AN EASTER ADMISSION This is not, strictly speaking, an Easter tale, nor a love story. It is merely the truthful account of certain incidents of a love affair culminating one Easter Day. It may be relied upon. I am familiar with the facts, and I want to say here that if there be any one who thinks he could relate similar facts more exactly—I will admit that he might do the relation in much... more...

Chapter One The girl stood on a bank above a river flowing north. At her back crouched a dozen clean whitewashed buildings. Before her in interminable journey, day after day, league on league into remoteness, stretched the stern Northern wilderness, untrodden save by the trappers, the Indians, and the beasts. Close about the little settlement crept the balsams and spruce, the birch and poplar, behind... more...

NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS. The New Year opens upon this Association auspiciously. The setting sun of our old year went down in a bright sky. Revivals of religion and an increased membership was the joyful record of our churches; by the generous aid of the Daniel Hand Fund, our schools showed a greatly enlarged attendance, and the faithful work of the teachers brought forth most satisfactory results;... more...

CHAPTER I.CTCE. H, 505; H, 484; P, 340; N, 326;E, 146; C, 100; S, 50.Hanno, the Carthaginian—Herodotus visits Egypt, Lybia, Ethiopia, Phoenicia, Arabia, Babylon, Persia, India, Media, Colchis, the Caspian Sea, Scythia, Thrace, and Greece—Pytheas explores the coasts of Iberia and Gaul, the English Channel, the Isle of Albion, the Orkney Islands, and the land of Thule—Nearchus visits the Asiatic... more...

CHAPTER I Concerning those which follow "Brother," quod he, "where is now youre dwellyng,Another day if that I sholde you seche?"This yeman hym answerde, in softe speche:"Brother," quod he, "fer in the north contree,Where as I hope som tyme I shal thee see." The Friar's Tale. Chaucer. In the North Riding of Yorkshire, there is a town of such antiquity that its... more...

1ONETWOCome buckle my Shoe.You lazy Elf!Pray do it yourself. Philadel Pub. and Sold by W. Charles. 34THREEFOURShut the door:Let us keep ourselves warmAnd not think of the storm.6FIVESIXI’m picking some sticks,That my mother may makeA nice currant Cake.78SEVENEIGHTYou are come here too late.’Tis all one to Ben,He can go home again.910NINETENWho’ll buy a fat Hen?Her bones are so smallYou may eat... more...

The North American Indians, the earliest inhabitants of this country of whom we know anything definite, were great story-tellers; and their histories consist entirely of stories handed down from parents to children, or, more likely, from grandparents to grandchildren, for grandfathers and grandmothers are generally more willing to tell stories than fathers or mothers. And so these traditions, probably... more...

CHAPTER I. THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS Scarcely more than half a century has passed since the Dominion of Canada, in its present form, came into existence. But thrice that period has elapsed since the fateful day when Montcalm and Wolfe laid down their lives in battle on the Plains of Abraham, and the lands which now comprise the Dominion finally passed from French hands and came under British rule. The... more...

The reign of Philip the Second has occupied the pen of the historian more frequently—if we except that of Charles the Fifth—than any other portion of the Spanish annals. It has become familiar to the English reader through the pages of Watson, who has deservedly found favor with the public for the perspicuity of his style,—a virtue, however, not uncommon in his day,—for the sobriety of his... more...

With loving breath of all the winds, his name Is blown about the world; but to his friends A sweeter secret hides behind his fame, And love steals shyly through the loud acclaim To murmur a God bless you! and there ends. When Longfellow had reached his sixtieth year, James Russell Lowell, then in his splendid prime, sent him those lines as a birthday greeting. Lowell, since then, received in his turn... more...