The Nabobby Alphonse DaudetTranslated by W. BlaydesINTRODUCTIONDaudet once remarked that England was the last of foreign countries to welcome his novels, and that he was surprised at the fact, since for him, as for the typical Englishman, the intimacy of home life had great significance. However long he may have taken to win Anglo-Saxon hearts, there is no question that he finally won them more completely than any other contemporary French novelist was able to do, and that when but a few years since the news came that death had released him from his sufferings, thousands of men and women, bot　

Frances Waldeaux by Rebecca Harding DavisA REMEMBRANCER OF BRITTANY FOR THE BEST FELLOW-TRAVELLER IN THE WORLDFRANCES WALDEAUX CHAPTER IIn another minute the Kaiser Wilhelm would push off from her pier in Hoboken. The last bell had rung, the last uniformed officer and white-jacketed steward had scurried up the gangway. The pier was massed with people who had come to bid their friends good-by. They were all Germans, and there had been unlimited embracing and kissing and sobs of "Ach! mein lieber Sckatz!" and "Gott bewahre Dick!"Now they stood looking up to the crowded decks, shouting out l　

The Crusade of the Excelsiorby Bret HarteCONTENTS.PART I.IN BONDS.CHAPTER I.A CRUSADER AND A SIGNCHAPTER II.ANOTHER PORTENTCHAPTER III."VIGILANCIA"CHAPTER IV.IN THE FOGCHAPTER V.TODOS SANTOSCHAPTER VI."HAIL AND FAREWELL"CHAPTER VII.THE GENTLE CASTAWAYSCHAPTER VIII.IN SANCTUARYCHAPTER IX.AN OPEN-AIR PRISONCHAPTER X.TODOS SANTOS SOLVES THE MYSTERY...　

The Complete Anglerby Izaak WaltonTo the Right worshipfulJohn Offleyof Madeley Manor, in the County of Stafford Esquire, My most honoured FriendSir, I have made so ill use of your former favours, as by them to be encouraged to entreat, that they may be enlarged to the patronage and protection of this Book: and I have put on a modest confidence, that I shall not be denied, because it is a discourse of Fish and Fishing, which you know so well, and both love and practice so much.You are assured, though there be ignorant men of another belief, that Angling is an Art: and you know that Art better 　

THE FROZEN DEEPby Wilkie CollinsFirst SceneThe Ball-roomChapter 1.The date is between twenty and thirty years ago. The place is anEnglish sea-port. The time is night. And the business of themoment isdancing.The Mayor and Corporation of the town are giving a grand ball, incelebration of the departure of an Arctic expedition from theirport. The ships of the expedition are two in numberthe_Wanderer_ and the _Sea-mew_. They are to sail (in search of theNorthwest Passage) on the next day, with the morning tide.Honor to the Mayor and Corporation! It is a brilliant ball. The...　

A Cumberland Vendettaby John Fox Jr.TO MINERVA AND ELIZABETHA Cumberland VendettaITHE cave had been their hiding-place as children; it was a secret refuge now against hunger or darkness when they were hunting in the woods. The primitive meal was finished; ashes were raked over the red coals; the slice of bacon and the little bag of meal were hung high against the rock wall; and the two stepped from the cavern into a thicket of rhododendrons.Parting the bushes toward the dim light, they stood on a massive shoulder of the mountain, the river girding it far below, and the afternoon shadows at th　

THE WITCH [28][28] From the Russian.Once upon a time there was a peasant whose wife died, leaving himwith two childrentwinsa boy and a girl. For some years thepoor man lived on alone with the children, caring for them asbest he could; but everything in the house seemed to go wrongwithout a woman to look after it, and at last he made up his mindto marry again, feeling that a wife would bring peace and orderto his household and take care of his motherless children. So hemarried, and in the following years several children were born tohim; but peace and order did not come to the household. Fo　

The Memorabiliaor Recollections of Socratesby XenophonTranslation by H. G. DakynsXenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was apupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans,and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him landand property in Scillus, where he lived for manyyears before having to move once more, to settlein Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.The Memorabilia is a recollection of Socrates inword and deed, to show his character as the bestand happiest of men.BOOK III have often wondered by what arguments those who indicted[1] Socrates...　

