Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:17

Excerpt #1, from The Coral Island, by R. M. Ballantyne

…“you must carry your philosophy a little further, Ralph. That water has evaporated so much that it is too salt for anything to live in. You will require to add fresh water now and then, in order to keep it at the same degree of saltness as the sea.” “Very true, Jack; that never struck me before,” said I. “And, now I think of it,” continued Jack, “it seems to me that the surest way of arranging your tank so as to get it to keep pure and in good condition will be to imitate the ocean in it; in fact, make it a miniature Pacific. I don’t see how you can hope to succeed unless you do that.” “Most true,” said I, pondering what my companion said. “But I fear that that will be very difficult.” “Not at all,” cried Jack, rolling his towel up into a ball and throwing it into the face of Peterkin, who had been grinning and winking at him during the last five minutes–"not at all. Look here. There is water of a certain saltness in the sea; well, fill your tank with sea-water, and keep it at that saltness by marking the height at which the water stands on the sides. When it evaporates a little, pour in fresh water from the brook till it comes up to the mark, and then it will be right, for the salt does not evaporate with the water. Then there’s lots of seaweed in the sea; well, go and get one or two bits of seaweed and put…

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Excerpt #2, from Latin Phrase Book, by Carl Meissner

…calamitatibus obrui—to be overwhelmed with misfortune. calamitatibus defungi—to come to the end of one’s troubles. calamitate doctus—schooled by adversity. conflictari (cum) adversa fortuna—to struggle with adversity. in malis iacere—to be broken down by misfortune. malis urgeri—to be hard pressed by misfortune. fortunae vicissitudines—the vicissitudes of fortune. ancipites et varii casus—the changes and chances of this life. sub varios incertosque casus subiectum esse—to have to submit to the uncertainties of fortune; to be subject to Fortune’s caprice. multis casibus iactari—to experience the ups and downs of life. ad omnes casus subsidia comparare—to be prepared for all that may come. varia fortuna uti—to experience the vicissitudes of fortune; to have a chequered career. multis iniquitatibus exerceri[2]—to be severely tried by misfortune. fortunae telis propositum esse—to be exposed to the assaults of fate. fortunae obiectum esse—to be abandoned to fate. ad iniurias fortunae expositum esse—to be a victim of the malice of Fortune. fortunae cedere—to acquiesce in one’s fate….

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Excerpt #3, from Grimm Tales Made Gay, by Guy Wetmore Carryl

…The wish is father to the thought. (We’d oftentimes escape the worst If but the thinking part came first!) How Hop O’ My Thumb Got Rid of an Onus [Illustration] A worthy couple, man and wife, Dragged on a discontented life: The reason, I should state, That it was destitute of joys, Was that they had a dozen boys To feed and educate, And nothing such patience demands As having twelve boys on your hands! [Illustration] For twenty years they tried their best To keep those urchins neatly dressed And teach them to be good, But so much labor it involved That, in the end, they both resolved To lose them in a wood, Though nothing a parent annoys…

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Excerpt #4, from Now It Can Be Told, by Philip Gibbs

…himself, with a touch of the old Irish soldier as drawn by Charles Lever, gay-hearted, proud of his boys, he was always pleased to see me because he knew I had a warm spot in my heart for the Irish troops. He had a good story to tell every time, and passed me on to “the boys” to get at the heart of them. It was long before he lost hope of keeping the division together, though it was hard to get recruits and losses were high at Guillemont and Ginchy. For the first time he lost heart and was very sad when the division was cut to pieces in a Flanders battle. It lost 2,000 men and 162 officers before the battle began–they were shelled to death in the trenches–and 2,000 men and 170 officers more during the progress of the battle. It was murderous and ghastly. General Harper of the 51st (Highland) Division, afterward commanding the 4th Corps, had the respect of his troops, though they called him “Uncle” because of his shock of white hair. The Highland division, under his command, fought many battles and gained great honor, even from the enemy, who feared them and called the kilted men “the ladies from hell.” It was to them the Germans sent their message in a small balloon during the retreat from the Somme: “Poor old 51st. Still sticking it! Cheery-oh!” “Uncle” Harper invited me to lunch in his mess, and was ironical with war correspondents, and censors, and the British public, and new…

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Excerpt #5, from The Blue Raider: A Tale of Adventure in the Southern Seas, by Herbert Strang

