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Excerpt: Here is a tale which extends over many years and travels into many countries. By a peculiar fitness of circumstance the writer began, continued it, and concluded it among distant and diverse scenes. Above all, he was much upon the sea. The character and fortune of the fraternal enemies, the hall and shrubbery of Durrisdeer, the problem of Mackellar?s homespun and how to shape it for superior flights; these were his company on deck in many star-reflecting harbours, ran often in his mind at sea to the tune of slatting canvas, and were dismissed (something of the suddenest) on the approach of squalls. It is my hope that these surroundings of its manufacture may to some degree find favour for my story with seafarers and sea-lovers like yourselves....

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Excerpt: Of all the spots on the world?s surface that I, George Walker, of Friday Street, London, have ever visited, Suez in Egypt, at the head of the Red Sea, is by far the vilest, the most unpleasant, and the least interesting. There are no women there, no water, and no vegetation. It is surrounded, and indeed often filled, by a world of sand. A scorching sun is always overhead; and one is domiciled in a huge cavernous hotel, which seems to have been made purposely destitute of all the comforts of civilized life. Nevertheless, in looking back upon the week of my life which I spent there I always enjoy a certain sort of triumph;--or rather, upon one day of that week, which lends a sort of halo not only to my sojourn at Suez, but to the whole period of my residence in Egypt....

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Excerpt: ?Phantasmagoria and Other Poems? by Lewis Carroll.

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Contents Phantasmagoria 4 PHANTASMAGORIA 4 CANTO I - The Trystyng 4 CANTO II - Hys Fyve Rules 7 CANTO III - Scarmoges 10 CANTO IV - Hys Nouryture 13 CANTO V - Byckerment 16 ECHOES 24 A SEA DIRGE 25 Ye Carpette Knyghte 26 HIAWATHA?S PHOTOGRAPHING 27 MELANCHOLETTA 30 A VALENTINE 32 THE THREE VOICES 33 TEMA CON VARIAZIONI 42 A GAME OF FIVES 43 POETA FIT, NON NASCITUR 44 SIZE AND TEARS 46 ATALANTA IN CAMDEN-TOWN 48 THE LANG COORTIN? 49 FOUR RIDDLES 53 FAME?S PENNY-TRUMPET 58...

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Excerpt: Four years ago--in 1874--two young Englishmen had occasion to go to the United States. They crossed the ocean at midsummer, and, arriving in New York on the first day of August, were much struck with the fervid temperature of that city. Disembarking upon the wharf, they climbed into one of those huge high-hung coaches which convey passengers to the hotels, and with a great deal of bouncing and bumping, took their course through Broadway. The midsummer aspect of New York is not, perhaps, the most favorable one; still, it is not without its picturesque and even brilliant side....

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Excerpt: Enoch Arden. Long lines of cliff breaking have left a chasm; And in the chasm are foam and yellow sands; Beyond, red roofs about a narrow wharf In cluster; then a moulder?d church; and higher A long street climbs to one tall-tower?d mill; And high in heaven behind it a gray down With Danish barrows; and a hazelwood, By autumn nutters haunted, flourishes Green in a cuplike hollow of the down....

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Contents ENOCH ARDEN.......................................................................................................................................................... 4 AYLMER?S FIELD. ..................................................................................................................................................... 23 SEA DREAMS ............................................................................................................................................................. 39 NORTHERN FARMER................................................................................................................................................ 49 MISCELLANEOUS..................................................................................................................................................... 52 TITHONUS.................................................................................................................................................................. 52 THE VOYAGE .........................................................................................................................

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Excerpt: In the early spring of 1822, the Paris doctors sent to Lower Normandy a young man just recovering from an inflammatory complaint, brought on by overstudy, or perhaps by excess of some other kind. His convalescence demanded complete rest, a light diet, bracing air, and freedom from excitement of every kind, and the fat lands of Bessin seemed to offer all these conditions of recovery. To Bayeux, a picturesque place about six miles from the sea, the patient therefore betook himself, and was received with the cordiality characteristic of relatives who lead very retired lives, and regard a new arrival as a godsend....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. The Village ?AND A MIGHTY SING?LAR and pretty place it is, as ever I saw in all the days of my life!? said Captain Jorgan, looking up at it. Captain Jorgan had to look high to look at it, for the village was built sheer up the face of a steep and lofty cliff. There was no road in it, there was no wheeled vehicle in it, there was not a level yard in it. From the sea-beach to the cliff-top two irregular rows of white houses, placed opposite to one another, and twisting here and there....

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Excerpt: How Sir Galahad fought at a tournament, and how he was known of Sir Gawaine and Sir Ector de Maris. Now saith this story, when Galahad had rescued Percivale from the twenty knights, he yede tho into a waste forest wherein he rode many journeys; and he found many adventures the which he brought to an end, whereof the story maketh here no mention. Then he took his way to the sea on a day, and it befell as he passed by a castle where was a wonder tournament, but they without had done so much that they within were put to the worse, yet were they within good knights enough....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Eilean Aros. It was a beautiful morning in the late July when I set forth on foot for the last time for Aros. A boat had put me ashore the night before at Grisapol; I had such breakfast as the little inn afforded, and, leaving all my baggage till I had an occasion to come round for it by sea, struck right across the promontory with a cheerful heart....

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Contents THE MERRY MEN .......................................................................................4 WILL O? THE MILL...................................................................................50 MARKHEIM ................................................................................................74 THRAWN JANET ........................................................................................90 OLALLA .....................................................................................................100 THE TREASURE OF FRANCHARD......................................................140...

