"Cease your silly talk," said the wagoner.
— from Grimm's Fairy Stories by Wilhelm Grimm

It ceased; yet still the sails made on A pleasant noise till noon, A noise like of a hidden brook
— from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The closer you set the stitches, the more clear and distinct the stars will be.
— from Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont

'Of course you see that she really suffers, when Mr Boffin shows how he is changing?'
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Sing to me of the night you crawled across the temple’s granite plinth p. 252 When through the purple corridors the screaming scarlet Ibis flew In terror, and a horrid dew dripped from the moaning Mandragores, And the great torpid crocodile within the tank shed slimy tears, And tare the jewels from his ears and staggered back into the Nile, And the priests cursed you with shrill psalms as in your claws you seized their snake And crept away with it to slake your passion by the shuddering palms.
— from Poems, with The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde

Marry, good Sir, in some two years, or less, that the woman has been a dweller here in Boston, no tidings have come of this learned gentleman, Master Prynne; and his young wife, look you, being left to her own misguidance—" "Ah!—aha!—I conceive you," said the stranger with a bitter smile.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

“How can you say that, sir?”
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

Though the drawer, acceptor, and indorsers of the bill, should all of them be persons of doubtful credit; yet, still the shortness of the date gives some security to the owner of the bill.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Can you stand the stench of the mud?
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

I will find means to convey you safely to Shanghai—perhaps to Japan or Hong Kong—where you will be secure until further plans may be laid.”
— from In Red and Gold by Samuel Merwin

I can yet see the sheriff torturing the girl accused of stealing: words have gone but not the actions.
— from Voices from the Past by Paul Alexander Bartlett

‘Thus, my dear children, you see the shocking consequence of ever suffering such vile habits to grow upon us; and I hope the example of this unhappy woman (which I assure you is a true story) will be sufficient to warn you for ever, for a single time, being guilty of so detestable a crime, lest you should, like her, by degrees come to experience her fatal punishment.’
— from The Life and Perambulations of a Mouse by Dorothy Kilner

But who is yonder slender youth, With smoothest brow and smoother cheek, And eyes so full of boyhood's truth, And mouth, which closed, yet seems to speak?
— from Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems by James Avis Bartley

ye changeless, ye sublime, That seldom hear a voice save that of Heaven!
— from Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 2 (of 2) by William Howitt

Can you show that spot to us?"
— from The White Crystals: Being an Account of the Adventures of Two Boys by Howard Roger Garis

“Could you smell the sulphur fumes?”
— from Unexplored! by Allen Chaffee

“But you couldn’t see, could you?” said the sergeant, appealingly.
— from The Queen's Scarlet The Adventures and Misadventures of Sir Richard Frayne by George Manville Fenn

"Can you see the skins now?" "They are brown enough," said Matilda.
— from What She Could by Susan Warner