CHAPTER ONE THE YOUNG curate shivered in the cold and felt uneasy. Something was wrong but it was difficult to work out exactly what. The atmosphere for a start; when he had set out on the quarter-mile walk from his home to the church, a warm spring breeze had fanned his cherubic features and the setting sun had almost blinded him. Now, and it could not be more than twenty minutes later, it was almost dark and very cold. Getting colder by the second. The Reverend Philip Owen felt slightly dizzy as he stood by the lychgate and tried to recollect his senses. The last twenty minutes seemed
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE SNOW MANby Hans Christian Andersen"IT is so delightfully cold," said the Snow Man, "that it makes mywhole body crackle. This is just the kind of wind to blow life intoone. How that great red thing up there is staring at me!" He meant thesun, who was just setting. "It shall not make me wink. I shallmanage to keep the pieces."He had two triangular pieces of tile in his head, instead of eyes;his mouth was made of an old broken rake, and was, of course,...
The Wandering Jew, Volume 1by Eugene SueA NOTE ON THE AUTHOR OFThe Wandering JewEUGENE SUE(1804-1857)Time and again physicians and seamen have made noteworthy reputations asnovelists. But it is rare in the annals of literature that a man trainedin both professions should have gained his greatest fame as a writer ofnovels. Eugene Sue began his career as a physician and surgeon, and thenspent six years in the French Navy. In 1830, when he returned to France,...
STORIESSTORIESby English Authors in London1- Page 2-STORIESTHE INCONSIDERATE WAITERBY J. M. BARRIEFrequently I have to ask myself in the street for the name of the man Ibowed to just now, and then, before I can answer, the wind of the firstcorner blows him from my memory. I have a theory, however, that thosepuzzling faces, which pass before I can see who cut the coat, all belong to...
1872FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE STORKSby Hans Christian AndersenON the last house in a little village the storks had built a nest,and the mother stork sat in it with her four young ones, who stretchedout their necks and pointed their black beaks, which had not yetturned red like those of the parent birds. A little way off, on theedge of the roof, stood the father stork, quite upright and stiff; notliking to be quite idle, he drew up one leg, and stood on the other,so still that it seemed almost as if he were carved in wood. "Itmust look very grand," thought he, "for my wife to h
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.
The Red Acornby John McElroyPrefaceThe name given this story is that made glorious by the valor and achievements of the splendid First Division of the Fourteenth Army Corps, the cognizance of which was a crimson acorn, worn on the breasts of its gallant soldiers, and borne upon their battle flags. There are few gatherings of men into which one can go to-day without finding some one wearing, as his most cherished ornament, a red acorn, frequently wrought in gold and studded with precious stones, and which tells that its wearer is a veteran of Mill Springs, Perryville, Shiloh, Corinth, Stone Ri
360 BCPHAEDRUSby Platotranslated by Benjamin JowettPHAEDRUSPERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: SOCRATES; PHAEDRUS. Scene: Under aplane-tree, by the banks of the Ilissus.Socrates. My dear Phaedrus, whence come you, and whither are yougoing?Phaedrus. I come from Lysias the son of Cephalus, and I am goingto take a walk outside the wall, for I have been sitting with him...
The Moravians in GeorgiaThe Moravians inGeorgiaAdelaide L. Fries Winston-Salem, N. C.1- Page 2-The Moravians in GeorgiaChapter I. Antecedent Events.The Province of Georgia.It was in the year 1728 that the English Parliament was persuaded byJames Oglethorpe, Esq. soldier, statesman and philanthropist, toappoint a committee to investigate the condition of the debtors confined in...
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
Guy Manneringby Sir Walter ScottINTRODUCTION TO GUY MANNERING.The Novel or Romance of WAVERLEY made its way to the public slowly, of course, at first, but afterwards with such accumulating popularity as to encourage the author to a second attempt. He looked about for a name and a subject; and the manner in which the novels were composed cannot be better illustrated than by reciting the simple narrative on which Guy Mannering was originally founded; but to which, in the progress of the work, the production ceased to bear any, even the most distant resemblance. The tale was originally told me b
THE WAYS OF MENTHE WAYS OF MENEliot Gregory1- Page 2-THE WAYS OF MENCHAPTER 1 - "UNCLE SAM"THE gentleman who graced the gubernatorial arm-chair of our statewhen this century was born happened to be an admirer of classic lore andthe sonorous names of antiquity.It is owing to his weakness in bestowing pompous cognomens on ourembryo towns and villages that to-day names like Utica, Syracuse, and...
"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." Dr. Johnson PART ONE We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive... ." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?" Then
THE WRECK OF THE GOLDEN MARYTHE WRECK OF THEGOLDEN MARYCharles Dickens1- Page 2-THE WRECK OF THE GOLDEN MARYTHE WRECKI was apprenticed to the Sea when I was twelve years old, and I haveencountered a great deal of rough weather, both literal and metaphorical. Ithas always been my opinion since I first possessed such a thing as anopinion, that the man who knows only one subject is next tiresome to the...
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT (or Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure)TOM SWIFT AND HISSUBMARINE BOAT(or Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure)VICTOR APPLETON1- Page 2-TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT (or Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure)CHAPTER OneNews of a Treasure WreckThere was a rushing, whizzing, throbbing noise in the air. A greatbody, like that of some immense bird, sailed along, casting a grotesque...
The Crime of Sylvestre BonnardThe Crime of SylvestreBonnardby Anatole France1- Page 2-The Crime of Sylvestre BonnardPart IThe LogDecember 24, 1849.I had put on my slippers and my dressing-gown. I wiped away a tearwith which the north wind blowing over the quay had obscured my vision.A bright fire was leaping in the chimney of my study. Ice-crystals, shaped...