But there’s one thing—he can have a rope ladder; we can tear up our sheets and make him a rope ladder easy enough.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

He wept the fate of his brother and of Carthage, charged with irresistible fury the advancing squadrons, and might have pursued, and perhaps decided, the victory, if he had not wasted those inestimable moments in the discharge of a vain, though pious, duty to the dead.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Sometimes a daring little fish slips between my fingers, and often a pond-lily presses shyly against my hand.
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

Superstition, also, may have formed another motive, as we learn from a letter written from Adrianople, by Lady Montagu, in 1718, that storks were “held there in a sort of religious reverence, because they are supposed to make every winter the pilgrimage to Mecca.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

I seek in her my Varya; but from the past nothing remains but her fear for my health and her way of calling my salary "our" salary and my hat "our" hat.
— from The Bet, and other stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

‘It seems I am still to look on Staningley as my home: I wish you to make it yours likewise, for Helen is attached to the place and to me—as I am to her.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

“Squire,” said he, “when Dance has had his ale he must, of course, be off on his Majesty's service; but I mean to keep Jim Hawkins here to sleep at my house, and with your permission, I propose we should have up the cold pie and let him sup.”
— from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

She reckoned it up, and it was more than fifteen years since she had heard of any of her acquaintance going to be married, with the one exception of Miss Jessie Brown; and, as she said, it gave her quite a shock, and made her feel as if she could not think what would happen next.
— from Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

" As for M. Verdurin, finding it rather a strain to start laughing again over so small a matter, he was content with puffing out a cloud of smoke from his pipe, while he reflected sadly that he could never again hope to keep pace with his wife in her Atalanta-flights across the field of mirth.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

With the same strict firmness, when, upon a promise he had made of a donative, he found many slaves had been emancipated and enrolled amongst the citizens, he declared that no one should receive anything who was not included in the promise, and he gave the rest less than he had promised them, in order that the amount he had set apart might hold out.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

It was, in short, a most happy circumstance for London that the government of the City fell into the hands of an oligarchy, and still more happy that the oligarchs themselves were under the rule of a jealous and a watchful sovereign.
— from London by Walter Besant

There is scarcely a more harshly-sounding word in the Welsh language—admitted by a clever and satirical author to have "the softness and harmony of the Italian, with the majesty and expression of the Greek"—than the term crack , adopted from the Dutch.
— from Notes and Queries, Number 238, May 20, 1854 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various

Sea and moorland have been converted into green meadows, heath has become arable land, and in the shelter of the West Jute huts grow apple trees and rose bushes, though they certainly require to be sought
— from What the Moon Saw: and Other Tales by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

At successive elections he was successively successful, and maintained his seat for Garrett until his death.
— from The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 2 (of 3) or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac by William Hone

"I'm entirely at your service, and most happy to listen," he answered, in his politest manner, for when Rose put on her womanly little airs he always treated her with a playful sort of respect that pleased her very much.
— from Eight Cousins; Or, The Aunt-Hill by Louisa May Alcott

Suppose a man has never had a pistol in his hand.
— from The Modern Pistol and How to Shoot It by Walter Winans

Another Rothbert, surnamed the Devil, Duke of Normandy, a descendant of old Rolf the pirate, took a hand in these strifes and made himself master of Gisors, Chaumont and Pontoise.
— from The Infant's Skull; Or, The End of the World. A Tale of the Millennium by Eugène Sue

and then I gave the speedy horse his way, and leaning over the shoulder of the galloping horse, I said, ‘Would that my life had been like his—even like that man’s!’ page 186 p. 186 I now wandered along the heath, till I came to a place where, beside a thick furze, sat a man, his eyes fixed intently on the red ball of the setting sun.
— from Lavengro: The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest by George Borrow

After a hasty meal, she and Mr. Hazel worked for a wager.
— from Foul Play by Dion Boucicault

The sun, already mounting high, foretold a day of depressing heat.
— from The Air Ship Boys : Or, the Quest of the Aztec Treasure by H. L. (Harry Lincoln) Sayler