ONE BASKETONE BASKETTHIRTY-ONE SHORT STORIESEDNA FERBER1- Page 2-ONE BASKETThe Woman Who Tried to Be Good[1913]Before she tried to be a good woman she had been a very badwomanso bad that she could trail her wonderful apparel up and downMain Street, from the Elm Tree Bakery to the railroad tracks, without once...
On July 16, in the aching torpid heat of the South Florida summer, Terry Whelper stood at the Avis counter at Miami International Airport and rented a bright red Chrysler LeBaron convertible. He had originally signed up for a Dodge Colt, a sensible low-mileage pact, but his wife had told him go on, be sporty for once in your life. So Terry Whelper got the red LeBaron plus the extra collision coverage, in anticipation of Miami drivers. Into the convertible he inserted the family-his wife Gerri, his son Jason, his daughter Jennifer-and bravely set out for the turnpike. The children, who liked
Of Interestby David HumeNothing is esteemed a more certain sign of the flourishingcondition of any nation than the lowness of interest: And with reason;though I believe the cause is somewhat different from what is commonlyapprehended. Lowness of interest is generally ascribed to plenty ofmoney. But money, however plentiful, has no other effect, if fixed,than to raise the price of labour. Silver is more common than gold;and therefore you receive a greater quantity of it for the samecommodities. But do you pay less interest for it? Interest in BATAVIAand JAMAICA is at 10 per cent. in PORTUGAL a
SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCEand THE BOOK of THELby William BlakeSONGS OF INNOCENCEINTRODUCTIONPiping down the valleys wild,Piping songs of pleasant glee,On a cloud I saw a child,And he laughing said to me:"Pipe a song about a Lamb!"So I piped with merry cheer."Piper, pipe that song again;"So I piped: he wept to hear."Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;Sing thy songs of happy cheer:!"...
"Pigs is Pigs"by Ellis Parker ButlerMike Flannery, the Westcote agent of the Interurban Express Company,leaned over the counter of the express office and shook his fist. Mr.Morehouse, angry and red, stood on the other side of the counter,trembling with rage. The argument had been long and heated, and at lastMr. Morehouse had talked himself speechless. The cause of the troublestood on the counter between the two men. It was a soap box across the topof which were nailed a number of strips, forming a rough but serviceablecage. In it two spotted guinea-pigs were greedily eating lettuce leaves....
A Discourse on MethodDISCOURSE ON THE METHOD OF RIGHTLY CONDUCTING THE REASON, AND SEEKING TRUTH IN THE SCIENCESby Rene DescartesPREFATORY NOTE BY THE AUTHORIf this Discourse appear too long to be read at once, it may be divided into six Parts: and, in the first, will be found various considerations touching the Sciences; in the second, the principal rules of the Method which the Author has discovered, in the third, certain of the rules of Morals which he has deduced from this Method; in the fourth, the reasonings by which he establishes the existence of God and of the Hum
Rosamund, Queen of the Lombardsby Algernon Charles SwinburnePERSONS REPRESENTEDALBOVINE, King of the Lombards.ALMACHILDES, a young Lombard warrior.NARSETES, an old leader and counsellor.ROSAMUND, Queen of the LombardsHILDEGARD, a noble Lombard maiden.SCENE, VERONATime, June 573ACT IA hall in the Palace: a curtain drawn midway across it.Enter ALBOVINE and NARSETES.ALBOVINE.This is no matter of the wars: in warThy king, old friend, is less than king of thine,And comrade less than follower. Hast thou lovedEverloved woman, not as chance may love,...
THE SKETCH BOOKCHRISTMASby Washington IrvingCHRISTMASBut is old, old, good old Christmas gone? Nothing but the hair ofhis good, gray, old head and beard left? Well, I will have that,seeing I cannot have more of him.HUE AND CRY AFTER CHRISTMAS.A man might then beholdAt Christmas, in each hallGood fires to curb the cold,And meat for great and small.The neighbors were friendly bidden,...
