1872FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE STORKSby Hans Christian AndersenON the last house in a little village the storks had built a nest,and the mother stork sat in it with her four young ones, who stretchedout their necks and pointed their black beaks, which had not yetturned red like those of the parent birds. A little way off, on theedge of the roof, stood the father stork, quite upright and stiff; notliking to be quite idle, he drew up one leg, and stood on the other,so still that it seemed almost as if he were carved in wood. "Itmust look very grand," thought he, "for my wife to have a sentryguarding her nest. They do not know that I am her husband; they will...　

An Anthology of Australian VerseEdited by Bertram StevensDedicated toDAVID SCOTT MITCHELL, Esq.SydneyPrefaceThe Editor has endeavoured to make this selection representativeof the best short poems written by Australians or inspired byAustralian scenery and conditions of life, "Australian" in this connectionbeing used to include New Zealand. The arrangement isas nearly as possible chronological; and the appendix containsbrief biographical particulars of the authors, together with noteswhich may be useful to readers outside Australia.The Editor thanks Messrs. H. H. Champion, Henry Gyles Turner,...　

The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the action of worms withobservations of their habitsby Charles DarwinINTRODUCTION.The share which worms have taken in the formation of the layer ofvegetable mould, which covers the whole surface of the land inevery moderately humid country, is the subject of the presentvolume. This mould is generally of a blackish colour and a fewinches in thickness. In different districts it differs but littlein appearance, although it may rest on various subsoils. Theuniform fineness of the particles of which it is composed is one ofits chief characteristic features; and this may be well observed inany gravelly country, where a recently-ploughed field immediatel　

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON, V11BY CONSTANTPREMIER VALET DE CHAMBRETRANSLATED BY WALTER CLARK1895CONTENTS:CHAPTER XV. to CHAPTER XXIII.CHAPTER XV.During the second day of the battle of Dresden, at the end of which theEmperor had the attack of fever I mentioned in the preceding chapter, theKing of Naples, or rather Marshal Murat, performed prodigies of valor.Much has been said of this truly extraordinary prince; but only those whosaw him personally could form a correct idea of him, and even they neverknew him perfectly until they had seen him on a field of battle. Therehe seemed like those great actors who produce a complete illusion amid...　

The Drums Of Jeopardyby Harold MacGrathCHAPTER IA fast train drew into Albany, on the New York Central, from theWest. It was three-thirty of a chill March morning in the firstyear of peace. A pall of fog lay over the world so heavy thatit beaded the face and hands and deposited a fairy diamond dustupon wool. The station lights had the visibility of stars, andlike the stars were without refulgence - a pale golden aureola,perhaps three feet in diameter, and beyond, nothing. The fewpassengers who alighted and the train itself had the same nebulosityof drab fish in a dim aquarium.Among the passengers to detrain was a man in a long black coat.The high collar was up. The man wore a derby ha　

Cressyby Bret HarteCHAPTER I.As the master of the Indian Spring school emerged from the pinewoods into the little clearing before the schoolhouse, he stoppedwhistling, put his hat less jauntily on his head, threw away somewild flowers he had gathered on his way, and otherwise assumed thesevere demeanor of his profession and his mature agewhich was atleast twenty. Not that he usually felt this an assumption; it wasa firm conviction of his serious nature that he impressed others,as he did himself, with the blended austerity and ennui of deep andexhausted experience.The building which was assigned to him and his flock by the Board...　

Liber Amoris, or, The New Pygmalionby William HazlittADVERTISEMENTThe circumstances, an outline of which is given in these pages, happened a very short time ago to a native of North Britain, who left his own country early in life, in consequence of political animosities and an ill-advised connection in marriage. It was some years after that he formed the fatal attachment which is the subject of the following narrative. The whole was transcribed very carefully with his own hand, a little before he set out for the Continent in hopes of benefiting by a change of scene, but he died soon after in the Netherlandsit is supposed, of disappointment preying on a sickly frame and morbid state of min　

_New England Reformers__A Lecture read before the Society in Amory Hall,__on Sunday, 3 March, 1844_Whoever has had opportunity of acquaintance with society in NewEngland, during the last twenty-five years, with those middle andwith those leading sections that may constitute any justrepresentation of the character and aim of the community, will havebeen struck with the great activity of thought and experimenting.His attention must be commanded by the signs that the Church, orreligious party, is falling from the church nominal, and is appearingin temperance and non-resistance societies, in movements of...　

Stories of a Western Townby Octave ThanetCONTENTSThe Besetment of Kurt LiedersThe Face of FailureTommy and ThomasMother EmeritusAn Assisted ProvidenceHarry LossingTHE BESETMENT OF KURT LIEDERS A SILVER rime glistened all down the street. There was a drabble of dead leaves on the sidewalk which was of wood, and on the roadway which was of macadam and stiff mud. The wind blew sharply, for it was a December day and only six in the morning. Nor were the houses high enough to furnish any independent bulwark; they were low, wooden dwellings, the tallest a bare two stories in height, the majority only one story. But they were in good painting and repair, and most of them had a homely gayety of ge　

Appendix to History of Friedrich II of Prussiaby Thomas CarlyleThis Piece, it would seem, was translated sixteen years ago;some four or five years before any part of the present HISTORY OFFRIEDRICH got to paper. The intercalated bits of Commentary were,as is evident, all or mostly written at the same time:these also,though they are now become, in parts, SUPERFLUOUS to a reader thathas been diligent, I have not thought of changing, where notcompelled. Here and there, especially in the Introductory Part,some slight additions have crept in;which the above kind ofreader will possibly enough detect; and may even have, for friendlyreasons, some vestige of interest in assigning to their new date..　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENIB AND LITTLE CHRISTINAby Hans Christian AndersenIN the forest that extends from the banks of the Gudenau, in NorthJutland, a long way into the country, and not far from the clearstream, rises a great ridge of land, which stretches through thewood like a wall. Westward of this ridge, and not far from theriver, stands a farmhouse, surrounded by such poor land that the sandysoil shows itself between the scanty ears of rye and wheat whichgrow in it. Some years have passed since the people who lived herecultivated these fields; they kept three sheep, a pig, and two oxen;...　

The Argonauts of North Libertyby Bret HartePART ICHAPTER IThe bell of the North Liberty Second Presbyterian Church had justceased ringing. North Liberty, Connecticut, never on any day acheerful town, was always bleaker and more cheerless on theseventh, when the Sabbath sun, after vainly trying to coax a smileof reciprocal kindliness from the drawn curtains and half-closedshutters of the austere dwellings and the equally sealed and hard-set churchgoing faces of the people, at last settled down into ablank stare of stony astonishment. On this chilly March evening ofthe year 1850, that stare had kindled into an offended sunset andan angry night that furiously spat sleet and hail in the faces