“Our Paris correspondent states that a correspondent of the Gaulois gives an interesting account of a conversation with one of the very few surviving spectators of the battle of Waterloo, a widow named Givron, the hundredth anniversary of whose birth is about to be celebrated in the little village of Viesville, Hainault.
— from The Waterloo Roll Call With Biographical Notes and Anecdotes by Charles Dalton

I have seen him so terrify a client or a witness by ceremoniously unfolding this pocket-handkerchief as if he were immediately going to blow his nose, and then pausing, as if he knew he should not have time to do it before such client or witness committed himself, that the self-committal has followed directly, quite as a matter of course.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

“Would ye bring certain death upon us, by telling the Mingoes where we lie?” demanded Hawkeye, sternly; “'Tis a charge of powder saved, and ammunition is as precious now as breath to a worried deer!
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

Passing through the passage into the kitchen Boris could see nothing but thick smoke, a line with washing on it, and the chimney of the samovar through a crack of which golden sparks were dropping.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

But men are in nowise ashamed to perform these things in the theatres, because similar things are carried on in the temples.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Everybody was there; everybody laughed and sang, climbed up and tumbled down; everybody declared that there never had been such a perfect day or such a jolly set to enjoy it; and every one gave themselves up to the simple pleasures of the hour as freely as if there were no such things as care or sorrow in the world.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

The whole world seems to be the scene of such tales, and collectors of folk-lore in many lands have laid claim to the discovery of [ Pg 89] ‘the original’ on which the story of Rip van Winkle is based.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

While I was in this astonishment one of my fellow prisoners spoke to a countryman of his about the horses, who said they were the same kind they had in their country.
— from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African Written By Himself by Olaudah Equiano

By the first of August, we finished curing all our hides, stored them away, cleaned out our vats, (in which latter work we spent two days, up to our knees in mud and the sediments of six months' hide-curing, in a stench which would drive a donkey from his breakfast,) and got in readiness for the arrival of the ship, and had another leisure interval of three or four weeks; which I spent, as usual, in reading, writing, studying, making and mending my clothes, and getting my wardrobe in complete readiness, in case I should go on board the ship; and in fishing, ranging the woods with the dogs, and in occasional visits to the presidio and mission.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

Mine stood at once, as the doctor, in addition to sucking, thrust a couple of fingers up my bottom-hole, and frigged away as fast as he sucked.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

The movement of the spindle is so slow that a casual observer would not notice it, there being only one revolution made in twenty-four hours.
— from Scientific American Supplement, No. 633, February 18, 1888 by Various

Thus the nobles and their allies had insisted that the king’s guard should be disarmed and that its numbers should be fixed; that the judges in royal towns and certain other royal officials should be deprived of their office and be replaced by the appointees of the league; that the king should be subjected to a council of state formed of nobles and churchmen, which body was to intervene in the affairs formerly handled by the king himself, including even the exercise of ordinary judicial authority; that all cases against nobles and churchmen should be tried by a tribunal of three nobles, three churchmen, and three representatives of the towns, and several of the members who were to compose the tribunal (all of them opponents of the king) were named in the document of these demands; and that there should be a right of insurrection against the king if he should contravene the last-named provision.
— from A History of Spain founded on the Historia de España y de la civilización española of Rafael Altamira by Rafael Altamira

They went along for a couple of hundred yards in one direction, but there was nothing to be seen; then a couple of hundred yards in the other direction, but there was nothing visible there.
— from Dick o' the Fens: A Tale of the Great East Swamp by George Manville Fenn

Philo, the great Jewish authority, took the same ground, and wrote mainly to show the allegorical character of all the sacred books.
— from The Eliminator; or, Skeleton Keys to Sacerdotal Secrets by Richard B. (Richard Brodhead) Westbrook

It seems that a chief of some other island came on a visit to Tararo and took a fancy to her; but she wouldn’t have him on no account, bein’ already in love, and engaged to a young chief whom Tararo hates, and she kicked up a desperate shindy.
— from The Coral Island by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

2. Then in the pan of flour A little salt she threw; A cup of yeast she added, And poured in water, too.
— from Finger plays for nursery and kindergarten by Emilie Poulsson

Peter thought over his bank balance, then started toward a chest of drawers where he kept his checkbook.
— from Birthright A Novel by T. S. (Thomas Sigismund) Stribling

Accompanied by such a sentiment the act could only have been an affront intended and premeditated.
— from The Headless Horseman: A Strange Tale of Texas by Mayne Reid

Scald and skin tomatoes and cut okra into cross sections half inch long.
— from The Story of Crisco by Marion Harris Neil