The KentonsBy William Dean HowellsI.The Kentons were not rich, but they were certainly richer than theaverage in the pleasant county town of the Middle West, where they hadspent nearly their whole married life. As their circumstances had growneasier, they had mellowed more and more in the keeping of theircomfortable home, until they hated to leave it even for the shortoutings, which their children made them take, to Niagara or the UpperLakes in the hot weather. They believed that they could not be so wellanywhere as in the great square brick house which still kept its four...
The Man Who Could Not Loseby Richard Harding DavisThe Carters had married in haste and refused to repent at leisure.So blindly were they in love, that they considered their marriagetheir greatest asset. The rest of the world, as represented bymutual friends, considered it the only thing that could be urgedagainst either of them. While single, each had been popular. As abachelor, young "Champ" Carter had filled his modest placeacceptably. Hostesses sought him for dinners and week-end parties,men of his own years, for golf and tennis, and young girls likedhim because when he talked to one of th
Adventureby Jack LondonCHAPTER ISOMETHING TO BE DONEHe was a very sick white man. He rode pick-a-back on a woolly- headed, black-skinned savage, the lobes of whose ears had been pierced and stretched until one had torn out, while the other carried a circular block of carved wood three inches in diameter. The torn ear had been pierced again, but this time not so ambitiously, for the hole accommodated no more than a short clay pipe. The man-horse was greasy and dirty, and naked save for an exceedingly narrow and dirty loin-cloth; but the white man clung to him closely and desperately. At tim
Men of Ironby Ernie Howard PyleINTRODUCTIONThe year 1400 opened with more than usual peacefulness in England. Only a few months before, Richard IIweak, wicked, and treacherous had been dethroned, and Henry IV declared King in his stead. But it was only a seeming peacefulness, lasting but for a little while; for though King Henry proved himself a just and a merciful manas justice and mercy went with the men of iron of those daysand though he did not care to shed blood needlessly, there were many noble families who had been benefited by King Richard during his reign, and who had lost somewhat o
Before Adamby Jack London"These are our ancestors, and their history is ourhistory. Remember that as surely as we one day swungdown out of the trees and walked upright, just assurely, on a far earlier day, did we crawl up out ofthe sea and achieve our first adventure on land."CHAPTER IPictures! Pictures! Pictures! Often, before I learned,did I wonder whence came the multitudes of picturesthat thronged my dreams; for they were pictures thelike of which I had never seen in real wake-a-day life.They tormented my childhood, making of my dreams a...
Personal Memoirs of P.H.Sheridan V1 of 2by Philip Henry SheridanPREFACEWhen, yielding to the solicitations of my friends, I finally decidedto write these Memoirs, the greatest difficulty which confronted mewas that of recounting my share in the many notable events of thelast three decades, in which I played a part, without entering toofully into the history of these years, and at the same time withoutgiving to my own acts an unmerited prominence. To what extent I haveovercome this difficulty I must leave the reader to judge....
Short Stories and Essaysby William Dean HowellsCONTENTS:Worries of a Winter WalkSummer Isles of EdenWild Flowers of the AsphaltA Circus in the SuburbsA She HamletThe Midnight PlatoonThe Beach at RockawaySawdust in the ArenaAt a Dime MuseumAmerican Literature in ExileThe Horse ShowThe Problem of the SummerAesthetic New York Fifty-odd Years AgoFrom New York into New EnglandThe Art of the AdsmithThe Psychology of PlagiarismPuritanism in American Fiction...
EconomyWhen I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, Ilived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a housewhich I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord,Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only.I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojournerin civilized life again.I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of myreaders if very particular inquiries had not been made by mytownsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call...
God the Known and God the Unknownby Samuel ButlerPrefatory Note"GOD the Known and God the Unknown" first appeared in the form ofa series of articles which were published in "The Examiner" inMay, June, and July, 1879. Samuel Butler subsequently revisedthe text of his work, presumably with the intention ofrepublishing it, though he never carried the intention intoeffect. In the present edition I have followed his revisedversion almost without deviation. I have, however, retained afew passages which Butler proposed to omit, partly because they...
In the Cageby Henry JamesCHAPTER IIt had occurred to her early that in her positionthat of a youngperson spending, in framed and wired confinement, the life of aguinea-pig or a magpieshe should know a great many personswithout their recognising the acquaintance. That made it anemotion the more livelythough singularly rare and always, eventhen, with opportunity still very much smotheredto see any onecome in whom she knew outside, as she called it, any one who couldadd anything to the meanness of her function. Her function was to...
THE TWIN HELLSTHE TWIN HELLSBY JOHN N. REYNOLDS ATCHISON, KANSAS.1- Page 2-THE TWIN HELLSTO MY DEAR OLD MOTHER AND TO THE MEMORY OF MYSAINTED WIFE THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BYTHE AUTHOR.2- Page 3-THE TWIN HELLSPREFACEThe following pages treat of hellA Kansas hell and a Missouri hell....
Rinkitink In Ozby L. Frank BaumWherein is recorded the Perilous Quest ofPrince Inga of Pingaree and KingRinkitink in the MagicalIsles that lie beyondthe Borderlandof OzIntroducing this StoryHere is a story with a boy hero, and a boy of whomyou have never before heard. There are girls in thestory, too, including our old friend Dorothy, and someof the characters wander a good way from the Land of Ozbefore they all assemble in the Emerald City to take...
ORTHODOXYBYGILBERT K. CHESTERTONPREFACEThis book is meant to be a companion to "Heretics," and toput the positive side in addition to the negative. Many criticscomplained of the book called "Heretics" because it merely criticisedcurrent philosophies without offering any alternative philosophy.This book is an attempt to answer the challenge. It is unavoidably...
The Golden Thresholdby Sarojini NaiduWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ARTHUR SYMONSDEDICATED TO EDMUND GOSSE WHO FIRST SHOWED ME THE WAY TO THEGOLDEN THRESHOLDLondon, 1896 Hyderabad, 1905CONTENTSFOLK SONGSPalanquin-BearersWandering SingersIndian WeaversCoromandel FishersThe Snake-CharmerCorn-GrindersVillage-SongIn Praise of HennaHarvest HymnIndian Love-SongCradle-SongSutteeSONGS FOR MUSICSong of a DreamHumayun to ZobeidaAutumn Song Alabaster...
Evergreensby Jerome K. JeromeThey look so dull and dowdy in the spring weather, when the snow dropsand the crocuses are putting on their dainty frocks of white and mauveand yellow, and the baby-buds from every branch are peeping withbright eyes out on the world, and stretching forth soft little leavestoward the coming gladness of their lives. They stand apart, so coldand hard amid the stirring hope and joy that are throbbing all aroundthem.And in the deep full summer-time, when all the rest of nature dons itsrichest garb of green, and the roses clamber round the porch, and the...
SHERLOCK HOMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE NORWOOD BUILDERby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleTHE ADVENTURE OF THE NORWOOD BUILDER"From the point of view of the criminal" said Mr. Sherlock Holmes,"London has become a singularly uninteresting city since the deathof the late lamented Professor Moriarty.""I can hardly think that you would find many decent citizens toagree with you," I answered."Well, well, I must not be selfish," said he, with a smile, as bepushed back his chair from the breakfast-table. "The community is...