The four series follow Grace Harlowe and her friends through high school, college, abroad during World War I, and on adventures around America. In The High School Girls Series, Grace attends Oakdale High School with friends Anne Pierson, Nora O'Malley, and Jessica Bright. The four promote fair play and virtue while winning over troubled girls like Miriam Nesbit and Eleanor Savell, playing basketball, and founding sorority Phi Sigma Tau. The group becomes friends with boys in their acquaintance: David Nesbit, Tom Gray, Hippy Wingate, and Reddy Brooks, forming "The Eight Originals." In 'Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton Campus' Grace returns to Overton after her graduation in order to manage Harlowe House - A new house 'to be dedicated to the use of those girls who were making a struggle to acquire a college education'
Albert Payson Terhune, perhaps best known for his book Lad, a Dog (later turned into a popular movie),
was also a breeder of collies and a journalist. Some of his collie lines survive to this day.
His Dog is a story about Link Ferris who finds an injured dog on his way home one evening.
Knowing nothing about dogs, Link nurses the dog back to health and the two form a bond
such as only can be formed between human and canine. Unable to locate the collie's owner,
Link christens his dog 'Chum' who becomes invaluable in tending to the daily needs of his meager farm.
Unknown to Ferris however, Chum's original owners have been looking for their lost collie,
and the story finds Link torn between that which he knows is morally right and his love
for what he believes has become his dog.
"This is a true story of a search for buried treasure. The only part that is not true is the name of the man with whom I searched for the treasure. Unless I keep his name out of it he will not let me write the story, and, as it was his expedition and as my share of the treasure is only what I can make by writing the story, I must write as he dictates. I think the story should be told, because our experience was unique, and might be of benefit to others. And, besides, I need the money."
The consequences of letting your irritation get the better of you are humorously portrayed in this story of a self-important man who fires a shotgun at an annoying cat on his fence.. and hits a man skulking in the bushes. What did the cat do to enrage him? Why was the man in the bushes? And how can the whole matter be covered up and done away with before the neighbors start gossiping?
Young Code Schofield had lost his schooner May Schofield in an Atlantic gale a few months ago, and now the townspeople on the small island of Grande Mignon off the coast of New Brunswick were beginning to talk suspiciously of the events surrounding that loss. Insurance investigators have been summoned to investigate, friends are alienating themselves from Code, and he finds himsef challenged by even those he's known and trusted his whole life. Does Code Schofield have anything to prove, and if so, to whom, and why?
This is a cute story of a mysterious feline annoyance and the result of a man acting upon his annoyance. The cat begins a vicious spiral of events that ends with lies, the arrest of a boy, and the guilty conscience of a man.
Years ago, a manufacturer built a great dock, jutting out from and then turning parallel to the shore of a northern Michigan town. The factory was abandoned, and following the habits of small towns, the space between the dock and the shore became "The Cinder Pond." Jean started life in the colony of squatters that came to live in the shanties on the dock, but fortune, heroism, and a mystery combine to change her fortunes and those of her friends near the Cinder Pond. (Advertising material from the publisher, 1915)
More than one girl who reads this story will envy Jeanne her queer little home out on the end of the old dock in Lake Superior. It must indeed have been a fascinating place to live, but Jeanne's father, a gentleman himself, wanted her to grow up to be a lady, so she was sent away to be trained and educated among strangers. They were her own relatives, but they could never be anything but strangers to her, for they had no love in their hearts for the little girl who had come to make a home with them. Only her grandfather learned to love her, for she filled a bright place in his lonely life, and the story tells how he showed his feeling for her and how she was able to go back to Cinder Pond to help her little stepbrothers and -sisters. (Book Review Digest, vol. 11, 1916)
An interesting story of a little French girl, who lived with her step-family on a dock near the Cinder Pond and who after several trying experiences finds a good home and real joy in helping care for her several step-brothers and sisters. Though reason for the marriage of Jeannette's father to a shiftless, but kindly Irish woman is unnecessarily emphasized, the story is a very usable one, stamped with Jeanne's friendliness and sincerity. (The Booklist, vol 12, Oct. 1915--July, 1916)
Set after the Grace Harlowe High School series, Grace and her friends Miriam and Anne start a new chapter of their lives as Freshmen at Overton College. After various trials and tribulations they earn the respect of the elder classes and become valued members of the school.
