A January gale was roaring up the Channel, blustering loudly, and bearing in its bosom rain squalls whose big drops rattled loudly on the tarpaulin clothing of those among the officers and men whose duties kept them on deck. So hard and so long had the gale blown that even in the sheltered waters of Spithead the battleship moved uneasily at her anchors, pitching a little in the choppy seas, and snubbing herself against the tautened cables with unexpected jerks. A shore boat was on its way out to her, propelled by oars in the hands of two sturdy women; it danced madly on the steep little wave
January 1954 The Boeing C-97 Stratocruiser bore the look of a crypt. Perhaps the image was bred by the cold winter night, or perhaps it came from the gusting snow that was piling an icy shroud on the wings and fuselage. The flickering lights from the cockpit windshield and the fleeting shadows of the maintenance crew served only to exaggerate the chilling scene. Major Raymond Vylander, United States Air Force, did not care for what he saw. He watched silently as the fuel truck drove away and vanished into the stormy darkness. The loading ramp was dropped from the rear of the great whalelike
The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with three weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist-high to my father, over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper whispering words that were seldom heard. It could be a "good crop."They were farmers, hardworking men who embraced pessimism only when discussing the weather and the crops. There was too much sun, or too much rain, or the threat of floods in the lowlands, or the rising pr
Some Roundabout PapersSome RoundaboutPapersby Thackeray1- Page 2-Some Roundabout PapersON SOME CARP AT SANSSOUCIWe have lately made the acquaintance of an old lady of ninety, whohas passed the last twenty-five years of her old life in a great metropolitanestablishment, the workhouse, namely, of the parish of Saint Lazarus....
Father Goriotby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Ellen MarriageTo the great and illustrious Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, a token of admiration for his works and genius. DE BALZAC.Mme. Vauquer (nee de Conflans) is an elderly person, who for the past forty years has kept a lodging-house in the Rue Nueve- Sainte-Genevieve, in the district that lies between the Latin Quarter and the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. Her house (known in the neighborhood as the Maison Vauquer) receives men and women, old and young, and no word has ever been breathed against her respectable establishment; but, at the same time, it mus
MISCELLANEOUS PAPERSMISCELLANEOUSPAPERSBY CHARLES DICKENS- Page 2-MISCELLANEOUS PAPERSTHE AGRICULTURALINTERESTThe present Government, having shown itself to be particularly cleverin its management of Indictments for Conspiracy, cannot do better, wethink (keeping in its administrative eye the pacification of some of its mostinfluential and most unruly supporters), than indict the whole...
HIS NAME WAS THORNE. In the ancient language of the runes, it had been longer-Thornevald. But when he became a blood drinker, his name had been changed to Thorne. And Thorne he remained now, centuries later, as he lay in his cave in the ice, dreaming. When he had first e to the frozen land, he had hoped he would sleep eternally. But now and then the thirst for blood awakened him and using the Cloud Gift, he rose into the air, and went in search of the Snow Hunters. He fed off them, careful never to take too much blood from any one so that none died on account of him. And when he neede
360 BCSYMPOSIUMby Platotranslated by Benjamin JowettSYMPOSIUMPERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: APOLLODORUS, who repeats to his companion the dialogue which he had heard from Aristodemus, and had already once narrated to Glaucon; PHAEDRUS; PAUSANIAS; ERYXIMACHUS; ARISTOPHANES; AGATHON; SOCRATES; ALCIBIADES; A TROOP OF REVELLERS. Scene: The House of Agathon.Concerning the things about which you ask to be informed I believe that I am not ill-prepared with an answer. For the day before yesterday I was coming from my own home at Phalerum to the city, and one of my acquaintance, who had caught a sight of me
The Commonwealth of Oceanaby James Harrington1656JANOTTI, the most excellent describer of the Commonwealth of Venice, divides the whole series of government into two times or periods: the one ending with the liberty of Rome, which was the course or empire, as I may call it, of ancient prudence, first discovered to mankind by God himself in the fabric of the commonwealth of Israel, and afterward picked out of his footsteps in nature, and unanimously followed by the Greeks and Romans; the other beginning with the arms of Caesar, which, extinguishing liberty, were the transition of ancient into
Asx i must ask your permission. You, my rings, my diverse selves. Vote now! Shall i speak for all of us to the outer world? Shall we join, once more, to bee Asx? That is the name used by humans, qheuens, and other beings, when they address this stack of circles. By that name, this coalition of plump, traeki rings was elected a sage of the mons, respected and revered, sitting in judgment on members of all six exile races. By that name-Asx-we are called upon to tell tales. Is it agreed? Then Asx now bears witness... to events we endured, and those relayed by others. "I" will tell it, as
HE SEEMED INCAPABLE of creating such chaos, but much of what he saw below could be blamed on him. And that was fine. He was ninety-one, paralyzed, strapped in a wheelchair and hooked to oxygen. His second stroke seven years ago had almost finished him off, but Abraham Rosenberg was still alive and even with tubes in his nose his legal stick was bigger than the other eight. He was the only legend remaining on the Court, and the fact that he was still breathing irritated most of the mob below. He sat in a small wheelchair in an office on the main floor of the Supreme Court Building. Hi
Chapter One: THE PLAIN OF FEARThe still desert air had a lens-like quality. The riders seemed frozen in time, moving without drawing closer. We took turns counting. I could not get the same number twice running.A breath of a breeze whined in the coral, stirred the leaves of Old Father Tree. They tinkled off one another with the song of wind chimes. To the north, the glimmer of change lightning limned the horizon like the far clash of warring gods.A foot crunched sand. I turned. Silent gawked at a talking menhir. It had appeared in the past few seconds, startling him. Sneaky rocks. Like to
Contributions to All The Year RoundContributions to All TheYear Roundby Charles Dickens1- Page 2-Contributions to All The Year RoundANNOUNCEMENT IN "HOUSEHOLD WORDS"After the appearance of the present concluding Number of HouseholdWords, this publication will merge into the new weekly publication, Allthe Year Round, and the title, Household Words, will form a part of the...
Aucassin and NicoleteAucassin and Nicolete1- Page 2-Aucassin and NicoleteINTRODUCTIONThere is nothing in artistic poetry quite akin to "Aucassin andNicolete."By a rare piece of good fortune the one manuscript of the Song-Storyhas escaped those waves of time, which have wrecked the bark ofMenander, and left of Sappho but a few floating fragments. The very...
THE PRIESLTY PREROGATIVE.THIS IS THE STORY OF A MAN who did not appreciate his wife; also, ofa woman who did him too great an honor when she gave herself to him.Incidentally, it concerns a Jesuit priest who had never been knownto lie. He was an appurtenance, and a very necessary one, to the Yukoncountry; but the presence of the other two was merely accidental. Theywere specimens of the many strange waifs which ride the breast of agold rush or come tailing along behind.Edwin Bentham and Grace Bentham were waifs; they were also tailing...