Of the two sitters one held the rudder-lines, and looked at us attentively,—as did all the rowers; the other sitter was wrapped up, much as Provis was, and seemed to shrink, and whisper some instruction to the steerer as he looked at us.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The spirit of Grimes was upon me, and if I had had a graveyard I would have destroyed all the infidels in Jerusalem.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

A few of the neighboring poor had joined the train, and some children of the village were running hand in hand, now shouting with unthinking mirth, and now pausing to gaze, with childish curiosity on the grief of the mourner.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

I went upstairs mechanically, and she took me to a voluptuous boudoir; she complained of my being the only one who had never paid her a visit, when I was the man she would have preferred to all others, and I had the infamy to give way....
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

We sunk gently on our sides after this bout, but without unsheathing me; and here embracing, kissing and tonguing each other when she turned her head, and sometimes sucking the nearest nipple to me, we soon once more were in a state to renew our delicious combat; and a second course was run in the delightful callipygian recesses of Venus’s second temple of lubricity.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

A wretched being, who had been to the United States as a sailor and had picked up a few words of low English, was put forward prominently to wait upon me, as if I were so ignorant of Japanese as to need an interpreter.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

We may imagine that the early progenitor of the ostrich had habits like those of a bustard, and that as natural selection increased in successive generations the size and weight of its body, its legs were used more, and its wings less, until they became incapable of flight.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

I begin to think, my dear Sir, that the sudden alteration in my behaviour was ill-judged and improper; for, as I had received no offence, as the cause of the change was upon my account, not his, I should not have assumed, so abruptly, a reserve for which I dared assign no reason,-nor have shunned his presence so obviously, without considering the strange appearance of such a conduct.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

"'Twas like him and I knew it was best to come, but when I was nearly there--that was last night, you know--I thought I would wait until morning and hear who were in the house before I showed myself.
— from Sophia: A Romance by Stanley John Weyman

A boy very handsomely dressed waited upon me, and brought my food.
— from Wanderings in India, and Other Sketches of Life in Hindostan by John Lang

I consulted with Tontileaugo on this occasion, and he told me that our old brother Tecaughretanego (which was his name) was a chief, and a better man than he was, and if I went with him I might expect to be well used; but he said I might do as I pleased, and if I staid he would use me as he had done.
— from Captives Among the Indians by Mary White Rowlandson

Maggie went upstairs, Molly and Isabel following her.
— from The School Queens by L. T. Meade

I conceived the idea when the spirit of mischief was upon me, and with the assistance of a mechanic and a little solder, a very common piece was made into a very rare specimen.
— from Collecting as a Pastime by Charles Rowed

Ameghino argues that this creature is still living, while Ur Moreno advances the theory that the animal has been extinct for a long period, and that it was domesticated by a people of great antiquity, who dwelt there prior to the Indians.
— from The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg

The cabin fronted on a street that was seldom used, and the corral ran back to a dry arroyo that was used mainly as a dump for the town's tin cans and dead cats and such; not a particularly attractive place but secluded.
— from Starr, of the Desert by B. M. Bower

Men in the territorial subdivisions can be summoned by the Minister of War for "a period of exercises" in railway work in time of peace; and the fact may be recalled that advantage of this power was taken during the French railway troubles of 1910, when the strikers were required to assume the rôle of soldiers doing railway work under military authority and control.
— from The Rise of Rail-Power in War and Conquest, 1833-1914 by Edwin A. Pratt

My folly was upon me, and I thought it was for me.
— from The Witch of Prague: A Fantastic Tale by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

She deem'd his merits something more than common: All these were unobjectionable matches, And might go on, if well wound up, like watches.
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron