The Mysterious Strangerby Mark TwainCONTENTS:THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGERA FABLEHUNTING THE DECEITFUL TURKEYTHE McWILLIAMSES AND THE BURGLAR ALARMTHE MYSTERIOUS STRANGERChapter 1It was in 1590winter. Austria was far away from the world, and asleep;it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain soforever. Some even set it away back centuries upon centuries and saidthat by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Belief inAustria. But they meant it as a compliment, not a slur, and it was sotaken, and we were all proud of it. I remember it well, although I wasonly a boy; and I remember, too, the pleasure it gave me....　

Bruceby Albert Payson TerhuneTO MY TEN BEST FRIENDS:Who are far wiser in their way and far better in every way, thanI; and yet who have not the wisdom to know itWho do not merely think I am perfect, but who are calmly andpermanently convinced of my perfection;and this in spite offifty disillusions a dayWho are frantically happy at my coming and bitterly woebegone inmy absenceWho never bore me and never are bored by meWho never talk about themselves and who always listen withrapturous interest to anything I may sayWho, having no conventional standards, have no respectability;and who, having no conventional consciences, have no sins...　

Before Adamby Jack London"These are our ancestors, and their history is ourhistory. Remember that as surely as we one day swungdown out of the trees and walked upright, just assurely, on a far earlier day, did we crawl up out ofthe sea and achieve our first adventure on land."CHAPTER IPictures! Pictures! Pictures! Often, before I learned,did I wonder whence came the multitudes of picturesthat thronged my dreams; for they were pictures thelike of which I had never seen in real wake-a-day life.They tormented my childhood, making of my dreams aprocession of nightmares and a little later convincing...　

The Little Dukeby Charlotte M. YongeCHAPTER IOn a bright autumn day, as long ago as the year 943, there was a great bustle in the Castle of Bayeux in Normandy.The hall was large and low, the roof arched, and supported on thick short columns, almost like the crypt of a Cathedral; the walls were thick, and the windows, which had no glass, were very small, set in such a depth of wall that there was a wide deep window seat, upon which the rain might beat, without reaching the interior of the room. And even if it had come in, there was nothing for it to hurt, for the walls were of rough stone, and the floor of tiles. There was a fire at each end of this great dark apartment, but there were no c　

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange ThingsBy Lafcadio HearnA Note On Japanese PronunciationAlthough simplified, the following general rules will help the readerunfamiliar with Japanese to come close enough to Japanese pronunciation.There are five vowels: a (as in fAther), i (as in machIne), u (as infOOl), e (as in fEllow), and o (as in mOle). Although certain vowels becomenearly "silent" in some environments, this phenomenon can be safely ignoredfor the purpose at hand.Consonants roughly approximate their corresponding sounds in English,except for r, which is actually somewhere between r and l (this is why the...　

History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 17by Thomas CarlyleTHE SEVEN-YEARS WAR: FIRST CAMPAIGN.1756-1757.Chapter I.WHAT FRIEDRICH HAD READ IN THE MENZEL DOCUMENTS.The ill-informed world, entirely unaware of what Friedrich had been studying and ascertaining, to his bitter sorrow, for four years past, was extremely astonished at the part he took in those French- English troubles; extremely provoked at his breaking out again into a Third Silesian War, greater than all the others, and kindling all Europe in such a way. The ill-informed world rang violently, then and long after, with a Controversy, "Was it of his beginning, or Not of his beginning?" Controversy, which may in our day be considered a　

The Purcell Papers, Volume 2by Joseph Sheridan Le FanuWith a Memoir byALFRED PERCEVAL GRAVESCONTENTS OF VOL. II.PASSAGE IN THE SECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISH COUNTESSTHE BRIDAL OF CARRIGVARAHSTRANGE EVENT IN THE LIFE OF SCHALKEN THE PAINTERSCRAPS OF HIBERNIAN BALLADSTHE PURCELL PAPERS.PASSAGE IN THESECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISHCOUNTESS.Being a Fifth Extract from the Legacy of the late FrancisPurcell, P.P. of Drumcoolagh.The following paper is written in afemale hand, and was no doubtcommunicated to my much-regretted...　

The Red One, and Othersby Jack LondonContents:The Red OneThe HussyLike Argus of the Ancient TimesThe PrincessSTORY: THE RED ONETHERE it was! The abrupt liberation of sound! As he timed it withhis watch, Bassett likened it to the trump of an archangel. Wallsof cities, he meditated, might well fall down before so vast andcompelling a summons. For the thousandth time vainly he tried toanalyse the tone-quality of that enormous peal that dominated theland far into the strong-holds of the surrounding tribes. Themountain gorge which was its source rang to the rising tide of it...　

Joan of Naples1343-1382By ALEXANDER DUMAS, PERECHAPTER IIn the night of the 15th of January 1343, while the inhabitants of Naples lay wrapped in peaceful slumber, they were suddenly awakened by the bells of the three hundred churches that this thrice blessed capital contains. In the midst of the disturbance caused by so rude a call the first bought in the mind of all was that the town was on fire, or that the army of some enemy had mysteriously landed under cover of night and could put the citizens to the edge of the sword. But the doleful, intermittent sounds of all these fills, which disturbed the silence at regular and distant intervals, were an invitation to the faithful pray for a pas　

SOPHOCLESOEDIPUS THE KINGTranslation by F. Storr, BAFormerly Scholar of Trinity College, CambridgeFrom the Loeb Library EditionOriginally published byHarvard University Press, Cambridge, MAandWilliam Heinemann Ltd, LondonFirst published in 1912ARGUMENTTo Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that the child bornto him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother....　

The Adventures of Pinocchioby C. Collodi[Pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini]CHAPTER 1How it happened that Mastro Cherry, carpenter,found a piece of wood that wept and laughed like a childCenturies ago there lived"A king!" my little readers will say immediately.No, children, you are mistaken. Once upon a timethere was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive pieceof wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood,one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire inwinter to make cold rooms cozy and warm.I do not know how this really happened, yet the factremains that one fine day this piece of wood found itself...　

Alexandria and her Schoolsby Charles KingsleyPREFACEI should not have presumed to choose for any lectures of mine such a subject as that which I have tried to treat in this book. The subject was chosen by the Institution where the lectures were delivered. Still less should I have presumed to print them of my own accord, knowing how fragmentary and crude they are. They were printed at the special request of my audience. Least of all, perhaps, ought I to have presumed to publish them, as I have done, at Cambridge, where any inaccuracy or sciolism (and that such defects exist in these pages, I cannot but fear) would be instantly detected, and severely censured: but nevertheless, it seemed