As usual, I am indebted to a variety of people for their help and input in writing this volume. Not the least of whom is Master Robinton (aka Frederic H. Robinson) who was quite upset that I had ended his life so abruptly. I would suspect it of a tenor, but for a baritone to insist on another encore is almost unheard of. But I have recently been asked - via the impressive Del Rey Website - to explain certain facts which had not previously been brought to light anent Pern pre-Dragon flight history. As Robinton had a fine Pernese hand in most of it, it behoves me to tell the story from his v　

　　　　Dusk was beginning to creep down from the mountains when the Witchfinder rode into Craiglowrie. His hunched position in the saddle of the black mare disguised his true height, yet all the same he was tall and terrible, the features beneath the dark broad-brimmed hat seemed like those of a sun-bleached skull from a distance. The grimace that revealed black and broken teeth; the eyes that glowed with the fire of a personal hatred, and seemed to search out each and every one of the peasants who trembled and watched behind the windows of their tumbledown bothies.　　　　They remembered the last t　

　　I am a vampire. Blood does not bother me. I like blood. Even seeing my own blood does not frighten me. But what my blood can do to others-to the whole world for that matter-terrifies me. Once God made me take a vow to create no more vampires. Once I believed in God. But my belief, like my vow, has been shattered too many times in my long life. I am Alisa Perne, the now-forgotten Sita, child of a demon. I am the oldest living creature on earth.　　I awake in a living room smelling of death. I watch as my blood trickles through a thin plastic tube into the arm of Special Agent Joel Drake, FBI. 　

INDIAN HEROES AND GREAT CHIEFTAINSINDIAN HEROES ANDGREAT CHIEFTAINSBYCHARLES A. EASTMAN (OHIYESA)1- Page 2-INDIAN HEROES AND GREAT CHIEFTAINSRED CLOUDEVERY age, every race, has its leaders and heroes. There were oversixty distinct tribes of Indians on this continent, each of which boasted itsnotable men. The names and deeds of some of these men will live in...　

ON SLEEP AND SLEEPLESSNESSby Aristotletranslated by J. I. Beare1WITH regard to sleep and waking, we must consider what they are:whether they are peculiar to soul or to body, or common to both; andif common, to what part of soul or body they appertain: further,from what cause it arises that they are attributes of animals, andwhether all animals share in them both, or some partake of the one...　

Forty Centuries of Inkby David N. CarvalhoORA CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE CONCERNINGINK AND ITS BACKGROUNDSINTRODUCING INCIDENTAL OBSERVATIONS ANDDEDUCTIONS, PARALLELS OF TIME AND COLORPHENOMENA, BIBLIOGRAPHY, CHEMISTRY,POETICAL EFFUSIONS, CITATIONS,ANECDOTES AND CURIOSA TOGETHER WITHSOME EVIDENCE RESPECTING THEEVANESCENT CHARACTER OFMOST INKS OF TO-DAY ANDAN EPITOME OF CHEMICO-LEGAL INK.BYDAVID N. CARVALHOPREFACE.The unfortunate conditions surrounding the almostuniversal use of the oddly named commercial and with...　

THE WHITE DUCKOnce upon a time a great and powerful King married a lovelyPrincess. No couple were ever so happy; but before theirhoneymoon was over they were forced to part, for the King had togo on a warlike expedition to a far country, and leave his youngwife alone at home. Bitter were the tears she shed, while herhusband sought in vain to soothe her with words of comfort andcounsel, warning her, above all things, never to leave thecastle, to hold no intercourse with strangers, to beware of evilcounsellors, and especially to be on her guard against strange...　

Padre IgnacioOr The Song of Temptationby Owen WisterIAt Santa Ysabel del Mar the season was at one of those moments when theair rests quiet over land and sea. The old breezes were gone; the newones were not yet risen. The flowers in the mission garden opened wide;no wind came by day or night to shake the loose petals from their stems.Along the basking, silent, many-colored shore gathered and lingered thecrisp odors of the mountains. The dust hung golden and motionless longafter the rider was behind the hill, and the Pacific lay like a floor of...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENOUR AUNTby Hans Christian AndersenYou ought to have known our aunt; she was charming! That is tosay, she was not charming at all as the word is usually understood;but she was good and kind, amusing in her way, and was just as any oneought to be whom people are to talk about and to laugh at. She mighthave been put into a play, and wholly and solely on account of thefact that she only lived for the theatre and for what was donethere. She was an honorable matron; but Agent Fabs, whom she used to...　

