THE SKETCH BOOKCHRISTMASby Washington IrvingCHRISTMASBut is old, old, good old Christmas gone? Nothing but the hair ofhis good, gray, old head and beard left? Well, I will have that,seeing I cannot have more of him.HUE AND CRY AFTER CHRISTMAS.A man might then beholdAt Christmas, in each hallGood fires to curb the cold,And meat for great and small.The neighbors were friendly bidden,...　

Mark Twain, A Biography, 1907-1910By Albert Bigelow PaineVOLUME III, Part 2: 1907-1910CCLVIHONORS FROM OXFORDClemens made a brief trip to Bermuda during the winter, taking Twichellalong; their first return to the island since the trip when they hadpromised to come back so soon-nearly thirty years before. They had beencomparatively young men then. They were old now, but they found thegreen island as fresh and full of bloom as ever. They did not find theirold landlady; they could not even remember her name at first, and thenTwichell recalled that it was the same as an author of certain...　

A Voyage to Abyssiniaby Father Jerome Lobotranslated from the French by Samuel Johnson.INTRODUCTION by Henry Morley, Editor of the 1887 editionJeronimo Lobo was born in Lisbon in the year 1593. He entered the Order of the Jesuits at the age of sixteen. After passing through the studies by which Jesuits were trained for missionary work, which included special attention to the arts of speaking and writing, Father Lobo was sent as a missionary to India at the age of twenty- eight, in the year 1621. He reached Goa, as his book tells, in 1622, and was in 1624, at the age of thirty-one, told off　

A Mountain EuropaBy John Fox, Jr.TO JAMES LANE ALLENIAs Clayton rose to his feet in the still air, the tree-tops began to tremble in the gap below him, and a rippling ran through the leaves up the mountain-side. Drawing off his hat he stretched out his arms to meet it, and his eyes closed as the cool wind struck his throat and face and lifted the hair from his forehead. About him the mountains lay like a tumultuous sea-the Jellico Spur, stilled gradually on every side into vague, purple shapes against the broken rim of the sky, and Pine Mountain and the Cumberland Range racing in like breake　

The Stolen White Elephantby Mark Twain[Left out of A Tramp Abroad, because it was feared that some of theparticulars had been exaggerated, and that others were not true. Beforethese suspicions had been proven groundless, the book had gone to press.M.T.]The following curious history was related to me by a chance railwayacquaintance. He was a gentleman more than seventy years of age, and histhoroughly good and gentle face and earnest and sincere manner imprintedthe unmistakable stamp of truth upon every statement which fell from hislips. He said:...　

THE HISTORY OF DWARF LONG NOSEIt is a great mistake to think that fairies, witches, magicians,and such people lived only in Eastern countries and in such timesas those of the Caliph Haroun Al-Raschid. Fairies and theirlike belong to every country and every age, and no doubt weshould see plenty of them nowif we only knew how.In a large town in Germany there lived, some couple of hundredyears ago, a cobbler and his wife. They were poor andhard-working. The man sat all day in a little stall at thestreet corner and mended any shoes that were brought him. Hiswife sold the fruit and vegetables 　

William Ewart Gladstoneby James BryceCHAPTER I: INTRODUCTIONNo man has lived in our times of whom it is so hard to speak in aconcise and summary fashion as Mr. Gladstone. For forty years hewas so closely associated with the public affairs of his countrythat the record of his parliamentary life comes near to being anoutline of English politics. His activity spread itself out overmany fields. He was the author of several learned and thoughtfulbooks, and of a multitude of articles upon all sorts of subjects.He showed himself as eagerly interested in matters of classical...　

The Tale of Balenby Algernon Charles SwinburneDEDICATIONTO MY MOTHERLove that holds life and death in fee,Deep as the clear unsounded seaAnd sweet as life or death can be,Lays here my hope, my heart, and meBefore you, silent, in a song.Since the old wild tale, made new, found grace,When half sung through, before your face,It needs must live a springtide space,While April suns grow strong.March 24, 1896.THE TALE OF BALENIn hawthorn-time the heart grows light,The world is sweet in sound and sight,Glad thoughts and birds take flower and flight,...　

The Plays of W. E. Henley and R. L. StevensonWilliam Ernest Henley and Robert Louis StevensonHenley is best known for this quote from Invictus:"I am the master of my fate,I am the captain of my soul."INVICTUSOut of the night that covers me,Black as the pit from pole to pole,I think whatever gods may befor my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed.Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the years...　

An Old Town By The Seaby Thomas Bailey AldrichPISCATAQUA RIVERThou singest by the gleaming isles,By woods, and fields of corn,Thou singest, and the sunlight smilesUpon my birthday morn.But I within a city, I,So full of vague unrest,Would almost give my life to lieAn hour upon upon thy breast.To let the wherry listless go,And, wrapt in dreamy joy,Dip, and surge idly to and fro,Like the red harbor-buoy;To sit in happy indolence,To rest upon the oars,And catch the heavy earthy scentsThat blow from summer shores;To see the rounded sun go down,...　

400 BCOF THE EPIDEMICSby Hippocratestranslated by Francis AdamsOF THE EPIDEMICSBOOK I. Sect. I. First Constitution1. IN THASUS, about the autumn equinox, and under the Pleiades,the rains were abundant, constant, and soft, with southerly winds; thewinter southerly, the northerly winds faint, droughts; on the whole,the winter having the character of spring. The spring was southerly,...　

Men of Invention and Industryby Samuel Smiles"Men there have been, ignorant of letters; without art, withouteloquence; who yet had the wisdom to devise and the courage toperform that which they lacked language to explain. Such menhave worked the deliverance of nations and their own greatness.Their hearts are their books; events are their tutors; greatactions are their eloquence."MACAULAY.Contents.PrefaceCHAPTER I Phineas Pett:Beginings of English ShipbuildingCHAPTER II Francis Pettit Smith:...　

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMESThe Adventure of the Blue CarbuncleI had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the secondmorning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him thecompliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in apurple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the right,and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly studied,near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and on theangle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable hard-felt...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE SHADOWby Hans Christian AndersenIN very hot climates, where the heat of the sun has great power,people are usually as brown as mahogany; and in the hottestcountries they are negroes, with black skins. A learned man oncetravelled into one of these warm climates, from the cold regions ofthe north, and thought he would roam about as he did at home; but hesoon had to change his opinion. He found that, like all sensiblepeople, he must remain in the house during the whole day, with every...　

"THE SPIRIT OF 1776"_To Thomas Lomax__Monticello, Mar. 12, 1799_DEAR SIR, Your welcome favor of last month came to my handsin Philadelphia. So long a time has elapsed since we have beenseparated by events, that it was like a letter from the dead, andrecalled to my memory very dear recollections. My subsequent journeythrough life has offered nothing which, in comparison with those, isnot cheerless & dreary. It is a rich comfort sometimes to look backon them.I take the liberty of enclosing a letter to mr. Baylor, open,...　

CAMILLUS445?-365 B.C.by Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenAMONG the many remarkable things that are related of FuriusCamillus, it seems singular and strange above all, that he, whocontinually was in the highest commands, and obtained the greatestsuccesses, was five times chosen dictator, triumphed four times, andwas styled a second founder of Rome, yet never was so much as onceconsul. The reason of which was the state and temper of the...