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The Eyes Have It
A poke at idioms, sci-fi style. If we read everything literally, we'd go mad. You'll be "in stitches" by the time you're done reading Dick's "side-splitting" story!
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Wit Inspirations of the "Two-Year-Olds"
"'Samuel is a very excellent name.' I saw that trouble was coming. Nothing could prevent it."
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Maine to the Rescue
A late winter blizzard is just the occasion for Maine (the girl) to step out and save the day!
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The Fable of the Preacher Who Flew His Kite, But Not Because He Wished to Do So
"Give the People what they Think they want" is the clear moral imperative in this story.
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A Strange Story
As the title implies, O. Henry delivers an unexpected story about a delayed errand in search of cough medicine that requires patients-- two, in fact.
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A Lost Masterpiece
Winnie the Pooh author offers a witty piece on how to handle "Teralbay" -- all 181,440 ways.
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Clovis on Parental Responsibilities
SAKI's precursor to what we now call "helicopter parenting."
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My Financial Career
Here's an account of how a man really lost his balance.
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The New Food
What? All the nutrients you need in one little pill? Leacock's story provides just one scenario for why this invention failed miserably.
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Aristocracy Versus Hash
Who cares about your family tree. Nothing beats an irish stew, cornbread, and a beer!
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Lord Oakhurst's Curse
This story would make a steam piano go out behind a barn and kick itself in despair.
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A Telephonic Conversation
Twain's humorous rant contrasting how women talk on the telephone compared to men.
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Reginald on Worries
"They remind one so of a duck that goes flapping about with forced cheerfulness long after its head's been cut off."
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Reginald's Peace Poem
"In writing about Peace the thing is to say what everybody else is saying, only to say it better."
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About Barbers
Why don't men just go to a salon where they can make an appointment, instead of this nonsense?
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The Dog
"A dog always looks as if he ought to have a pipe in his mouth and a black bag for his lunch, and then he would go quite happily to office every day."
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The Patient Cat
“Well, of all the horrid, mean, ungrateful creatures I ever saw, those birds are the horridest, and the meanest, and the most ungrateful!"
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A Monument to Adam
"We had monkeys, and 'missing links,' and plenty of other kinds of ancestors, but no Adam."
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The Whistle
"When I see a beautiful sweet-tempered girl married to an ill-natured brute of a husband, What a pity, say I, that she should pay so much for a whistle!"
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A Country Cottage
Looking forward to a nice quiet evening together, when suddenly...unexpected visitors.
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An Idle Fellow
"I think I shall walk a space through the world with my friend Paul."
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The Haunted Mind
"In the depths of every heart there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music and revelry, above may cause us to forget their existence and the buried ones or prisoners whom they hide."
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Change
"If I were to preach any doctrine to the world it would be love of change, or at least lack of fear of it."
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A Handful of Clay
"It was only common clay, coarse and heavy; but it had high thoughts of its own value, and wonderful dreams..."
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Amy's Question
"Isn't it beautiful, mother? And it makes me feel so quiet and happy. I wonder why it is?"
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The Blind Men and the Elephant
This parable originally from India has been adapted by many religions and cultures with the underlying message that collective wisdom leads to the truth.
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A Reflection
"It is greater than the stars--that moving procession of human energy."
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The Doer of Good
Wilde's prose poem about four people whose seemingly sinful behavior resulted from God's intervention.
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The Ass and His Purchaser
A man is known by the company he keeps.
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The Morals of Chess
"Life is a kind of chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors to contend with, and in which is a vast variety of good and ill events that are, in some degree, the effects of prudence or the want of it."
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The Chicken Who Wouldn't Eat Gravel
"The people who won't do hard things, when they ought to, have the hardest times in the end."
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The King and His Hawk
Genghis Khan learned a valuable lesson about acting in anger from his loyal hawk.
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The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones
Let this be a lesson to avoid protracted good-byes, as if your life depends on it!
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A Story from Confucius
A lesson in self-control in which he explains to his student how the teeth and tongue demonstrate that the strongest to resist is the first to decay.
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The Ephemera: Emblem of Human Life
The mayfly's life is fleeting; Franklin reminds us to spend ours wisely.
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Bruce and the Spider
Scottish King Robert Bruce is inspired not to give up after watching a tenacious spider.
