The very dogs were all asleep, and the flies, drunk with moist sugar in the grocer’s shop, forgot their wings and briskness, and baked to death in dusty corners of the window.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

In this plan, what is now Queen street is duly laid down, in direct continuation of the Kingston Road westward, without regard to the engineering difficulties presented by ravines; but it is entitled in large letters, "Dundas Street."
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

They grow almost every where (unless it be in the middle of the street), the yellow most usually in the wet grounds of woods, and sometimes in the dryer, in divers counties of this nation.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

Both in ancient Egypt and Indostan, the whole body of the people was divided into different casts or tribes each of which was confined, from father to son, to a particular employment, or class of employments.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

265 CHAPTER XVIII Shotwell Junior discovered in due course of time the memoranda of the repeated messages which Palla had telephoned to his several clubs, asking him to call her up immediately.
— from The Crimson Tide: A Novel by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

These letters, remaining uncalled for, became "dead" in due course of time, and were returned with their contents to their authors; doubtless refreshing the heart of many a sorrowing minister, who supposed that he had seen the last of his money, and had given up all hopes of receiving the promised quid pro quo .
— from Ten Years Among the Mail Bags Or, Notes from the Diary of a Special Agent of the Post-Office Department by James Holbrook

A fourth time the alarm was given; and now the men on the roof came down in despair, crying out that they could not extinguish it, and calling on their officer for God’s sake to let them leave the building, or they should all be burnt alive.
— from The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada by Francis Parkman

For days together the Battery was crowded with anxious watchers, from the first breaking of the cold, grey dawn till night dropped its dark curtain on the scene.
— from Triumphs of Invention and Discovery in Art and Science by J. Hamilton (James Hamilton) Fyfe

Instead of driving in dry clay on the top of the composition, a little plaster of paris may be pressed in; this, when dry, will allow of a perfectly clean hole being bored through it; whereas the clay is apt to crumble, and chip out.
— from The Pyrotechnist's Treasury; Or, Complete Art of Making Fireworks by Thomas Kentish

Anyone of sensibility will sit on the rock-rim for hours, possibly days, in dumb contemplation of the beauty and immensity.
— from Ranching, Sport and Travel by Thomas Carson