FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE ANGELby Hans Christian Andersen"WHENEVER a good child dies, an angel of God comes down fromheaven, takes the dead child in his arms, spreads out his greatwhite wings, and flies with him over all the places which the childhad loved during his life. Then he gathers a large handful of flowers,which he carries up to the Almighty, that they may bloom more brightlyin heaven than they do on earth. And the Almighty presses theflowers to His heart, but He kisses the flower that pleases Himbest, and it receives a voice, and is able to join the song of the...　

The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales For My Childrenby Charles KingsleyPREFACEMY DEAR CHILDREN,Some of you have heard already of the old Greeks; and all of you, as you grow up, will hear more and more of them. Those of you who are boys will, perhaps, spend a great deal of time in reading Greek books; and the girls, though they may not learn Greek, will be sure to come across a great many stories taken from Greek history, and to see, I may say every day, things which we should not have had if it had not been for these old Greeks. You can hardly find a well-written book which has not in it Greek names, and words, and proverbs; you cannot walk through a great town without passing Greek 　

Roundabout to Bostonby William Dean HowellsDuring the four years of my life in Venice the literary intention waspresent with me at all times and in all places. I wrote many things inverse, which I sent to the magazines in every part of the English-speaking world, but they came unerringly back to me, except in threeinstances only, when they were kept by the editors who finally printedthem. One of these pieces was published in the Atlantic Monthly; anotherin Harpers Magazine; the third was got into the New York Ledger throughthe kindness of Doctor Edward Everett Hale, who used I know not whatmighty magic to that end. I had not yet met him; but he interested...　

BENITO CERENOby Herman MelvilleIN THE year 1799, Captain Amasa Delano, of Duxbury, in Massachusetts, commanding a large sealer and general trader, lay at anchor, with a valuable cargo, in the harbour of St. Maria- a small, desert, uninhabited island towards the southern extremity of the long coast of Chili. There he had touched for water. On the second day, not long after dawn, while lying in his berth, his mate came below, informing him that a strange sail was coming into the bay. Ships were then not so plenty in those waters as now. He rose, dressed, and went on deck. The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute and calm; everything grey. The sea, though undulat　

The Angel and the Author and othersby Jerome K. JeromeCHAPTER II had a vexing dream one night, not long ago: it was about afortnight after Christmas. I dreamt I flew out of the window in mynightshirt. I went up and up. I was glad that I was going up."They have been noticing me," I thought to myself. "If anything, Ihave been a bit too good. A little less virtue and I might havelived longer. But one cannot have everything." The world grewsmaller and smaller. The last I saw of London was the long line ofelectric lamps bordering the Embankment; later nothing remained but afaint luminosity buried beneath darkness. It was at this point of my...　

Carmenby Prosper MerimeeTranslated by Lady Mary LoydCHAPTER II had always suspected the geographical authorities did not know what they were talking about when they located the battlefield of Munda in the county of the Bastuli-Poeni, close to the modern Monda, some two leagues north of Marbella.According to my own surmise, founded on the text of the anonymous author of the /Bellum Hispaniense/, and on certain information culled from the excellent library owned by the Duke of Ossuna, I believed the site of the memorable struggle in which Caesar played double or quits, once and for all, with the champions of the Republic, should be sought in the neighbourhood of Montilla....　

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennesby Robert Louis Stevenson.My Dear Sidney Colvin,The journey which this little book is to describe was veryagreeable and fortunate for me. After an uncouth beginning, I hadthe best of luck to the end. But we are all travellers in whatJohn Bunyan calls the wilderness of this world - all, too,travellers with a donkey: and the best that we find in our travelsis an honest friend. He is a fortunate voyager who finds many. Wetravel, indeed, to find them. They are the end and the reward oflife. They keep us worthy of ourselves; and when we are alone, weare only nearer to the absent....　

The Moscow Census - From "What to do?"by Count Lyof N. TolstoiTranslated from the Russian by Isabel F. HapgoodTHOUGHTS EVOKED BY THE CENSUS OF MOSCOW. [1884-1885.]And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let himimpart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him dolikewiseLUKE iii. 10. 11.Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rustdoth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth norrust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also....　

The Love Affairs Of A Bibliomaniacby Eugene FieldIntroductionThe determination to found a story or a series of sketches on the delights, adventures, and misadventures connected with bibliomania did not come impulsively to my brother. For many years, in short during the greater part of nearly a quarter of a century of journalistic work, he had celebrated in prose and verse, and always in his happiest and most delightful vein, the pleasures of book-hunting. Himself an indefatigable collector of books, the possessor of a library as valuable as it was interesting, a library containing volumes obtained only at the cost of great personal sacrifice, he was in the most active sympathy with the di　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE BRAVE TIN SOLDIERby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers, who were allbrothers, for they had been made out of the same old tin spoon. Theyshouldered arms and looked straight before them, and wore a splendiduniform, red and blue. The first thing in the world they ever heardwere the words, "Tin soldiers!" uttered by a little boy, who clappedhis hands with delight when the lid of the box, in which they lay, wastaken off. They were given him for a birthday present, and he stood atthe table to set them up. The soldiers were all exactly alike,...　

Billy and the Big Stickby Richard Harding DavisHad the Wilmot Electric Light people remained content only to makelight, had they not, as a by-product, attempted to make money, theyneed not have left Hayti.When they flooded with radiance the unpaved streets of Port-au-Prince no one, except the police, who complained that the lightskept them awake, made objection; but when for this illumination theWilmot Company demanded payment, every one up to President HamilearPoussevain was surprised and grieved. So grieved was President Ham,as he was lovingly designated, that he withdrew the Wilmotconcession, surrounded the power-house with his barefooted army,and in a proclamation announced that for the　

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMESThe Adventure of the Blue CarbuncleI had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the secondmorning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him thecompliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in apurple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the right,and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly studied,near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and on theangle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable hard-felthat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several places. A...