CHAPTER I FULL SPEED FOR FOUR CORNERS Four straight country roads running at right angles. You cannot see where they begin because they have their beginning “over the hills and far away,” but you can see where they end at “Four Corners,” the hub of that universe, for there stand the general store, which is also the postoffice, the “tavern,” as it is called in that part of the world, the... more...

I COMMUNICATION AMONG THE ANCIENTS     Signaling the Fall of Troy—Marine Signaling among the    Argonauts—Couriers of the Greeks, Romans, and    Aztecs—Sound-signaling—Stentorophonic Tube—The Shouting    Sentinels—The Clepsydra—Signal Columns—Indian Fire and Smoke    Signals. It was very early in the history of the world that man began to feel the urgent need of... more...

I. Tremendous Trifles Once upon a time there were two little boys who lived chiefly in the front garden, because their villa was a model one. The front garden was about the same size as the dinner table; it consisted of four strips of gravel, a square of turf with some mysterious pieces of cork standing up in the middle and one flower bed with a row of red daisies. One morning while they were at play... more...

CONSTANTINE PAVLOVICH (1779-1831), grand-duke and cesarevich of Russia, was born at Tsarskoye Selo on the 27th of April 1779. Of the sons born to the unfortunate tsar Paul Petrovich and his wife Maria Feodorovna, née princess of Württemberg, none more closely resembled his father in bodily and mental characteristics than did the second, Constantine Pavlovich. The direction of the boy’s upbringing... more...

CHAPTER I THE PRIZE DETAIL "The United States Government doesn't appear very anxious to claim its property, does it, sir?" asked Captain Jack Benson. The speaker was a boy of sixteen, attired in a uniform much after the pattern commonly worn by yacht captains. The insignia of naval rank were conspicuously absent. "Now, that I've had the good luck to sell the 'Pollard' to... more...

CHARIVARIA. "When the King and Queen visit Nottinghamshire as the guests of the Duke and Duchess of Portland at Welbeck, three representative colliery owners and four working miners will," we read, "be presented to their Majesties at Forest Town." A most embarrassing gift, we should say, and one which cannot, without hurting susceptibilities, be passed on to the Zoological Society. Are... more...

INTRODUCTORY BOOK. 1. Father kissed us and said, "Good-bye, dears. Be good children, and help mother as much as you can. The year will soon pass away. What a merry time we will have when I come back again!" 2. Father kissed mother, and then stepped into the train. The guard blew his whistle, and the train began to move. We waved good-bye until it was out of sight. 3. Then we all began to... more...

"A true poet is one of the most precious gifts that can be bestowed on a generation." He speaks for it and he speaks to it. Reflecting and interpreting his age and its thoughts, feelings, and purposes, he speaks for it; and with a love of truth, with a keener moral insight into the universal heart of man, and with the intuition of inspiration, he speaks to it, and through it to the world. It is... more...

Chapter First. "Meantime a smiling offspring rises round,And mingles both their graces. By degreesThe human blossom blows, and every day,Soft as it rolls along, shows some new charm,The father's lustre, and the mother's bloom."—Thomson's Seasons "Mamma! Papa too!" It was a glad shout of a chorus of young voices as four pairs of little feet came pattering up the avenue... more...

WILLIAM BACON'S MAN I The yellow March sun lay powerfully on the bare Iowa prairie, where the ploughed fields were already turning warm and brown, and only here and there in a corner or on the north side of the fence did the sullen drifts remain, and they were so dark and low that they hardly appeared to break the mellow brown of the fields. There passed also an occasional flock of geese, cheerful... more...