1842, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Snow Flakes”, in Twice-Told Tales, volume 2, Boston: James Munroe & Co., page 160:
Evening—the early eve of December—begins to spread its deepening veil over the comfortless scene; the fire-light gradually brightens, and throws my flickering shadow upon the walls and ceiling of the chamber; but still the storm rages and rattles against the windows. Alas! I shiver and think it time to be disconsolate. But, taking a farewell glance at dead nature in her shroud, I perceive a flock of snow-birds skimming lightsomely through the tempest, and flitting from drift to drift, as sportively as swallows in the delightful prime of summer.
1920 November, Ruth H. Lomnitz, “Interval”, in Western Reserve University Bulletin, volume 23, number 6, Cleveland, Ohio, page 4:
Colette, come thou, dance with me, / Round this gnarled old apple tree, / Every measure lightsomely, / Colette, come thou, dance with me.
1921, Booth Tarkington, Alice Adams, Garden City, New York, Toronto: Doubleday, Page & Co., page 23:
Lightsomely descending the narrow stairway, she whistled as she went, her fingers drumming time on the rail; and, still whistling, she came into the dining-room, where her mother and her brother were already at the table. The brother, a thin and sallow boy of twenty, greeted her without much approval as she took her place. ¶ “Nothing seems to trouble you!” he said. ¶ “No; nothing much,” she made airy response. “What's troubling yourself, Walter?”
1942 May, J. Frank Dobie, “Coyote Traits and Trails”, in Arizona Highways, volume 13, number 5, Phoenix, Arizona: Arizona Highway Department, page 42:
Anyhow, one evening about sundown a smart coyote was trotting across the grass when he put his foot down over a cricket singing his song. He was lightsomely singing “Sereno en Aquellos Campos”—peacefully in those fields—when the coyote's paw cut his song short.
