Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:39

Excerpt #1, from The White Company, by Arthur Conan Doyle

…his shoulder, and found a young page by his side. “The Lord Loring commands,” said the boy, “that you will follow me to the great chamber, and await him there.” “But my comrades?” “His commands were for you alone.” Alleyne followed the messenger to the east end of the courtyard, where a broad flight of steps led up to the doorway of the main hall, the outer wall of which is washed by the waters of the Avon. As designed at first, no dwelling had been allotted to the lord of the castle and his family but the dark and dismal basement story of the keep. A more civilized or more effeminate generation, however, had refused to be pent up in such a cellar, and the hall with its neighboring chambers had been added for their accommodation. Up the broad steps Alleyne went, still following his boyish guide, until at the folding oak doors the latter paused, and ushered him into the main hall of the castle. On entering the room the clerk looked round; but, seeing no one, he continued to stand, his cap in his hand, examining with the greatest interest a chamber which was so different to any to which he was accustomed. The days had gone by when a nobleman’s hall was but a barn-like, rush-strewn enclosure, the common lounge and eating-room of every inmate of the castle. The Crusaders had brought back with them…

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Excerpt #2, from Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll

…that I don’t intend—” “What manner of things?” said the Queen, looking over the book (in which Alice had put “The White Knight is sliding down the poker. He balances very badly”) “That’s not a memorandum of your feelings!” There was a book lying near Alice on the table, and while she sat watching the White King (for she was still a little anxious about him, and had the ink all ready to throw over him, in case he fainted again), she turned over the leaves, to find some part that she could read, “—for it’s all in some language I don’t know,” she said to herself. It was like this. .YKCOWREBBAJ sevot yhtils eht dna, gillirb sawT’ ebaw eht ni elbmig dna eryg diD ,sevogorob eht erew ysmim llA .ebargtuo shtar emom eht dnA She puzzled over this for some time, but at last a bright thought struck her. “Why, it’s a Looking-glass book, of course! And if I hold it up to a glass, the words will all go the right way again.” This was the poem that Alice read. JABBERWOCKY. ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves…

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Excerpt #3, from Arms and the Man, by Bernard Shaw

…(quickly). My word for it, Louka, the war’s over. Off with you and get some fresh coffee. (He runs out into the stable yard.) LOUKA. (as she puts the coffee pot and the cups upon the tray, and carries it into the house). You’ll never put the soul of a servant into me. (Major Petkoff comes from the stable yard, followed by Nicola. He is a cheerful, excitable, insignificant, unpolished man of about 50, naturally unambitious except as to his income and his importance in local society, but just now greatly pleased with the military rank which the war has thrust on him as a man of consequence in his town. The fever of plucky patriotism which the Servian attack roused in all the Bulgarians has pulled him through the war; but he is obviously glad to be home again.) PETKOFF. (pointing to the table with his whip). Breakfast out here, eh? NICOLA…. Yes, sir. The mistress and Miss Raina have just gone in. PETKOFF. (fitting down and taking a roll). Go in and say I’ve come; and get me some fresh coffee. NICOLA….

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Excerpt #4, from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete, by Mark Twain

…Mary, get me a silk thread, and a chunk of fire out of the kitchen.” Tom said: “Oh, please, auntie, don’t pull it out. It don’t hurt any more. I wish I may never stir if it does. Please don’t, auntie. I don’t want to stay home from school.” “Oh, you don’t, don’t you? So all this row was because you thought you’d get to stay home from school and go a-fishing? Tom, Tom, I love you so, and you seem to try every way you can to break my old heart with your outrageousness.” By this time the dental instruments were ready. The old lady made one end of the silk thread fast to Tom’s tooth with a loop and tied the other to the bedpost. Then she seized the chunk of fire and suddenly thrust it almost into the boy’s face. The tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now. But all trials bring their compensations. As Tom wended to school after breakfast, he was the envy of every boy he met because the gap in his upper row of teeth enabled him to expectorate in a new and admirable way. He gathered quite a following of lads interested in the exhibition; and one that had cut his finger and had been a centre of fascination and homage up to this time, now found himself suddenly without an adherent, and shorn of his glory. His heart was heavy, and he said with a disdain which he did not feel that it wasn’t anything to spit like Tom Sawyer;…

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Excerpt #5, from The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas

