Read FICTION books online

Reading books fiction Have you ever thought about what fiction is? Probably, such a question may seem surprising: and so everything is clear. Every person throughout his life has to repeatedly create the works he needs for specific purposes - statements, autobiographies, dictations - using not gypsum or clay, not musical notes, not paints, but just a word. At the same time, almost every person will be very surprised if he is told that he thereby created a work of fiction, which is very different from visual art, music and sculpture making. However, everyone understands that a student's essay or dictation is fundamentally different from novels, short stories, news that are created by professional writers. In the works of professionals there is the most important difference - excogitation. But, oddly enough, in a school literature course, you don’t realize the full power of fiction. So using our website in your free time discover fiction for yourself.



Fiction genre suitable for people of all ages. Everyone will find something interesting for themselves. Our electronic library is always at your service. Reading online free books without registration. Nowadays ebooks are convenient and efficient. After all, don’t forget: literature exists and develops largely thanks to readers.
The genre of fiction is interesting to read not only by the process of cognition and the desire to empathize with the fate of the hero, this genre is interesting for the ability to rethink one's own life. Of course the reader may accept the author's point of view or disagree with them, but the reader should understand that the author has done a great job and deserves respect. Take a closer look at genre fiction in all its manifestations in our elibrary.



Read books online » Fiction » Wonder Stories by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (good books to read for young adults .txt) 📖

Book online «Wonder Stories by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (good books to read for young adults .txt) 📖». Author Carolyn Sherwin Bailey



1 ... 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
Go to page:
A mile or so from the shore there was an island, very fair and fertile, but no man dwelled there or tilled the soil, and in the island there was a harbor where a ship might be safe from all winds and at the head of the harbor was a stream falling from the rock with whispering alders all about it. Into this the ships passed safely and were hauled upon the beach and the crews slept by them, waiting for morning.

But in the morning Ulysses, who was always fond of adventure and would know of every land to which he came what manner of men it sheltered, took one of his twelve ships and bade the sailors row to land. There was a great hill sloping to the shore, and there rose up, here and there, a smoke from the caves where the Cyclopes lived apart, holding no converse with men. They were a rude and savage folk, each ruling his own household without taking thought of his neighbor.

Very close to the shore was one of these caves, very huge and deep, with a hedge of laurel hiding the opening and a wall of rough stone shaded by tall oaks and pines. Ulysses selected the twelve bravest men from his crew and bade the rest remain behind to guard the ship while he went to see what manner of dwelling it was and who abode there. He had his sword by his side and on his shoulder a mighty skin of the juice of grapes, sweet smelling and strong, with which he might win the heart of some fierce savage, should he chance to meet such.

So they entered the cave, and judged that it was the dwelling of some rich and skilful shepherd, for within there were pens for young sheep and goats, divided according to their age, and there were baskets full of cheeses, and full milk pails ranged along the wall. But the Cyclops, himself, was away in the pastures. Then the companions of Ulysses besought him to depart, but he would not, for he wished to see what manner of host this strange shepherd might be. And truly he saw to his cost!

It was evening when the Cyclops came home, a mighty giant, twenty feet or more tall. He carried a vast bundle of pine logs on his back for his fire, and threw them down outside the cave with a great crash. He drove the flocks inside and closed the entrance with a huge rock which twenty wagons and more could not have borne. Then he milked the ewes and goats, and half of the milk he curdled for cheese and half he set ready for himself when he should be hungry. Last, he kindled a fire with the pine logs and the flame lighted up all the cave, showing him Ulysses and his comrades.

"Who are you?" cried the Cyclops. "Are you traders, or pirates?"

"We are no pirates, mighty sir, but Greeks, sailing back from Troy. And we beg hospitality of you in the name of Jupiter who rewards or punishes the host according as he is hospitable or not."

"Then," said the giant, "it is idle to talk to me of Jupiter and the gods. We Cyclops take no account of gods, holding ourselves to be much better and stronger than they." Without more ado, he caught up two of the men, and devoured them with huge draughts of milk between, leaving not even a morsel or one of their bones. And when the giant had ended his meal, he lay down among his sheep and fell asleep.

