The Unbearable Bassingtonby "Saki" [H. H. Munro]CHAPTER IFRANCESCA BASSINGTON sat in the drawing-room of her house in BlueStreet, W., regaling herself and her estimable brother Henry withChina tea and small cress sandwiches. The meal was of that elegantproportion which, while ministering sympathetically to the desiresof the moment, is happily reminiscent of a satisfactory luncheonand blessedly expectant of an elaborate dinner to come.In her younger days Francesca had been known as the beautiful MissGreech; at forty, although much of the original beauty remained,she was just dear Francesca Bassington. No one would have dreamed...　

380 BCPLUTUSby Aristophanesanonymous translatorCHARACTERS IN THE PLAYCHREMYLUSCARIO, Servant of ChremylusPLUTUS, God of RichesBLEPSIDEMUS, friend of ChremylusPOVERTYWIFE OF CHREMYLUSA JUST MANAN INFORMERAN OLD WOMANA YOUTHHERMESA PRIEST OF ZEUSCHORUS OF RUSTICSPLUTUSPLUTUS(SCENE:-The Orchestra represents a public square in Athens.In the background is the house of CHREMYLUS. A ragged old...　

A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATEA WARD OF THEGOLDEN GATEBret Harte1- Page 2-A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATEPROLOGUE.In San Francisco the "rainy season" had been making itself a realityto the wondering Eastern immigrant. There were short days of driftingclouds and flying sunshine, and long succeeding nights of incessantdownpour, when the rain rattled on the thin shingles or drummed on theresounding zinc of pioneer roofs. The shifting sand-dunes on the outskirts...　

　 FOREWORD　　 This book recounts the five-day history of a major American scientific crisis.　　 As in most crises, the events surrounding the Andromeda Strain were a pound of foresight and foolishness, innocence and ignorance. Nearly everyone involved had moments of great brilliance, and moments of unaccountable stupidity. It is therefore impossible to write about the events without offending some of the participants.　　 However, I think it is important that the story be told. This country supports the largest scientific establishment in the history of mankind. New discoveries are constantly being made, and many of these discoveries have important political or social overtones. In the near　

　　His mind absorbed the scene before him, so quiet and calm and . . . normal. It was the life he had always wanted, a gathering of family and friends-he knew that they were just that, though the only one he recognized was his dear mother.　　This was the way it was supposed to be. The warmth and the love, the laughter and the quiet times. This was how he had always dreamed it would be, how he had always prayed it would be. The warm, inviting smiles. The pleasant conversation. The gentle pats on shoulders.　　But most of all there was the smile of his beloved mother, so happy now, no more a slave. When she looked at him, he saw all of that and more, saw how proud she was of him, how joyful her l　

The Country Doctorby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell"For a wounded heartshadow and silence."To my Mother.CHAPTER ITHE COUNTRYSIDE AND THE MANOn a lovely spring morning in the year 1829, a man of fifty or thereabouts was wending his way on horseback along the mountain road that leads to a large village near the Grande Chartreuse. This village is the market town of a populous canton that lies within the limits of a valley of some considerable length. The melting of the snows had filled the boulder-strewn bed of the torrent (often dry) that flows through this valley, which is closely shut in between two parallel mountain barriers, above which the peaks of Savoy and 　

TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT (or Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure)TOM SWIFT AND HISSUBMARINE BOAT(or Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure)VICTOR APPLETON1- Page 2-TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT (or Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure)CHAPTER OneNews of a Treasure WreckThere was a rushing, whizzing, throbbing noise in the air. A greatbody, like that of some immense bird, sailed along, casting a grotesqueshadow on the ground below. An elderly man, who Was seated on the...　

EvergreensEvergreensby Jerome K. Jerome1- Page 2-EvergreensThey look so dull and dowdy in the spring weather, when the snowdrops and the crocuses are putting on their dainty frocks of white andmauve and yellow, and the baby-buds from every branch are peeping withbright eyes out on the world, and stretching forth soft little leaves towardthe coming gladness of their lives. They stand apart, so cold and hardamid the stirring hope and joy that are throbbing all around them....　

AN EPISODE OF FIDDLETOWNIn 1858 Fiddletown considered her a very pretty woman. She had aquantity of light chestnut hair, a good figure, a dazzlingcomplexion, and a certain languid grace which passed easily forgentle-womanliness. She always dressed becomingly, and in whatFiddletown accepted as the latest fashion. She had only twoblemishes: one of her velvety eyes, when examined closely, had aslight cast; and her left cheek bore a small scar left by a singledrop of vitriol happily the only drop of an entire phialthrownupon her by one of her own jealous sex, that reached the prettyface it was intended to mar. But when the observer had studied the...　

The Grey BrethrenThe Grey Brethren1- Page 2-The Grey BrethrenThe Grey BrethrenSome of the happiest remembrances of my childhood are of days spentin a little Quaker colony on a high hill.The walk was in itself a preparation, for the hill was long and steepand at the mercy of the north-east wind; but at the top, sheltered by acopse and a few tall trees, stood a small house, reached by a flaggedpathway skirting one side of a bright trim garden....　

THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBERTHE TAPESTRIEDCHAMBERby Sir Walter Scott1- Page 2-THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBERINTRODUCTION.This is another little story from The Keepsake of 1828. It was told tome many years ago by the late Miss Anna Seward, who, among otheraccomplishments that rendered her an amusing inmate in a country house,had that of recounting narratives of this sort with very considerable effect--much greater, indeed, than any one would be apt to guess from the style...　

Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnsonby Hesther Lynch PiozziINTRODUCTIONMrs. Piozzi, by her second marriage, was by her first marriage the Mrs. Thrale in whose house at Streatham Doctor Johnson was, after the year of his first introduction, 1765, in days of infirmity, an honoured and a cherished friend. The year of the beginning of the friendship was the year in which Johnson, fifty-six years old, obtained his degree of LL.D. from Dublin, andthough he never called himself Doctorwas thenceforth called Doctor by all his friends.Before her marriage Mrs. Piozzi had been Miss Hesther Lynch Salusbury, a young lady of a good Welsh family. She was born in the year 174O, and she lived until the yea