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The Shirt-Collar
Don't be boastful or you'll end up in a bag of rags!
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The Wicked Prince
All he wanted to do was conquer countries and frighten people, which he paid for in the end.
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Work, Death and Sickness
An Indian legend explaining how God tried to incerase man's happiness by introducing work, sickness and suffering. Did it work?
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An Uncomfortable Bed
A textbook example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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A Fable
Twain's clever allegory explaining why your perspective is inevitably a reflection of your work.
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Keeping Christmas
Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world-- stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death?
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Advice to Little Girls
"Chews" your actions carefully and remember never to "sass" old people unless they "sass" you first.
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The Little Thief in the Pantry
This tale is about a compassionate girl who teaches a mouse the difference between giving and stealing.
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George Washington's Boyhood Rules
At the age of thirteen, George Washington wrote down 110 rules to guide him in act and speech. They served him well, indeed!
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The Fight of the Good Ship Clarissa
Sci-fi with a twist: endless rocket parties and a budding author writing, "Fascism is Communism with a Shave."
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Ex Oblivione
"As I looked upon the little gate in the mighty wall, I felt that beyond it lay a dream-country from which, once it was entered, there would be no return."
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A Man with Two Lives
Did David Duck make it back alive or not?
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A Haunted House
"Wandering through the house, opening the windows, whispering not to wake us, the ghostly couple seek their joy."
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A Wireless Message
"Central New York is not a region of perils, nor does one remain lost in it," but this man sure was dumbfounded with his experience there.
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The Man in the Brown Coat
"Sometimes the whole life of this world floats in a human face in my mind."
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Azathoth
The story of a man who traveled "out of life on a quest into spaces whither the world's dreams had fled."
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Monday or Tuesday
Lazy and indifferent, the heron shakes space easily from his wings.
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Cousin Tribulation's Story
A heartwarming story about an oatmeal parade and "angel-children" who help a family in need.
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The Great Feast
Who would have thought one small cookie could be the source of such an imaginative celebration?
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Mix War, Art and Dancing
Hemingway's delightful account of the respite a dance provides during wartime.
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The Omnibus
Bus passengers are curious about the rider from Charing Cross, a young boy with a stick, bundle and bouquet.
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Fickle Fortune or How Gladys Hustled
Oh, Gladys, who's love will you accept with these 467 pages?
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The Happy Family
A tender story about the last great white snails, thought to be extinct.
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Two Nights at Neempani
An emerging author tells the story about love and loss in India.
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Little Benjamin
Left on their door-step ten years ago, he's been nothing but trouble ever since.
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A Story of Robin Hood
Who knew Robin Hood stood up for unrequited lovers as well as for the poor!
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The Little Match Girl
The poignant tale of a desperate girl who is comforted by warm memories in the end.
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The Story of an Hour
Hearing the news of her husband's death, Louise's range of emotions may surprise you.
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The Boston Massacre
"Fire, you lobster-backs!" bellowed some. "You dare not fire, you cowardly red-coats," cried others.
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A Tent in Agony
A small man and a bear together in a tent? "The hand of heaven sometimes falls heavily upon the righteous."
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The Snake
A dramatic story about a man and a dog confronted by a snake.
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Two Military Executions
What really happened to Private Bennett Story Greene after his indiscretion striking his officer?
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One Summer Night
Two medical students get schooled about life after death, or is it vice versa?
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Doctor Chevalier's Lie
A doctor's choice to provide comfort with a lie, rather than reveal the unspeakable reality.
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Hearts and Hands
The twists and turns are unexpected, as was O. Henry's own life; he had fled to Honduras after being charged with embezzlement, turned himself in, served five years in federal prison, then published this story.
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Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper
The author's treatment for nervous disease was never to touch pen, brush, or pencil. Thankfully, she ignored that advice.
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After Twenty Years
A man returns for an appointment he set up twenty years ago.
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Louisa May Alcott: A Child's Biography
"Lost-- Lost-- A little girl, six years old, in a pink frock, white hat, and new, green shoes." She called out, "Why- dat's ME!"
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Hermann The Irascible
A playful farce about what would happen if women's right to vote became an obligation.
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An Inquiry
The wheels of corrupt bureaucracy move at an exacting price.
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Fat and Thin
Chekhov's commentary on the power of Russia's vertical hierarchy trumping all else.
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