At about six in the morning of July 3, 1860, while I was watering
my petunias, and thinking of read more

At about six in the morning of July 3, 1860, while I was watering
my petunias, and thinking of nothing in particular, I perceived
coming towards me, a tall, beardless, fair-haired young fellow,
wearing a German cap and gold-rimmed spectacles.

Obeying an inalienable law, things grew, spreading riotous and
strange in their instinct for growth.

Obeying an inalienable law, things grew, spreading riotous and
strange in their instinct for growth.

"Please, sir, is this Plumfield?" asked a ragged boy of the man
who opened the great gate at which read more

"Please, sir, is this Plumfield?" asked a ragged boy of the man
who opened the great gate at which the omnibus left him.

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of
the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies read more

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of
the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded
yellow sun.

In 1846 the prairie town of Oak River existed only in a settler's
dream.

In 1846 the prairie town of Oak River existed only in a settler's
dream.

The morning was as dark and cold as city snow could make it--a
dingy whirl at the window; a read more

The morning was as dark and cold as city snow could make it--a
dingy whirl at the window; a smoky gust through the fire-place; a
shadow black as a bear's cave under the table. Nothing in all
the cavernous room, loomed really warm or familiar except a glass
of stale water, and a vapid, half-eaten grape-fruit.

Early one morning I, Vadim Maslennikov, set off for school (I was
going on seventeen at the time) having read more

Early one morning I, Vadim Maslennikov, set off for school (I was
going on seventeen at the time) having forgotten the envelope
with the first-semester fees Mother had left me in the dining
room the day before.

In the twentieth year of the reign of the right high and puissant
King Henry the Eighth, namely, in read more

In the twentieth year of the reign of the right high and puissant
King Henry the Eighth, namely, in 1529, on the twenty-first of
April, and on one of the loveliest evenings that ever fell on the
loveliest district in England, a fair youth, having somewhat the
appearance of a page, was leaning over the terrace-wall on the
north side of Windsor Castle, and gazing at the magnificent scene
before him.

We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee in
the time that I lived there so successfully read more

We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee in
the time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself
as a child.