“Do you know, friend,” asked the scout, gravely, and perhaps with a little of the pride of conscious deserving in his manner, “that this is a band of rangers chosen for the most desperate service, and put under the command of one who, though another might say it with a better face, will not be apt to leave them idle.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

but I receiv'd as much pleasure under the circumstances, sitting there, as I have had from the best Italian compositions, express'd by world-famous performers.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

Yorick, I said, picked up the chesnut which Phutatorius's wrath had flung down—the action was trifling—I am ashamed to account for it—he did it, for no reason, but that he thought the chesnut not a jot worse for the adventure—and that he held a good chesnut worth stooping for.—But this incident, trifling as it was, wrought differently in Phutatorius's head: He considered this act of Yorick's in getting off his chair and picking up the chesnut, as a plain acknowledgment in him, that the chesnut was originally his—and in course, that it must have been the owner of the chesnut, and no one else, who could have played him such a prank with it: What greatly confirmed him in this opinion, was this, that the table being parallelogramical and very narrow, it afforded a fair opportunity for Yorick, who sat directly over against Phutatorius, of slipping the chesnut in—and consequently that he did it.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

The miller said: ‘The Devil must go out,’ and opened the house-door; then the woman was forced to give up the keys, and the peasant unlocked the closet.
— from Grimms' Fairy Tales by Wilhelm Grimm

It was a whole month ere we could resume our voyage, for we had hard work to persuade Ulysses to come with us.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

We have always had the reputation of being pious, so we will allow them to pick up the corn with us; they don't interrupt our talk, and they scrape so prettily when they bow.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

An attempt on the part of Nicostratus to reassure them and to persuade them to rise proving unsuccessful, the commons armed upon this pretext, alleging the refusal of their adversaries to sail with them as a proof of the hollowness of their intentions, and took their arms out of their houses, and would have dispatched some whom they fell in with, if Nicostratus had not prevented it.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Sir, I shall take it as a singular favour if you will be the bearer of a billet to him, which I shall write in three words; nay, sir, you must give me leave to insist upon it, as you are the only gentleman of our mess whom I can intrust with an affair of this nature.” Fathom, rather than run the risk of disobliging such a punctilious warrior, after having in vain attempted to dissuade him from his purpose, undertook to carry the challenge, which was immediately penned in these words: “SIR,—You have violated my honour in imposing upon Mrs. Minikin your pretended cousins as ladies of virtue and reputation.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Yes, when the hour of battle came, he was almost ashamed to say, "Go it, Figs"; and not a single other boy in the place uttered that cry for the first two or three rounds of this famous combat; at the commencement of which the scientific Cuff, with a contemptuous smile on his face, and as light and as gay as if he was at a ball, planted his blows upon his adversary, and floored that unlucky champion three times running.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

A question naturally arises, why the bills of these birds should be so monstrously out of proportion, and what possible use they can be applied to.
— from Zoological Illustrations, Volume 1 or, Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals by William Swainson

One’s arm and the other’s face had been bandaged 354 after a fashion, and they were waiting until the rebels were all gathered up, when they would go on to Ellisville and be placed under the care of the doctor.
— from A Rebellion in Dixie by Harry Castlemon

A tenant for life, having power to grant a lease, should grant it only in the terms of the power, otherwise the lease is void, and his estate may be made to pay heavy penalties under the covenant, usually the only one onerous on the lessor, for quiet enjoyment.
— from The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton

The spirituous vapors passing up this column are led by a pipe i to the bottom of the second column or rectifier .
— from A Practical Handbook on the Distillation of Alcohol from Farm Products by F. B. (Frederic B.) Wright

“In the afternoon,” says the narrative, “whilst we went for a walk, the steersman put up the Christmas-tree, and on our return the lonely coal-hut shone with wonderful brightness.
— from The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 3 by Frederick Whymper

In shelling this place Admiral Farragut injured some of the property under the charge of the Sisters of Charity.
— from Angels of the Battlefield A History of the Labors of the Catholic Sisterhoods in the Late Civil War by George Barton

At first I think this startled most persons, until they came to find out the real deep nature of the man; and that his broadest humour had its root in a faith which realized, with extraordinary vividness, the fact that God's Spirit is actively abroad in the world, and that Christ is in every man, and made him hold fast, even in his saddest moments,—and sad moments were not infrequent with him,—the assurance that, in spite of all appearances, the world was going right, and would go right somehow, "Not your way, or my way, but God's way."
— from Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet: An Autobiography by Charles Kingsley

I went to the bureau and picked up the case; and it was empty.
— from Arsene Lupin by Maurice Leblanc

I was, therefore, obliged to look out for auxiliaries, sufficiently disinterested to assist me gratuitously, but, knowing that absolute disinterestedness is very rare indeed, I looked for my collaborateurs among the very ones I was charged to watch, but who, in exchange for my protection in the event of their offending, were ready to peach upon their companions in crime and in vice.
— from An Englishman in Paris: Notes and Recollections by Albert D. (Albert Dresden) Vandam

Max Arena is not a guy to pick up the crumbs—or wait around for handouts.
— from The King of the City by Keith Laumer