…Why, the sacrilege is the separation of two hearts formed by God for each other.” “My Lord,” cried the queen, “you forget that I have never said that I love you.” “But you have never told me that you did not love me; and truly, to speak such words to me would be, on the part of your Majesty, too great an ingratitude. For tell me, where can you find a love like mine—a love which neither time, nor absence, nor despair can extinguish, a love which contents itself with a lost ribbon, a stray look, or a chance word? It is now three years, madame, since I saw you for the first time, and during those three years I have loved you thus. Shall I tell you each ornament of your toilet? Mark! I see you now. You were seated upon cushions in the Spanish fashion; you wore a robe of green satin embroidered with gold and silver, hanging sleeves knotted upon your beautiful arms—those lovely arms—with large diamonds. You wore a close ruff, a small cap upon your head of the same color as your robe, and in that cap a heron’s feather. Hold! Hold! I shut my eyes, and I can see you as you then were; I open them again, and I see what you are now—a hundred times more beautiful!” “What folly,” murmured Anne of Austria, who had not the courage to find fault with the duke for having so well preserved her portrait in his…

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Excerpt #6, from Weather, Crops, and Markets. Vol. 2, No. 6, by Anonymous

…totaling more than 700 cars. Nearly 1,300 cars have already come from that State this season. Arkansas sent almost 600 cars to market during the week. Movement from Georgia decreased about 70%!,(MISSING) but the season is becoming very active in Illinois, Tennessee, and Oklahoma, as well as in the Middle Atlantic sections. Early varieties from eastern States sold in leading wholesale markets at $1.50‒$2 per bu. Tennessee Elbertas ranged as high as $3‒$3.25 in Cincinnati and Cleveland, but were $1 lower in Chicago because of the oversupplied market. PRICES OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. Jobbing Range. POTATOES, Virginia Eastern Shore Irish Cobblers, No. 1—Barrels. ─────────────┬────────────┬─────────────────────────────┬────────────── Market. │ Week’s │ │ │ carlot │ │ │ arrivals. │ This season. │One year ago. ─────────────┼────────────┼──────────────┬──────────────┼────────────── │ │ July 31. │ July 24. │ ─────────────┼────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼────────────── New York │ 447│ $1.50‒1.75│ $2.75‒3.00│ $4.25‒4.50 Boston │ 168│ 2.75‒3.00│ 3.75‒4.00│ 5.25‒5.50 Philadelphia │ 160│ 1.50‒1.75│ 2.50‒2.65│ 4.00‒4.50…

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Excerpt #7, from Antiquities of the Jews, by Flavius Josephus

…conduct afterward, while, instead of succession and posterity, they gained commendation and a lasting name. Such a one alone seems to me to be a just, a courageous, and a prudent man; and when any one has arrived at these dispositions, or shall hereafter arrive at them, he is the man that ought to be by all honored with the testimony of a virtuous or courageous man: for as to those that go out to war with hopes of success, and that they shall return safe, supposing they should have performed some glorious action, I think those do not do well who call these valiant men, as so many historians and other writers who treat of them are wont to do, although I confess those do justly deserve some commendation also; but those only may be styled courageous and bold in great undertakings, and despisers of adversities, who imitate Saul: for as for those that do not know what the event of war will be as to themselves, and though they do not faint in it, but deliver themselves up to uncertain futurity, and are tossed this way and that way, this is not so very eminent an instance of a generous mind, although they happen to perform many great exploits; but when men’s minds expect no good event, but they know beforehand they must die, and that they must undergo that death in the battle also, after this neither to be affrighted, nor to be astonished at the terrible fate that is coming, but to go directly upon it, when they know it beforehand, this it is…

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Excerpt #8, from The Iliad of Homer (1873), by Homer

…Jove when angry, 137 when he strikes the earth around Typhœus in Arimæ, 138 where they say is the tomb of Typhœus; thus indeed beneath their feet the earth groaned mightily, as they went, and very swift they passed over the plain. Footnote 134: (return) I. e. exactly equal in height, as if they had been measured. Footnote 135: (return) This degradation of Apollo used to be commemorated in the theoria in honour of the god. See Müller Dor. vol. i. p. 233. Footnote 136: (return) Such was the glitter of their arms. Footnote 137: (return) See Arnold. Footnote 138: (return) A volcanic district of Mysia. But swift-footed Iris came from aegis-bearing Jove, a messenger to the Trojans, with a woeful announcement. They all, collected together, both young and old, were holding councils at the gates of Priam. But swift-footed Iris standing near, accosted them: and she likened herself in voice to Polites, son of Priam, who, trusting to the swiftness of his feet, sat at watch for the Trojans on the top of the tomb 139 of old Æsyetus, watching when the Greeks should set forth from the ships. To him having likened herself, swift-footed Iris addressed them: “Old man, ever are injudicious words pleasing to thee, as formerly in…

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Excerpt #9, from The History of the 33rd Divisional Artillery, in the War, 1914 to 1918.

