On Boxing Day, also called St. Stephan’s Day, two seasonal stories, one based on a medieval legend, the other based on imagined good old days.

Two masters, two stories. One by O. Henry, one by Chekhov. One comic, one melancholy. Both with a kind sympathy for the outsider in the story.

The first yuletide story of the season. Over many stories in the Father Brown saga by G. K. Chesterton, the priestly sleuth pursues the elusive master criminal Flambeau. An important turning point in their lives comes at Christmas.

Kathleen Norris’s engaging story about success and the incidental expenses. Also, in this November month, when we give thanks for abundance, a poem by Dick Ferrell about the poignant and not-so-plain beauty of this month.

Stories for a season of thanks: O. Henry’s “Two Thanksgiving Gentlemen” and selections from Jonathan Sams’ Reflections of a Fishing Parson.

A remarkable portrait of meekness and courage, Mary Freeman’s “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” is told at once with sympathy and amusement.

Mark Twain in high spirits tonight with “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “The Late Benjamin Franklin.”

It’s Halloween. The ideal time for Edgar Allan Poe. And so, two classic tales.

It’s Halloween. The perfect time for Edgar Allan Poe. Here are two classic tales.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) was a soldier, newspaperman, poet, and short story writer. Settling in San Francisco, he became a journalist with Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner. So savage were his critiques of corruption and human folly that he became known as “Bitter Bierce” and “the wickedest man in San Francisco.” (He loved the tags.) Here is his most famous story, set in the Civil War.