He was lying on the rug before the fire; then, all at once, he got up and crept over to me; he put his head on my lap and gave me one loving look out of his big, soft, dog eyes—and then he just shivered and died.
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Say, gee, I ought to have a car of my own, like lots of the fellows.”
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

770 `What, Not as bisily,' quod Pandarus, `As though myn owene lyf lay on this nede?' `No, certes, brother,' quod this Troilus, `And why?' — `For that thou sholdest never spede.' `Wostow that wel?' — `Ye, that is out of drede,' 775 Quod Troilus, `for al that ever ye conne, She nil to noon swich wrecche as I be wonne.'
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer

John Reynwell, mayor of London, laid one of the first corner stones in the foundation of this work, the other three were laid by the sheriffs and bridge masters; upon every of these four stones was engraven in fair roman letters the name of “Ihesus.”
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

Barry Cornwall has the following story in his Memoir of Lamb:— Lamb, one day, encountered a small urchin loaded with a too heavy package of grocery.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

Instead of skimming more or less lightly over the surface of the lake she was rolling to and fro in the trough of the waves, which were really high.
— from The Corner House Girls on a Houseboat How they sailed away, what happened on the voyage, and what was discovered by Grace Brooks Hill

You who loved little children best Of all the poets that ever sung, Great heart, golden heart, Old, and yet ever young, Minstrel of liberty, Lover of all free, winged things, Now at last you are free,— Your soul has its wings!
— from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke by Henry Van Dyke

My ears have reached no sound of wheels; no note Melodious, of long, luxurious oaths Betokens the traditional dispute (Unsettled from the dawn of time) between The driver and off wheeler; no clear chant Nor carol of Wells Fargo's messenger Unbosoming his soul upon the air— his prowess to the tender-foot, And how at divers times in sundry ways He strewed the roadside with our carcasses.
— from Black Beetles in Amber by Ambrose Bierce

“We are more or less like our neighbors and they estimate our income to the last penny, just as we do theirs.”
— from The Hand of the Mighty, and Other Stories by Vaughan Kester

Edward D. Baker, John T. Stuart, Cyrus Walker, Samuel H. Treat, Jesse B. Thomas, George Forquer, Dan Stone, Ninian W. Edwards, John J. Hardin, Schuyler Strong, A. T. Bledsoe, and Josiah Lamborn—a galaxy of names, each destined to shed more or less lustre on the history of the State.
— from The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Complete by Abraham Lincoln

The Clarkstone having made a successful voyage, and Mr. Polglase’s “lay” as first mate amounting to a respectable sum, he decided to quit the sea, and adopt the more or less lucrative occupation of hotel-keeping.
— from The Ghost Camp; or, the Avengers by Rolf Boldrewood

The maintenance of long lines of communications is hazardous in that it requires excessive guard duty.
— from Operations Upon the Sea: A Study by Edelsheim, Franz, Freiherr von