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SHORT STORIES AND SELECTIONS

FOR USE IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

COMPILED AND ANNOTATED, WITH QUESTIONS FOR STUDY
BY
EMILIE KIP BAKER




[Illustration: Walter Scott's Library at Abbotsford]




TABLE OF CONTENTS

A LEAF IN THE STORM, _by_ Louise de la Ramee,
_from_ A Leaf in the Storm and Other Stories

CATS, _by_ Maurice Hewlett,
_from_ Earthwork out of Tuscany

AN ADVENTURE, _by_ Honore de Balzac,
_from_ A Passion in the Desert

FOR THOSE WHO LOVE MUSIC, _by_ Axel Munthe,
_from_ Vagaries

OUT OF DOORS, _by_ Richard Jefferies,
_from_ Saint Guido

THE TABOO, _by_ Herman Melville,
_from_ Typee

SCHOOL DAYS AT THE CONVENT, _by_ George Sand,
_from_ The Story of My Life (adapted)

IN BRITTANY, _by_ Louisa Alcott,
_from_ Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag

THE ADIRONDACKS, _by_ John Burroughs,
_from_ Wake Robin

AN ASCENT OF KILAUEA, _by_ Lady Brassey,
_from_ Around the World in the Yacht Sunbeam

THE FETISH, _by_ George Eliot,
_from_ The Mill on the Floss

SALMON FISHING IN IRELAND, _by_ James A. Froude,
_from_ A Fortnight in Kerry

ACROSS RUNNING WATER, _by_ Fiona Macleod,
_from_ Sea Magic and Running Water

THE PINE-TREE SHILLINGS, _by_ Nathaniel Hawthorne,
_from_ Grandfather's Chair

THE WHITE TRAIL, _by_ Stewart Edward White,
_from_ The Silent Places

A DISSERTATION ON ROAST PIG, _by_ Charles Lamb,
_from_ Essays of Elia

THE LAST CLASS, _by_ Alphonse Daudet,
_from_ Monday Tales

AN ARAB FISHERMAN, _by_ Albert Edwards,
_from_ The Barbary Coast

THE ARCHERY CONTEST, _by_ Walter Scott,
_from_ Ivanhoe

BABY SYLVESTER, _by_ Bret Harte,
_from_ Bret Harte's Writings

THE ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG, _by_ Abraham Lincoln,
_from_ Lincoln's Speeches

THE SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, _by_ Abraham Lincoln,
_from_ Lincoln's Speeches

AN APPRECIATION OF LINCOLN, _by_ John Hay,
_from_ Life of Lincoln

THE ELEPHANTS THAT STRUCK, _by_ Samuel White Baker,
_from_ Eight Years in Ceylon

THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP, _by_ Bret Harte

THE STORY OF MUHAMMAD DIN, _by_ Rudyard Kipling,
_from_ Plain Tales from the Hills

A CHILD, _by_ John Galsworthy,
_from_ Commentary

TOO DEAR FOR THE WHISTLE, _by_ Benjamin Franklin,
_from_ The Autobiography

A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT, _by_ Robert Louis Stevenson,
_from_ The New Arabian Nights

A BAD FIVE MINUTES IN THE ALPS, _by_ Leslie Stephen,
_from_ Freethinking and Plainspeaking (adapted)

THE GOLD TRAIL, _by_ Stewart Edward White,
_from_ Gold

TWENTY YEARS OF ARCTIC STRUGGLE, _by_ J. Kennedy McLean,
_from_ Heroes of the Farthest North and South (adapted)

THE SPEECH IN MANCHESTER, _by_ Henry Ward Beecher,
_from_ Addresses and Sermons

A GREEN DONKEY DRIVER, _by_ Robert Louis Stevenson,
_from_ Travels with a Donkey

A NIGHT IN THE PINES, _by_ Robert Louis Stevenson,
_from_ Travels with a Donkey

LIFE IN OLD NEW YORK, _by_ Washington Irving,
_from_ Knickerbocker's History of New York

THE BAZAAR IN MOROCCO, _by_ Pierre Loti,
_from_ Into Morocco

A BATTLE OF THE ANTS, _by_ Henry D. Thoreau,
_from_ Walden (adapted)

AN AFRICAN PET, _by_ Paul B. du Chaillu,
_from_ The African Forest and Jungle

ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE, _by_ Lloyd Morgan,
_from_ Animal Sketches (adapted)

BUCK'S TRIAL OF STRENGTH, _by_ Jack London,
_from_ The Call of the Wild

ON THE SOLANDER WHALING GROUND, _by_ Frank Bullen,
_from_ Idylls of the Sea

AN EPISODE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, _by_ Charles Dickens,
_from_ A Tale of Two Cities

THE COMMANDER OF THE FAITHFUL, _by_ Pierre Loti,
_from_ Into Morocco (adapted)