360 BCPHAEDOby Platotranslated by Benjamin JowettPERSONS OF THE DIALOGUEPHAEDO, who is the narrator of the dialogue to ECHECRATES of PhliusSOCRATESAPOLLODORUSSIMMIASCEBESCRITOATTENDANT OF THE PRISONPHAEDOSCENE: The Prison of SocratesPLACE OF THE NARRATION: PhliusEchecrates. Were you yourself, Phaedo, in the prison with Socrates...　

John Bull on the Guadalquivirby Anthony TrollopeI am an Englishman, living, as all Englishman should do, in England,and my wife would not, I think, be well pleased were any one toinsinuate that she were other than an Englishwoman; but in thecircumstances of my marriage I became connected with the south ofSpain, and the narrative which I am to tell requires that I shouldrefer to some of those details.The Pomfrets and Daguilars have long been in trade together in thiscountry, and one of the partners has usually resided at Seville forthe sake of the works which the firm there possesses. My fath　

The Rivermanby Stewart Edward WhiteIThe time was the year 1872, and the place a bend in the river abovea long pond terminating in a dam. Beyond this dam, and on a flatlower than it, stood a two-story mill structure. Save for a small,stump-dotted clearing, and the road that led from it, all else wasforest. Here in the bottom-lands, following the course of thestream, the hardwoods grew dense, their uppermost branches justbeginning to spray out in the first green of spring. Farther back,where the higher lands arose from the swamp, could be discerned the...　

The Clue of the Twisted Candleby Edgar WallaceCHAPTER IThe 4.15 from Victoria to Lewes had been held up at Three Bridges in consequence of a derailment and, though John Lexman was fortunate enough to catch a belated connection to Beston Tracey, the wagonette which was the sole communication between the village and the outside world had gone."If you can wait half an hour, Mr. Lexman," said the station-master, "I will telephone up to the village and get Briggs to come down for you."John Lexman looked out upon the dripping landscape and shrugged his shoulders....　

Second BookThe TheoryChapter 11Political and Cosmopolitical EconomyBefore Quesnay and the French economists there existed only apractice of political economy which was exercised by the Stateofficials, administrators, and authors who wrote about matters ofadministration, occupied themselves exclusively with theagriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation of thosecountries to which they belonged, without analysing the causes ofwealth, or taking at all into consideration the interests of the...　

Child of Stormby H. Rider HaggardDEDICATIONDear Mr. Stuart,For twenty years, I believe I am right in saying, you, as AssistantSecretary for Native Affairs in Natal, and in other offices, have beenintimately acquainted with the Zulu people. Moreover, you are one ofthe few living men who have made a deep and scientific study of theirlanguage, their customs and their history. So I confess that I was themore pleased after you were so good as to read this talethe secondbook of the epic of the vengeance of Zikali, "theThing-that-should-never-have-been-born," and of the fall of the House of...　

Rivers to the Seaby Sara TeasdaleToERNSTCONTENTSPART ISPRING NIGHTTHE FLIGHTNEW LOVE AND OLDTHE LOOKSPRINGTHE LIGHTED WINDOWTHE KISSSWANSTHE OLD MAIDFROM THE WOOLWORTH TOWERAT NIGHTTHE YEARSPEACEAPRILCOMEMOODSAPRIL SONGMAY DAYCROWNEDTO A CASTILIAN SONGBROADWAYA WINTER BLUEJAYIN A RESTAURANTJOYIN A RAILROAD STATIONIN THE TRAINTO ONE AWAYSONGDEEP IN THE NIGHTTHE INDIA WHARFI SHALL NOT CAREDESERT POOLS...