Description: Intro. signed "Andrew Lang."
Excerpt: Chapter 1. THE Strange Man?s Arrival The stranger came early in February one wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, over the down, walking as it seemed from Bramblehurst railway station and carrying a little black portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand. He was wrapped up from head to foot, and the brim of his soft felt hat hid every inch of his face but the shiny tip of his nose; the snow had piled itself against his...
CHAPTER 1. My Uncle Makes a Discovery LOOKING back to all that has occurred to me since that eventful day, I am scarcely able to believe in the reality of my adventures. They were truly so wonderful that even now I am bewildered when I think of them. My uncle was a German, having married my mother's sister, an Englishwoman. Being very much attached to his fatherless nephew, he invited me to study under him in his home in the fatherland. This home was in a large town, and...
Introduction: ON February the First 1887, the Lady Vain was lost by collision with a derelict when about the latitude 1? S. and longitude 107? W. On January the Fifth, 1888 ? that is eleven months and four days after ? my uncle, Edward Prendick, a private gentleman, who certainly went aboard the Lady Vain at Callao, and who had been considered drowned, was picked up in latitude 5? 3? S. and longitude 101? W. in a small open boat of which the name was illegible, but which...
Chapter 1: YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There were things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly Tom's Aunt Polly, she is and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told...
Excerpt: Once on a dark winter?s day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd?looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares. She sat with her feet tucked under her, and leaned against her father, who held her in his arm, as she stared out of the window at the passing people with a queer old...
Excerpt: Chapter 1. THE beginning of things. They were not railway children to begin with. I don?t suppose they had ever thought about railways except as a means of getting to Maskelyne and Cook?s, the Pantomime, Zoological Gardens, and Madame Tussaud?s. They were just ordinary suburban children, and they lived with their Father and Mother in an ordinary red?brick?fronted villa, with coloured glass in the front door, a tiled passage that was called a hall, a bath?room wi...
Preface: FROM THE AUTHOR TO THE READER. You who so plod amid serious things that you feel it shame to give yourself up even for a few short moments to mirth and joyousness in the land of Fancy; you who think that life hath nought to do with innocent laughter that can harm no one; these pages are not for you. Clap to the leaves and go no farther than this, for I tell you plainly that if you go farther you will be scandalized by seeing good, sober folks of real history so ...
Preface: Many librarians have felt the need and expressed the desire for a select collection of children?s Christmas stories in one volume. This books claims to be just that and nothing more. Each of the stories has already won the approval of thousands of children, and each is fraught with the true Christmas spirit. It is hoped that the collection will prove equally acceptable to parents, teachers, and librarians. Asa Don Dickinson.
Excerpt: THE oceans are big and broad. I believe two-thirds of the earth's surface is covered with water. What people inhabit this water has always been a subject of curiosity to the inhabitants of the land. Strange creatures come from the seas at times and perhaps in the ocean depths are many, more strange than mortal eye has ever gazed upon. This story is fanciful. In it the sea people talk and act much as we do, and the mermaids especially are not unlike the fairies w...
Description: A collection of poems written by Tagore primarily to entertain children, The Crescent Moon moved many contemporary writers, including Andre Gide and Juan Jimenez. Tagore believed children were a symbol of hope and of the future and The Globe in its 1913 review, described these poems as 'a revelation more profound and more subtle than that in the Gitanjali'.
Chapter I. ?Are we rising again?? ?No. On the contrary.? ?Are we descending?? ?Worse than that, captain! we are falling!? ?For Heaven?s sake heave out the ballast!? ?There! the last sack is empty!? ?Does the balloon rise?? ?No!?