"Do I look like a rabbit, sir?"  From The Tame Fox and Other Sketches by G. Finch Mason, 1897.

"The very ticking of the clock filled us with alarms," from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1897.

"'It burns bravely,' laughed the old woman."  From Bladys of the Stewponey by Sabine Baring-Gould and illustrated by F. H. Townsend, 1897.

An illustration from Comic History of Greece by Charles Snyder (1898).  The caption reads: "Then the plunge in consommé."

An illustration from Napoléon et Son Temps by Roger Peyre (1896).

"As she spoke, she dashed the contents of the water-jug she held ... right into the dark corner by the clock."  From The Duchess Lass by Caroline Masters, 1896.

From The Silence of Dean Maitland by Maxwell Gray, 1896.

The silent groves, from Sibyl Falcon by Edgar Alfred Jepson, 1895.

Many have speculated about the origin of the alphabet, but the truth is quite literally far-flung: like meteorites, the letters were excavated from the highest mountain peaks, as we see in The Marvellous Adventures of Sir John Maundevile, 1895.  The caption reads, "And they found the same letters."

Here's a precursor to the expression, "Hey, four-eyes."  From A String of Chinese Peach-Stones by William Arthur Cornaby, 1895.

Pictured first is an ancient precursor to the Rabbit-Duck Illusion (1892), excavated from the Hopewell Mound City Group in Ohio and depicted in The Antiquarian (1897).

An illustration from The Kitchen Maid by J Bernard Partridge (1896).

An illustration from A Diplomatist's Wife in Japan by Mary Crawford Fraser (1899).  The caption reads: "The rabbit and the monkey who live in the moon."

An illustration from The Misfortunes of Elphin and Rhododaphne by Thomas Love Peacock (1897).  The caption reads: "And strikes up 'I'd be a butterfly.'"

An illustration from The Kitchen Maid by J. Bernard Partridge (1896).  The caption reads: "Quick and light, hop! goes the Fairy!"