Charles Dickens

“ The colonel answered sulkily, "I don't mind." He then asked, "How about pretending?"
"We will pretend!" said Alice, "that we are children; not that we are those grown-up people who won't help us out as they ought, and who understand us so badly."
The colonel, still much dissatisfied, growled, "How about waiting I "
"We will wait," answered little Alice, taking Nettie's hand in hers, and looking up to the sky, "we will wait—ever constant and true—till the times have got so changed as that everything helps us out, and nothing makes us ridiculous, and the fairies have comeback. ”

“ Feeling that I must forever tread the earth a branded boy—person, I mean—or that I must clear up my honor, I demanded to be tried by a court-martial. The colonel admitted my right to be tried. Some difficulty was found in composing the court, on account of the Emperor of France's aunt refusing to let him come out. He was to be president. Ere yet we had appointed a substitute, he made his escape over the back wall, and stood among us, a free monarch.
The court was held on the grass by the pond. I recognized, in a certain admiral among my judges, my deadliest foe. ”

“ My peerless bride was, at the period of which we now speak, in captivity at Miss Grimmer's. Drowvey and Grimmer is the partnership, and opinion is divided which is the greatest beast. The lovely bride of the colonel was also immured in the dungeons of the same establishment. A vow was entered into, between the colonel and myself, that we would cut them out on the following Wednesday when walking two and two.
Under the desperate circumstances of the case, the active brain of the colonel, combining with his lawless pursuit (he is a pirate) , suggested an attack with fire-works. ”

“ It's real. You must believe this beginning-part more than what comes after, else you won't understand how what comes after came to be written. You must believe it all; but you must believe this most, please. ”