In the spring, families in the suburbs of New Orleans-Metairie, Jefferson, Lafayette-hang wreaths on their front doors. Gay straw wreaths of gold and purple and green, wreaths with bells and froths of ribbons trailing down, blowing, tangling in the warm wind. The children have king cake parties. Each slice of cake is iced with a different sweet, sticky topping-candied cherries and colored sugar are favorites-and the child who finds a pink plastic baby in his slice will enjoy a year of good luck. The baby represents the infant Christ, and children seldom choke on it. Jesus loves little chi　

　Norman gave his ivory-handled screwdriver a final twist and secured the last screw into the side panel of the slim brass cylinder. Unclamping it from his vice, he lifted it lovingly by its shining axle, and held it towards the dust-smeared glass of the kitchenette window. It was a work of wonder and that was for certain. A mere ten inches in diameter and another one in thickness, the dim light painted a rainbow corona about its varnished circumference.　Norman carried it carefully across to his cluttered kitchen table and, elbowing aside a confusion of soiled crockery, placed it upon the twin　

　　SABAT HAD smelled evil in the air for the past hour; a cloying cold mustiness that was stronger than the scent of the pine trees and belied the balmy late spring atmosphere. The silence, too, was noticeable. The absence of birdsong and the soughing of the mountain breeze seemed to have lapsed into a calm where not even a leaf rustled. As though the world held its breath and waited.　　　　The tall man in the dark, travel-stained and crumpled suit shrugged off the uneasiness he felt with a deliberate effort, paused on the long steep forest path to wipe the sweat from his high brow and aquiline f　

　　THE SENIOR partner studied the resume for the hundredth time and again found nothing he disliked about Mitchell Y. McDeere, at least not on paper. He had the brains, the ambition, the good looks. And he was hungry; with his background, he had to be. He was married, and that was mandatory. had never hired an unmarried lawyer, and it frowned heavily on divorce, as well as womanizing and drinking. Drug testing was in the contract. He had a degree in accounting, passed the CPA exam the first time he took it and wanted to be a tax lawyer, which of course was a requirement with a tax firm. He wa　

TWICE-TOLD TALESTHE GREAT STONE FACEby Nathaniel HawthorneONE AFTERNOON, When the sun was going down, a mother and her littleboy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great StoneFace. They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly tobe seen, though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all itsfeatures.And what was the Great Stone Face?Embosomed amongst a family of lofty mountains, there was a valleyso spacious that it contained many thousand inhabitants. Some of these...　

Early Australian Voyagesby John PinkertonContents:IntroductionPelsartTasmanDampierINTRODUCTION.In the days of Plato, imagination found its way, before the mariners, to a new world across the Atlantic, and fabled an Atlantis where America now stands. In the days of Francis Bacon, imagination of the English found its way to the great Southern Continent before the Portuguese or Dutch sailors had sight of it, and it was the home of those wise students of God and nature to whom Bacon gave his New Atlantis. The discoveries of America date from the close of the fifteenth century. The discoveries 　

GULLIVER OF MARSby Edwin L. ArnoldOriginal Title: Lieut. Gulliver JonesCHAPTER IDare I say it? Dare I say that I, a plain, prosaic lieutenant in the republican service have done the incredible things here set out for the love of a womanfor a chimera in female shape; for a pale, vapid ghost of woman-loveliness? At times I tell myself I dare not: that you will laugh, and cast me aside as a fabricator; and then again I pick up my pen and collect the scattered pages, for I MUST write itthe pallid splendour of that thing I loved, and won, and lost is ever before me, and will not be forgotten. Th　

A Defence of Poesie and Poemsby Philip SidneyContents:Introduction by Henry MorleyA Defence of PoesiePoemsINTRODUCTIONPhilip Sidney was born at Penshurst, in Kent, on the 29th of November, 1554. His father, Sir Henry Sidney, had married Mary, eldest daughter of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, and Philip was the eldest of their family of three sons and four daughters. Edmund Spenser and Walter Raleigh were of like age with Philip Sidney, differing only by about a year, and when Elizabeth became queen, on the 17th of November, 1558, they were children of four or five years old....　

