CHAPTER I PENDLETON CALLS UPON ASHTON-KIRK Young Pendleton's car crept carefully around the corner and wound in and out among the push-cart men and dirty children. About midway in the block was a square-built house with tall, small-paned windows and checkered with black-headed brick. It stood slightly back from the street with ancient dignity; upon the shining door-plate, deeply bitten in angular... more...

CHAPTER I The person who, next to the actors themselves, chanced to know most of their story, lived just below ‘Top o’ Town’ (as the spot was called) in an old substantially-built house, distinguished among its neighbours by having an oriel window on the first floor, whence could be obtained a raking view of the High Street, west and east, the former including Laura’s dwelling, the end of the... more...

EL VERDUGO The clock of the little town of Menda had just struck midnight. At that moment a young French officer, leaning on the parapet of a long terrace which bordered the gardens of the chateau de Menda, seemed buried in thoughts that were deeper than comported with the light-hearted carelessness of military life; though it must be said that never were hour, scene, or night more propitious for... more...

The earliest authentic account we can obtain of the birth of this learned and celebrated writer, is from the Register Book of Eton College, in which he is entered "of Chatham, in the county of Kent, of the age of twelve years, in 1730,"—consequently, born in 1718. Whence a difference has arisen between the dates in this entry, and the inscription on his monument, hereafter given, we are... more...

Chapter I MENTAL SECOND WINDSticking to the JobAre you an unusually persevering and persistent person? Or, like most of us, do you sometimes find it difficult to stick to the job until it is done? What is your usual experience in this respect? Is it not this, that you work steadily along until of a sudden you become conscious of a feeling of weariness, crying "Enough!" for the time being, and... more...

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 1.  You are required personally to superintend the performance of the routine work of your office and see that it is properly done. 2.  This routine work should be suitably and fairly apportioned amongst your clerks—each clerk (under your superintendence) being responsible for the duty assigned to him. You will, after fair warning, report to the Postmaster General any clerk... more...

THE SHIP was sighted a few times, briefly and without a good fix. It was spherical, the estimated diameter about twenty-seven miles, and was in an orbit approximately 3400 miles from the surface of the Earth. No one observed the escape from it. [p75]The ship itself occasioned some excitement, but back there at the tattered end of the 20th century, what was one visiting spaceship more or less? Others... more...

KEEPING UP WITH LIZZIE IN WHICH THE LEADING TRADESMEN OF POINTVIEW BECOME A BOARD OF ASSESSORS The Honorable Socrates Potter was the only "scientific man" in the village of Pointview, Connecticut. In every point of manhood he was far ahead of his neighbors. In a way he had outstripped himself, for, while his ideas were highly modern, he clung to the dress and manners that prevailed in his... more...

TOMMY ENJOYS HIMSELF Tommy Fox was having a delightful time. If you could have come upon him in the woods you would have been astonished at his antics. He leaped high off the ground, and struck out with his paws. He opened his mouth and thrust his nose out and then clapped his jaws shut again, with a snap. Tommy burrowed his sharp face into the dead leaves at his feet and tossed his head into the air.... more...

INTRODUCTION. All that needs to be said in the way of introduction to this volume will best take the form of notes on the articles which it contains. I. 'Conversation and S. T. Coleridge.' This article, which was found in a tolerably complete condition, may be regarded as an attempt to deal with the subject in a more critical and searching, and at the same time more sympathetic and inclusive... more...