The old housekeeper answered the summons with all dispatch; and dropping a curtsey at the door, waited for orders.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Lieutenants in the army get about a dollar a day, and common soldiers a couple of cents.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

My dog's brain serves only my dog's purposes; but my brain labors at a knowledge which does nothing for me personally but make my body bitter to me and my decay and death a calamity.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw

The same Penottus speaks of an excellent balm out of Aponensis, which, taken to the quantity of three drops in a cup of wine, [4136] will cause a sudden alteration, drive away dumps, and cheer up the heart.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

The perfect equality of men is the point in which the extremes of democracy and despotism are confounded; since the majesty of the prince or people would be offended, if any heads were exalted above the level of their fellow-slaves or fellow-citizens.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

I have proved what he will do, where devoted, when, in 1817, thirty-two firelocks of my guard attacked, defeated, and dispersed a camp of fifteen hundred men, slaying thrice their numbers.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

In California, men who profess to be journalists, and so obtain free dinners and drinks, are called “literary BUMMERS .”
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

and me did part, Yet both did swear we never would remove; In sign thereof I bid her take my heart, Which did, and doth, and can not choose but love.
— from Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles: Phillis - Licia by Thomas Lodge

From such a tragic passage, death, and death alone, could save me; and it is no fault of mine if I continue to exist.
— from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson

but i could still see and hear for days and days a council of war was held about me every afternoon and wireless reports sent to london save the cockroach even if you lose the ship wirelessed the admiralty england must stand by the smaller nations and every hour the surgeon gave me another hypodermic at the end of four weeks the cabin boy who had been thinking deeply all the time suggested that a plug of wood be inserted in my place which was done and i fell to the deck well nigh exhausted the next day i was set on shore in the captains
— from Shandygaff A number of most agreeable Inquirendoes upon Life & Letters, interspersed with Short Stories & Skits, the whole most Diverting to the Reader by Christopher Morley

All these things produced great discontent and disaffection among Caesar's friends and throughout the Roman army.
— from Cleopatra by Jacob Abbott

One only delivers a distinct and consistent message.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 20, October 1874‐March 1875 by Various

In speaking of this, Hauser says that he thinks that I have a more correct idea of mountain heights, distances and directions, and can follow a direct course through dense timber more unerringly than any man he knows, except James Stuart—a compliment which I accept most graciously.
— from The Discovery of Yellowstone Park Journal of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870 by Nathaniel Pitt Langford

However slight might be the murmur against quoits, bowls, or shooting at the butts, it is plain that the baiting of bulls, bears, or badgers, the loud, and possibly lewd folk-songs, the noisy dancing parties, would pass the bounds of decency and decorum, and cry out for suppression.
— from Byways in British Archaeology by Walter Johnson

Roderick MacArthur and I tried to make a trip at the time through the wilderness of Mexico together in an old Ford which belonged to him; the road did not exist yet, so we went together in this old broken down Ford, drove, drove and drove a couple of days with no roads, and finally one evening—— Mr. Jenner .
— from Warren Commission (09 of 26): Hearings Vol. IX (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

“I do not like it at all,—it is so dark and dirty and close.
— from Bertha's Christmas Vision: An Autumn Sheaf by Alger, Horatio, Jr.