At a time when in our fatherland a cold raw wind made its presence felt, and the sharp frost at night checked the growth of the early bud, the Rhine valley between the Bergstrasse and Hardtgebirge had revelled for many weeks in the timely spring, the especial privilege of this garden of Germany. Even three hundred years ago at the time of our narrative the Neckar valley shimmered with the white and red... more...

ADVERTISEMENT.   This publication of the Works of John Knox, it is supposed, will extend to Five Volumes. It was thought advisable to commence the series with his History of the Reformation in Scotland, as the work of greatest importance. The next volume will thus contain the Third and Fourth Books, which continue the History to the year 1564; at which period his historical labours may be considered... more...

Looked at From a Practical Standpoint It is the young man and young woman of to-day, with a practical education, who will adorn our best homes of the future. It is the manager and the financier who is the practical one. It is the young man with good habits who has a bank account, who shows evidence of becoming a financier. It is the young woman who trains herself with the duties of home-work, that will... more...

CHAPTER I. "I think, more than anything else, I came to be under blue sky." "Are you fond of sky?" said the young girl who was sitting near the speaker, her eyes on the shimmering water of the lagoon which stretched north and south before the house. "I can't lay claim to tastes especially celestial, I fear," answered the visitor, "but I confess to a liking for an... more...

CHAPTER I Which is Not a Chapter at All It was Asaph Tidditt who told me how to begin this history. Perhaps I should be very much obliged to Asaph; perhaps I shouldn't. He has gotten me out of a difficulty—or into one; I am far from certain which. Ordinarily—I am speaking now of the writing of swashbuckling romances, which is, or was, my trade—I swear I never have called it a... more...

CHAPTER I. 'Lisbeth Lillibun lived a hundred miles from London. If she had not lived a hundred miles from London, it is likely you would never have heard of her. She would have liked it better had somebody else lived where she did instead of herself. 'Lisbeth was a very little girl when she found out that she lived a hundred miles from London. So was Dickon, her brother, very little when he... more...

If there be one circumstance more than another that has conferred celebrity on the Forest of Dean, it is the remote origin, perpetuation, and invariably high repute of its iron works.  Uniting these characteristics in one, it probably surpasses every other spot in Great Britain. In the author’s former “historical account” of this neighbourhood, he gave all the information he had then collected... more...

Chapter I Dave Dingwell had been in the saddle almost since daylight had wakened him to the magic sunshine of a world washed cool and miraculously clean by the soft breath of the hills. Steadily he had jogged across the desert toward the range. Afternoon had brought him to the foothills, where a fine rain blotted out the peaks and softened the sharp outlines of the landscape to a gentle blur of green... more...

Having, when young, imbibed a particular inclination to study the culture of the cucumber and melon, under the direction of my father, whose character as an early framer was in high repute, I assiduously tried every experiment which was calculated to improve upon his system, by bringing them to a more complete state of perfection. In marking the progress of their growth, I usually committed to writing... more...

Chapter One     Looking down from the cafe window at the man he'd just shot, Ed Cade saw the brilliant overhead flash reflected in the windows of the hotel across the street and realized that something -- likely the car -- had exploded above the city.    Some guy dressed as a knight was standing smack in the middle of the street, aiming a camera of some sort straight up at the sky. The light... more...