Ulysses would have liked to slay the Cyclops where he lay, but he remembered that, were he to do this, his comrades would perish miserably. How could he move away the great rock that lay against the door of the cave? So they waited until morning. And the monster rose, seized two more men and devoured them for his meal. Then he went to the pastures, but put a great rock on the mouth of the cave just as a man puts down the lid on his quiver of arrows.

All that day the wise Ulysses was thinking what he might best do to save himself and his companions, and the end of his thinking was this. There was a mighty pole in the cave, green wood of an olive tree as big as a ship's mast, which the giant proposed to use as a walking staff. Ulysses broke off a fathom's length of this and his companions pointed it and hardened it in the fire. Then they hid it away.

At evening the giant came back, drove his flocks into the cave, fastened the door and made his cruel feast as before. Then Ulysses came forward with the skin of crushed grapes in his hand and said:

"Drink, Cyclops, now that you have feasted. Drink and see what a strange draught we had in our ship."

So the Cyclops drank, and was greatly pleased.

"Give me more," he demanded. "In good truth this is a strange draught. We, too, have vines but they do not yield any juices like this, which indeed must be such as the gods drink."

Then Ulysses gave him the skin again and he drank from it. Three times he gave it to him and three times the giant drank, not knowing how it would work on his brain. At last he fell into a deep slumber. Ulysses told his men to be of good courage for the time of their deliverance was come.

They thrust the olive stick into the fire until, green as it was, it was ready to burst into flame and they thrust it into the monster's eye, for he had but one eye set in the middle of his great forehead, and made him sightless.

Then the Cyclops leaped up and bore away the stake and cried aloud so that all the Cyclopes who lived on the mountain side heard him and came down, crowding about the entrance to his cave. The Cyclops rolled away the great stone from the door of the cave and came out in the midst of the other giants stretching out his hands to try and gather his sheep together. And Ulysses wondered how he and his men would be able to escape.

At last he lighted on a good device. The Cyclops had driven the rams with the other ship into the cave and they were huge and strong. Ulysses fastened his comrades underneath the rams, tying them with osier twigs of which the giant made his bed. There was one mighty ram, far larger than all the others, and to this Ulysses clung, grasping the fleece tight with both hands. So they waited in the recesses of the cave for morning. And when the morning came, the rams rushed out to pasture as the giant sat in the door, feeling the back of each as it went by, but never touching the man who was bound underneath each. With them Ulysses escaped.

When they were out of reach of the giant, Ulysses loosed his hold of the rams and then unbound his comrades. They hastened to their ship, climbed in, and smote the sea with their oars, laying to right lustily that they might the sooner escape from this accursed land. But when they had rowed a hundred yards or so, the Cyclops heard them. He broke off the top of a great hill, a mighty rock, and hurled it where he heard the sound of the oars. It fell right in front of the ship's bow and washed the ship back to the shore again. But Ulysses seized a long pole with both hands and pushed the ship from the land and bade his comrades ply their oars softly, nodding with his head, for he was too wise to speak, lest the Cyclops should know where they were. Then they rowed with all their might and main.

They had gone twice as far as before, when Ulysses' pride became so great that he could no longer contain himself. He stood up in the boat and called out.

"Hear, Cyclops. If any man asks who destroyed your power for evil, say it was the warrior Ulysses, dwelling in Ithaca."

The giant heard and he lifted up his hands and spoke to Neptune, the god of the sea, who was the father of the Cyclopes. "Hear me, Neptune, if I am indeed your son and you are my father. May this Ulysses never reach his home; or, if the Fates have ordered that he shall reach it, may he come alone, with all his comrades lost."

And as the Cyclops ended this wicked prayer, he hurled another mighty rock which almost lighted on the rudder's end, yet missed it as if by a hair's breadth. So Ulysses escaped and all his comrades with him, and they came to the island of the wild goats where they found the rest of their men who had waited long for them in sore fear lest they had perished. And they went home in triumph to Greece.

FOOTNOTE:

[3] Copyright Doubleday, Page and Co.

