Classics Books

CHAPTER I SHOT INTO THE AIR "Hurrah!" shouted Jack Darrow, flicking the final drops of lacquer from the paintbrush he had been using. "That's the last stroke. She's finished!" "I guess we've done all we can to her before her trial trip," admitted his chum, Mark Sampson, but in a less confident tone. "You don't see anything wrong with her, old croaker; do... more...

CHAPTER I SMARLINGHUE A diminutive gas-jet's sickly, yellow flame illuminated the room with poverty-stricken inadequacy; high up on the wall, bordering the ceiling, the moonlight, as though contemptuous of its artificial competitor, streamed in through a small, square window, and laid a white, flickering path to the door across a filthy and disreputable rag of carpet; also, through a rent in the... more...

I. Childhood I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away. My father was a carpenter, and considered so intelligent and skilful in his trade, that, when buildings out of the common line were to be erected, he was sent for from long distances, to be head workman. On condition of paying his mistress two hundred dollars a year, and supporting himself, he was... more...

A small collection of Mexican reptiles and amphibians recently acquired by the University of Kansas Natural History Museum contains five specimens of a species of the genus Hyla (sensu lato) which is here described as new. Hyla proboscidea sp. nov. Type.—University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, No. 23626, collected 2 km. west of Jico, Veracruz, Mexico, at an elevation of 4,200 ft., Oct. 28,... more...

INTRODUCTION There are many thrilling incidents—all the more attractive because of their truth—in the study, the trials, the disappointments, the obstacles overcome, and the final triumph of the successful inventor. Every great invention, afterward marvelled at, was first derided. Each great inventor, after solving problems in mechanics or chemistry, had to face the jeers of the incredulous. The... more...

In the town of Roxbury, among the western Catskills, was born April 3, 1837, John Burroughs. The house in which he first saw the light was an unpainted, squarish structure, only a single story high, with a big chimney in the middle. This house was removed a few years later, and a better and somewhat larger one, which still stands, was built in its place. The situation is very pleasing. Roundabout is a... more...

FIRST PART—FIRE AT VALPINSON These were the facts:—I.In the night from the 22nd to the 23rd of June, 1871, towards one o'clock in the morning, the Paris suburb of Sauveterre, the principal and most densely populated suburb of that pretty town, was startled by the furious gallop of a horse on its ill-paved streets. A number of peaceful citizens rushed to the windows. The dark night allowed... more...

THE FROG AND MOUSE.There was a frog liv'd in a well,Kitty alone, Kitty alone;There was a frog liv'd in a well,Kitty alone and I.There was a frog liv'd in a well,And a farce mouse in a mill.Cock me cary, Kitty alone,Kitty alone and I.This frog he would a wooing ride,Kitty alone, etc.This frog he would a wooing ride,And on a snail he got astride.Cock me cary, etc.He rode till he came to my... more...

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CHAPTER I Rotten Row on a brilliant June morning, and Hyde Park at its loveliest. The London "season" at its height, and throngs of fashionably-dressed men and women "taking the air," strolling idly to and fro, lounging on little green-painted chairs, or leaning on the rails watching the riders of all nationalities. A sight well worth watching. It is the week of the International Horse... more...