Their work, as it proceeds, they grade and bevel, Or bring it up to plumb or level; First lay their logs, and then with mortar smear, As if directed by an engineer.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

They lay claim, however, to descent from the Suryavansi, and maintain that their great ancestor, Bala or Bapa, was the offspring of Lava, the eldest son of Rama; that their first settlement in Saurashtra was at the ancient Dhank, in more remote periods called Mungi Paithan; and that, in conquering the country adjacent, they termed it Balakshetra (their capital Valabhipura), and assumed the title of Balarae.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

The city was all of gold, compassed with a wall made of the precious stone smaragdus, which had seven gates, every one cut out of a whole piece of timber of cinnamon-tree: the pavement of the city and all the ground within the walls was ivory: the temples of all the gods are built of beryl, with large altars made all of one whole amethyst, upon which they offer their sacrifices: about the city runneth a river of most excellent sweet ointment, in breadth an hundred cubits of the larger measure, and so deep that a man may swim in it with ease.
— from Lucian's True History by of Samosata Lucian

But the influence which the many virtues of Camilla exerted in imposing silence on Lothario’s tongue proved mischievous for both of them, for if his tongue was silent his thoughts were busy, and could dwell at leisure upon the perfections of Camilla’s goodness and beauty one by one, charms enough to warm with love a marble statue, not to say a heart of flesh.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Then, amid a constant coming in, and going out, and running about, and a clatter of crockery, and a rumbling up and down of the machine which brings the nice cuts from the kitchen, and a shrill crying for more nice cuts down the speaking-pipe, and a shrill reckoning of the cost of nice cuts that have been disposed of, and a general flush and steam of hot joints, cut and uncut, and a considerably heated atmosphere in which the soiled knives and tablecloths seem to break out spontaneously into eruptions of grease and blotches of beer, the legal triumvirate appease their appetites.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

But the influence which the many virtues of Camilla exerted in imposing silence on Lothario's tongue proved mischievous for both of them, for if his tongue was silent his thoughts were busy, and could dwell at leisure upon the perfections of Camilla's goodness and beauty one by one, charms enough to warm with love a marble statue, not to say a heart of flesh.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

I'd just been t' hev a pint—it was half after ten i' the fore-noon, when I hev my pint as reg'lar as the clock—and I says to Knowles, as druv up with his waggon, 'You'll get a bit o' barley to-day, Knowles,' I says, 'if you look about you'; and then I went round by the rick-yard, and towart the Treddles'on road, and just as I come up by the big ash-tree, I see the man i' top-boots coming along on a bald-faced hoss—I wish I may never stir if I didn't.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

I can always get a bit of bread the cook has thrown away, and it is quite enough to support him.
— from A Little Princess Being the whole story of Sara Crewe now told for the first time by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Lincoln, General, at Battle of Bemis's Heights, 50, 58 At Diamond Island and Ticonderoga, 114 ; At Manchester in 1777, 394 . Linzee, Captain, of British Sloop of War Falcon, repulsed by Captain Manly, 570 . Lipe, Johannes, House of, 263 .
— from The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 1 (of 2) or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence by Benson John Lossing

Skelp; a blow, to give a blow or blows; a piece cut off:—'Tom gave Pat a skelp': 'I cut off a skelp of the board with a hatchet.'
— from English As We Speak It in Ireland by P. W. (Patrick Weston) Joyce

The sleepy hostler scratched his poll, and could not tell me which way to take; what odds to him who was King, or Pope, so long as he paid his way, and got a bit of bacon on Sunday?
— from Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore

And it seems to me that the speaking eyes of Spinkie, to whom I have just given a bit of biscuit, tell of a similar spirit."
— from Blown to Bits; or, The Lonely Man of Rakata by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

Neil does not then appear to have gone to Edinburgh, but he gave up the pirate, the captain, and ten of her crew to Patrick Grieve, a burgess of Burntisland, who, on the 10th of September, received a commission "to sail with a hired ship" to the Lewis for that purpose.
— from History of the Mackenzies, with genealogies of the principal families of the name by Alexander Mackenzie

Then, as they paused for a moment, from the breastwork in front of them, from the ramparts, and every spot which commanded the trench, a storm of musketry was poured on them; while the gunners swept the crowded mass with grape, and bags of bullets.
— from With Clive in India; Or, The Beginnings of an Empire by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

She became sensible of an emotion passing from them to her, a desire to kneel with them, to share, so to speak, the graces and benedictions obviously bestowed upon them.
— from Quinneys' by Horace Annesley Vachell

Poor, General, at Battle of Bemis's Heights, 49
— from The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 1 (of 2) or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence by Benson John Lossing

Later, when I had grown a bit older, but still being a boy, I had been a drummer for the seventh company; I will have mention this drum once again at a later point.
— from My Life and My Efforts by Karl May

It was like the frenzy that seizes an artist when he wants to get a bit of beauty on canvas in a certain light that may change in 58 the next minute.
— from At the Crossroads by Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa) Comstock