…was always on guard, together with relays of the natives. By the exertion of his authority Flanso kept his men fairly quiet; but the white men were on thorns lest even the subdued murmurs of voices should reach the ears of possible scouts. At dawn the party was marshalled. It had been arranged that the weaker men among the natives should make for the village by a round-about route, in charge of Grinson and Meek, and led by Lafoa. Trentham and Hoole intended to wait a while with Flanso and the rest, and then to scout more directly eastward in order to keep watch on the Germans. They were just about to start when the natives pricked up their ears, and Flanso managed to make the white men understand that they were alarmed by a noise in the air. A few seconds later Hoole declared that he heard the seaplane’s engines. Trentham signed to the natives to take cover in the surrounding bush, and with Hoole posted himself at the edge of the forest, where he might hope to escape observation. Presently the seaplane soared over the clearing, a few hundred feet above the ground, and after circling once or twice made off south-eastwards in the direction of the village. ’They won’t see our men in the forest,’ remarked Trentham, ’but we had better start. If they drop a bomb on the village, there ’ll be a frightful panic.’…

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Excerpt #6, from Diary of Anna Green Winslow, a Boston School Girl of 1771, by Anna Green Winslow

…(or rather she with me) upon a perticular matter, which you shall know in its place. How strangely industrious I have been this week, I will inform you with my own hand–at present, I am so dilligent, that I am oblig’d to use the hand & pen of my old friend, who being near by is better than a brother far off. I dont forgit dear little John Henry so pray mamma, dont mistake me. Dec^r 28th.–Last evening a little after 5 o’clock I finished my shift. I spent the evening at Mr. Soley’s. I began my shift at 12 o’clock last monday, have read my bible every day this week & wrote every day save one. Dec^r 30th.–I return’d to my sewing school after a weeks absence, I have also paid my compliments to Master Holbrook.[23] Yesterday between meetings my aunt was call’d to Mrs. Water’s[13] & about 8 in the evening Dr. Lloyd[24] brought little master to town (N.B. As a memorandum for myself. My aunt stuck a white sattan pincushin[25] for Mrs Waters.[13] On one side, is a planthorn with flowers, on the reverse, just under the border are, on one side stuck these words, Josiah Waters, then follows on the end, Dec^r 1771, on the next side & end are the words, Welcome little Stranger.) Unkle has just come in & bro’t one from me. I mean, unkle is just come in with a letter from Papa in his hand (& none for me) by way of Newbury. I am glad to hear that…

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Excerpt #7, from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

…skin was of a greenish tint. At his side was a large green box. When he saw Dorothy and her companions the man asked, “What do you wish in the Emerald City?” “We came here to see the Great Oz,” said Dorothy. The man was so surprised at this answer that he sat down to think it over. “It has been many years since anyone asked me to see Oz,” he said, shaking his head in perplexity. “He is powerful and terrible, and if you come on an idle or foolish errand to bother the wise reflections of the Great Wizard, he might be angry and destroy you all in an instant.” [Illustration] “But it is not a foolish errand, nor an idle one,” replied the Scarecrow; “it is important. And we have been told that Oz is a good Wizard.” “So he is,” said the green man; “and he rules the Emerald City wisely and well. But to those who are not honest, or who approach him from curiosity, he is most terrible, and few have ever dared ask to see his face. I am the Guardian of the Gates, and since you demand to see the Great Oz I must take you to his palace. But first you must put on the spectacles.” “Why?” asked Dorothy….

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Excerpt #8, from An Account of Egypt, by Herodotus

…matter as follows:–If the Phenicians did in truth carry away the consecrated women and sold one of them into Libya and the other into Hellas, I suppose that in the country now called Hellas, which was formerly called Pelasgia, this woman was sold into the land of the Thesprotians; and then being a slave there she set up a sanctuary of Zeus under a real oak-tree; as indeed it was natural that being an attendant of the sanctuary of Zeus at Thebes, she should there, in the place to which she had come, have a memory of him; and after this, when she got understanding of the Hellenic tongue, she established an Oracle, and she reported, I suppose, that her sister had been sold in Libya by the same Phenicians by whom she herself had been sold. Moreover, I think that the women were called doves by the people of Dodona for the reason that they were barbarians and because it seemed to them that they uttered voice like birds; but after a time (they say) the dove spoke with human voice, that is when the woman began to speak so that they could understand; but so long as she spoke a Barbarian tongue she seemed to them to be uttering voice like a bird: for if it had been really a dove, how could it speak with human voice? And in saying that the dove was black, they indicate that the woman was Egyptian. The ways of delivering oracles too at Thebes in Egypt and at Dodona closely resemble each other, as it happens, and also the method of divination by victims…