GLOSSARY. Achelous Ach-e-lo'us Achilles A-chil'les Acrisius A-cris'i-us Admetus Ad-me'tus Aegean Ae-ge'an Aeneas Ae-ne'as Aesculapius Aes'cu-la'pi-us Aetna Aet'na Agamemnon Aga'mem-non Alcestis Al-ces'tis Alpheus Al-phe'us Andromeda An-drom'e-da Antaeus An-tae'us Arachne A-rach'ne Arcas Ar'cas Arethusa Ar-e-thu'sa Argonaut Ar'go-naut Argos Ar'gos Ariadne A-ri-ad'ne Aristaeus Ar-is-tae'us Atalanta At-a-lan'ta Attica At'tica Argus Ar'gus Aurora Au-ro'ra Bacchus Bac'chus Battus Bat'tus Baucis Bau'cis Bellerophon    Bel-ler'o-phon Belvidere Bel-vi-dere Boreas Bo're-as Cadmus Cad'mus Callisto Cal-lis'to Cassandra Cas-san'dra Cassiopeia Cas-si-o-pe'ia Celeus Ce'le-us Cerberus Cer'be-rus Ceres Ce'res Charon Cha'ron Chimaera Chi-mae'ra Circe Cir'ce Colchis Col'chis Crete Cre'te Cyane Cy'a-ne Cyclopes Cy-clo'pes Cycnus Cyc'nus Cyrene Cy-re'ne Daedalus Daed'a-lus Danae Dan'a-e Daphne Daph'ne Dejanira Dej'a-ni'ra Delos De'los Delphi Del'phi Diana Di-a'na Elis E'lis Elysian E-lys'i-an Enceladus En-cel'a-dus Ephialtes Eph'i-al'tes Epimetheus Ep-i-me'theus Erisichthon Er-i-sich'thon Europa Eu-ro'pa Eurydice Eu-ryd'i-ce Eurystheus Eu-rys'theus Galatea Gal-a-te'a Glaucus Glau'cus Gordius Gor'di-us Gorgon Gor'gon Halcyone Hal-cy'o-ne Hamadryad Ham-a-dry'ad Hebe He'be Hector Hec'tor Helios He'lios Hercules Her'cu-les Hesperides Hes-per'i-des Hesperus Hes'pe-rus Hippomenes Hip-pom'e-nes Hydra Hy'dra Icarus I'ca-rus Iobates I-ob'a-tes Iris I'ris Laocoon La-oc'o-on Latona La-to'na Lemnos Lem'nos Lycia Lyc'i-a Medusa Me-du'sa Melampos Me-lam'pos Menelaus Men-e-la'us Mercury Mer'cu-ry Merope Mer'o-pe Midas Mi'das Minerva Mi-ner'va Minos Mi'nos Minotaur Min'o-taur Mosychlos Mosy'chlos Nemea Ne'me-a Nereides Ne-re'i-des Olympus O-lym'pus Orion O-ri'on Orpheus Or'pheus Ossa Os'sa Otus O-tus Ovid Ov'id Pactolus Pac-to'lus Pandora Pan-do'ra Patroclus Pa-tro'clus Pegasus Peg'a-sus Pelias Pe'li-as Peneus Pe-ne'us Perseus Per'seus Phaeton Pha'e-ton Phineas Phin'e-us Polydectes Pol-y-dec'tes Priam Pri'am Prometheus Pro-me'theus Proserpine Pro-ser'pine Philemon Phi-le'mon Phrygia Phryg'ia Pomona Po-mo'na Proteus Pro'teus Psyche Psy'che Pygmalion Pyg-ma'lion Pylos Py-los Python Py'thon Samos Sa'mos Scylla Scyl'la Seriphus Se-ri'phus Sinon Si'non Sirius Sir'i-us Somnus Som'nus Terminalia Ter'mi-nal-ia Theseus The'se-us Thessaly Thess'a-ly Thetis The'tis Thracian Thra-ci'an Tityus Tit'yus Trachine Tra'ch-ine Tmolus Tmo'lus Triton Tri'ton Troegene Troe'gene Ulysses U-lys'ses Vertumnus Ver-tum'nus Vulcan Vul'can





End of Project Gutenberg's Wonder Stories, by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WONDER STORIES ***

***** This file should be named 35704-h.htm or 35704-h.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/7/0/35704/

Produced by Bryan Ness, Martin Pettit and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)


Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
1 ... 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
Go to page:

Free ebook «Wonder Stories by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (good books to read for young adults .txt) 📖» - read online now

Comments (0)

There are no comments yet. You can be the first!
Add a comment