A monstrous big lumber-raft was about a mile up stream, coming along down, with a lantern in the middle of it.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Of their all closing about Dora, when at last she begins to say good-bye, looking, with their bright colours and ribbons, like a bed of flowers.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The characters are drawn with amusing life-likeness, and must have been copied from well-known originals.
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol III, No 13, 1851 by Various

The young man consults a doctor, with a long discourse of his symptoms: he has read a book on indiscretions of youth; feels badly; has had erotic dreams once a month; is “nervous,” feels languid, and apprehends danger.
— from Sexual Neuroses by J. T. (James Tyler) Kent

Rejoice not for thy greatness nor for the beauty of that body which is corrupted and disfigured with a little sickness.
— from Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6 by Charles Herbert Sylvester

Yet although the windows of the corridor and dormitory were all left wide open, and every other precaution was taken, it was impossible to get rid of the fumes of tobacco so entirely as to avoid all chance of detection.
— from St. Winifred's; or, The World of School by F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar

He could and did write admirable light verse; his wit in conversation is attested in the most final fashion by his enemy Horace Walpole, and some of the passages in the letters where he indulges in description or even dialogue are by no means unworthy of the best genteel comedy of the time.
— from A Letter Book Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing by George Saintsbury

The next day was cold and dismal, with a leaden sky threatening snow, and a bitter wind blowing that searched the very marrow of one's bones.
— from The Alchemist's Secret by Isabel Cecilia Williams

[ Contents ] SALAD CHEESE BALLS Use equal quantities of Neufchâtel cheese and grated American (or Parmesan) cheese, sprinkle with cayenne, and dampen with a little melted butter.
— from The Golden Rule Cook Book: Six hundred recipes for meatless dishes by M. R. L. (Maud Russell Lorraine) Sharpe

What a nuisance it would be were he stopped and obliged to tarry for some hours till the road was repaired, tarry in cold and darkness, without a lamp in his carriage, caged in with that pretty, coquettish, dangerous minx, and with no third party present to serve as his protector.
— from The Pennycomequicks, Volume 1 (of 3) by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

"De plantation am planted in cotton, mostly, with de corn and de wheat a little, 'cause massa don't need much of dem.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Texas Narratives, Part 1 by United States. Work Projects Administration

At length, however, there came a day when, after lying for a little space with closed eyes, she said: "Do you know, Miss Hermy, what the one wish is I have now left in this world?"
— from The Heart of a Mystery by T. W. (Thomas Wilkinson) Speight