Secular moneylender and manic collector of treasures, Hashim lives a life of gentle honor until he discovers, washed up to his private quay, a great relic: a silver pendant bearing a strand of the Prophet’s hair. Views: 259
CHAPTER I A SUMMER IN THE SADDLE "Hello, hello! Oh, what is the matter with central!" The dark-haired, pink-cheeked girl at the telephone jiggled the receiver impatiently while a straight line of impatience marred her pretty mouth. "Oh dear, oh dear!" "At last! Is that you, Mollie Billette? I\'ve been trying to get you for the last half hour. What\'s that? You\'ve been home all morning twiddling your thumbs and wondering what to do with yourself? Of course! I knew it was central\'s fault all the time! Now listen! Goodness, what are you having over at your house? A jazz dance or something? I can hardly hear you speak for the noise." "No, it isn\'t a dance," came back Mollie\'s voice wearily from the other end of the wire. "It\'s just the twins. They want to talk to you. Hold the wire a minute while I shut them in the other room." Followed a silence during which Betty Nelson could distinctly hear the wails of Mollie\'s little brother and sister as they were ushered forcibly into an adjoining room. Then Mollie\'s voice again at the phone. "Hello," she said. "Still there, Betty? Guess I can hear you a little better now. Mother\'s out, and I\'ve been taking care of the twins. Just rescued the cat from being dumped head down in the flour barrel." "Sounds natural," laughed the dark-haired, pink-cheeked one, as she visualized Mollie\'s little brother and sister, Dodo and Paul. They were twins, and always in trouble. "Anything special you called up about?" asked Mollie\'s voice from the other end of the wire. "Want to go for a ride or something?" "Not the kind of ride you mean," said the brown-eyed, pink-cheeked one, with a knowing little smile on her lips. At the lilt in her voice Mollie, at her end of the wire, sat up and stared inquiringly into the black mouth of the telephone. "Betty," she said hopefully, "you are hiding something from me. You have something up your sleeve." "You\'re right and wrong," giggled Betty. "I\'m hiding something from you, but I can\'t get it up my sleeve, it\'s too big!" "Hurry up!" commanded Mollie in terrific accents. "Are you going to tell me what\'s on your mind, Betty Nelson?" "When will you be around?" countered Betty. "In five minutes." "Good!" "Betty, wait! Is it good news?" "The best ever," and Betty rang off. She twinkled at the telephone for a minute, then called another number. "That you, Gracie?" The fair-haired, tall, and very graceful girl at the other end of the wire acknowledged that it was. "Please suggest something interesting, Betty," she added plaintively, as she took a chocolate from the ever-present candy box and nibbled on it discontentedly. "I woke up with the most awful attack of the blues this morning." "What, with a whole summer full of blessed idleness before you?" mocked Betty. "Too much idleness," grumbled Grace. "That\'s the trouble." "Enter," said Betty drolly, "Doctor Elizabeth Nelson." Grace digested this remark for a moment, staring at the telephone in much the same manner as Mollie had done a few minutes before. Then she swallowed the last of her chocolate in such haste that it almost choked her.... Views: 259
Teen astronaut Houston Williams is finally headed into outer space.Houston Williams was thrilled to win a scholarship to attend a space program at NASA. What he didn't realize was that organizers were recruiting people for a cutting-edge research project aimed at studying how space travel affects people of different ages. Now, after months of intense training, Houston is blasting off into space!He and his new friend and former rival, Ashley, are on their way to the International Space Station (ISS) where, along with veteran astronaut Colonel Sanderson, they will be subjected to a variety of experiments. Meanwhile, back on Earth, the politics of space travel are getting complicated. Many feel the money being spent on Mars exploration should be redirected to address issues such as access to clean water and global warming. A planned mission to Mars may be accelerated before funding is canceled, and there is talk of repurposing the ISS crew. Houston... Views: 259
The Scottish juvenile fiction writer R. M. Ballantyne was born into a famous family of publishers. Leaving home at age 16 he went to work for the Hudson\'s Bay Company; after returning home to Scotland R. M. Ballantyne published his first book "Hudson\'s Bay" detailing his experiences in Canada. Later Ballantyne would write about more of his experiences with Native Americans and the Fur trappers he met in the most remote regions of Canada. With his success as a writer he withdrew from the business world to become a full time writer for the rest of his life. With over a hundred different books he has become one of the most cherished juvenile fiction writers today. Along with his other exploits throughout his life he also was tremendously successful with his artwork as his water color paintings were displayed at the Royal Scottish Academy. Views: 259
The single gas jet burning at the end of the corridor was so dim and made so flickering a light that it added more to the shadows of the passage than it provided illumination. It was hard to discover which were realities and which shadows in the long gallery. Not a ray of light appeared at any of the transoms over the dormitory doors; yet that might not mean that there were no lights burning within the duo and quartette rooms in the East Dormitory of Briarwood Hall. There were ways of shrouding the telltale transoms and—without doubt—the members of the advanced junior classes had learned such little tricks of the trade of being a schoolgirl. Views: 258
The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children\'s novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862–63 as a serial for Macmillan\'s Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. It was written as part satire in support of Charles Darwin\'s The Origin of Species. The book was extremely popular in England, and was a mainstay of British children\'s literature for many decades, but eventually fell out of favour in part due to its prejudices (common at the time) against Irish, Jews, Americans, and the poor Views: 258
TITLE: THE SECRET MARK By ROY J. SNELL 1923 CHILDREN AUTHOR: ROY J. SNELL PUBLISHER - (LOCATION) / COPYRIGHT: THE REILLY & LEE CO., CHICAGO EDITION: First Edition assumed with none stated CATEGORY: Mystery, Children BINDING/COVER: Hardback with dust jacket COLOR: Off Blue Views: 258