The Web of the Golden Spider is a tale of mystery, intrigue and adventure that begins in the city, progresses to a mutinous open sea voyage, eventually leading to the remotest areas on the slopes of the Andes of South America. Wilson, our hero, finds himself in the midst of a battle between a deposed queen and revolutionists who have banded together in an effort to bring their country together as a republic. Wilson, although torn between helping mercenaries, freedom fighters and revolutionaries, is more concerned with the rescuing of the girl he has fallen in love with, but who has been snatched from him by a mysterious priest. That, and the finding of the famed treasure of El Dorado rumored to have been buried beneath Lake Guadiva.
A collection of short Christmas works by the author of The Story of the Fourth Wise Man
Rod Norton is a lawman in a land where bandits and criminals make their own rules. Risking his life for justice and a future with the woman he loves, mortal danger awaits. For Norton and those in peril, the Bells of San Juan will chime.
Brave, adventurous and loyal, recently-orphaned Ruth Fielding is sent to live with her estranged Uncle Jabez at the Red Mill in Cheslow, New York. A new town means making new friends, and the teenage Ruth quickly befriends the children of a wealthy merchant. But as the relationship between her and her uncle becomes strained and she attempts to become friends with a very disagreeable girl, will Ruth's cheery disposition be enough to get her through?
This is the first of the Ruth Fielding series, with follows Ruth and her friends from adolescence into early adulthood.
On the steamer on his way to London, Austin Ford meets a young woman, who is going to London to find her missing husband. Being a specialist in finding people, Mr. Ford agrees to help her in her quest. However, something appears to be not quite right about the lady and her story...
This is the story of Elizabeth North, a young woman who becomes engaged and with the aid of a social climbing friend begins to plan her wedding beyond what she can afford. Her friend Evelyn Tripp convinces Elizabeth that she “simply can’t afford” not to live a fashionable and expensive lifestyle. However, her husband and her grandma help her to see sense and pull herself out of the debt she has got herself into.
Ashton-Kirk, who has solved so many mysteries, is himself something of a problem even to those who know him best. Although young, wealthy, and of high social position, he is nevertheless an indefatigable worker in his chosen field. He smiles when men call him a detective. "No; only an investigator," he says.
He has never courted notoriety; indeed, his life has been more or less secluded. However, let a man do remarkable work in any line and, as Emerson has observed, "the world will make a beaten path to his door."
Those who have found their way to Ashton-Kirk's door have been of many races and interests. Men of science have often been surprised to find him in touch with the latest discoveries, scholars searching among strange tongues and dialects, and others deep in tattered scrolls, ancient tablets and forgotten books have been his frequent visitors. But among them come many who seek his help in solving problems in crime.
"I'm more curious than some other fellows, that's all," is the way he accounts for himself. "If a puzzle is put in front of me I can't rest till I know the answer." At any rate his natural bent has always been to make plain the mysterious; each well hidden step in the perpetration of a crime has always been for him an exciting lure; and to follow a thread, snarled by circumstances or by another intelligence has been, he admits, his chief delight.
There are many strange things to be written of this remarkable man--but this, the case of the numismatist Hume, has been selected as the first because it is one of the simplest, and yet clearly illustrates Ashton-Kirk's peculiar talents. It will also throw some light on the question, often asked, as to how his cases come to him.
A group of guests, at an exclusive luxury hotel in Hampshire, are the witnesses of an illustration of occult powers, demonstrated by “the Mystery”, as Mrs. Jefferson named the beautiful stranger who one day appeared in the Turkish Baths of the hotel. The events that follow lead Mrs. Jefferson to question the wisdom of her interest in the occult.
