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
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE BIRD OF POPULAR SONGby Hans Christian AndersenIT is winter-time. The earth wears a snowy garment, and looks likemarble hewn out of the rock; the air is bright and clear; the windis sharp as a well-tempered sword, and the trees stand like branchesof white coral or blooming almond twigs, and here it is keen as on thelofty Alps.The night is splendid in the gleam of the Northern Lights, andin the glitter of innumerable twinkling stars.But we sit in the warm room, by the hot stove, and talk about...
The Illustrious Princeby E. Phillips OppenheimCONTENTSI Mr. Hamilton Fynes, UrgentII The End of the JourneyIII An Incident and an AccidentIV Miss Penelope MorseV An Affair of StateVI Mr. Coulson InterviewedVII A Fatal DespatchVIII An Interrupted Theatre PartyIX Inspector Jacks ScoresX Mr. Coulson OutmatchedXI A CommissionXII Penelope IntervenesXIII East and WestXIV An EngagementXV Penelope ExplainsXVI Concerning Prince MaiyoXVII A Gay Night in ParisXVIII Mr. Coulson is IndiscreetXIX A Momentous QuestionXX The Answer...
Little Travels and Roadside Sketchesby William Makepeace ThackerayI. FROM RICHMOND IN SURREY TO BRUSSELS IN BELGIUMII. GHENTBRUGES:Ghent (1840)BrugesIII. WATERLOOLITTLE TRAVELS AND ROADSIDE SKETCHESI.FROM RICHMOND IN SURREY TO BRUSSELS IN BELGIUM. . . I quitted the "Rose Cottage Hotel" at Richmond, one of thecomfortablest, quietest, cheapest, neatest little inns in England,and a thousand times preferable, in my opinion, to the "Star andGarter," whither, if you go alone, a sneering waiter, with his hair...
The House of Pride and Other Tales of Hawaiiby Jack LondonContents:The House of PrideKoolau the LeperGood-bye, JackAloha OeChun Ah ChunThe Sheriff of KonaJack LondonTHE HOUSE OF PRIDEPercival Ford wondered why he had come. He did not dance. He didnot care much for army people. Yet he knew them allgliding andrevolving there on the broad lanai of the Seaside, the officers intheir fresh-starched uniforms of white, the civilians in white andblack, and the women bare of shoulders and arms. After two years in...
THE WITCH IN THE STONE BOAT[31][31] From the Icelandic.There were once a King and a Queen, and they had a son calledSigurd, who was very strong and active, and good-looking. Whenthe King came to be bowed down with the weight of years he spoketo his son, and said that now it was time for him to look out fora fitting match for himself, for he did not know how long hemight last now, and he would like to see him married before hedied.Sigurd was not averse to this, and asked his father where hethought it best to look for a wife. The King answered that in a...
The Diary of a Man of Fiftyby Henry JamesFlorence, April 5th, 1874.They told me I should find Italy greatlychanged; and in seven-and-twenty years there is room for changes.But to me everything is so perfectly the same that I seem to beliving my youth over again; all the forgotten impressions of thatenchanting time come back to me. At the moment they were powerfulenough; but they afterwards faded away. What in the world became ofthem? Whatever becomes of such things, in the long intervals ofconsciousness? Where do they hide themselves away? in what unvisited...
THE BIRTHMARKIn the latter part of the last century there lived a man ofscience, an eminent proficient in every branch of naturalphilosophy, who not long before our story opens had madeexperience of a spiritual affinity more attractive than anychemical one. He had left his laboratory to the care of anassistant, cleared his fine countenance from the furnace smoke,washed the stain of acids from his fingers, and persuaded abeautiful woman to become his wife. In those days when thecomparatively recent discovery of electricity and other kindredmysteries of Nature seemed to open paths into the regi
Rhymes a la Modeby Andrew LangBALLADE DEDICATORYTO MRS. ELTON OF WHITE STAUNTONThe painted Briton built his mound,And left his celts and clay,On yon fair slope of sunlit groundThat fronts your garden gay;The Roman came, he bore the sway,He bullied, bought, and sold,Your fountain sweeps his works awayBeside your manor old!But still his crumbling urns are foundWithin the window-bay,Where once he listened to the soundThat lulls you day by day; -The sound of summer winds at play,The noise of waters coldTo Yarty wandering on their way,...
AN ACCOUNT OF EGYPTAN ACCOUNT OFEGYPTBy Herodotus1- Page 2-AN ACCOUNT OF EGYPTNOTEHERODOTUS was born at Halicarnassus, on the southwest coast ofAsia Minor, in the early part of the fifth century, B. C. Of his life we knowalmost nothing, except that he spent much of it traveling, to collect thematerial for his writings, and that he finally settled down at Thurii, in...
350 BCTHE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTIONby Aristotletranslated by Sir Frederic G. KenyonPart 1...[They were tried] by a court empanelled from among the noble families, and sworn upon the sacrifices. The part of accuser was taken by Myron. They were found guilty of the sacrilege, and their bodies were cast out of their graves and their race banished for evermore. In view of this expiation, Epimenides the Cretan performed a purification of the city.Part 2After this event there was contention for a long time between the upper classes and the populace. Not only was the constitution at this time ol
FINALE.Every limit is a beginning as well as an ending. Who can quit younglives after being long in company with them, and not desire to knowwhat befell them in their after-years? For the fragment of a life,however typical, is not the sample of an even web: promises maynot be kept, and an ardent outset may be followed by declension;latent powers may find their long-waited opportunity; a past errormay urge a grand retrieval.Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives,is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept...
ON LONGEVITY AND SHORTNESS OF LIFEby Aristotletranslated by G. R. T. Ross1THE reasons for some animals being long-lived and othersshort-lived, and, in a word, causes of the length and brevity oflife call for investigation.The necessary beginning to our inquiry is a statement of thedifficulties about these points. For it is not clear whether inanimals and plants universally it is a single or diverse cause that...
Arizona Nightsby Stewart Edward WhiteCHAPTER ONETHE OLE VIRGINIAThe ring around the sun had thickened all day long, and theturquoise blue of the Arizona sky had filmed. Storms in the drycountries are infrequent, but heavy; and this surely meant storm.We had ridden since sun-up over broad mesas, down and out ofdeep canons, along the base of the mountain in the wildestparts of the territory. The cattle were winding leisurely towardthe high country; the jack rabbits had disappeared; the quaillacked; we did not see a single antelope in the open....
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE LITTLE ELDER-TREE MOTHERby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE was once a little boy who had caught cold; he had gone outand got wet feet. Nobody had the least idea how it had happened; theweather was quite dry. His mother undressed him, put him to bed, andordered the teapot to be brought in, that she might make him a goodcup of tea from the elder-tree blossoms, which is so warming. At thesame time, the kind-hearted old man who lived by himself in theupper storey of the house came in; he led a lonely life, for he had no...