by Ernie Howard Pyle INTRODUCTION The year 1400 opened with more than usual peacefulness in England. Only a few months before, Richard II--weak, wicked, and treacherous -- had been dethroned, and Henr...

By R. L. Stevenson CHAPTER I. THE FOREIGNER AT HOME "This is no my ain house; I ken by the biggin' o't." Two recent books (1) one by Mr. Grant White on England, one on France by the diabolically cle...

Charles Brockden Brown Chapter I. I was the second son of a farmer, whose place of residence was a western district of Pennsylvania. My eldest brother seemed fitted by nature for the employment to whi...

BY HONORE DE BALZAC Translator Ellen Marriage To Monsieur le General Baron de Pommereul, a token of the friendship between our fathers, which survives in their sons. There is a special variety of hu...

By J. M. Barrie CHAPTER I - HOW MY MOTHER GOT HER SOFT FACE On the day I was born we bought six hair-bottomed chairs, and in our little house it was an event, the first great victory in a woman's long...

By E. Nesbit POEM: THE RETURN The grass was gray with the moonlit dew, The stones were white as I came through; I came down the path by the thirteen yews, Through the blocks of shade that the moonligh...

I Why did he love her? Curious fool, be still! Is human love the fruit of human will? BYRON. Just about six months before my departure for Spain, I first met the Chevalier des Grieux. Though I rarely ...

by THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. "What is Nature unless there is an eventful human life passing within her? Many joys and many sorrows are the lights and shadows in which she shows most beautiful."--THO...

BY HONORE DE BALZAC Translated By Katharine Prescott Wormeley DEDICATION To Monsieur le Comte Georges Mniszech: Some envious being may think on seeing this page illustrated by one of the most illust...

BY STEPHEN CRANE Chapter I A very little boy stood upon a heap of gravel for the honor of Rum Alley. He was throwing stones at howling urchins from Devil's Row who were circling madly about the heap a...