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Excerpt #9, from Masters of the vortex, by E. E. Smith

…should get himself killed? Somebody would have to do something . . . but who? And what? Could—or could not—another Vortex Blaster be found? Or trained? And next morning, early, he Lensed a thought. “Kinnison? Phil Strong. I’ve got a high-priority problem that will take a lot of work and a lot more weight than I carry. Are you free to listen for a few minutes?” “I’m free. Go ahead.” Chapter 3 ▂▂▂▂▂▂CLOUD LOSES AN ARM TELLURIAN PHARMACEUTICALS, INC., was Civilization’s oldest and most conservative drug house. “Hide-bound” was the term most frequently used, not only by its younger employees, but also by its more progressive competitors. But, corporatively, Tellurian Pharmaceuticals, Inc., did not care. Its board of directors was limited by an iron-clad, if unwritten, law to men of seventy years more; and against the inertia of that ruling body the impetuosity of the younger generation was exactly as efficacious as the dashing of ocean waves against an adamantine cliff—and in very much the same fashion. Ocean waves do in time cut into even the hardest rock; and, every century or two, TPI did take forward step—after a hundred years of…

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Excerpt #10, from The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells

…description. “Way!” my brother heard voices crying. “Make way!” It was like riding into the smoke of a fire to approach the meeting point of the lane and road; the crowd roared like a fire, and the dust was hot and pungent. And, indeed, a little way up the road a villa was burning and sending rolling masses of black smoke across the road to add to the confusion. Two men came past them. Then a dirty woman, carrying a heavy bundle and weeping. A lost retriever dog, with hanging tongue, circled dubiously round them, scared and wretched, and fled at my brother’s threat. So much as they could see of the road Londonward between the houses to the right was a tumultuous stream of dirty, hurrying people, pent in between the villas on either side; the black heads, the crowded forms, grew into distinctness as they rushed towards the corner, hurried past, and merged their individuality again in a receding multitude that was swallowed up at last in a cloud of dust. “Go on! Go on!” cried the voices. “Way! Way!” One man’s hands pressed on the back of another. My brother stood at the pony’s head. Irresistibly attracted, he advanced slowly, pace by pace, down the lane. Edgware had been a scene of confusion, Chalk Farm a riotous tumult, but…

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Excerpt #11, from A Doll’s House : a play, by Henrik Ibsen

…Just look at those! RANK. Silk stockings. NORA. Flesh-coloured. Aren’t they lovely? It is so dark here now, but tomorrow—. No, no, no! you must only look at the feet. Oh well, you may have leave to look at the legs too. RANK. Hm!— NORA. Why are you looking so critical? Don’t you think they will fit me? RANK. I have no means of forming an opinion about that. NORA. [looks at him for a moment]. For shame! [Hits him lightly on the ear with the stockings.] That’s to punish you. [Folds them up again.] RANK. And what other nice things am I to be allowed to see? NORA. Not a single thing more, for being so naughty. [She looks among the things, humming to herself.]…

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Excerpt #12, from The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

…“Paris is a fine town all right,” said the count. “But I guess you have pretty big doings yourself over in London.” “Oh, yes,” said Brett. “Enormous.” Braddocks called to me from a table. “Barnes,” he said, “have a drink. That girl of yours got in a frightful row.” “What about?” “Something the patronne’s daughter said. A corking row. She was rather splendid, you know. Showed her yellow card and demanded the patronne’s daughter’s too. I say it was a row.” “What finally happened?” “Oh, some one took her home. Not a bad-looking girl. Wonderful command of the idiom. Do stay and have a drink.” “No,” I said. “I must shove off. Seen Cohn?” “He went home with Frances,” Mrs. Braddock put in. “Poor chap, he looks awfully down,” Braddocks said. “I dare say he is,” said Mrs. Braddocks. “I have to shove off,” I said. “Good night.” I said good night to Brett at the bar. The count was buying champagne. “Will you take a glass of wine with us, sir?” he asked. “No. Thanks awfully. I have to go.” “Really going?” Brett asked….

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