Mark Twain dips his pen in dark comic ink for a speech to accident insurance executives and for a tale called "Cannibalism in the Cars."

G. K. Chesterton's priestly detective Father Brown examines a curse on an old and prominent Devonshire family.

A humorous and satisfying story of one man taking on the corrupt local political machine: Meredith Nicholson's "the Boulevard of Rogues"

Master storyteller Guy de Maupassant's "Théodule Sabot's Confession"

Lest we forget: George Washington's and Dwight Eisenhower farewell addresses

A young girl discovers her passion for New England country life and her love and values for the animals that inhabit it.

A Christmas story set in Poland: Eric Kelly's "In Clean Hay"

So familiar, but somehow always new and wonderful: O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi"

A fine young woman falls for a rotter. What directions might it take? Lucy Maud Montgomery's "A Redeeming Sacrifice"

About as cold as it gets: Jack London's "To Build a Fire"