They worried lest they should see their babies caught up in a pair of long, bony jaws, as sharp as scissors, there to wriggle and crow, until their darlings disappeared within the monster.
"Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks"
William Elliot Griffis
Some four years before its illustrations riveted the name of a stripling artist to that of the world-renowned scholar, Erasmus had fallen ill while a guest in the sunny Bucklersbury home where three tiny daughters and a baby son were the darlings of Sir Thomas More and his wife.
"Holbein"
Beatrice Fortescue
You must excuse me, darlings-Verena, you are nearly grown up; you will see to the others.
"Girls of the Forest"
L. T. Meade