WALT WHITMAN, _by_ John Burroughs,
_from_ Whitman--A Study (adapted)

HEROISM IN HOUSEKEEPING, _by_ Jane Welsh Carlyle,
_from_ Letters

A YOUTHFUL ACTOR, _by_ Thomas Bailey Aldrich,
_from_ The Story of a Bad Boy

WAR, _by_ Thomas Carlyle, _from_ Sartor Resartus

<DW53>-HUNTING, _by_ Ernest Ingersoll,
_from_ Wild Neighbors (adapted)

SIGHT IN SAVAGES, _by_ W. H. Hudson,
_from_ Idle Days in Patagonia

THE VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER, _by_ Washington Irving,
_from_ The Sketch Book




INTRODUCTION


The testimony of librarians as to the kind of books people are reading
nowadays is somewhat discouraging to the book-lover who has been brought
up in the old traditions. We are told that Scott and Thackeray and
George Eliot cannot compete with the year's "best sellers," and that the
old classics are read only by the few who have a cultivated taste and a
trained intelligence.

The interest of novelty, the dislike of mental effort, the temptation to
read merely for a mild sensation,--all these undoubtedly tend to keep
down the level of literary taste. To many readers of good average
ability, neither the esthetic nor the purely intellectual makes a strong
appeal. Even minds of fine quality often find a welcome diversion in
trivial reading. In fact, to expect every one and at all times to have
his mind keyed up to the higher levels is neither sincere nor
reasonable. And yet, making due allowance for intellectual limitations,
for the busy and distracting conditions of modern life, and for the real
need of light reading at times when recreation is of more value than
instruction, it would seem that a fair proportion of our reading could
and should be on a higher plane.

To put it on this high plane is one of the fixed objects of the school.
For this end the schools have given English an important place, have
broadened the list of recommended books year by year, and have sought to
improve the method of teaching literature. Especially have they hoped to
create in the pupil the habit of reading good books and of discovering
new material on his own initiative. Thus far their success has fallen
much below their hopes, as the testimony of librarians, adduced above,
plainly indicates.

There is one significant fact which both librarians and teachers have
observed. The average reader, child or adult, seldom knows how or where
to find things to read. He is lost in a library, whether among the
book-shelves or at a card-catalogue. He is like a traveler who is
ignorant of the geography of the country and cannot use the compass. And
worse still, he has not the explorer's instinct. If he possessed this,
he would somehow find his way himself,--a thing which occasionally
happens when the reader has more than usual ability. Between the covers
of those books, turning to him their uncommunicative backs, behind those
labels--to him so unexpressive--there may be passages, whole chapters or
more, that would give him entertainment, if he only knew!

To introduce him to an author may be to give him a new friend.
Introductions need not imply long and intimate companionship. This
author may hold him for half an hour, and never again; that one may
claim his attention for a day; and another may come to rank as one of
his old friends. In each case the acquaintance may depend upon the fact
of an introduction, and not upon the reader's own initiative in
discovery. More than the acquaintances thus made, is the sense of
at-homeness among books which they gradually bring about. We all know
that feeling of the unreality of a book of which we have merely heard
the title, and how soon we forget it. A book that we have seen and
handled, however, and especially one which we have read or from which we
have seen a passage quoted in another volume, is somehow real,--an
entity. Through continued experiences of this sort we come to feel
really acquainted with books, to know where to find the things we are
looking for, to judge and appreciate,--in brief, to feel at home among
them.

It is as a series of such introductions to the larger world of
literature that this volume has been compiled. Some of the selections
are from books whose titles are already familiar to high school
students; many others are from sources that few pupils will know. All of
them, it is confidently believed, are within the interest and
comprehension of boys and girls of high school age. The notes and
questions at the end of each selection will, it is hoped, be of some
help to the students in getting at the author's meaning, and in
suggesting interesting topics for discussion. If, after finishing the
Short Stories and Selections, a few more students will have formed the
habit of good reading and will feel, not merely willing, but eager, to
enlarge their acquaintance among good books, this volume has
accomplished its purpose.

EMILIE K. BAKER




SHORT STORIES AND SELECTIONS




A LEAF IN THE STORM


Bernadou clung to his home with a dogged devotion. He would not go from
it to fight unless compelled, but for it he would have fought like a
lion. His love for his country was only an indefinite shadowy existence
that was not clear to him; he could not save a land that he had never
seen, a capital that was only to him as an empty name; nor could he
comprehend the danger that his nation ran; nor could he desire to go
forth and spend his lifeblood in defence of things unknown to him. He
was only a peasant, and he could not read nor greatly understand. But
affection for his birthplace was a passion with him,--mute indeed, but
deep-seated as an oak. For his birthplace he would have struggled as a
man can struggle only when supreme love as well as duty nerves his arm.
Neither he nor Reine Allix could see that a man's duty might lie from
home,