Chapter 1. The cyclone.

Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer`s wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor and a roof, which made one room; and this room contained a rusty looking cookstove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner, and Dorothy a little bed in another

CHAPTER I
CHRISTMAS EVE
All through the day of Christmas Eve, Dr. Stahlbaum`s children had not been allowed into the dining-room, much less into the drawing-room opening out of it. In a corner of the back-parlour, Fred and Mary sat cuddled up together, shuddering with the excitement of mystery; for, though twilight had come on, nobody brought in any lights this evening. Fred whisperingly told his seven-year-old sister how, since early in the morning, he had listened to the stir and the bustle and the soft hammerings in these forbidden chambers; also how, not long ago, a small, dark man, with a

THE BOY
THE ELF
Sunday, March twentieth.
Once there was a boy. He was-let us say-something like fourteen years old; long and loose-jointed and towheaded. He wasn`t good for much, that boy. His chief delight was to eat and sleep; and after that-he liked best to make mischief.
It was a Sunday morning and the boy`s parents were getting ready to go to church. The boy sat on the edge of the table, in his shirt sleeves, and thought how lucky it was that both father and mother were going away, and the coast would be clear for a couple of hours. “Good! Now

CHAPTER I
THE PIECE OF WOOD THAT LAUGHED AND CRIED LIKE A CHILD
There was once upon a time a piece of wood in the shop of an old carpenter named Master Antonio. Everybody, however, called him Master Cherry, on account of the end of his nose, which was always as red and polished as a ripe cherry.
No sooner had Master Cherry set eyes on the piece of wood than his face beamed with delight, and, rubbing his hands together with satisfaction, he said softly to himself:
“This wood has come at the right moment; it will just do to make the leg

Chapter 1. Peter breaks though.

All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, “Oh, why can`t you remain like this for ever!” This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always

CHAPTER I
Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.
In the book it said: “Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.”
I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in

CHAPTER I
[THE BARON IS SUPPOSED TO RELATE THESE ADVENTURES TO HIS FRIENDS OVER A BOTTLE.]
The Baron relates an account of his first travels-The astonishing effects of a storm-Arrives at Ceylon; combats and conquers two extraordinary opponents-Returns to Holland.
Some years before my beard announced approaching manhood, or, in other words, when I was neither man nor boy, but between both, I expressed in repeated conversations a strong desire of seeing the world, from which I was discouraged by my parents, though my father had been no inconsiderable traveller himself, as will appear before I have reached the end of my singular,

Chapter 1. Down the rabbit-hole.

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,` thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?`
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and

Avaricious and envious.

Two neighbours came before Jupiter and prayed him to grant their hearts` desire. Now the one was full of avarice, and the other eaten up with envy. So to punish them both, Jupiter granted that each might have whatever he wished for himself, but only on condition that his neighbour had twice as much. The Avaricious man prayed to have a room full of gold. No sooner said than done; but all his joy was turned to grief when he found that his neighbour had two rooms full of the precious metal. Then came the turn of the

The second year after the great fight with Red Dog and the death of Akela, Mowgli must have been nearly seventeen years old. He looked older, for hard exercise, the best of good eating, and baths whenever he felt in the least hot or dusty, had given him strength and growth far beyond his age. He could swing by one hand from a top branch for half an hour at a time, when he had occasion to look along the tree-roads. He could stop a young buck in mid-gallop and throw him sideways by the head. He could even jerk