THE SKETCH BOOKA ROYAL POETby Washington IrvingThough your body be confined,And soft love a prisoner bound,Yet the beauty of your mindNeither check nor chain hath found.Look out nobly, then, and dareEven the fetters that you wear.FLETCHER.ON A soft sunny morning in the genial month of May, I made anexcursion to Windsor Castle. It is a place full of storied andpoetical associations. The very external aspect of the proud old...　

The Divine Comedytranslated by Henry Wadsworth LongfellowPARADISOParadiso: Canto IThe glory of Him who moveth everythingDoth penetrate the universe, and shineIn one part more and in another less.Within that heaven which most his light receivesWas I, and things beheld which to repeatNor knows, nor can, who from above descends;Because in drawing near to its desireOur intellect ingulphs itself so far,That after it the memory cannot go.Truly whatever of the holy realmI had the power to treasure in my mindShall now become the subject of my song.O good Apollo, for this last empriseMake of me such a vessel of thy power...　

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...　

Original Short Stories, Vol. 13.By Guy de MaupassantVOLUME XIII.OLD JUDASTHE LITTLE CASKBOITELLEA WIDOWTHE ENGLISHMEN OF ETRETATMAGNETISMA FATHERS CONFESSIONA MOTHER OF MONSTERSAN UNCOMFORTABLE BEDA PORTRAITTHE DRUNKARDTHE WARDROBETHE MOUNTAIN POOLA CREMATIONMISTIMADAME HERMETTHE MAGIC COUCHOLD JUDASThis entire stretch of country was amazing; it was characterized by agrandeur that was almost religious, and yet it had an air of sinisterdesolation.A great, wild lake, filled with stagnant, black water, in which thousandsof reeds were waving to and fro, lay in the midst of a vast circle ofnaked hills, where nothing grew but broom, or here and there an oak...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENWHAT THE MOON SAWby Hans Christian AndersenINTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTIONIT is a strange thing, when I feel most fervently and most deeply,my hands and my tongue seem alike tied, so that I cannot rightlydescribe or accurately portray the thoughts that are rising within me;and yet I am a painter; my eye tells me as much as that, and all myfriends who have seen my sketches and fancies say the same.I am a poor lad, and live in one of the narrowest of lanes; butI do not want for light, as my room is high up in the house, with an...　

Betty Zaneby Zane GreyTO THE BETTY ZANE CHAPTER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHORNOTEIn a quiet corner of the stately little city of Wheeling, West Va., stands a monument on which is inscribed:"By authority of the State of West Virginia to commemorate the siege of Fort Henry, Sept 11, 1782, the last battle of the American Revolution, this tablet is here placed."Had it not been for the heroism of a girl the foregoing inscription would never have been written, and the city of Wheeling would never have existed. From time to time I have read short stories and magazine articles which have been published about Elizabeth Zane and her famous exploi　

The Red House Mysteryby A.A. Milne1The Red House MysteryTO JOHN VINE MILNE MY DEAR FATHER,Like all really nice people, you have a weakness for detective stories,and feel that there are not enough of them. So, after all that you havedone for me, the least that I can do for you is to write you one. Here itis: with more gratitude and affection than I can well put down here.A.A.M.2The Red House MysteryCHAPTER IMrs. Stevens is FrightenedIn the drowsy heat of the summer afternoon the Red House wastaking its siesta. There was a lazy murmur of bees in the flower-borders,a gentle cooing of pigeons in the tops of the elms. From distant lawns...　

The Mahatma and the HareA Dream Storyby H. Rider Haggard"Ultimately a good hare was found which took the field at . . .There the hounds pressed her, and on the hunt arriving at the edgeof the cliff the hare could be seen crossing the beach and goingright out to sea. A boat was procured, and the master and someothers rowed out to her just as she drowned, and, bringing thebody in, gave it to the hounds. A hare swimming out to sea is asight not often witnessed."/Local paper, January/ 1911.". . . A long check occurred in the latter part of this hunt, thehare having laid up in a hedgerow, from which she was at lastevicted by a crack of the whip. Her next place of refuge was a...　

BenitaAn African Romanceby H. Rider HaggardNOTESIt may interest readers of this story to know that its authorbelieves it to have a certain foundation in fact.It was said about five-and-twenty or thirty years ago that anadventurous trader, hearing from some natives in the territorythat lies at the back of Quilimane, the legend of a great treasureburied in or about the sixteenth century by a party of Portuguesewho were afterwards massacred, as a last resource attempted itsdiscovery by the help of a mesmerist. According to this historythe child who was used as a subject in the experiment, when in a...　

THE SKETCH BOOKA SUNDAY IN LONDON*by Washington Irving* Part of a sketch omitted in the previous editions.IN A preceding paper I have spoken of an English Sunday in thecountry, and its tranquillizing effect upon the landscape; but whereis its sacred influence more strikingly apparent than in the veryheart of that great Babel, London? On this sacred day, the giganticmonster is charmed into repose. The intolerable din and struggle ofthe week are at an end. The shops are shut. The fires of forges andmanufactories are extinguished; and the sun, no longer obscured by...　

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON, V5BY CONSTANTPREMIER VALET DE CHAMBRETRANSLATED BY WALTER CLARKCONTENTS:CHAPTER I. to CHAPTER VI.CHAPTER I.I left the Emperor at Berlin, where each day, and each hour of the day,he received news of some victory gained, or some success obtained by hisgenerals. General Beaumont presented to him eighty flags captured fromthe enemy by his division, and Colonel Gerard also presented sixty takenfrom Blucher at the battle of Wismar. Madgeburg had capitulated, and agarrison of sixty thousand men had marched out under the eyes of GeneralSavary. Marshal Mortier occupied Hanover in the name of France, and...　

THE LOST CONTINENTTHE LOSTCONTINENTEdgar Rice Burroughs1- Page 2-THE LOST CONTINENT1Since earliest childhood I have been strangely fascinated by themystery surrounding the history of the last days of twentieth centuryEurope. My interest is keenest, perhaps, not so much in relation toknown facts as to speculation upon the unknowable of the two centuriesthat have rolled by since human intercourse between the Western and...