



Produced by Ron Swanson





LITTLE CLASSICS

EDITED BY ROSSITER JOHNSON




STORIES OF FORTUNE




BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
_The Riverside Press Cambridge_
1914




COPYRIGHT, 1875, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED




CONTENTS.


THE GOLD-BUG......... _Edgar Allan Poe_

THE FAIRY-FINDER....... _Samuel Lover_

MURAD THE UNLUCKY ...... _Maria Edgeworth_

THE CHILDREN OF THE PUBLIC.. _Edward Everett Hale_

THE RIVAL DREAMERS...... _John Banim_

THE THREEFOLD DESTINY .... _Nathaniel Hawthorne_




THE GOLD-BUG.

BY EDGAR ALLAN POE.

  What ho! what ho! this fellow is dancing mad!
  He hath been bitten by the Tarantula.
                                _All in the Wrong._


Many years ago I contracted an intimacy with a Mr. William Legrand. He
was of an ancient Huguenot family, and had once been wealthy; but a
series of misfortunes had reduced him to want. To avoid the
mortification consequent upon his disasters, he left New Orleans, the
city of his forefathers, and took up his residence at Sullivan's
Island, near Charleston, South Carolina.

This island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than the
sea-sand, and is about three miles long. Its breadth at no point
exceeds a quarter of a mile. It is separated from the mainland by a
scarcely perceptible creek oozing its