THE COMPARISON OF NUMA WITH LYCURGUSby Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenHAVING thus finished the lives of Lycurgus and Numa, we shall now,though the work be difficult, put together their points ofdifference as they lie here before our view. Their points oflikeness are obvious; their moderation, their religion, their capacityof government and discipline, their both deriving their laws andconstitutions from the gods. Yet in their common glories there arecircumstances of diversity; for first Numa accepted and Lycurgus...　

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granadaby Washington IrvingCONTENTS.I..........Of the Kingdom of Granada, and the Tribute which it Paidto the Castilian Crown.II.........Of the Embassy of Don Juan de Vera to Demand Arrears ofTribute from the Moorish Monarch.III........Domestic Feuds in the AlhambraRival SultanasPredictionsconcerning Boabdil, the Heir to the ThroneHowFerdinand Meditates War against Granada, and how heis Anticipated.IV.........Expedition of the Muley Abul Hassan against the Fortress...　

Unbeaten Tracks in Japanby Isabella L. BirdAN ACCOUNT OF TRAVELS IN THE INTERIORINCLUDING VISITS TO THE ABORIGINES OF YEZO ANDTHE SHRINE OF NIKKO BY ISABELLA L. BIRDPREFACEHaving been recommended to leave home, in April 1878, in order torecruit my health by means which had proved serviceable before, Idecided to visit Japan, attracted less by the reputed excellence ofits climate than by the certainty that it possessed, in an especialdegree, those sources of novel and sustained interest which conduceso essentially to the enjoyment and restoration of a solitary...　

Weir of Hermistonby Robert Louis StevensonTO MY WIFEI saw rain falling and the rainbow drawnOn Lammermuir. Hearkening I heard againIn my precipitous city beaten bellsWinnow the keen sea wind. And here afar,Intent on my own race and place, I wrote.Take thou the writing: thine it is. For whoBurnished the sword, blew on the drowsy coal,Held still the target higher, chary of praiseAnd prodigal of counsel - who but thou?So now, in the end, if this the least be good,If any deed be done, if any fireBurn in the imperfect page, the praise be thine....　

The Enchanted Island of Yewby L. Frank BaumContents1. Once On a Time2. The Enchanted Isle3. The Fairy Bower4. Prince Marvel5. The King of Thieves6. The Troubles of Nerle7. The Gray Men8. The Fool-Killer9. The Royal Dragon of Spor10. Prince Marvel Wins His Fight11. The Cunning of King Terribus12. The Gift of Beauty13. The Hidden Kingdom of Twi14. The Ki and The Ki-Ki15. The High Ki of Twi16. The Rebellion of The High Ki17. The Separation of The High Ki18. The Rescue of The High Ki19. The Reunion of The High Ki20. Kwytoffle, the Tyrant...　

Rasselas, Prince of Abyssiniaby Samuel JohnsonCHAPTER I - DESCRIPTION OF A PALACE IN A VALLEY.YE who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow, attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty Emperor in whose dominions the father of waters begins his course - whose bounty pours down the streams of plenty, and scatters over the world the harvests of Egypt.　

　　The caretaker stirred when he heard the crunch of tires on gravel. There was barely any light left in the sky, and he had just made coffee and was reluctant to get up. But his curiosity got the better of him. Visitors to Alexandria seldom ventured into the cemetery at Ivy Hill; the historic town on the Potomac had a brace of other, more colorful attractions and amusements to offer the living. As for the locals, not many came out on a weekday; fewer still on a late afternoon when the April rains lashed the sky.　Peering through his gatehouse window, the caretaker saw a man get out of an ordin　

　FRIDAY, 11 JULY 1975　FRONT PAGE　DIPLOMATS SAID TO BE LINKED WITH FUGITIVE TERRORIST KNOWN AS CARLOS　Paris, 10 July - France expelled three high-ranking Cuban diplomats today in connection with the world-wide search for a man called Carlos, who is believed to be an important link in an international terrorist network.　The suspect, whose real name is thought to be Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, is being sought in the killing of two French counter-intelligence agents and a Lebanese informer at a Latin Quarter apartment on 27 June.　The three killings have led the police here and in Britain to what they