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Excerpt: In the centre of the great city of London lies a small neighborhood, consisting of a cluster of narrow streets and courts, of very venerable and debilitated houses, which goes by the name of Little Britain. Christ Church School and St. Bartholomew?s Hospital bound it on the west; Smithfield and Long Lane on the north; Aldersgate Street, like an arm of the sea, divides it from the eastern part of the city; whilst the yawning gulf of Bull-and-Mouth Street separates it from Butcher Lane, and the regions of Newgate. Over this little territory, thus bounded and designated, the great dome of St. Paul?s, swelling above the intervening houses of Paternoster Row, Amen Corner, and Ave Maria Lane, looks down with an air of motherly protection. This quarter derives its appellation from having been, in ancient times, the residence of the Dukes of Brittany....

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Excerpt: Kennedy is a country doctor, and lives in Colebrook, on the shores of Eastbay. The high ground rising abruptly behind the red roofs of the little town crowds the quaint High Street against the wall which defends it from the sea. Beyond the sea-wall there curves for miles in a vast and regular sweep the barren beach of shingle, with the village of Brenzett standing out darkly across the water, a spire in a clump of trees; and still further out the perpendicular column of a lighthouse, looking in the distance no bigger than a lead pencil, marks the vanishing-point of the land....

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Excerpt: For a long time after the course of the steamer Sofala had been altered for the land, the low swampy coast had retained its appearance of a mere smudge of darkness beyond a belt of glitter. The sunrays seemed to fall violently upon the calm sea--seemed to shatter themselves upon an adamantine surface into sparkling dust, into a dazzling vapor of light that blinded the eye and wearied the brain with its unsteady brightness....

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Excerpt: War and the Future: Italy, France and Britain at War by H. G. Wells.

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. How King Arthur took a wife, and wedded Guenever, daughter to Leodegrance, King of the Land of Cameliard, with whom he had the Round Table. In the beginning of Arthur, after he was chosen king by adventure and by grace; for the most part of the barons knew not that he was Uther Pendragon?s son, but as Merlin made it openly known. But yet many kings and lords held great war against him for that cause, but well Arthur overcame them all, for the most part the days of his life he was ruled much by the counsel of Merlin. So it fell on a time King Arthur said unto Merlin, My barons will let me have no rest, but needs I must take a wife, and I will none take but by thy counsel and by thine advice....

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Excerpt: In the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirlywhirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth--so! Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small ?Stute Fish, and he swam a little behind the Whale?s right ear, so as to be out of harm?s way. Then the Whale stood up on his tail and said, ?I?m hungry.? And the small ?Stute Fish said in a small ?stute voice, ?Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man??...

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Contents HOW THE WHALE GOT HIS THROAT..................................................................................... 4 HOW THE CAMEL GOT HIS HUMP .......................................................................................... 7 HOW THE RHINOCEROS .......................................................................................................... 11 GOT HIS SKIN ............................................................................................................................... 11 HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS SPOTS .................................................................................. 14 THE ELEPHANT?S CHILD ......................................................................................................... 21 THE SING-SONG OF OLD MAN ............................................................................................... 29 KANGAROO .................................................................................................................................. 29 HOW THE ALPHABET WAS MADE ......................................................................................... 53 ...

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying -- 2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me -- 3. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD -- 4. But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken -- 5. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep -- 6. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not....

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Excerpt: The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable inci dent, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. Not to mention rumours which agitated the maritime population and excited the public mind, even in the interior of continents, seafaring men were particularly excited. Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, both of Europe and America, naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several States on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter....

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Excerpt: I am Buffalo Bill?s horse. I have spent my life under his saddle -- with him in it, too, and he is good for two hundred pounds, without his clothes; and there is no telling how much he does weigh when he is out on the war-path and has his batteries belted on. He is over six feet, is young, hasn?t an ounce of waste flesh, is straight, graceful, springy in his motions, quick as a cat, and has a handsome face, and black hair dangling down on his shoulders, and is beautiful to look at; and nobody is braver than he is, and nobody is stronger, except myself. Yes, a person that doubts that he is fine to see should see him in his beaded buck-skins, on my back and his rifle peeping above his shoulder, chasing a hostile trail, with me going like the wind and his hair streaming out behind from the shelter of his broad slouch. Yes, he is a sight to look at then -- and I?m part of it myself....

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Contents A Horse?s Tale CHAPTER I SOLDIER BOY - PRIVATELY TO HIMSELF............................................................................. 4 CHAPTER II LETTER FROM ROUEN - TO GENERAL ALISON........................................................................7 CHAPTER III GENERAL ALISON TO HIS MOTHER.........9 CHAPTER IV CATHY TO HER AUNT MERCEDES........10 CHAPTER V GENERAL ALISON TO MERCEDES........13 CHAPTER VI SOLDIER BOY AND THE MEXICAN PLUG..........................................................................19 CHAPTER VII SOLDIER BOY AND SHEKELS.............27...

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. In the time before steamships, or then more frequently than now, a stroller along the docks of any considerable sea-port would occasionally have his attention arrested by a group of bronzed mariners, man-ofwar?s men or merchant-sailors in holiday attire ashore on liberty. In certain instances they would flank, or, like a body-guard quite surround some superior figure of their own class, moving along with them like Aldebaran among the lesser lights of his constellation....

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Excerpt: I saw a gray-haired man, a figure of hale age, sitting at a desk and writing: He seemed to be in a room in a tower, very high, so that through the tall window on his left one perceived only distances, a remote horizon of sea, a headland and that vague haze and glitter in the sunset that many miles away marks a city. All the appointments of this room were orderly and beautiful, and in some subtle quality, in this small difference and that, new to me and strange. They were in no fashion I could name, and the simple costume the man wore suggested neither period nor country. It might, I thought, be the Happy Future, or Utopia, or the Land of Simple Dreams; an errant mote of memory, Henry James?s phrase and story of ?The Great Good Place,? twinkled across my mind, and passed and left no light....