If it please you give me a husband, him do I purpose to love, but none other; for that, since of the inheritance of my ancestors nought is left me save only honour, this latter I mean to keep and preserve as long as life shall endure to me.'
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

The seeds of some plants will remain dormant for years, and then suddenly spring up in profusion; for instance, the plant commonly known as peabush, a leguminous annual (botanically Sesbania aegyptica), has only a periodical growth, and at such times, varying for many years, it covers the plains in such rank masses that the stockriders get quite bewildered when searching for stock through its scrublike density; for several years after this abundant growth, the plant will scarcely be noticeable; it is said that every three years is a peabush year, but [Pg 235] the writer cannot support the theory, as he can only call to mind four or five really bad peabush seasons in a period of thirty years.
— from Early Days in North Queensland by Edward Palmer

“You’ll be remembered as the chronicler of this—what Kettlewell and Perry and Lester are doing.”
— from Makers by Cory Doctorow

As people saw Miss Marten's quiet and rather distant bearing in society, as many admired her chiselled and faultlessly refined features, they little imagined that, as within snowy mountains are volcanic fires, so within her breast was kindling as passionate a love as ever illumined a woman's life with happiness, or consumed it with a smouldering flame.
— from From Jest to Earnest by Edward Payson Roe

They are kept az pets, and like all other pets, are useless.
— from The Complete Works of Josh Billings by Josh Billings

So powerful were the Evangelicals that at the Diet of 1555 they held services in the face of the Catholic king, and passed a law abolishing the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts.
— from The Age of the Reformation by Preserved Smith

We are not certain as to their land, but it is generally thought to have been the country now called Persia, then known as Parthia, a land about a thousand miles to the east of Judea.
— from Hurlbut's Life of Christ For Young and Old A Complete Life of Christ Written in Simple Language, Based on the Gospel Narrative by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut

Volcanic Ash ( Pumicite ) Volcanic ash deposits, which also are known as pumicite , are loose and powdery.
— from Texas Rocks and Minerals: An Amateur's Guide by Roselle M. Girard

Each town formerly kept a profit and loss account of heads with every town of its enemies.
— from The Philippines: Past and Present (Volume 2 of 2) by Dean C. (Dean Conant) Worcester

Mr Bottomley accordingly waited upon Mr Room, who, however, said he had come to the wrong person; he (Mr Room), was not in the habit of addressing kings and princes, and lords and dukes, but he could refer him to a man who was.
— from Adventures and Recollections by Bill o'th' Hoylus End

A mouse was hatched from it, which he fostered in the same way till it became [Pg 86] a kitten, a puppy, a lamb, and at length a sheep [66] with fine white wool, and the sheep was so dear to the boy that he left off weeping and lamenting, and always felt happy and contented, though his lot was still a hard one.
— from The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country by W. F. (William Forsell) Kirby