THE STARIt was on the first day of the New Year that the announcementwas made, almost simultaneously from three observatories, that themotion of the planet Neptune, the outermost of all the planetsthat wheel about the sun, had become very erratic. Ogilvy hadalready called attention to a suspected retardation in its velocityin December. Such a piece of news was scarcely calculated tointerest a world the greater portion of whose inhabitants wereunaware of the existence of the planet Neptune, nor outside theastronomical profession did the subsequent discovery of a faintremote speck of light in the region of the perturbed planet cause...　

The Nature Fakerby Richard Harding DavisRichard Herrick was a young man with a gentle disposition, muchmoney, and no sense of humor. His object in life was to marry MissCatherweight. For three years she had tried to persuade him thiscould not be, and finally, in order to convince him, married someone else. When the woman he loves marries another man, the rejectedone is popularly supposed to take to drink or to foreign travel.Statistics show that, instead, he instantly falls in love with thebest friend of the girl who refused him. But, as Herrick trulyloved Miss Catherweight, he could not worship any other woman, andso he became a lover of nature. Nature, he assured his men friends,...　

THE STORY OF PRETTY GOLDILOCKSONCE upon a time there was a princess who was theprettiest creature in the world. And because she was sobeautiful, and because her hair was like the finest gold,and waved and rippled nearly to the ground, she wascalled Pretty Goldilocks. She always wore a crown offlowers, and her dresses were embroidered with diamondsand pearls, and everybody who saw her fell in love withher.Now one of her neighbors was a young king who wasnot married. He was very rich and handsome, and whenhe heard all that was said about Pretty Goldilocks, thoughhe had never seen her, he fell so deeply in love with herthat he could neither eat nor drink. So he resolved to...　

To be Read at Duskby Charles DickensOne, two, three, four, five. There were five of them.Five couriers, sitting on a bench outside the convent on the summitof the Great St. Bernard in Switzerland, looking at the remoteheights, stained by the setting sun as if a mighty quantity of redwine had been broached upon the mountain top, and had not yet hadtime to sink into the snow.This is not my simile. It was made for the occasion by thestoutest courier, who was a German. None of the others took anymore notice of it than they took of me, sitting on another bench onthe other side of the convent door, smoking my cigar, like them,...　

THE BLACK THIEFAND KNIGHT OF THE GLEN.IN times of yore there was a King and a Queen in the south ofIreland who had three sons, all beautiful children; but theQueen, their mother, sickened unto death when they were yet veryyoung, which caused great grief throughout the Court, particularlyto the King, her husband, who could in no wise be comforted.Seeing that death was drawing near her, she called the King to herand spoke as follows:`I am now going to leave you, and as you are young and inyour prime, of course after my death you will marry again. Nowall the request I ask of you is that you will build a tower in anisland in the sea, wherein you will keep your three sons until they...　

PRINCE DARLINGONCE upon a time there lived a king who was so justand kind that his subjects called him "the Good King."It happened one day, when he was out hunting, that alittle white rabbit, which his dogs were chasing, spranginto his arms for shelter. The King stroked it gently,and said to it:"Well, bunny, as you have come to me for protectionI will see that nobody hurts you."And he took it home to his palace and had it put in apretty little house, with all sorts of nice things to eat.That night, when he was alone in his room, a beautifullady suddenly appeared before him; her long dress wasas white as snow, and she had a crown of white roses upon...　

ON DREAMSby Aristotletranslated by J. I. Beare1WE must, in the next place, investigate the subject of the dream,and first inquire to which of the faculties of the soul it presentsitself, i.e. whether the affection is one which pertains to thefaculty of intelligence or to that of sense-perception; for theseare the only faculties within us by which we acquire knowledge.If, then, the exercise of the faculty of sight is actual seeing,that of the auditory faculty, hearing, and, in general that of the...　

THERE ARE NO GUILTY PEOPLEIMINE is a strange and wonderful lot! Thechances are that there is not a single wretchedbeggar suffering under the luxury and oppressionof the rich who feels anything like as keenly as Ido either the injustice, the cruelty, and the horrorof their oppression of and contempt for the poor;or the grinding humiliation and misery whichbefall the great majority of the workers, the realproducers of all that makes life possible. I havefelt this for a long time, and as the years havepassed by the feeling has grown and grown, untilrecently it reached its climax. Although I feel allthis so vividly, I still live on amid the depravity...　

THE CONEThe night was hot and overcast, the sky red, rimmed with thelingering sunset of mid-summer. They sat at the open window,trying to fancy the air was fresher there. The trees and shrubs ofthe garden stood stiff and dark; beyond in the roadway a gas-lamp burnt, bright orange against the hazy blue of the evening.Farther were the three lights of the railway signal against thelowering sky. The man and woman spoke to one another in low tones."He does not suspect?" said the man, a little nervously."Not he," she said peevishly, as though that too irritatedher. "He thinks of nothing but the works and the prices of fuel.He has no imagination, no poetry."...　

THE CALASHThe town of B had become very lively since a cavalry regiment hadtaken up its quarters in it. Up to that date it had been mortallywearisome there. When you happened to pass through the town andglanced at its little mud houses with their incredibly gloomy aspect,the pen refuses to express what you felt. You suffered a terribleuneasiness as if you had just lost all your money at play, or hadcommitted some terrible blunder in company. The plaster covering thehouses, soaked by the rain, had fallen away in many places from theirwalls, which from white had become streaked and spotted, whilst oldreeds served to thatch them....　

THE LITTLE GOOD MOUSEONCE upon a time there lived a King and Queen who loved eachother so much that they were never happy unless they weretogether. Day after day they went out hunting or fishing; nightafter night they went to balls or to the opera; they sang, and danced,and ate sugar-plums, and were the gayest of the gay, and all theirsubjects followed their example so that the kingdom was called theJoyous Land. Now in the next kingdom everything was as differentas it could possibly be. The King was sulky and savage, and neverenjoyed himself at all. He looked so ugly and cross that all hissubjects feared him, and he hated the very sight of a cheerful face;...　

1872FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE WILL-O-THE WISP IS IN THE TOWN,SAYS THE MOOR WOMANby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE was a man who once knew many stories, but they had slipped away from him- so he said. The Story that used to visit him of its own accord no longer came and knocked at his door. And why did it come no longer? It is true enough that for days and years the man had not thought of it, had not expected it to come and knock; and if he had expected it, it would certainly not have come; for without there was war, and within was the care and sorrow that war brings with it.The stork and the swallows came back from their long journey,for they thought of no danger; and, behold,