Fiction Books

THE LAUGHING PRINCE There was once a farmer who had three sons and one little daughter. The eldest son was a studious boy who learned so much out of books that the farmer said: "We must send Mihailo to school and make a priest of him." The second boy was a trader. Whatever you had he would get it from you by offering you something else for it. And always what he gave you was worth less than... more...

CHAPTER I. f all the sciences, none would seem to yield a purer intellectual gratification than that of Astronomy. Man cannot but feel a sense of pleasure, and even of power, when, through the instruments constructed by his ingenuity, he finds himself brought within reach, as it were, of the innumerable orbs that roll through the domains of space. He cannot but feel a sense of pleasure, and even of... more...

CHAPTER I "WHISTLE AND HOE—SING AS WE GO" There is one thing in this good old world that is positively sure—happiness is for all who strive to be happy—and those who laugh are happy. Everybody is eligible—you—me—the other fellow. Happiness is fundamentally a state of mind—not a state of body. And mind controls. Indeed it is possible to stand with one foot on the inevitable... more...

CHAPTER I DESTRUCTION MARKS THE GERMAN RETREAT—THE FRENCH CAPTURE SOISSONS, FISMES, AND IMPORTANT POSITIONS—THE BRITISH WIN GREAT VICTORIES NEAR ALBERT The continued advance of the Allies in the first days of August, 1918, along the front from Soissons to Rheims was a decisive blow to the German hopes of gaining Paris; the capital was no longer threatened. The hard-pressed foe was now forced... more...

CHAPTER I. Friendship with Aretino—Its effect on Titian's art—Characteristics of the middle period—"Madonna with St. Catherine" of National Gallery—Portraits not painted from life—"Magdalen" of the Pitti—First Portrait of Charles V.—Titian the painter, par excellence, of aristocratic traits—The "d'Avalos Allegory"—Portrait of Cardinal Ippolito... more...

ORIGINS OF LATIN LITERATURE: EARLY EPIC AND TRAGEDY. To the Romans themselves, as they looked back two hundred years later, the beginnings of a real literature seemed definitely fixed in the generation which passed between the first and second Punic Wars. The peace of B.C. 241 closed an epoch throughout which the Roman Republic had been fighting for an assured place in the group of powers which... more...

CHAPTER I THE FRANCO-BRITISH FORCES VICTORIOUS AT YPRES—GERMANS LOSE GROUND AT LENS On August 1, 1917, the second day of the Franco-British offensive in Flanders, Field Marshal Haig's troops delivered a counterattack at a late hour of the night against the Germans north of Frezenberg, and close to the Ypres-Roulers railway. The assault, made through heavy rain that transformed the battle field... more...

CHAPTER I. There was a wide entrance gate to the old family mansion of Midbranch, but it was never opened to admit the family or visitors; although occasionally a load of wood, drawn by two horses and two mules, came between its tall chestnut posts, and was taken by a roundabout way among the trees to a spot at the back of the house, where the chips of several generations of sturdy wood-choppers had... more...

CHAPTER I Twilight of a certain summer day, many years ago, shaded softly down over the wild Ohio valley bringing keen anxiety to a traveler on the lonely river trail. He had expected to reach Fort Henry with his party on this night, thus putting a welcome end to the long, rough, hazardous journey through the wilderness; but the swift, on-coming dusk made it imperative to halt. The narrow,... more...

CHAPTER I. Two men sat by the sea waves. "Well, I know I'm not handsome," said one gloomily. He was poking holes in the sand with a discontented cane. The companion was watching the waves play. He seemed overcome with perspiring discomfort as a man who is resolved to set another man right. Suddenly his mouth turned into a straight line. "To be sure you are not," he cried... more...