He came down out of the tangle of ropes under the stays of the smashed bowsprit, some small rope caught his heel as he let go, and he hung for a moment head downward, and then fell and struck a block or spar floating in the water.
— from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Others, again, are named from their domestic or ceremonial uses, as the fleabane ( Erigeron canadense ), called atsil′-sûñʻtĭ , “fire maker,” because its dried stalk was anciently employed in producing fire by friction, and the bugle weed ( Lycopus virginicus ), known as aniwani′skĭ , “talkers,” because the chewed root, given to children to swallow, or rubbed upon their lips, is supposed to endow them with the gift of eloquence.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

What sane man could be sorry that the crime has recoiled upon the culprit?
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

They then disappeared behind foot hills, and did not come to the view of the troops on Missionary Ridge until they met their assault.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

The fable which Goethe so affectingly relates under the title of "The Erl-King" was known two thousand years ago in Greece as "The Demos and the Infant Industry."
— from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

The whole apparatus consists of a board or stand, 50 c/m. long and 40 wide, resting upon two transverse pieces of wood, 3½ c/m. high behind and 1 c/m. in front.
— from Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont

Meanwhile some of the lodgers determined to give the runaway a triumphal reception; they broke the bolt and moved away the screen from Mr. Prohartchin's bed, rumpled up the bed a little, took the famous box, put it at the foot of the bed; and on the bed laid the sister-in-law, that is, a dummy made up of an old kerchief, a cap and a mantle of the landlady's, such an exact counterfeit of a sister-in-law that it might have been mistaken for one.
— from White Nights and Other Stories The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Volume X by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I did not feel dizzy—I suppose I was too excited—and the time seemed ridiculously short till I found myself standing on the window-sill and trying to raise up the sash.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker

ug sakit ang ákung riyúma ug tingtugnaw, My rheumatism bothers me terribly when the weather is cold.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

Wyoming has far more sheep than cattle now, and one of the biggest of the ranches is the former Bar T, run under the 311 Larkin name, in connection with the home ranch in Montana.
— from The Free Range by Francis William Sullivan

Far away on the hills could be seen the marching columns of Longstreet, who had passed through the gap in safety and was now rushing upon the field.
— from Battles of the Civil War by Thomas Elbert Vineyard

(A very drastic measure this last and risky, unless the trade has the closed shop.)
— from The Trade Union Woman by Alice Henry

Angry already, and disliking Curly Pate more than words could say, she rushed up to her now, seized her by the waist, and planted her several feet away from the pond.
— from The Little School-Mothers by L. T. Meade

The genial superintendent, Mr. Ward, spoke of his rambles up the picturesque shores of the inlet and his adventures since he had started his new enterprise.
— from Along Alaska's Great River A Popular Account of the Travels of an Alaska Exploring Expedition along the Great Yukon River, from Its Source to Its Mouth, in the British North-West Territory, and in the Territory of Alaska by Frederick Schwatka

Indolence may tempt him to neglect the self-examination and experience which form his school, and weariness may induce the evasion of the necessary practices; but surely a thought of the prize should suffice to stimulate him to the requisite exertion; and to those who reflect upon the many hours and days devoted by a lover of sweet sounds to gain a moderate facility upon a mere mechanical instrument, it ought to bring a correcting blush of shame if they feel convicted of neglecting the beautiful living instrument wherein play all the powers of the mind."
— from Michael Faraday Third Edition, with Portrait by J. H. (John Hall) Gladstone

and she hastened from the room, unwilling to break down before one who would take such emotion as a sign of yielding.
— from The Purple Fern by Fergus Hume

By the way, I may here remark, that my sporting feeling underwent a great change when I was necessitated to follow and kill game for the support of life, and as a means of subsistence; and the slaughter of deer and buffalo no longer became sport when the object was to fill the larder, and the excitement of the hunt was occasioned by the alternative of a plentiful feast or a banyan; and, although ranking under the head of the most red-hot of sportsmen, I can safely acquit myself of ever wantonly destroying a deer or buffalo unless I was in need of meat; and such consideration for the feræ naturæ is common to all the mountaineers who look to game alone for their support.
— from Beyond the Old Frontier: Adventures of Indian-Fighters, Hunters, and Fur-Traders by George Bird Grinnell

This class of functionaries were very free in their remarks upon the preaching of strangers, who used occasionally to occupy the pulpit of their church--the city betherals speaking sometimes in a most condescending manner of clergy from the provincial parishes.
— from Reminiscences of Scottish Life & Character by Edward Bannerman Ramsay

On the other hand, when we think of three of the other stars mentioned in the list of six, being practically from three to six times farther off than either of them, we come to the conclusion that the form of the nebula, when in its most primitive state, must have been of a very jagged character; a conclusion which is very considerably strengthened when we look at Table VII ., and see that the stars noted in it run up to from twice to not far from thirty times more distant from the sun than α Centauri.
— from New Theories in Astronomy by Willam Stirling