THE COMING OF ABEL BEHENNA
by: Bram Stoker (1847-1912)
The following is reprinted from a collection of short stories entitled: Dracula's Guest. Bram Stoker. London: Routledge, 1914.
The little Cornish port of Pencastle was bright in the early April, when the sun had seemingly come to stay after a long and bitter winter. Boldly and blackly the rock stood out against a background of shaded blue, where the sky fading into mist met the far horizon. The sea was of true Cornish hue--sapphire, save where it became deep emerald green in the fathomless depths under the cliffs, where the seal caves opened their grim jaws. On the slopes the grass was parched and brown. The spikes of furze bushes were ashy grey, but the golden yellow of their flowers streamed along the hillside, dipping out in lines as the rock cropped up, and lessening into patches and dots till finally it died away all together where the sea winds swept round the jutting cliffs and cut short the vegetation as though with an ever-working aerial shears. The whole hillside, with its body of brown and flashes of yellow, was just like a colossal yellow-hammer.
A COMEDY IN RUBBER
by: O. Henry (1862-1910)
The following story is reprinted from The Voice of the City. O. Henry. New York: Doubleday, 1919.
One may hope, in spite of the metaphorists, to avoid the breath of the deadly upas tree; one may, by great good fortune, succeed in blacking the eye of the basilisk; one might even dodge the attentions of Cerberus and Argus, but no man, alive or dead, can escape the gaze of the Rubberer.
A CLOUD ON THE MOUNTAIN
by: Mary Hallock Foote (1847-1938)
The following story is reprinted from In Exile and Other Stories. Mary Hallock Foote. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1894.
Ruth Mary stood on the high river bank, looking along the beach below to see if her small brother Tommy was lurking anywhere under the willows with his fishing-pole. He had been sent half an hour before to the earth cellar for potatoes, and Ruth Mary's father, Mr. Tully, was waiting for his dinner.