Excerpt from Zigzag Journeys in Northern Lands: The Rhine to the Arctic, a Summer Trip of the Zigzag Club Through Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and SwedenPlaces most conspicuously associated with German history, tradition, literature, and art, and in a disconnected way gives a view of the most interesting events of those Northern countries that once constituted a great part of the empire of Charlemagne.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Views: 258
When Theo agrees to print a traveling showman's pamphlet, he only thinks of the money it will bring in. Instead, it sets off a chain reaction that results in the smashing of the press and the murder of his master. Caught on the wrong side of the law, Theo must flee the city. Soon, he has teamed up with the traveling showman Count Las Bombas (who is actually a con artist) and his servant. The trio is soon joined by Mickle, a clever, strong-willed girl with a mysterious past. Performing feats that astound and amaze, the motley crew falls into a trap set by Chief Minister Cabbarus, who is determined to wrest power from the grief-stricken king. Now they must not only save themselves-they must save the kingdom... Views: 257
Sean loves Halloween. He's not afraid of anything - until he hears the terrifying story of his disappearing uncle and the terrible secret of Dancer’s Well!When you own a Ballyyahoo book - you don’t just get a book. You get access to a whole world of Ballyyahoo magic - for free and this edition includes another free book from BallyyahooSean loves Halloween and he loves ghost stories even more. Sean’s not afraid of anything - until his Grandad tells him the terrifying story of his disappearing uncle and the terrible secret of Dancer’s Well!THIS EDITION INCLUDES ANOTHER FREE CHILDREN’S BOOKWhen you buy a Ballyyahoo book you get to visit the world of Ballyyahoo website directly from the eBook - all free!The site is packed with stories, photographs, background information about the characters, animals, nature, and of course, the magic of Ballyyahoo.THE REAL HALLOWEENSean lives in Ballyyahoo, a tiny, magical town on the Wild Atlantic Way coast of Ireland. He loves all things Halloween, especially ghost stories.Sean reads his ghostly stories every single night until his mother catches him reading with his torch and bans him from reading any more scary stories.Angry, he runs all the way to his Grandad’s house, even though it’s dark, and even though it’s Halloween. Sean isn’t scared of anything, at least not until his Grandad tells him the scariest story he’s ever heard. His family has been keeping a secret. A terrifying secret! The secret of an uncle he knew nothing about and the sad secret of a dancing girl and a terrifying haunted well. This is one Halloween Sean will never forget.REVIEWS‘Just in time for Halloween! This book brought back so many fond memories. As a child there was nothing I'd love more than a spooky tale. Whether it was under the bedsheets with a flash light, or sitting around a camp fire. One things for sure, your kids are going to love this book. I read it with my grand daughter and now we're hooked. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Grace Jolliffe's Ballyyahoo series!’ - LORELIE ROZZANO Don't buy your kids sweets this Halloween; if you want to treat them, buy them this book instead. It's a great, spooky yarn with a brave hero they can identify with, it's easy to read, and the atmosphere builds to a satisfying conclusion which they will just love, and so will you.’ - ALI ISAACABOUT THE AUTHORGrace Jolliffe grew up in Liverpool but now lives on Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way. She lives with her husband, two dogs, ten hens, five lucky ducks and a large group of frogs. Grace loves gardening and blogs about her efforts to tame her wild Galway garden on her 'grace likes to garden' site.Grace loves walking around the wonderful Wild Atlantic Way. Her love of nature and its natural magic inspires her Ballyyahoo series of children's stories and you can visit this magical town and read some free stories on the 'Ballyyahoo' website. She writes all the articles and stories for her sites and takes all her own photographs. Grace spends most of her time making up stories, and after spending many years in various soul-sucking office jobs, she happily admits she finds the fictional world preferable to the office world. She used to write for a children's radio show until the show was axed and the writing team replaced with a talking dog. This motivated her to find a new outlet for her work and so she began adapting her children's stories and publishing them on Amazon. Grace also writes thrillers and black comedy for adults. She has written for television and radio, written and directed documentaries, as well as several award winning short films. Grace's first novel, a crime thriller called 'Piggy Monk Square,' was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, optioned for film, and broadcast on RTE's Book On One. Grace also has a website for creative writers with information, tips and exercises for writers. If you are interested in creative writing you can download your own free creative writing tracker to keep you motivated at her practical creative writing site.Grace loves to keep in touch with her readers, so catch up with her at Grace Jolliffe on Google+ or, Grace Jolliffe on Facebook. Views: 257
From the Golden Book archives comes a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, gloriously illustrated by Gordon Laite in the late 1960s but never published until now!
Gordon Laite's breathtaking artwork for a Little Golden Book edition of the Andersen fairy tale was found recently in the Golden Books archive. Planned for a 1970 release but never published, this Little Golden Book is finally making its debut for today's fairy tale fans! And it couldn't be a lovelier retelling of the story of a determined princess whose loyalty saves her brothers from being turned into swans by an evil queen. Views: 256
Oliver Optic was a Massachusetts politician who spent some time as a House member in Congress, but he also wrote a number of works that remain popular among kids of all ages. Views: 256
This is the first short story in a short story adventures series about two bothers named Matt and Mark. In this story they decide to check out an old farmhouse that they have been told to stay away from. This is one adventure they soon won't forget.This is the first short story in a short story adventures series about two bothers named Matt and Mark. In this story they decide to check out an old farmhouse that they have been told to stay away from. This is one adventure they soon won't forget. Inside the farmhouse they find creatures created by the farmer who is also a witch. Matt is put into a trance and Mark must do his best to save his brother and get them out alive. Views: 256
