temporary loss which mother earth sustains every year when the icy breath of winter robs her of her flowers and fruits and grain.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens

The little girl sits up in the coffin and looks round, smiling with wide-open wondering eyes, holding a bunch of white roses they had put in her hand.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

the billeting orders were read, the officers were in haste to go on to the village, and the man on horseback did not appear.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

In primitive times hollow trees were doubtless occupied more generally than at present by all birds, just as now they are constantly used as hospitia by our winter residents during disagreeable weather.
— from Nests and Eggs of Birds of the United States Illustrated by Thomas G. (Thomas George) Gentry

This was soon interrupted by some wild fellow, who broke out with: "Raccoon up a gum-stump, opposum up a holler"— Next came "Rally round the flag, boys," roared out by half a hundred throats, and all the popular songs of the day were sung as solos, duets or choruses—all, except "Dixie," for this was not a "Dixie" crowd.
— from Brother Against Brother; or, The Tompkins Mystery. A Story of the Great American Rebellion. by John R. (John Roy) Musick

You once attempted my life in honourable combat, why not wait, then, until a fitting opportunity shall give not a bound and defenceless victim to your steel, but one whose resistance may render him a conquest worthy of your arm?" "What! and be balked of the chance of my just revenge?
— from Wacousta : a tale of the Pontiac conspiracy (Complete) by Major (John) Richardson

Along the bottom of the sun-brimmed vale sparkles the river, between its banks of wild rose and convolvulus, with here and there a clump of grey-green willows, here and there a red-and-white bridge.
— from By Canadian Streams by Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone) Burpee

But his chief reason for believing that Romney might be occupied without risk to a junction between himself and Johnston lay in the impassable condition of the Virginia roads.
— from Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War by G. F. R. (George Francis Robert) Henderson

To Mr. and the Misses Sherman :— Let me express to you my profound sympathy in your great sorrow, which is shared by one who recalls in a quarter of a century of friendship such continued acts of kindness as cannot be forgotten.
— from Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman. Late Retired General. U. S. A. by Willis Fletcher Johnson

The men all carried their machetes (large cutlasses, the blades of which range from [25] eighteen to thirty-six inches in length) in sheaths at their side, and two or three of the more gaily dressed wore colored sashes around their waists.
— from A Journey in Southeastern Mexico by Henry Howard Harper

“The building,” he says, 637 “was constructed of sun-dried bricks, forming four walls, the base of which rested upon a substruction of solid stone-work.
— from History of Phoenicia by George Rawlinson

I began to ascend a hill forming the eastern side of an immense valley, at the bottom of which rolled the river.
— from Wild Wales: The People, Language, & Scenery by George Borrow

But even the best of wits require opportunity, and to Patsy the immediate outlook seemed barren of such.
— from Seven Miles to Arden by Ruth Sawyer