On Books and the Housing of Themby William Ewart GladstoneIn the old age of his intellect (which atthis point seemed to taste a little ofdecrepitude), Strauss declared [1] that the doctrine ofimmortality has recently lost the assistanceof a passable argument, inasmuch as it hasbeen discovered that the stars are inhabited;for where, he asks, could room now be foundfor such a multitude of souls? Again, in viewof the current estimates of prospectivepopulation for this earth, some people have begun toentertain alarm for the probable condition of...　

ON THE HEAVENSby Aristotletranslated by J. L. StocksBook I1THE science which has to do with nature clearly concerns itself for the most part with bodies and magnitudes and their properties and movements, but also with the principles of this sort of substance, as many as they may be. For of things constituted by nature some are bodies and magnitudes, some possess body and magnitude, and some are principles of things which possess these. Now a continuum is that which is divisible into parts always capable of subdivision, and a body is that which is every way divisible. A magnitude if divisible 　

Saltbush Bill, J.P., and Other VersesBy A. B. PatersonNoteMajor A. B. Paterson has been on active service in Egyptfor the past eighteen months. The publishers feel it incumbent on them to saythat only a few of the pieces in this volume have been seen by him in proof;and that he is not responsible for the selection, the arrangement or the titleof "Saltbush Bill, J.P., and Other Verses".Table of ContentsSong of the PenNot for the love of women toil we, we of the craft,Song of the Wheat...　

The Underground Cityby Jules VerneORThe Black Indies(Sometimes Called The Child of the Cavern)CHAPTER I CONTRADICTORY LETTERSTo Mr. F. R. Starr, Engineer, 30 Canongate, Edinburgh.IF Mr. James Starr will come to-morrow to the Aberfoyle coal-mines, Dochart pit, Yarrow shaft, a communication of an interesting nature will be made to him."Mr. James Starr will be awaited for, the whole day, at the Callander station, by Harry Ford, son of the old overman Simon Ford.""He is requested to keep this invitation secret."Such was the letter which James Starr received by the first post, on the 3rd December,　

The Beast in the Jungleby Henry JamesCHAPTER IWhat determined the speech that startled him in the course of their encounter scarcely matters, being probably but some words spoken by himself quite without intentionspoken as they lingered and slowly moved together after their renewal of acquaintance. He had been conveyed by friends an hour or two before to the house at which she was staying; the party of visitors at the other house, of whom he was one, and thanks to whom it was his theory, as always, that he was lost in the crowd, had been invited over to luncheon. There had been after lunche　

Kenilworthby Walter ScottINTRODUCTIONA certain degree of success, real or supposed, in the delineationof Queen Mary, naturally induced the author to attempt somethingsimilar respecting "her sister and her foe," the celebratedElizabeth. He will not, however, pretend to have approached thetask with the same feelings; for the candid Robertson himselfconfesses having felt the prejudices with which a Scottishman istempted to regard the subject; and what so liberal a historianavows, a poor romance-writer dares not disown. But he hopes theinfluence of a prejudice, almost as natural to him as his n　

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christby Lew Wallaceto THE WIFE OF MY YOUTH who still abides with meBOOK FIRSTCHAPTER IThe Jebel es Zubleh is a mountain fifty miles and more in length, and so narrow that its tracery on the map gives it a likeness to a caterpillar crawling from the south to the north. Standing on its red-and-white cliffs, and looking off under the path of the rising sun, one sees only the Desert of Arabia, where the east winds, so hateful to vinegrowers of Jericho, have kept their playgrounds since the beginning. Its feet are well covered by sands tossed from the Euphrates, there to l　

The Ball at Sceauxby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Clara BellTo Henri de Balzac, his brother Honore.The Comte de Fontaine, head of one of the oldest families in Poitou,had served the Bourbon cause with intelligence and bravery during thewar in La Vendee against the Republic. After having escaped all thedangers which threatened the royalist leaders during this stormyperiod of modern history, he was wont to say in jest, "I am one of themen who gave themselves to be killed on the steps of the throne." Andthe pleasantry had some truth in it, as spoken by a man left for dead...