Political Economyby J.C.L. Simonde de Sismondi1815Chapter 1Objects and Origins of the SciencePolitical economy is the name given to an important division of the science of government. The object of government is, or ought to be, the happiness of men, united in society; it seeks the means of securing to them the highest degree of felicity compatible with their nature, and at the same time of allowing the greatest possible number of individuals to partake in that felicity. But man is a complex bring; he experiences moral and physical wants; therefore his happiness consists in his moral and phys　

Sunday Under Three Headsby Charles DickensDEDICATIONTo The Right ReverendTHE BISHOP OF LONDONMY LORD,You were among the first, some years ago, to expatiate on thevicious addiction of the lower classes of society to Sundayexcursions; and were thus instrumental in calling forth occasionaldemonstrations of those extreme opinions on the subject, which arevery generally received with derision, if not with contempt.Your elevated station, my Lord, affords you countless opportunitiesof increasing the comforts and pleasures of the humbler classes of...　

The Diary of a Goose Girlby Kate Douglas WigginTHORNYCROFT FARM, near Barbury Green, July 1, 190-.In alluding to myself as a Goose Girl, I am using only the mostmodest of my titles; for I am also a poultry-maid, a tender ofBelgian hares and rabbits, and a shepherdess; but I particularlyfancy the role of Goose Girl, because it recalls the German fairytales of my early youth, when I always yearned, but never hoped, tobe precisely what I now am.As I was jolting along these charming Sussex roads the other day, afat buff pony and a tippy cart being my manner of progression, I...　

THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZby L. FRANK BAUMAffectionately dedicated to my young friendSumner Hamilton Britton of ChicagoPrologueThrough the kindness of Dorothy Gale of Kansas,afterward Princess Dorothy of Oz, an humble writerin the United States of America was once appointedRoyal Historian of Oz, with the privilege ofwriting the chronicle of that wonderful fairyland.But after making six books about the adventures ofthose interesting but queer people who live in the...　

Burlesquesby William Makepeace ThackerayCONTENTSNOTES BY EMINENT HANDS.George de Barnwell. By Sir E. L. B. L., Bart.Codlingsby. By D. Shrewsberry, Esq.Phil Fogarty. A Tale of the Fighting Onety-Oneth. By HarryRollickerBarbazure. By G. P. R. Jeames, Esq., etc.Lords and Liveries. By the Authoress of "Dukes and Dejeuners,""Hearts and Diamonds," "Marchionesses and Milliners," etc., etc.Crinoline. By Je-mes Pl-sh, Esq.The Stars and Stripes. By the Author of "The Last of the...　

Ragged Lady, v2by William Dean HowellsPart 2XV.Mrs. Lander went to a hotel in New York where she had been in the habitof staying with her husband, on their way South or North. The clerk knewher, and shook hands with her across the register, and said she couldhave her old rooms if she wanted them; the bell-boy who took up theirhand-baggage recalled himself to her; the elevator-boy welcomed her witha smile of remembrance.Since she was already up, from coming off the sleeping-car, she had noexcuse for not going to breakfast like other people; and she went with...　

From This World to the Nextby Henry FieldingINTRODUCTIONBOOK ICHAPTER I.The author dies, meets with Mercury, and is by him conducted tothe stage which sets out for the other worldCHAPTER II.In which the author first refutes some idle opinions concerningspirits, and then the passengers relate their several deaths .CHAPTER III.The adventures we met with in the City of DiseasesCHAPTER IV.Discourses on the road, and a description of the palace of DeathCHAPTER V....　

