After being kidnapped by his villainous uncle, sixteen-year-old David Balfour escapes and becomes involved in the struggle of the Scottish highlanders against English rule; After being kidnapped by his villainous uncle, sixteen-year-old David Balfour escapes and becomes involved in the struggle of the Scottish highlanders against English rule
Excerpt: THE HAPPY PRINCE. High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword?hilt. He was very much admired indeed. ?He is as beautiful as a weathercock,? remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; ?only not quite so useful,? he added, fearing lest people shoul...
Large-paper copy
The village of Moonfleet lies half a mile from the sea on the right or west bank of the Fleet stream. This rivulet, which is so narrow as it passes the houses that I have known a good jumper clear it without a pole, broadens out into salt marshes below the village, and loses itself at last in a lake of brackish water. The lake is good for nothing except sea-fowl, herons, and oysters, and forms such a place as they call in the Indies a lagoon; being shut off from the open...
Excerpt: THE COUNCIL OF WAYS AND MEANS. This is the story of the different ways we looked for treasure, and I think when you have read it you will see that we were not lazy about the looking. There are some things I must tell before I begin to tell about the treasure seeking, because I have read books myself, and I know how beastly it is when a story begins, ?Alas! said Hildegarde with a deep sigh, we must look our last on this ancestral home? and then some one else says...
American Literature 1900-
Supplemental catalog subcollection information: Universal Library Collection; Additional Collection; Five children discover a Psammead, a wish-granting sand-fairy, when they move to the countryside of Britain.
Excerpt: Once upon a time there were four little rabbits, and their names were Flopsy Mopsy, Cotton - Tail and Peter...
Supplemental catalog subcollection information: American Libraries Collection; American University Library Collection; Historical Literature; Illustrated t.p
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...