The Copper Princess: A Story of Lake Superior Mines is an adventure set in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The delightful story features a brave and wholesome hero struggling for his rightful copper mining inheritance against smugglers and bandits. He also encounters a beautiful and mysterious maiden who is caught in her father's secret crimes.
Barbara, an English girl and the eldest of her family, spends most days helping her widowed mother care for her younger siblings. Then disaster strikes - or so the children believe! Barbara is taken to France to see Paris by her father's formidable sister, Aunt Anne. She stays on in Brittany to perfect her French. In this series of funny stories about her adventures in France, we meet a cast of recurring characters - and both Barbara and Aunt Anne find love!
Sequel to Four Girls at Chautauqua. Ruth, Flossy, Eurie, and Ruth return home as new Christians, eager to begin working. Their new faith clashes with their old lives, which they must overcome, as well as the prejudices of friends and acquaintances.
In 1880’s Boston, Mass. the good life is lead according to all the Victorian era societal rules of the New World. Political ambitions and the business of making money go hand in hand. A Senate seat suddenly opens up due to the current junior senator’s unexpected death, and the political machinations to fill the seat begin. Senatorial candidate John Harrington is a young idealist who thinks that fighting for truth and justice, regardless of political affiliation, is the way. But he is told he can’t possibly win because he isn’t partisan enough. His opponents in the iron mine, railroad and shipping business sabotage his first bid for office, because he wants to do away with protectionism in trade to open up global competition. He eventually succeeds in winning a Senate seat. He gives a rousing speech to Congress as they gather to elect a President in a race which has ended in a three way tie. His message is that blindly following a party’s positions and principles is not being free and independent, and will not always lead to the best person being elected, or to the best decisions being made for the country as a whole. (Summary written by Maire Rhode)
Miss Mayor tells this story with singular skill, more by contrast than by drama, bringing her chief character into relief against her world, as it passes in swift procession. Her tale is in a form becoming common among our best writers; it is compressed into a space about a third as long as the ordinary novel, yet form and manner are so closely suited that all is told and nothing seems slightly done, or worked with too rapid a hand.
The Masquerader is one of two Katherine Cecil Thurston’s books that appeared on the Publisher’s Weekly best-seekers list in 1905 (The other, The Gambler, is also in the Librivox collection). The Masquerader is part mystery, part romance and part political thriller – all tied up in one neat package. Nature has a way of sometimes making two people nearly indistinguishable in appearance. Such is the premise for this book. John Chilcote, a British politician, and John Loder, a man down on his luck meet by accident one night during one of London’s worst fogs. Chilcote, addicted to morphine, needs to escape his political responsibilities and presents an offer to Loder to exchange places occasionally. Loder, reluctant at first, finally accepts the proposal and finds he fits into Chilcote’s role – perhaps better than Chilcote himself. The exchanges become more frequent and lengthy. Loder, finding his way, discovers he is worthy of Chilcote’s position, especially during an international crisis, but when Chilcote reclaims his life, Loder’s accomplishments try to unravel. Two women are intimately involved in this story – one is Chilcote’s wife, Eve, who is a wife of convenience rather than love. The second is Lady Astrupp. We will say little about Lady Astrupp except that she adds a great deal of suspense to the story. In such a charade, things do not always go as expected. Does Chilcote break his drug habit? What becomes of Loder? Does Eve become suspicious as a wife might? Is the masquerade exposed by……but then I would be telling you more than you should know beforehand.
Ruth and Alice DeVere and their father Hosmer struggle to make ends meet in New York City - times are hard, even for a talented actor like Mr. DeVere. Just as he successfully auditions for a new play, an old voice affliction renders him terribly hoarse and he loses the role. Despite voice rest and medical treatment, Mr. DeVere's voice fails to improve, and it is impossible to find theatre work.
A friend and neighbour in their apartment building suggests that Mr. DeVere tries acting in the moving pictures (which being silent, would not need him to speak at all) but Mr. DeVere considers that business to be common and cheap. However, when they receive an eviction notice, and local shops refuse to extend credit, Mr. DeVere may have no choice ... and where he goes, his daughters will follow.
Summary by Cori Samuel.
