Dudley DementedThe hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive. Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their drives and lawns that were once emerald green lay parched and yellowing -for the use of hosepipes had been banned due to drought. Deprived of their usual car-washing and lawn-mowing pursuits, the inhabitants of Privet Drive had retreated into the shade of their cool houses, windows thrown wide in the hope of tempting in a nonexistent breeze. The only person left outdoors was a teenage boy who was　

JACK LIGHTS OUTCHAPTER 1The Alhambra Inn and Gardens1　　　　On September 15th, 1981, a boy named Jack Sawyer stood where the water and land e together, hands in the pockets of his jeans, looking out at the steady Atlantic. He was twelve years old and tall for his age. The sea-breeze swept back his brown hair, probably too long, from a fine, clear brow. He stood there, filled with the confused and painful emotions he had lived with for the last three months-since the time when his mother had closed their house on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles and, in a flurry of furniture, checks, and real-estate a　

THE ALHAMBRAby Washington IrvingPreface to the Revised Edition.Rough draughts of some of the following tales and essays wereactually written during a residence in the Alhambra; others weresubsequently added, founded on notes and observations made there. Carewas taken to maintain local coloring and verisimilitude; so that thewhole might present a faithful and living picture of that microcosm,that singular little world into which I had been fortuitously...　

The Love Affairs Of A Bibliomaniacby Eugene FieldIntroductionThe determination to found a story or a series of sketches on the delights, adventures, and misadventures connected with bibliomania did not come impulsively to my brother. For many years, in short during the greater part of nearly a quarter of a century of journalistic work, he had celebrated in prose and verse, and always in his happiest and most delightful vein, the pleasures of book-hunting. Himself an indefatigable collector of books, the possessor of a library as valuable as it was interesting, a library containing volumes o　

An Unprotected Female at the Pyramidsby Anthony TrollopeIn the happy days when we were young, no description conveyed to us socomplete an idea of mysterious reality as that of an Oriental city. Weknew it was actually there, but had such vague notions of its ways andlooks! Let any one remember his early impressions as to Bagdad orGrand Cairo, and then say if this was not so. It was probably takenfrom the "Arabian Nights," and the picture produced was one of strange,fantastic, luxurious houses; of women who were either very young andvery beautiful, or else very old and very cunning; but in e　

The Lesson of the Masterby Henry JamesHe had been told the ladies were at church, but this was correctedby what he saw from the top of the steps - they descended from agreat height in two arms, with a circular sweep of the mostcharming effect - at the threshold of the door which, from the longbright gallery, overlooked the immense lawn. Three gentlemen, onthe grass, at a distance, sat under the great trees, while thefourth figure showed a crimson dress that told as a "bit of colour"amid the fresh rich green. The servant had so far accompanied Paul...　

Concerning Christian Libertyby Martin LutherCONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTYLETTER OF MARTIN LUTHER TO POPE LEO XAmong those monstrous evils of this age with which I have now forthree years been waging war, I am sometimes compelled to look toyou and to call you to mind, most blessed father Leo. In truth,since you alone are everywhere considered as being the cause ofmy engaging in war, I cannot at any time fail to remember you;and although I have been compelled by the causeless raging ofyour impious flatterers against me to appeal from your seat to a...　

The Pharisee And The Publicanby John BunyanTwo men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself; God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the Publican, standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. Luke, xviii. 10-13.In the beginning of this chapter you read of the reason of the parable　

Westward Ho!by Charles KingsleyTOTHE RAJAH SIR JAMES BROOKE, K.C.B.ANDGEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, D.D.BISHOP OF NEW ZEALANDTHIS BOOK IS DEDICATEDBy one who (unknown to them) has no other method of expressing hisadmiration and reverence for their characters.That type of English virtue, at once manful and godly, practicaland enthusiastic, prudent and self-sacrificing, which he has triedto depict in these pages, they have exhibited in a form even purerand more heroic than that in which he has drest it, and than thatin which it was exhibited by the worthies whom Elizabeth, without...　

The Holly-Treeby Charles DickensFIRST BRANCHMYSELFI have kept one secret in the course of my life. I am a bashfulman. Nobody would suppose it, nobody ever does suppose it, nobodyever did suppose it, but I am naturally a bashful man. This is thesecret which I have never breathed until now.I might greatly move the reader by some account of the innumerableplaces I have not been to, the innumerable people I have not calledupon or received, the innumerable social evasions I have been guiltyof, solely because I am by original constitution and character a...　

BOOK II: OF THEIR MAGISTRATESTHIRTY families choose every year a magistrate, who was ancientlycalled the syphogrant, but is now called the philarch; and overevery ten syphogrants, with the families subject to them, there isanother magistrate, who was anciently called the tranibor, but oflate the archphilarch. All the syphogrants, who are in number 200,choose the Prince out of a list of four, who are named by thepeople of the four divisions of the city; but they take an oathbefore they proceed to an election, that they will choose him whom...　

Treatises on Friendship and Old Ageby Marcus Tullius CiceroTranslated by E S ShuckburghINTRODUCTORY NOTEMARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, the greatest of Roman orators andthe chief master of Latin prose style, was born at Arpinum, Jan.3,106 B.C. His father, who was a man of property and belongedto the class of the "Knights," moved to Rome when Cicero was achild; and the future statesman received an elaborate education inrhetoric, law, and philosophy, studying and practising under someof the most noted teachers of the time. He began his career as an...　

The Club of Queer Tradesby G.K.ChestertonChapter 1The Tremendous Adventures of Major BrownRabelais, or his wild illustrator Gustave Dore, must have had something to do with the designing of the things called flats in England and America. There is something entirely Gargantuan in the idea of economising space by piling houses on top of each other, front doors and all. And in the chaos and complexity of those perpendicular streets anything may dwell or happen, and it is in one of them, I believe, that the inquirer may find the offices of the Club of Queer Trades. It may be thought at the first 　

The Night-Bornby Jack LondonCONTENTS:THE NIGHT-BORNTHE MADNESS OF JOHN HARNEDWHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNGTHE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBTWINGED BLACKMAILBUNCHES OF KNUCKLESWARUNDER THE DECK AWNINGSTO KILL A MANTHE MEXICANTHE NIGHT-BORNIt was in the old Alta-Inyo Cluba warm night for SanFranciscoand through the open windows, hushed and far, camethe brawl of the streets. The talk had led on from the GraftProsecution and the latest signs that the town was to be runwide open, down through all the grotesque sordidness and...　

The Story of a Pioneerby Anna Howard ShawBYANNA HOWARD SHAW, D.D., M.D.WITH THE COLLABORATION OFELIZABETH JORDANTHE STORY OF A PIONEERTOTHE WOMEN PIONEERSOF AMERICAThey cut a path through tangled underwoodOf old traditions, out to broader ways.They lived to here their work called brave and good,But oh! the thorns before the crown of bays.The world gives lashes to its PioneersUntil the goal is reachedthen deafening cheers.Adapted by ANNA HOWARD SHAW....　

The Jerusalem Sinner Savedor, GOOD NEWS FOR THE VILEST OF MENby John BunyanBEGINNING AT JERUSALEM.Luke xxiv. 47.The whole verse runs thus: "And that repentance and remission ofsins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning atJerusalem."The words were spoken by Christ, after he rose from the dead, andthey are here rehearsed after an historical manner, but do contain inthem a formal commission, with a special clause therein. Thecommission is, as you see, for the preaching of the gospel, and isvery distinctly inserted in the holy record by Matthew and Mark. "Go...