SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERYby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleWe were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when themaid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran inthis way:Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for fromthe west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy.Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. LeavePaddington by the 11:15."What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "Will...　

Miss or Mrs.?Miss or Mrs.?by Wilkie Collins1- Page 2-Miss or Mrs.?PERSONS OF THE STORY.Sir Joseph Graybrooke. . . . . . . . . .(Knight) Richard Turlington . . . .(Of the Levant Trade) Launcelot Linzie . .(Of the College of Surgeons)James Dicas. . . . . .(Of the Roll of Attorneys) ThomasWildfang. . . . . .(Superannuated Seaman) Miss Graybrooke. . . . . . (Sir...　

Riders of the Purple Sageby Zane GreyCHAPTER I. LASSITERA sharp clip-crop of iron-shod hoofs deadened and died away, and clouds of yellow dust drifted from under the cottonwoods out over the sage.Jane Withersteen gazed down the wide purple slope with dreamy and troubled eyes. A rider had just left her and it was his message that held her thoughtful and almost sad, awaiting the churchmen who were coming to resent and attack her right to befriend a Gentile.She wondered if the unrest and strife that had lately come to the little village of Cottonwoods was to involve her. And then she sighed, rem　

The Acts of the Apostlesby ELLEN G.WHITE(v)PREFACETHE FIFTH BOOK OF THE NEW TESTAMENT HAS BEEN KNOWN FROM ANCIENT TIMES AS THEACTS OF THE APOSTLES; BUT THIS TITLE CANNOT BE FOUND IN THE BOOK ITSELF. ONEOF THE EARLIEST MANUSCRIPTS, THE CODEX SINAITICUS, GIVES AS THE TITLE THESIMPLE WORD ACTS, WITH NO MENTION OF THE APOSTLES. THERE IS A REASON FORTHIS. ACTS WAS INTENDED TO BE MORE THAN A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SERVICERENDERED BY THE TWELVE DISCIPLES, MUCH MORE THAN THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE...　

The Fatal Bootsby William Makepeace ThackerayJanuary.The Birth of the YearFebruary.Cutting WeatherMarch.ShoweryApril.FoolingMay.Restoration DayJune.Marrowbones and CleaversJuly.Summary ProceedingsAugust.Dogs have their DaysSeptember.Plucking a GooseOctober.Mars and Venus in OppositionNovember.A General Post DeliveryDecember."The Winter of Our Discontent"THE FATAL BOOTSJANUARY.THE BIRTH OF THE YEAR.Some poet has observed, that if any man would write down what has...　

THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANATHE DISCOVERY OFGUIANABy Sir Walter Raleigh1- Page 2-THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANAINTRODUCTORY NOTESir Walter Raleigh may be taken as the great typical figure of the ageof Elizabeth. Courtier and statesman, soldier and sailor, scientist and manof letters, he engaged in almost all the main lines of public activity in histime, and was distinguished in them all....　

A BURLESQUE BIOGRAPHYTwo or three persons having at different times intimated that if Iwould write an autobiography they would read it when they got leisure,I yield at last to this frenzied public demand and herewith tendermy history.Ours is a noble house, and stretches a long way back into antiquity.The earliest ancestor the Twains have any record of was a friend ofthe family by the name of Higgins. This was in the eleventh century,when our people were living in Aberdeen, county of Cork, England.Why it is that our long line has ever since borne the maternal...　

To be Read at Duskby Charles DickensOne, two, three, four, five. There were five of them.Five couriers, sitting on a bench outside the convent on the summitof the Great St. Bernard in Switzerland, looking at the remoteheights, stained by the setting sun as if a mighty quantity of redwine had been broached upon the mountain top, and had not yet hadtime to sink into the snow.This is not my simile. It was made for the occasion by thestoutest courier, who was a German. None of the others took anymore notice of it than they took of me, sitting on another bench on...　