…flanks, the raiding parties suddenly ceased pressing on, a mine was exploded right underneath the spot where the Germans were assembled, and the raiding parties returned to our own trenches, all further work on their part being unnecessary. It was a triumph of organisation and accuracy, and fully merited the results it achieved. On July 2nd the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment raided the enemy lines for one hour and a half, and inflicted numerous casualties on the enemy, and on July 5th the 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers raided the enemy opposite the Duck’s Bill and remained in their trench system for over two hours. By now the German infantry were in an advanced state of nerves. Although the news of the offensive on the Somme had reached them and they realised that the main attack was to the south, the continued bombardment on their own front and the nightly raids gave them not one moment’s peace of mind, nor dared they materially weaken this part of the line. The raid by the Royal Welsh Fusiliers on July 5th deserves rather more than a passing word. It will be remembered that, on June 22nd, they had suffered heavily at the hands of a German raid. On July 5th they were given a chance of retaliation, and never has a raiding party gone over the top with such a thirst for blood and revenge. Not only did the infantry attack, but with them went a party of the Tunnelling Company who were sore at the thought that the…

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Excerpt #10, from The Mark of Zorro, by Johnston McCulley

…has been feeling all this time at the base of his brain is naught except a bridle buckle I picked up from the floor. Is it not a pretty jest? Señores, á Dios!" Suddenly he whirled the captain forward, darted into the darkness, and started toward his horse with the whole pack at his heels and pistol flashes splitting the blackness of the night and bullets whistling by his head. His laughter came back to them on the stiffening breeze that blew in from the distant sea. CHAPTER XVI THE CHASE THAT FAILED Señor Zorro urged his horse down the treacherous slope of the hill, where there was loose gravel and a misstep would spell disaster, and where the troopers were slow to follow. Sergeant Gonzales possessed courage enough, and some of the men followed him, while others galloped off to right and left, planning to intercept the fugitive when he reached the bottom and turned. Señor Zorro, however, was before them, and took the trail toward San Gabriel at a furious gallop, while the troopers dashed along behind, calling to one another, and now and then discharging a pistol with a great waste of powder and ball and no result so far as capturing or wounding the highwayman was concerned….

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Excerpt #11, from History for ready reference, Volume 1 (of 6), A

…and the rule of the Cassite dynasty came to an end." A. H. Sayce, Ancient Empires of the East, appendix 2. ALSO IN: G. Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies: Chaldea, chapter 8. See, also, ASSYRIA. BABYLONIA: B. C. 625-539. The later Empire. For more than six centuries after the conquest of B. C. 1270, Babylonia was obscured by Assyria. During most of that long period, the Chaldean kingdom was subject to its northern neighbor and governed by Assyrian viceroys. There were frequent revolts and some intervals of independence; but they were brief, and the political life of Babylonia as a distinct power may be said to have been suspended from 1270 until 625 B. C., when Nabopolassar, who ruled first as the viceroy of the Assyrian monarch, threw off his yoke, took the attributes of sovereignty to himself, and joined the Medes in extinguishing the glory of Nineveh. "The Assyrian Empire was now shared between Media and Babylon. Nabucudur-utser, or Nebuchadrezzar, Nabopolassar’s eldest son, was the real founder of the Babylonian empire. The attempt of Pharaoh Necho…

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Excerpt #12, from Hard Times, by Charles Dickens

…enthusiasm: ‘and I want to see his wife. I have never seen her yet. Now, if you’ll believe me, she hasn’t come out of that house since noon to-day. So not to give her up too easily, I was waiting about, a little last bit more, when I passed close to this good lass two or three times; and her face being so friendly I spoke to her, and she spoke to me. There!’ said the old woman to Stephen, ‘you can make all the rest out for yourself now, a deal shorter than I can, I dare say!’ Once again, Stephen had to conquer an instinctive propensity to dislike this old woman, though her manner was as honest and simple as a manner possibly could be. With a gentleness that was as natural to him as he knew it to be to Rachael, he pursued the subject that interested her in her old age. ‘Well, missus,’ said he, ‘I ha seen the lady, and she were young and hansom. Wi’ fine dark thinkin eyes, and a still way, Rachael, as I ha never seen the like on.’ ‘Young and handsome. Yes!’ cried the old woman, quite delighted. ‘As bonny as a rose! And what a happy wife!’ ‘Aye, missus, I suppose she be,’ said Stephen. But with a doubtful glance at Rachael. ‘Suppose she be? She must be. She’s your master’s wife,’ returned the old woman….

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