Rezanovby Gertrude AthertonWith an Introduction byWILLIAM MARION REEDYINTRODUCTIONA long list of works Gertrude Atherton has to her credit as a writer. She is indisputably a woman of genius. Not that her genius is distinctively feminine, though she is in matters historical a pas- sionate partisan. Most of the critics who approve her work agree that in the main she views life with somewhat of the masculine spirit of liberality. She is as much the realist as one can be who is saturated with the romance that is California, her birthplace and her home, if such a true cosmopolite as she can be　

　Acknowledgments　　A casebook edition of any work of literature is necessarily the result of work and good will by numerous people. We are deeply indebted to the writers who contributed the original materials contained in this volume.　We also wish to thank the authors, editors, and publishers who so kindly granted permissions for use of the previously published materials collected in this volume. Full acknowledgment for their valuable aid is printed in the headnote for each of the articles as well as original sources of publication.　The editors gratefully acknowledge the special courtesies of 　

　"The Captive"　Chapter One　She sat by the creek, half-hidden in lush grasses. Carefully she twined purple summer flowers into her single dark brown braid, and dabbled bare feet in the rushing water. Stems and crushed blooms littered the coarse yellow gown she wore and damp earth stained the garment, but she paid it no mind. She was purpose-fully intent on her work, for if she allowed her thoughts to range freely she would be overtaken by the knowledge and the hope that he still might e.　A songbird called from the forest behind and she glanced up, smiling at the delicate melody. Then her atten　

　　The drug-induced sleep wore off into nothingness, and the girl began the agonizing struggle back to consciousness. A dim and hazy light greeted her slowly opening eyes while a disgusting, putrid stench invaded her nostrils. She was nude, her bare back pressed flat against a damp, yellow, slime-coated wall. It was unreal, an impossibility, she tried to tell herself upon awakening. It had to be some kind of horrifying nightmare. Then suddenly, before she had a chance to fight the panic mushrooming inside her, the yellow slime on the floor rose and began working up the thighs of her defenseles　

　This is what happened. On the night that the worst heat wave in northern New England history finally broke-the night of July 19-the entire western Maine region was lashed with the most vicious thunderstorms I have ever seen.　We lived on Long Lake, and we saw the first of the storms beating its way across the water toward us just before dark. For an hour before, the air had been utterly still. The American flag that my father put up on our boathouse in 1936 lay limp against its pole. Not even its hem fluttered. The heat was like a solid thing, and it seemed as deep as sullen quarry-water. Tha　

A Millionaire of Rough-and-Readyby Bret HartePROLOGUEThere was no mistake this time: he had struck gold at last!It had lain there before him a moment agoa misshapen piece ofbrown-stained quartz, interspersed with dull yellow metal; yieldingenough to have allowed the points of his pick to penetrate itshoneycombed recesses, yet heavy enough to drop from the point ofhis pick as he endeavored to lift it from the red earth.He was seeing all this plainly, although he found himself, he knewnot why, at some distance from the scene of his discovery, hisheart foolishly beating, his breath impotently hu　

The Dwelling Place of Lighby Winston Churchill1917VOLUME 1.CHAPTER IIn this modern industrial civilization of which we are sometimes wont to boast,a certain glacier-like process may be observed. The bewildered, the helplessand there are manyare torn from the parent rock, crushed, rolled smooth, andleft stranded in strange places. Thus was Edward Bumpus severed and rolledfrom the ancestral ledge, from the firm granite of seemingly stable and lastingthings, into shifting shale; surrounded by fragments of cliffs from distantlands he had never seen. Thus, at five and fifty, he found himself ga　

DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPSA TRIBUTEEven now I cannot realize that he is dead, and often in the citystreetson Fifth Avenue in particularI find myself glancingahead for a glimpse of the tall, boyish, familiarfigureexperience once again a flash of the old happy expectancy.I have lived in many lands, and have known men. I never knew afiner man than Graham Phillips.His were the clearest, bluest, most honest eyes I ever saweyesthat scorned untrutheyes that penetrated all sham.In repose his handsome features were a trifle sternand the...　

Adventure XIThe Final ProblemIt is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen towrite these the last words in which I shall everrecord the singular gifts by which my friend Mr.Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. In an incoherentand, as I deeply feel, an entirely inadequate fashion,I have endeavored to give some account of my strangeexperiences in his company from the chance which firstbrought us together at the period of the "Study inScarlet," up to the time of his interference in thematter of the "Naval Treaty"and interference which...