Four Short Playsby John GalsworthyCONTENTS:HALL-MARKEDDEFEATTHE SUNPUNCH AND GOHALL-MARKEDA SATIRIC TRIFLECHARACTERSHERSELF.LADY ELLA.THE SQUIRE.THE MAID.MAUD.THE RECTOR.THE DOCTOR.THE CABMAN.HANNIBAL and EDWARDHALL-MARKEDThe scene is the sitting-room and verandah of HER bungalow.The room is pleasant, and along the back, where the verandahruns, it seems all window, both French and casement. There is adoor right and a door left. The day is bright; the time...　

Free Trade or, The Meanes To Make Trade Florish. Wherein, TheCauses of the Decay of Trade in this Kingdome, are discovered:And the Remedies also to remoove the same, are represented.Propertius, nauita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator: Enumeratmiles vulnera, pastor oues.London, Printed by John Legatt, for Simon Waterson, dwelling inPaules Church-yard at the Signe of the Crowne. 1622by Edward MisseldonTo the Prince. SirYour Highnes is no lesse Happy to bee the Sonne of so great aKing, then to be the Heire apparent of so many Kingdomes. In the...　

The Vicar of Toursby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo David, Sculptor:The permanence of the work on which I inscribe your nametwice made illustrious in this centuryis very problematical;whereas you have graven mine in bronze which survives nationsif only in their coins. The day may come when numismatists,discovering amid the ashes of Paris existences perpetuated byyou, will wonder at the number of heads crowned in youratelier and endeavour to find in them new dynasties....　

Dreamsby Olive SchreinerTo a small girl-child, who may live to grasp somewhat of that which for us is yet sight, not touch.Note.These Dreams are printed in the order in which they were written.In the case of two there was a lapse of some years between the writing of the first and last parts; these are placed according to the date of the first part.Olive Schreiner.Matjesfontein, Cape Colony, South Africa. November, 1890.CONTENTS.I. The Lost Joy.II. The Hunter (From "The Story of of an African Farm").III. The Gardens of Pleasure....　

Lecture XIISovereigntyThe historical theories commonly received among Englishlawyers have done so much harm not only to the study of law butto the study of history, that an account of the origin and growthof our legal system, founded on the examination of new materialsand the re-examination of old ones, is perhaps the most urgentlyneeded of all additions to English knowledge. But next to a newhistory of law, what we most require is a new philosophy of law.If our country ever gives birth to such a philosophy, we shall...　

The Women of the French SalonsBy Amelia Gere MasonPREFACEIt has been a labor of love with many distinguished Frenchmen to recall the memories of the women who have made their society so illustrious, and to retouch with sympathetic insight the features which time was beginning to dim. One naturally hesitates to enter a field that has been gleaned so carefully, and with such brilliant results, by men like Cousin, Sainte-Beuve, Goncourt, and others of lesser note. But the social life of the two centuries in which women played so important a role in France is always full of human interest from 　

The Sleeping-Car - A Farceby William D. HowellsI.SCENE: One side of a sleeping-car on the Boston and Albany Road.The curtains are drawn before most of the berths; from the hooks androds hang hats, bonnets, bags, bandboxes, umbrellas, and othertravelling gear; on the floor are boots of both sexes, set out forTHE PORTER to black. THE PORTER is making up the beds in the upperand lower berths adjoining the seats on which a young mother, slenderand pretty, with a baby asleep on the seat beside her, and a stoutold lady, sit confronting each otherMRS. AGNES ROBERTS and her aunt...　

THE LUMLEY AUTOGRAPHTHE LUMLEYAUTOGRAPHby Susan Fenimore Cooper1- Page 2-THE LUMLEY AUTOGRAPHTHE LUMLEY AUTOGRAPH.BY THE AUTHOR OF "RURAL HOURS," ETC.The month of November of the year sixteen hundred and wascheerless and dark, as November has never failed to be within the foggy,smoky bounds of the great city of London. It was one of the worst days ofthe season; what light there was seemed an emanation from the dull earth,...