Late as the Dutch clock showed it to be, the poor woman was still hard at work at an ironing-table; a young child lay sleeping in a cradle near the fire; and another, a sturdy boy of two or three years old, very wide awake, with a very tight night-cap on his head, and a night-gown very much too small for him on his body, was sitting bolt upright in a clothes-basket, staring over the rim with his great round eyes, and looking as if he had thoroughly made up his mind never to go to sleep any more; which, as he had already declined to take his natural rest and had been brought out of bed in consequence, opened a cheerful prospect for his relations and friends.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

"What do you say?" "Well, sir," replies Mr. George, rising erect and looking immense, "I would rather, if you'll excuse me, have nothing to do with this."
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

I bound my head up, removed the remaining traces of blood from my face and then, returning cautiously to the green room, entered and looked about me.
— from The Green God by Frederic Arnold Kummer

The Americans prepared a battery on shore and gallantly repulsed efforts at landing, until at length the British, through pure force of numbers, were able to accomplish this first step.
— from Quaint and Historic Forts of North America by John Martin Hammond

The face was quiet, of a dead pallor; the hair gathered loosely together and held in place by a couple of combs, was predominantly gray, and there had been no effort this time to disguise the bareness of the temples, or the fresh signs of age graven round eyes and lips.
— from The Coryston Family A Novel by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

If I were a poet I should describe him with manners polished to the last perfection, hair flowing in graceful ringlets, eye a little blood-shot, but floating in bewitching languor; hands soft and diamonded; step light and artistic; voice mellow as a flute; boot elegantly shaped; conversation facile, carefully toned, and Frenchy; breath perfumed until it would seem that nothing had ever touched his lips save balm and myrrh.
— from The Abominations of Modern Society by T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage

The latter shall be supplied from the revenues from Government real estate and licenses.
— from The History of Sulu by Najeeb M. (Najeeb Mitry) Saleeby

Josiah Allen looked all around the room, and down on the grass, as if trying to find a good reasonable excuse a layin' round loose somewhere, so's he could get holt of it.
— from Samantha at Saratoga by Marietta Holley

It was German right enough, a little manual of hydrography with no publisher's name on it.
— from Mr. Standfast by John Buchan