Short Stories for English Courses

PREFACE INTRODUCTION REQUIREMENTS OF THE SHORT STORY HOW THIS BOOK MAY BE USED THE FIRST CHRISTMAS-TREE Henry van Dyke A FRENCH TAR-BABY Joel Chandler Harris SONNY'S CHRISTENIN'...

Broad snow-meadows glistening white along the banks of the river Moselle; pallid hill-sides blooming with mystic roses where the glow of the setting sun still lingered upon them...

Then, as they looked round the curving ranks, they saw that the hue of the assemblage was not black, but white,--dazzling, radiant, solemn. White, the robes of the women cluster...

"Hey, little rogue, big rogue!" exclaimed Brother Goat. "Hey, Brother Rabbit! What are you doing there? I thought you drank the dew from the cups of the flowers, or milk from th...

"All that is literature seeks to communicate power." [Footnote: De Quincey, "Letters to a Young Man."] Here the power communicated is that of sympathizing with God's "lesser chi...

But a few miles from the city here, and on the sloping banks of the stream noted more for its plenitude of "chubs" and "shiners" than the gamier two-and four-pound bass for whic...

Coppy rose and escorted his small guest to the door, adding-- "You're the best of little fellows, Winkie. I tell you what. In thirty days from now you can tell if you like--tell...

"But, my dear fellow, you are joking then," said I, "this is a very passable SKULL,--indeed, I may say that it is a very EXCELLENT skull, according to the vulgar notions about s...

To speak the truth, I had no especial relish for such amusement at any time, and, at that particular moment, would most willingly have declined it; for the night was coming on,...

"Pretty much, but not altogether," said Legrand. "You may have heard of one CAPTAIN Kidd. I at once looked on the figure of the animal as a kind of punning or hieroglyphical sig...

Bill and me had a joint capital of about six hundred dollars, and we needed just two thousand dollars more to pull off a fraudulent town-lot scheme in Western Illinois with. We...

"He's dead tired, you can see that," commented one of the pair as they headed for Broadway, "but, as usual, he is grinding out stuff for the Sunday sheet after hours. He must ne...

Seeley grunted something and resumed staring at the field. He was thinking of the present moment in the training quarters, of the muddy, weary players sprawled around the head c...

"Him?" repeated Keppler in tones of sincere disgust. "No--oh, he ain't no sport. He's queer, Dad thinks. He come here one day last week about ten in the morning, said his doctor...

"One of Byrnes's men," he said, in explanation; "came over expressly to take this chap. He's a burglar; 'Arlie' Lane, alias Carleton. I've shown the papers to the captain. It's...

In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, I called on good-natured, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and inquired after my friend's friend, Leo...

Not only did she know in which room stood the lady, ready to emerge, all blushing and radiant, should her door be opened, but she knew who the lady was. It was one of the faires...

When night crept up again through the gorges, the reedy notes of the accordion rose and fell in fitful spasms and long-drawn gasps by the flickering campfire. But music failed t...

It seemed to her all through the spring months that she heard nothing but the halloos and the noises of saws and hammers. The new barn grew fast. It was a fine edifice for this...

"Well, when Marse Chan wuz born, dey wuz de grettes' doin's at home you ever did see. De folks all hed holiday, jes' like in de Chris'mas. Ole marster (we didn' call 'im OLE mar...

"What meks me think so? Heaps o' things--dis: Marse Chan he done gi' Miss Anne her pa jes' ez good ez I gi' Marse Chan's dawg sweet 'taters, an' she git mad wid 'im ez if he hed...

He realized this as he idled about one Sunday morning where the intersection of Royal and Conti streets some seventy years ago formed a central corner of New Orleans. Yes, yes,...

"The tiger and the buffler SHELL lay down together! You dah to say they shayn't and I'll comb you with this varmint from head to foot! The tiger and the buffler SHELL lay down t...

The old house that had been in the suburbs of Boston was fairly in the heart of the city when I first made its acquaintance, and one of the famous houses of the town. And it was...

Himself, he was a little as if made from leather, with his yellow crinkly face, and crinkly reddish hair and beard, and neat folds slanting down his cheeks to the corners of his...

The whistle of the express drew the young men to their feet, and the next moment two heavily furred gentlemen had descended to the platform and were breasting the rigor of the n...

"Well, then--All the good I've wished you in all the past years. ... I put it into the prayer that the coming ones may be healthy and happy and many ... and MANY, dear boy!"

In the misty light inside the tent, the young officer looked hardly more than seventeen years old as he stood listening. His small figure was light, fragile; his hair was blond...

"It's your fault," he said. "If I'd had my way we'd have ridden from here an hour ago. Now here we are caught like rats in a trap; and who's to do my work and save Thornton's tr...

He glanced over his shoulder at the open door, where the shadow was still lingering and shivering; and with no conscious repugnance of the mind, yet with a tremor of the belly,...