Fiction Books

                           ALL is not well;           I doubt some foul play.           . . . . . . . . . . . .                           Foul deeds will rise,           Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's... more...

MYOLOGY The jaw musculature of doves is not an imposing system. The eating habits impose no considerable stress on the muscles; the mandibles are not used for crushing seeds, spearing, drilling, gaping, or probing as are the mandibles of many other kinds of birds. Doves use their mandibles to procure loose seeds and grains, which constitute the major part of their diet (Leopold, 1943; Kiel and Harris,... more...

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA I MARY In the month of June, 1872, Mr. Edward Lynde, the assistant cashier and bookkeeper of the Nautilus Bank at Rivermouth, found himself in a position to execute a plan which he had long meditated in secret. A statement like this at the present time, when integrity in a place of trust has become almost an anomaly, immediately suggests a defalcation; but Mr. Lynde's plan... more...

CHAPTER I AT ROSE VILLA The silence in the little drawing-room had lasted for some moments before being broken by the man seated in the big wicker chair. His dress indicated a clergyman of the Church of England, his face betrayed lines of kindliness and forbearance, but its present expression showed a perplexity not unmixed with disapproval. "I suppose, Miss Pearce," he said at length,... more...

In passing through this vale of tears,   That various scenes display;Ambition oft her standard rears,   And mortals lead astray. The anxious merchant counts his gain   From vessels on the sea;They’re lost upon the watery main,   And all his prospects flee. Dejection seize his harrass’d mind,   While struggling with dispair;Dame Fortune smiles and proves more kind,   His spirits for to... more...

CHAPTER I Morning was breaking on the high road to San Jose. The long lines of dusty, level track were beginning to extend their vanishing point in the growing light; on either side the awakening fields of wheat and oats were stretching out and broadening to the sky. In the east and south the stars were receding before the coming day; in the west a few still glimmered, caught among the bosky hills of... more...

THE DOOR IN THE WALL I One confidential evening, not three months ago, Lionel Wallace told me this story of the Door in the Wall. And at the time I thought that so far as he was concerned it was a true story. He told it me with such a direct simplicity of conviction that I could not do otherwise than believe in him. But in the morning, in my own flat, I woke to a different atmosphere, and as I lay in... more...

CHAPTER I STARTING FOR THE FIELD War broke out between the United States and Spain on April 21, 1898. A week or ten days later I was asked by the editors of the "Outlook" of New York to go to Cuba with Miss Clara Barton, on the Red Cross steamer State of Texas, and report the war and the work of the Red Cross for that periodical. After a hasty conference with the editorial and business staffs... more...

THE CLOSE OF THE WAR   Never before hast thou shone  So beautifully upon the Thebans;  O, eye of golden day: —Antigone of Sophocles. One bright morning in April, 1865, Hawthorne's son and the writer were coming forth together from the further door-way of Stoughton Hall at Harvard College, when, as the last reverberations of the prayer-bell were sounding, a classmate called to us across the... more...

The Cat's Elopement [From the Japanische Marchen und Sagen, von David Brauns (Leipzig: Wilhelm Friedrich).] Once upon a time there lived a cat of marvellous beauty, with a skin as soft and shining as silk, and wise green eyes, that could see even in the dark. His name was Gon, and he belonged to a music teacher, who was so fond and proud of him that he would not have parted with him for anything... more...