Classics Books

CHAPTER IWINTER CAMP ON THE YUKON"To labour and to be content with that a man hath is a sweet life; but he that findeth a treasure is above them both."—Ecclesiasticus. Of course they were bound for the Klondyke. Every creature in the North-west was bound for the Klondyke. Men from the South too, and men from the East, had left their ploughs and their pens, their factories, pulpits,... more...

CHAPTER I A MAN AND A MAID The train drew to a halt at the Junction. There was a fine jolt that ran the length of the cars, followed by a clank of couplings and a half-intelligible call from the conductor. The passengers,—dusty, jaded, crossly annoyed at the need of changing cars,—gathered up their luggage and filed out onto the bare, roofless station platform. There, after a look down the long... more...

THE HUNGRY CAMP The mountain countries of all the earth have always been wonder-lands. The oldest and best known of them are to this day full of things that nobody has found out. That is the reason why people are always exploring them, but they keep their secrets remarkably well, particularly the great secret of how they happened to get there in that shape. The great western mountain country of the... more...

INTRODUCTION I Gerhart Hauptmann, the most distinguished of modern German dramatists, was born in the Silesian village of Obersalzbrunn on November 15, 1862. By descent he springs immediately from the common people of his native province to whose life he has so often given the graveness of tragedy and the permanence of literature. His grandfather, Ehrenfried, felt in his own person the bitter fate of... more...

THERE'S TROUBLE ON THE SEA The ice in the big bay had broken up suddenly that year in the latter part of March before a tremendous ocean swell heaving in beneath it. The piles of firewood and the loads of timber for the summer fishing-rooms on all the outer islands were left standing on the landwash. The dog-teams usually haul all this out at a stretch gallop over the glare ice which overlies in... more...

CHAPTER I.FRANKIE'S NEW TEACHER.When little Frankie Gray was nearly seven years old, a lady came to reside in the town where he lived, hoping to collect a small school. Frankie's mother called upon her, and was so much pleased with her frank, cheerful manners, her sunny smile, and her Christian conversation, that she promised, with her husband's consent, to send Frankie and Nelly to be... more...

"The Cingalese declare that the Queen of the Dhahs is a Sahibmem," said Hassan—meaning by this expression an Englishwoman. "I don't think that can be true," responded Denviers; "it is hardly possible that any civilized human being would care to reign over such a queer race as those just described appear to be——" "The Englishman is wrong in what he says,"... more...

Us Poets Wordsworth wrote some tawdry stuff;  Much of Moore I have forgotten;Parts of Tennyson are guff;  Bits of Byron, too, are rotten. All of Browning isn't great;  There are slipshod lines in Shelley;Every one knows Homer's fate;  Some of Keats is vermicelli. Sometimes Shakespeare hit the slide,  Not to mention Pope or Milton;Some of Southey's stuff is snide.  Some of... more...

"PIETRO GIUSTINIANI, merchant, of Venice." This was the signature affixed to his receipt by the little antiquary in the city of St. Mark, from whom I purchased a few stitched sheets of manuscript. What a name and title! As I remarked on the splendor of his ancestry he slapped his pocket, and exclaimed, half in pride and half in lamentation: "Yes, they had plenty of money; but what has... more...

While the thing is still fresh in my mind I will try to put it down on paper—the incredible thing that has happened in our parish. When we had least thought about life's great things, we have come face to face with the greatest. We had been for long years living on the surface of things. The sun basked on the slopes of the hills, purple at eve; we came back from the offices in town, plunged... more...