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....　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENDELAYING IS NOT FORGETTINGby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE was an old mansion surrounded by a marshy ditch with adrawbridge which was but seldom let down:- not all guests are goodpeople. Under the roof were loopholes to shoot through, and to pourdown boiling water or even molten lead on the enemy, should heapproach. Inside the house the rooms were very high and had ceilingsof beams, and that was very useful considering the great deal of smokewhich rose up from the chimney fire where the large, damp logs of woodsmouldered. On the walls hung pictures of knights in armour and...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE SNOWDROPby Hans Christian AndersenIT was winter-time; the air was cold, the wind was sharp, butwithin the closed doors it was warm and comfortable, and within theclosed door lay the flower; it lay in the bulb under thesnow-covered earth.One day rain fell. The drops penetrated through the snowy coveringdown into the earth, and touched the flower-bulb, and talked of thebright world above. Soon the Sunbeam pierced its way through thesnow to the root, and within the root there was a stirring."Come in," said the flower."I cannot," said the Sunbeam. "I am not strong enough to unlock...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE SOLITARY CYCLISTby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleFrom the years 1894 to 1901 inclusive, Mr. Sherlock Holmes was avery busy man. It is safe to say that there was no public case ofany difficulty in which he was not consulted during those eight years,and there were hundreds of private cases, some of them of the mostintricate and extraordinary character, in which he played aprominent part. Many startling successes and a few unavoidablefailures were the outcome of this long period of continuous work. As Ihave preserved very full notes of all these cases, and was myself...　

The Marriage Contractby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Rossini.THE MARRIAGE CONTRACTCHAPTER IPRO AND CONMonsieur de Manerville, the father, was a worthy Norman gentleman,well known to the Marechael de Richelieu, who married him to one ofthe richest heiresses of Bordeaux in the days when the old dukereigned in Guienne as governor. The Norman then sold the estate heowned in Bessin, and became a Gascon, allured by the beauty of thechateau de Lanstrac, a delightful residence owned by his wife. Duringthe last days of the reign of Louis XV., he bought the post of major...　

The Man From Glengarryby Ralph ConnorA TALE OF THE OTTAWADEDICATIONTO THE MEN OF GLENGARRY WHO IN PATIENCE, IN COURAGE AND IN THE FEAROF GOD ARE HELPING TO BUILD THE EMPIRE OF THE CANADIAN WEST THISBOOK IS HUMBLY DEDICATEDPREFACEThe solid forests of Glengarry have vanished, and with the foreststhe men who conquered them. The manner of life and the type ofcharacter to be seen in those early days have gone too, andforever. It is part of the purpose of this book to so picturethese men and their times that they may not drop quite out of mind.The men are worth remembering. They carried the marks of theirblood in their fierce passions, their courage, their loyalty; and...　

Old Christmasby Washington IrvingBut is old, old, good old Christmas gone? Nothing but the hair ofhis good, gray, old head and beard left? Well, I will have that,seeing that I cannot have more of him.Hue and Cry after Christmas.CONTENTSCHRISTMASTHE STAGE-COACHCHRISTMAS EVECHRISTMAS DAYTHE CHRISTMAS DINNERA man might then beholdAt Christmas, in each hallGood fires to curb the cold,And meat for great and small.The neighbours were friendly bidden,And all had welcome true,The poor from the gates were not chidden,When this old cap was new.Old SongChristmasThere is nothing in England that exercises a more delightful spell over my imagination than the lingerings of the holiday customs and rural 　

THE COMPLEAT ANGLERTHE COMPLEATANGLERIZAAK WALTON1- Page 2-THE COMPLEAT ANGLERTo the Right worshipfulJohn Offleyof Madeley Manor, in the County of Stafford Esquire, My mosthonoured FriendSir, I have made so ill use of your former favours, as by them to beencouraged to entreat, that they may be enlarged to the patronage andprotection of this Book: and I have put on a modest confidence, that I shall...　

Red Eveby H. Rider HaggardDEDICATIONDitchingham,May 27, 1911.My dear Jehu:For five long but not unhappy years, seated or journeying side byside, we have striven as Royal Commissioners to find a meanswhereby our coasts may be protected from "the outrageous flowingsurges of the sea" (I quote the jurists of centuries ago), theidle swamps turned to fertility and the barren hills clothed withforest; also, with small success, how "foreshore" may be bestdefined!What will result from all these labours I do not know, nor whether...　

The Girl with the Golden Eyesby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Ellen MarriageDEDICATIONTo Eugene Delacroix, Painter.NoteThe Girl with the Golden Eyes is the third part of a trilogy. Partone is entitled Ferragus and part two is The Duchesse de Langeais.The three stories are frequently combined under the title TheThirteen.THE GIRL WITH THE GOLDEN EYESOne of those sights in which most horror is to be encountered is,surely, the general aspect of the Parisian populacea people fearfulto behold, gaunt, yellow, tawny. Is not Paris a vast field inperpetual turmoil from a storm of interests beneath which are whirledalong a crop of human beings, who are, more often than not, reaped by...　

Youthby Leo TolstoyTranslated by C. J. HogarthIWHAT I CONSIDER TO HAVE BEEN THE BEGINNING OF MY YOUTHI have said that my friendship with Dimitri opened up for me anew view of my life and of its aim and relations. The essence ofthat view lay in the conviction that the destiny of man is tostrive for moral improvement, and that such improvement is atonce easy, possible, and lasting. Hitherto, however, I had foundpleasure only in the new ideas which I discovered to arise fromthat conviction, and in the forming of brilliant plans for amoral, active future, while all the time my life had beencontinuing along its old petty, muddled, pleasure-seeking course,...　

AS CONCERNS INTERPRETING THE DEITYIThis line of hieroglyphics was for fourteen years thedespair of all the scholars who labored over the mysteries of theRosetta stone: [Figure 1]After five years of study Champollion translated it thus:Therefore let the worship of Epiphanes be maintained in allthe temples, this upon pain of death.That was the twenty-forth translation that had beenfurnished by scholars. For a time it stood. But only for atime. Then doubts began to assail it and undermine it, and thescholars resumed their labors. Three years of patient workproduced eleven new translations; among them, this, by...