"My name is Mary Cary. I live in the Yorkburg Female Orphan Asylum. You may think nothing happens in an Orphan Asylum. It does. The orphans are sure enough children, and real much like the kind that have Mothers and Fathers; and that’s why I am going to write this story." So begins Mary’s diary, which she fills with her various doings and misadventures at the Asylum in Virginia and her sharp observations about life and human nature. She loathes Miss Bray, the head of the Asylum, who is not above telling bald-faced lies to the Board to further her own selfish ends. She loves Miss Katherine, the Asylum’s resident nurse, who has befriended Mary and serves as a gentle role model for the child. As for Martha, she is Mary’s "other self" who speaks out—and sometimes acts out—in spite of Mary’s better nature. When she unexpectedly discovers her family background, Mary writes a letter to her uncle that leads to some surprising results on the way to a happy ending.
The Chicago Record-Herald of March 12, 1910 stated, "Let’s be glad for books like Mary Cary. It isn’t so much what Mary Cary does, however, as what she is, bless her! that warms the cockles of the chilliest, most snugly corseted heart."
Dimple, the nine-year-old little girl is accustomed to being always the first. She has Bubbles, a little coloured girl as playmate and servant. One day Dimple’s cousin, Florence comes to visit her and they have a wonderful time together. But then come the rainy days and the two children easily get bored in the house… and that’s how the adventures and troubles begin.
Little Milly is left an orphan after the death of her mother and sent to live with her bachelor uncle, who has no use for children, especially of the female variety. As the days go by, his heart warms to his endearing niece who wants all probable sons to come home, including her very own probable uncle.
Subtitled: A Story of the Three River Country. James Kent has learned that he is terminally ill with perhaps only days to live, and so decides to confess to a murder and thus save an innocent man. Nobody believes his confession, particularly Marette, a mysterious girl who had shown up at Athabasca Landing only weeks before. Kent’s illness takes a turn and his death is postponed, and he sets about to find out more about the girl, who he ends up falling in love with, although she’ll not reveal her past to him, nor what she knows about the murder. A story of intrigue, suspense, action, and above all, a story of love in the furthest outreaches of the Great White North where three great rivers flow; the Athabasca, the Slave, and the McKenzie, and where somewhere is hidden The Valley of Silent Men.
Along the coast of Maine are littered thousands of small islands. One such, named 'Pocket Island' by the locals was so called because of a pocket formed twice daily by the waning of the tides. The coast of Maine holds many secrets and legends, and Pocket Island was no exception.
Subtitled "A Story of Country Life in New England", this story holds such varied and fascinating glimpses into the lives of a few individuals, and is not limited to merely a story of ghosts, of war, of barn dances, friendship, tales of rum-runners, smugglers, and seafarers. Rather it is all of the above, and much more, all wrapped nicely around a story of love.
Is Pocket Island truly haunted by ghosts of the past? The story begins ca. 1824, and takes us through the U.S. Civil War and beyond.
In this volume the Little Colonel returns to us like an old friend, but with added grace and charm. She is not, however, the central figure of the story, that place being taken by the “two little knights,” Malcolm and Keith, little Southern aristocrats, whose chivalrous natures lead them through a series of interesting adventures.
Cecelia Loring is alone in the world after the death of her mother and has come to the Kentucky mountains in search of work. Although very depressed from her loss she soon becomes caretaker of the garden at a school and not many days later finds herself quite busy as housemother to a group of energetic boys that keep running away from the school because of homesickness, especially Nucky, who seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders, worrying about not being at home to help his brother Blant "keep lookout" for the Cheevers, who have been at war with the Marrses for years over a piece of land. Can she find a way to make the boys feel at home so they will stay and get an education? And can they begin to help her heal the broken places in her heart?
Lucy Furman based several of her novels, including Mothering on Perilous, on her years as a teacher and housemother at the Hindman Settlement School in Kentucky. Through her experiences at the school her writing vividly portrays the beauty, but also the harshness of mountain life.
