A Blundering Boy: A Humorous Story

“If I had only told our folk where we were going,” he reflected, “they would hunt for us when they find us missing. But now they will be uneasy, and not know where on earth we a...

What was George doing meanwhile? As soon as the boys left him, he set about digging his mine. “Now,” he mused, “I shall not be so foolish as Stephen; I shall pry the box open, a...

Their eyes met. A woman perceives many things intuitively; Henry’s secret was hers from that moment. For all answer she kissed him again. From that day the two were firm and tru...

Charles was mistaken in saying that he would be the only one to see any amusement in the affair after it was all over, for Stephen never tired of calling up George’s look of mis...

The cousins ran across the road, and down into the valley, on their way to the demon’s abode. The teamster watched them as he drove along, and muttered: “So _that’s_ where the r...

He had never swum so close to the falls, but he proceeded warily, and managed it so that the shock of striking the raft eased it off the snag. Then he scrambled on board, took u...

The writer has a great deal of boldness in attempting to depict the emotions of his numerous heroes in their joys or sorrows; but he declines to say anything about the meeting o...

Stephen waited eagerly and anxiously for the supposed crackers to go off. He imagined that the boys would be struck with amazement and horror to see the fire suddenly snap, and...

At that instant, Steve, now the priest, passed pompously through the room, and catching our hero’s last words, replied: “No, no! Soil not thy hands with such a perjured wretch,...

“Did we decide how the Frenchman was to bring his prisoner from France to our sea-coast, and then on to this place?” George asked, beginning to have a just appreciation of the d...

The boys had watched its ascent with enthusiasm, cheering lustily; but when it took fire, their enthusiasm cooled, and in proportion as the balloon burned brighter, their hearts...

The plotters did not explain themselves, but turned away, more heart-sick than before. Suppose that he should wander off, and be found dead some time afterwards, would not they...

The Sage made no answer, but, facing the river and the moon, he drew himself up proudly, and merely observing that he must have silence, cleared his throat for action.

But the truth is, Stephen was beginning to relent. Now that the deed was actually done, he saw his trick in a different light and conjured up all sorts of horrors. What if a fri...

“I guess I saw him first,” piped up the chubby hobbledehoy who had been the first to cry out in terror on the dog’s arrival. “I saw him bolt in through the winder.”

In the morning, full of hope, Will hurried to the home of the muskrat. Beyond a doubt, the trap held an animal. But it was neither a musk nor any other kind of rat; it was a bea...

When the horse so nimbly cleared the fence, Will’s feet were torn out of the stirrup, and he was thrown violently off the animal’s back. As he lay sprawling on the ground, he lo...

George was miserable if he fancied any one thought him ignorant in any matter; and he was about to give the natural history of the mastodon, when Steve diverted the train of his...

So much he freely confessed to his inquiring fellow-hunters. But how the deer came to give chase--whether he showed the white feather at the critical moment, or whether he chant...

Meanwhile Mr. Lawrence, Charles, and Will, expostulated in vain. Henry, not dreaming of danger, looked on with great curiosity, and was almost tempted to examine some of the mys...

The tangled rope in his hands proved his downfall; it coiled round his feet with a merciless grip, and he alighted on the raft in a sorry plight. There he lay, sprawling and str...

Soon afterward the plotters separated; Will, to go sorrowfully homeward; George, to hasten gladly to his parents and be congratulated on his success; Charles and Stephen to find...

Bélître Scélérat nous traite passablement, c’est-à-dire, il ne nous menace pas. Il ne nous voit pas souvent, comme il va partout le pays, pour conférer avec ses agents, ou bien...

“But we had barely arrived when you seemed to grow suspicious of me. That must be stopped immediately, and I hastened to make preparations for departure. I left you alone for a...

But it was now convenient for George to remember that he had prognosticated a storm; and, forgetting the incident of the “disguised” sailor, he exclaimed, “Yes Steve, we’re in a...

A grievous frown darkened the champion’s brow. Confronting Will, he thundered: “How dare you boys speak of her in that way?--her, the daughter of one of France’s proudest nobles...

Then they opened the door and passed in. By the way, there was something very remarkable about that door--so remarkable, in fact, that the writer, who has had great experience i...

Jim’s nerves were always weak, and this jeering question so unstrung them that he spoke the first words that occurred to him. (By the way, the phrase was a favorite one of his,...

After a few introductory remarks, he cleared his throat, and in sonorous tones began to speak of--hydrophobia! Why he should pitch on that as a subject of discussion is as great...

As for the village itself, it contained the ordinary number of inhabitants and hotels. Here lived “the most skilful dentist in the state;” but so modest was he that what was for...

The intention chiefly is to be absurd; to cast ridicule on certain pedants and romancers; and to jeer at the ridiculous solemnity, mystery, and villainy, that hedge in works of...

Charles and his pretty little wife tolerated this nuisance exactly three days, and then the former proposed the following resolution: “That clock runs just one year after being...