Adventureby Jack LondonCHAPTER ISOMETHING TO BE DONEHe was a very sick white man. He rode pick-a-back on a woolly- headed, black-skinned savage, the lobes of whose ears had been pierced and stretched until one had torn out, while the other carried a circular block of carved wood three inches in diameter. The torn ear had been pierced again, but this time not so ambitiously, for the hole accommodated no more than a short clay pipe. The man-horse was greasy and dirty, and naked save for an exceedingly narrow and dirty loin-cloth; but the white man clung to him closely and desperately. At tim　

Men of Ironby Ernie Howard PyleINTRODUCTIONThe year 1400 opened with more than usual peacefulness in England. Only a few months before, Richard IIweak, wicked, and treacherous had been dethroned, and Henry IV declared King in his stead. But it was only a seeming peacefulness, lasting but for a little while; for though King Henry proved himself a just and a merciful manas justice and mercy went with the men of iron of those daysand though he did not care to shed blood needlessly, there were many noble families who had been benefited by King Richard during his reign, and who had lost somewhat o　

Before Adamby Jack London"These are our ancestors, and their history is ourhistory. Remember that as surely as we one day swungdown out of the trees and walked upright, just assurely, on a far earlier day, did we crawl up out ofthe sea and achieve our first adventure on land."CHAPTER IPictures! Pictures! Pictures! Often, before I learned,did I wonder whence came the multitudes of picturesthat thronged my dreams; for they were pictures thelike of which I had never seen in real wake-a-day life.They tormented my childhood, making of my dreams a...　

AT THE SHRINE OF ST. WAGNERBayreuth, Aug. 2d, 1891It was at Nuremberg that we struck the inundation of music-mad strangers that was rolling down upon Bayreuth. It had beenlong since we had seen such multitudes of excited and strugglingpeople. It took a good half-hour to pack them and pair them intothe trainand it was the longest train we have yet seen inEurope. Nuremberg had been witnessing this sort of experience acouple of times a day for about two weeks. It gives one animpressive sense of the magnitude of this biennial pilgrimage....　

Personal Memoirs of P.H.Sheridan V1 of 2by Philip Henry SheridanPREFACEWhen, yielding to the solicitations of my friends, I finally decidedto write these Memoirs, the greatest difficulty which confronted mewas that of recounting my share in the many notable events of thelast three decades, in which I played a part, without entering toofully into the history of these years, and at the same time withoutgiving to my own acts an unmerited prominence. To what extent I haveovercome this difficulty I must leave the reader to judge....　

Short Stories and Essaysby William Dean HowellsCONTENTS:Worries of a Winter WalkSummer Isles of EdenWild Flowers of the AsphaltA Circus in the SuburbsA She HamletThe Midnight PlatoonThe Beach at RockawaySawdust in the ArenaAt a Dime MuseumAmerican Literature in ExileThe Horse ShowThe Problem of the SummerAesthetic New York Fifty-odd Years AgoFrom New York into New EnglandThe Art of the AdsmithThe Psychology of PlagiarismPuritanism in American Fiction...　

EconomyWhen I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, Ilived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a housewhich I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord,Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only.I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojournerin civilized life again.I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of myreaders if very particular inquiries had not been made by mytownsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call...　

God the Known and God the Unknownby Samuel ButlerPrefatory Note"GOD the Known and God the Unknown" first appeared in the form ofa series of articles which were published in "The Examiner" inMay, June, and July, 1879. Samuel Butler subsequently revisedthe text of his work, presumably with the intention ofrepublishing it, though he never carried the intention intoeffect. In the present edition I have followed his revisedversion almost without deviation. I have, however, retained afew passages which Butler proposed to omit, partly because they...　

In the Cageby Henry JamesCHAPTER IIt had occurred to her early that in her positionthat of a youngperson spending, in framed and wired confinement, the life of aguinea-pig or a magpieshe should know a great many personswithout their recognising the acquaintance. That made it anemotion the more livelythough singularly rare and always, eventhen, with opportunity still very much smotheredto see any onecome in whom she knew outside, as she called it, any one who couldadd anything to the meanness of her function. Her function was to...　

Rinkitink In Ozby L. Frank BaumWherein is recorded the Perilous Quest ofPrince Inga of Pingaree and KingRinkitink in the MagicalIsles that lie beyondthe Borderlandof OzIntroducing this StoryHere is a story with a boy hero, and a boy of whomyou have never before heard. There are girls in thestory, too, including our old friend Dorothy, and someof the characters wander a good way from the Land of Ozbefore they all assemble in the Emerald City to take...　

ORTHODOXYBYGILBERT K. CHESTERTONPREFACEThis book is meant to be a companion to "Heretics," and toput the positive side in addition to the negative. Many criticscomplained of the book called "Heretics" because it merely criticisedcurrent philosophies without offering any alternative philosophy.This book is an attempt to answer the challenge. It is unavoidably...　

The Golden Thresholdby Sarojini NaiduWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ARTHUR SYMONSDEDICATED TO EDMUND GOSSE WHO FIRST SHOWED ME THE WAY TO THEGOLDEN THRESHOLDLondon, 1896 Hyderabad, 1905CONTENTSFOLK SONGSPalanquin-BearersWandering SingersIndian WeaversCoromandel FishersThe Snake-CharmerCorn-GrindersVillage-SongIn Praise of HennaHarvest HymnIndian Love-SongCradle-SongSutteeSONGS FOR MUSICSong of a DreamHumayun to ZobeidaAutumn Song Alabaster...　

Evergreensby Jerome K. JeromeThey look so dull and dowdy in the spring weather, when the snow dropsand the crocuses are putting on their dainty frocks of white and mauveand yellow, and the baby-buds from every branch are peeping withbright eyes out on the world, and stretching forth soft little leavestoward the coming gladness of their lives. They stand apart, so coldand hard amid the stirring hope and joy that are throbbing all aroundthem.And in the deep full summer-time, when all the rest of nature dons itsrichest garb of green, and the roses clamber round the porch, and the...　

SHERLOCK HOMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE NORWOOD BUILDERby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleTHE ADVENTURE OF THE NORWOOD BUILDER"From the point of view of the criminal" said Mr. Sherlock Holmes,"London has become a singularly uninteresting city since the deathof the late lamented Professor Moriarty.""I can hardly think that you would find many decent citizens toagree with you," I answered."Well, well, I must not be selfish," said he, with a smile, as bepushed back his chair from the breakfast-table. "The community is...　

Daisy Millerby Henry JamesIN TWO PARTSPART IAt the little town of Vevey, in Switzerland, there is aparticularly comfortable hotel. There are, indeed, many hotels,for the entertainment of tourists is the business of the place,which, as many travelers will remember, is seated upon the edgeof a remarkably blue lakea lake that it behooves every touristto visit. The shore of the lake presents an unbroken arrayof establishments of this order, of every category, from the"grand hotel" of the newest fashion, with a chalk-white front,...　

THE LOST PRINCESS OF OZby L. FRANK BAUMThis Book is DedicatedTo My GranddaughterOZMA BAUMTo My ReadersSome of my youthful readers are developing wonderfulimaginations. This pleases me. Imagination has broughtmankind through the Dark Ages to its present state ofcivilization. Imagination led Columbus to discoverAmerica. Imagination led Franklin to discoverelectricity. Imagination has given us the steam engine,the telephone, the talking-machine and the automobile,...