Known primarily for her children's books, Harriet T. Comstock would occasionally depart from that genre and showcase her writing talent in adult prose as well. Janet of the Dunes is one such departure wherein she masterfully takes us into the lives of the bold men and women who tended those life saving stations along the seaboard which many a ship relied upon for their safety. They were simple people, large of heart and as close-knit as a tiny community can and must ever be, and they, above all else, took their duties very seriously. The story revolves primarily around Janet and her "Cap'n Billy Daddy" and how their lives and their devotion to one another are touched by the others within the small circle of people of the dunes, the hills, and the light.
In this short novel the narrator is a superintendent on the K. and A. railroad, sometime in the late nineteenth century. The train is robbed somewhere in the Arizona desert. Various adventures involve this young superintendent. Romance is provided by a comely passenger.
Adventure was what our protagonist was looking for, when he boarded the steamer "Patience" for his holiday, and when one has a man with such a vivid imagination like Joseph Forbes Kinney as a travel companion, who seems to find adventures at every turn of the road (and if not, he manufactures them), the two travellers are sure to stumble into trouble...
For Treasure Bound is one of the earlier novels by Harry Collingwood (William Joseph Cosens Lancaster), published in 1897. We follow the hero, whose name is incidentally also Harry Collingwood, on a quest to the pacific islands for treasure and his marooned father, through all the perils he encounters on his journey, such as pirates, sea monsters, and beautiful young ladies.
Arthur Scott Bailey (1877 – 1949) was author of more than forty children's books. Bailey's writing has been described thusly by the Newark Evening News: "Mr. Bailey centered all his plots in the animal, bird and insect worlds, weaving natural history into the stories in a way that won educator's approval without arousing the suspicions of his young readers. He made it a habit to never 'write down' to children and frequently used words beyond the average juvenile vocabulary, believing that youngsters respond to the stimulus of the unfamiliar."
This is a long short story from 1899, approximately 95 minutes more or less, about a mysterious woman living virtually alone on the outskirts of a small New England town in a mansion with a magnificent garden.
A bit of a menage-a-quatre in a remote cabin in the wilderness as fugitive Hugh, his younger brother Pete, nursemaid and cook Bella, and now the newly arrived snow-blinded young Sylvie who had been snatched from near death in the snow by the heroic but moody Hugh. Because of her blindness, Sylvie is led to believe her rescuer to be a handsome and dashing hero; his younger brother to be but a young lad of 14; and Bella a matronly old maid. But Sylvie would, in time, form her own image of the clan and attempt to bring them together as they were destined to be split apart. Demonstration lies herein of the inherent ability of the blind to use their other senses to best any situation laid before them.
Tip Lewis is a mischievous, unpromising scamp. One Sunday, a visiting Sunday school teacher tells his mission class how her minister had grown up in similarly bad circumstances, but had decided to follow God and had never regretted it. Tip decides to try to BE somebody, like that minister did. He is given a Bible - his lamp - to use as a guide, and from there, his life begins to change.
A tale of two people, and their search for answers to unknown questions. Adam and Robin find themselves inexplicably alone after an apparent natural cataclysm, and are compelled to learn how to survive, how to endure, but most importantly to themselves, how to enjoy, understand their new roles in life, and understand each other.
A school girl story about two Illinois teens and the adventures they have with family,friends and the chance to go to a boarding school in Michigan in the early 1920's.
Three little friends are taken to the County Fair in Uncle Billy's motorcar, but a slight delay occurs on the way. How they finally arrived at the fair ground and their amusing experiences are most entertainingly told in this short book for younger readers and listeners. Read along and see the charming illustrations at Project Gutenberg.
Carl Stanton is an invalid suffering from an unusual bout of rheumatism. His fiancée is gone for the winter and though he begs her to write to help ease his boredom and pain she is stingy with her letters. She sends him what she calls a "ridiculous circular" which she states is very apropos of his sentimental passion for letters. In a sudden fit of mischief, malice and rheumatism, Carl decides to respond to the circular which results in bringing about the necessary distraction in a flurry of letters that do ease Carl’s boredom and pain but also bring him something else that he never quite expected.
