Classics Books

CHAPTER 1. At the age of fifteen I found myself in St. Louis, Mo., probably five hundred miles from my childhood home, with one dollar and a half in money in my pocket. I did not know one person in that whole city, and no one knew me. After I had wandered about the city a few days, trying to find something to do to get a living, I chanced to meet what proved to be the very best that could have happened... more...

I BIRDS AND POETS "In summer, when the shawes be shene,And leaves be large and long,It is full merry in fair forestTo hear the fowlés' song.The wood-wele sang, and wolde not cease,Sitting upon the spray;So loud, it wakened Robin HoodIn the greenwood where he lay." It might almost be said that the birds are all birds of the poets and of no one else, because it is only the poetical... more...

AN ACCIDENT. "It will be a fine opportunity for Edna," said Mrs. Conway. Edna did not like that word opportunity; it always seemed to her that it meant something unpleasant. She had noticed that when pleasant things came along they were rarely spoken of as "opportunities," but were just happenings. So she sat with her little sturdy legs dangling down from the sofa, and a very sober look... more...

I It was, probably, Lee Randon realized, the last time he would play golf that year. He concluded this standing on a shorn hill about which the country was spread in sere diminishing tones to the grey horizon. Below, a stream held a cold glimmer in a meadow of brown, frost-killed grass; and the wind, the bitter flaws where Lee stood, was thinly scattered with soft crystals of snow. He was alone, no one... more...

CHAPTER I ON THE ROAD TO OAK KNOWE “This way for the Queen!” “Here you are for the Duke of Connaught! Right this way!” “Want the Metropole, Miss?” “Room there, stupid! She’s from the States—any fool could see that! I’m from your hotel, little lady, the American. Your luggage, Miss, allow me?” If Dorothy’s hands hadn’t been too full, she would have clapped them over her ears,... more...

GIDEON. The story which Jotham told his children on the day before his death concerning the achievements of his father Gideon—His comments and those of Time thereon. I am an old man, and I desire before I die to tell you more fully the achievements of your grandfather. Strange that this day much that I had forgotten comes back to me clearly. During his youth the children of the East possessed the... more...

Government and Rebellion. An evil man seeketh only rebellion; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.--Prov. xvii. 11. We have in these words this plain announcement--that Rebellion is a crime, and shall be visited with terrible judgment. Solomon here speaks his own convictions; God declares his thought, and utters his sanction of law. This is also the expression of natural... more...

Chapter I."Good morrow, coz.Good morrow, sweet Hero."SHAKSPEARE.When Mr. Effingham determined to return home, he sent orders to his agent to prepare his town-house in New-York for his reception, intending to pass a month or two in it, then to repair to Washington for a few weeks, at the close of its season, and to visit his country residence when the spring should fairly open. Accordingly, Eve... more...

AFFGHANISTAN. There are those persons now living who would give their own weight in sovereigns, though drawing against thirteen to sixteen stone, that all of this dreadful subject might be swallowed up by Lethe; that darkness might settle for ever upon the insanities of Cabool; and the grave close finally over the carnage of Tezeen. But it will not be. Blood will have blood, they say. The madness which... more...

A Matrimonial Hurdle. Cassandra Raynor stood on the terrace of her great house, looking over the sweep of country stretching to right and left, and in her heart was the deadliest of all weariness,—the weariness of repletion. It seemed at that moment the bitterest cross that she had nothing left for which to wish, that everything good which the world could give was hers already, and had left her cold.... more...