Side opposit to a rock Situated half a mile from the Shore, about 50 feet high and 20 feet Diamieter, we with dificuelty found a place Clear of the tide and Sufficiently large to lie on and the only place we could get was on round Stones on which we lay our mats rain Continud.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

As melancholy as a gib cat; as melancholy as a he cat who has been caterwauling, whence they always return scratched, hungry, and out of spirits.
— from 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

Now he wore the remains of an old blue cloth suit of his gentlemanly times, a rusty silk hat, and a once black satin stock, soiled and shabby.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

“None o’ your sa’ce!” said Rosa, “I saw you hiding something,—I know yer tricks,” and Rosa seized her arm, and tried to force her hand into her bosom, while Topsy, enraged, kicked and fought valiantly for what she considered her rights.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

ference with Serafina, they retired into another apartment, and he expressed himself to this effect: “You have contracted, my dear child, an habit of calling Madam Clement your mother, and doubtless, by her maternal tenderness and regard, she hath acquired a just title to the appellation.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

But though Avdotya Romanovna shared her anxiety, and was not of timorous disposition, she could not see the glowing light in his eyes without wonder and almost alarm.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The eldest sister, who most likely had more practical experience, retired to the adjoining room; she had a lover to whom she was soon to be married.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

We do not believe that any religious society has authority to try men on the right of property or life, to take from them this world's goods, or put them in jeopardy either of life or limb, neither to inflict any physical punishment upon them: they can only excommunicate them from their society, and withdraw from their fellowship.
— from The Mormons: A Discourse Delivered Before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by Thomas L. (Thomas Leiper) Kane

I opened it, and read as follows:—"We shall be here till four. Take the buggy and drive up to the bungalow, and tell the khitmutghur to bring down the ice-basket, also Mr. Belterton's ice-basket, with a plentiful supply of soda-water from our mess; for they are rather short here, and can't stand a heavy run upon them.
— from Wanderings in India, and Other Sketches of Life in Hindostan by John Lang

Opening to its fullest extent the valve that controlled the exhaustion of air in the chamber beneath, the velocity of the car soon became terrific, and, rising still higher as I sped along, I caught sight of Zarlah's aerenoid proceeding in a northerly direction.
— from Zarlah the Martian by R. Norman (Robert Norman) Grisewood

"You come on!" said the sentinel, but he dropped his musket to the hollow of his arm, and, before he could throw it to his shoulder again, fire flashed under Dixie's feet and the astonished rebel saw horse and rider rise over the pike-fence.
— from The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come by Fox, John, Jr.

Conjectures that there was at that time a royal swannery here are based upon the known fondness of royal personages for preserving that bird, once thought a table delicacy, and upon the existence from ancient times of the famous Abbotsbury swannery, along this same coast.
— from The Hardy Country: Literary landmarks of the Wessex Novels by Charles G. (Charles George) Harper

"Lady Walladmor must have thought the child dreaming: she questioned her; and no doubt heard the same account from her which she afterwards repeated to us all;--how far she was impressed by it, cannot be known: but possibly, at this moment, the silence of the adjoining room struck her as remarkable; at any rate, as the ready means of putting an end to all doubts, she went thither--called probably--receiving no answer, felt about in the darkness for her children's cradles; found them; they were empty--they were cold!
— from Walladmor, Vol. 2 (of 2) "Freely Translated into German from the English of Sir Walter Scott." And Now Freely Translated from the German into English. by Willibald Alexis

“When you go a little further you will find pleasanter things about rods,” said his aunt, knitting, knitting, intensely, as was her habit, and talking as if her mind were a thousand miles away.
— from The Story of Waitstill Baxter by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin