The Golden AgeThe Golden AgeBy Kenneth Grahame1- Page 2-The Golden AgePROLOGUE: THE OLYMPIANSLooking back to those days of old, ere the gate shut behind me, I cansee now that to children with a proper equipment of parents these thingswould have worn a different aspect. But to those whose nearest wereaunts and uncles, a special attitude of mind may be allowed. They...　

SANCTUARYBUENOS AIRES/SAN FRANCISCO　Whenever Tori Nunn was bored, she went to Buenos Aires. Partly it was because Buenos Aires was a place she had never worked, so, essentially, no one knew her-what she had been. Partly, it was because in Buenos Aires, sitting beneath the natural awning of the jacarandas, their clattering shade striping her face, she could at last forget Greg. But perhaps more than anything else, she came to this inplete city because here she could begin again to define herself, as if now even her own shadow had bee unrecognizable.　Here, in Buenos Aires, inhabited by the port　

ELECBOOK CLASSICSAdam BedeGeorge Eliot- Page 2-ELECBOOK CLASSICSebc0021. George Eliot: Adam BedeThis file is free for individual use only. It must not be altered or resold.Organisations wishing to use it must first obtain a licence.Low cost licenses are available. Contact us through our web site(C) The Electric Book Co 1998The Electric Book Company Ltd20 Cambridge Drive, London SE12 8AJ, UK...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENWHAT THE MOON SAWby Hans Christian AndersenINTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTIONIT is a strange thing, when I feel most fervently and most deeply,my hands and my tongue seem alike tied, so that I cannot rightlydescribe or accurately portray the thoughts that are rising within me;and yet I am a painter; my eye tells me as much as that, and all myfriends who have seen my sketches and fancies say the same.I am a poor lad, and live in one of the narrowest of lanes; but...　

　To　my gentle Reader　William Plomer　　PART ONE: HAPPENSTANCE　　CHAPTER ONE　　REFLECTIONS IN A DOUBLE BOURBON　　JAMES BOND, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death.　It was part of his profession to kill people. He had never liked doing it and when he had to kill he did it as well as he knew how and forgot about it. As a secret agent who held the rare double-O prefix - the licence to kill in the Secret Service - it was his duty to be as cool about death as a surgeon. If it happened, it happened. Regret was unprofession　

THE WITCH AND OTHER STORIESTHE WITCH ANDOTHER STORIESANTON CHEKHOV1- Page 2-THE WITCH AND OTHER STORIESTHE WITCHIT was approaching nightfall. The sexton, Savely Gykin, was lying inhis huge bed in the hut adjoining the church. He was not asleep, though itwas his habit to go to sleep at the same time as the hens. His coarse redhair peeped from under one end of the greasy patchwork quilt, made up of...　

An Empty RoadThe Wheel of Time turns, and Ages e and pass, leaving memories that bee legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth es again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to e, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.Born below the ever cloud-capped peaks that gave the mountains their name, the wind blew east, out across the Sand Hills, once the shore of a great ocean, before 　

Chapter IV of Volume IIWITH no greater events than these in the Longbourn family, and otherwise diversified by little beyond the walks to Meryton, sometimes dirty and sometimes cold, did January and February pass away. March was to take Elizabeth to Hunsford. She had not at first thought very seriously of going thither; but Charlotte, she soon found, was depending on the plan, and she gradually learned to consider it herself with greater pleasure as well as greater certainty. Absence had increased her desire of seeing Charlotte again, and weakened her disgust of Mr. Collins. There was novelty　

A JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEARby DANIEL DEFOEPart 1being observations or memorialsof the most remarkable occurrences,as well public as private, which happened inLondon during the last great visitation in 1665.Written by a Citizen who continuedall the while in London.Never made public beforeIt was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, among the restof my neighbours, heard in ordinary discourse that the plague wasreturned again in Holland; for it had been very violent there, andparticularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the year 1663, whither,...　

Book ICHAPTER I.MASLOVA IN PRISON.Though hundreds of thousands had done their very best todisfigure the small piece of land on which they were crowdedtogether, by paying the ground with stones, scraping away everyvestige of vegetation, cutting down the trees, turning away birdsand beasts, and filling the air with the smoke of naphtha andcoal, still spring was spring, even in the town.The sun shone warm, the air was balmy; everywhere, where it didnot get scraped away, the grass revived and sprang up between thepaving-stones as well as on the narrow strips of lawn on the...　

Anne McCaffreyIntroductionOurs not to ponder what were fair in Life,But, finding what may be,Make it fair up to our means.　　When mankind first discovered Pern, third planet of the sun Rukbat, in the Sagittarian Sector, they paid little attention to the eccentric orbit of another satellite in the system.　　Settling the new planet, adjusting to its differences, the colonists spread out across the southern, most hospitable continent. Then disaster struck in the form of a rain of mycorrhizoid organisms, which voraciously devoured all but stone, metal, and water. The initial losses were staggering.　

　　　　All men are born condemned, so the wise say. All suckle the breast of Death.　　All bow before that Silent Monarch. That Lord in Shadow lifts a finger. A feather flutters to the earth. There is no reason in His song. The good go young. The wicked prosper. He is king of the Chaos Lords, His breath stills all souls.　　We found a city dedicated to His worship, long ago, but so old now it has lost that dedication. The dark majesty of his godhead has frayed, been forgotten by all but those who stand in his shadow. But Juniper faced a more immediate fear, a specter from yesteryear leaking into the　

1872FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE STORY OF THE WINDby Hans Christian Andersen"NEAR the shores of the great Belt, which is one of the straitsthat connect the Cattegat with the Baltic, stands an old mansionwith thick red walls. I know every stone of it," says the Wind. "I sawit when it was part of the castle of Marck Stig on the promontory. Butthe castle was obliged to be pulled down, and the stone was used again for the walls of a new mansion on another spot- the baronial residence of Borreby, which still stands near the coast. I knew them well, those noble lords and ladies, the su　

Massacres of the South1551-1815by Alexandre Dumas, PereCHAPTER IIt is possible that our reader, whose recollections may perhaps goback as far as the Restoration, will be surprised at the size of theframe required for the picture we are about to bring before him,embracing as it does two centuries and a half; but as everything, hasits precedent, every river its source, every volcano its centralfire, so it is that the spot of earth on which we are going to fixour eyes has been the scene of action and reaction, revenge ,andretaliation, till the religious annals of the South resemble an...　

How to Learn Any LanguageQuickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and On Your OwnbyBarry FarberFounder of the Language Club/Nationally Syndicated Talk Show HostTo Bibi and Celia, for the pleasure of helping teach themtheir first language, followed by the pleasure of having themthen teach me their second!ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionPart I: My Story...　

The Captivesby Hugh WalpoleTOARNOLD BENNETTWITH DEEP AFFECTION"I confess that I do not see why the very existence of an invisible world may not in part depend on the personal response which any of us may make to the religious appeal. God Himself, in short, may draw vital strength and increase of very being from our fidelity. For my own part I do not know what the sweat and blood and tragedy of this life mean, if they mean anything short of this. If this life be not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game of private theatric