Hollister, returning home from the war physically scarred but otherwise healthy and intact, finds life difficult among society, and so chooses to roam about a bit seeking a future for himself. He eventually leads himself to a remote area in British Columbia, which begins the tale of the next phase of his life; a life which becomes far richer in totality than he would have imagined in his old unwelcoming haunts. A life among the hidden places.
An extremely wealthy but reclusive man has died, leaving an eccentric will which hints at great riches hidden somewhere in the house. Most of the people at the reading of the will did not know the deceased in person, but had received kindnesses from him, for instance by the payment of school and university fees. The principal beneficiary, a great-nephew, also did not know him. The only two people who really knew him were the old lawyer who dealt with his affairs, and an old Indian servant. Yet when the will had been read, and they all went to where the treasure--gold, jewels and bank-notes--were supposed to be hidden, nothing could be found.
There are an unusual number of deaths, by murder and in self-defence, as the story unfolds, and we are left in total suspense until the very end of the very last chapter. The person who works out where the treasure must be, and how it got there, does not come on the scene until almost the last chapter, and even then he has to go on business to America
before he can come in and explain his theory, which proves to be right.
Bud Sloan was an orphan who had been 'sold out' of the orphanage to work on a farm once he'd been old enough to labor. The farm where he was to work was owned by an aging farmer and his wife who had raised a large family and were now left alone.
One day, after his chores were done, Bud wandered into the woods nearby and with mouth agape, he noticed a newborn jet black fawn all alone and apparently confused in his new surroundings. Bud resolved that day that this baby fawn was just like himself, an orphan, and would be bound to him in spirit. But many obstacles would keep the two separated, and the black fawn would eventually become the target of the local hunters.
Indefer Jones struggles to name an heir to his estate. Will he choose his favorite niece, Isabel, or a male heir? The story turns on the trouble that arises when Indefer fails to tell anyone his final decision before passing away.
The Turmoil is the first novel in the 'Growth' trilogy, which also includes The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and The Midlander (1923, retitled National Avenue in 1927). In 1942 Orson Welles directed a film version based on volume 2, also titled "The Magnificent Ambersons."
The trilogy traces the growth of the United States through the declining fortunes of three generations of the aristocratic Amberson family in a fictional Mid-Western town, between the end of the Civil War and the early part of the 20th century, a period of rapid industrialization and socio-economic change in America. The decline of the Ambersons is contrasted with the rising fortunes of industrial tycoons and other new-money families, which did not derive power from family names but by "doing things". As George Amberson's friend says, "don't you think being things is 'rahthuh bettuh' than doing things?"
At a certain committee meeting held in the spring of 1916, it was agreed that fourteen leading American authors, known to be extremely generous as well as gifted, should be asked to write a composite novel.
...
Third, to have the novel finished and published serially during the autumn Campaign of 1917.
The carrying out of these requirements has not been the childish diversion it may have seemed. Splendid team work, however, has made success possible.
Every author represented, every worker on the team, has gratuitously contributed his or her services; and every dollar realized by the serial and book publication of "The Sturdy Oak" will be devoted to the Suffrage Cause. But the novel itself is first of all a very human story of American life today. It neither unduly nor unfairly emphasizes the question of equal suffrage, and it should appeal to all lovers of good fiction.
Dawn O’Hara, the Girl Who Laughed was Edna Ferber’s first novel. Dawn, a newspaperwoman working in New York, finds herself back home in Michigan on doctor’s orders. Years of living in boarding-houses and working to pay for the care of her brilliant but mentally ill husband, Peter Orme, have taken their toll. At twenty-eight, Dawn feels like an old woman with no future. But, the loving care of her sister Norah and her family along with the attentions of the handsome German doctor, Ernst Von Gerhard, slowly bring Dawn back to life. With Dr. Von Gerhard’s help, she obtains a newspaper job in Milwaukee and begins a year of new adventures among new people. However, the specter of her husband living in a mental hospital is always present and Dawn fears she may never be free to love again.