A Voyage to Abyssiniaby Father Jerome Lobotranslated from the French by Samuel Johnson.INTRODUCTION by Henry Morley, Editor of the 1887 editionJeronimo Lobo was born in Lisbon in the year 1593. He entered the Order of the Jesuits at the age of sixteen. After passing through the studies by which Jesuits were trained for missionary work, which included special attention to the arts of speaking and writing, Father Lobo was sent as a missionary to India at the age of twenty- eight, in the year 1621. He reached Goa, as his book tells, in 1622, and was in 1624, at the age of thirty-one, told off
A Mountain EuropaBy John Fox, Jr.TO JAMES LANE ALLENIAs Clayton rose to his feet in the still air, the tree-tops began to tremble in the gap below him, and a rippling ran through the leaves up the mountain-side. Drawing off his hat he stretched out his arms to meet it, and his eyes closed as the cool wind struck his throat and face and lifted the hair from his forehead. About him the mountains lay like a tumultuous sea-the Jellico Spur, stilled gradually on every side into vague, purple shapes against the broken rim of the sky, and Pine Mountain and the Cumberland Range racing in like breake
The Stolen White Elephantby Mark Twain[Left out of A Tramp Abroad, because it was feared that some of theparticulars had been exaggerated, and that others were not true. Beforethese suspicions had been proven groundless, the book had gone to press.M.T.]The following curious history was related to me by a chance railwayacquaintance. He was a gentleman more than seventy years of age, and histhoroughly good and gentle face and earnest and sincere manner imprintedthe unmistakable stamp of truth upon every statement which fell from hislips. He said:...
THE HISTORY OF DWARF LONG NOSEIt is a great mistake to think that fairies, witches, magicians,and such people lived only in Eastern countries and in such timesas those of the Caliph Haroun Al-Raschid. Fairies and theirlike belong to every country and every age, and no doubt weshould see plenty of them nowif we only knew how.In a large town in Germany there lived, some couple of hundredyears ago, a cobbler and his wife. They were poor andhard-working. The man sat all day in a little stall at thestreet corner and mended any shoes that were brought him. Hiswife sold the fruit and vegetables
The Tale of Balenby Algernon Charles SwinburneDEDICATIONTO MY MOTHERLove that holds life and death in fee,Deep as the clear unsounded seaAnd sweet as life or death can be,Lays here my hope, my heart, and meBefore you, silent, in a song.Since the old wild tale, made new, found grace,When half sung through, before your face,It needs must live a springtide space,While April suns grow strong.March 24, 1896.THE TALE OF BALENIn hawthorn-time the heart grows light,The world is sweet in sound and sight,Glad thoughts and birds take flower and flight,...
The Plays of W. E. Henley and R. L. StevensonWilliam Ernest Henley and Robert Louis StevensonHenley is best known for this quote from Invictus:"I am the master of my fate,I am the captain of my soul."INVICTUSOut of the night that covers me,Black as the pit from pole to pole,I think whatever gods may befor my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed.Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the years...
The Village Rectorby Honore de BalzacKatharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Helene.The tiniest boat is not launched upon the sea without theprotection of some living emblem or revered name, placed upon itby the mariners. In accordance with this time-honored custom,Madame, I pray you to be the protectress of this book now launchedupon our literary ocean; and may the Imperial name which theChurch has canonized and your devotion has doubly sanctified forme guard it from perils.De Balzac.THE VILLAGE RECTORITHE SAUVIATS...
Lecture IVThe Tribe and the LandIt has been very commonly believed that, before the agrarianmeasures of James the First, Ireland was one of the countries inwhich private property in land was invested with leastsacredness, and in which forms of ownership generally consideredas barbarous most extensively prevailed. Spenser and Daviscertainly suggest this opinion, and several modern writers haveadopted it. The Brehon law-tracts prove, however, that it can...