A Beka Themes in Literature

STORY. A young Russian merchant is accused of murder and sent to Siberia, it seems the truth will never be known, while in prison he met the man who had actually murdered the merchant. By Leo Tolstoy.

STORY. Biography of Galileo and his first telescope, which he named Old Discoverer. By Helen Acker.

POEM. About how success can carry you to a noble end, although sometimes it carries you to the gallows or the block.

By James Russell Lowell.

STORY. An investor (Strickland) is going to steal some money and go to another city with his butler (Benson), when a mysterious girl shows up knowing about his past. He repents and ends up staying. By Percival Wilde.

STORY. A poor rat trap peddler steals from a kind farmer and his daughter after they allow him to stay for Christmas with them, believing that he is someone they knew.

By Selma Lagerlof.

POEM. A man talks about how sins ruin a good name. By William Shakespeare.

STORY. 15 years after civil war, Booker Washington is entrusted with building a school where black teachers could be trained. Washington faced many problems and opportunities while trying to make the best school it could be. By Booker T. Washington.

POEM. Outlines how knowledge and wisdom are different, because wisdom is humble because he knows no more, but knowledge is proud because he knows so much.

By William Cowper.

STORY. As man who belongs to an English Setter, he instructs all dogs on how to pick, train, keep, socialize, and control their people. By Corey Ford.

STORY. After an otter kills a boys absent brother’s dog, the boy vows to kill the otter. After a long time of stalking the otter, when he finally has a chance to kill it, he realizes that he respects it and lets it live. By Robert Murphy.

POEM. Truth rises from defeat, but Error dies.By William Cullen Bryant.

STORY. A young knight named Sir Roland is left to guard the castle while his king and the other knights go do battle with giants. When he is tempted by a giant and resists, he earns the mystical golden star on his shield. By Raymond MacDonald Alden.

POEM. Virtues personified as people donning different clothes. By Nancy Byrd Turner.

STORY. Don is a Spanish gent who wants to experience the romance if the “olden days” he dresses as a knight and recruits Sancho as his squire. They come across what Don thinks are giants but are actually windmills. By Miguel de Cervantes

POEM. An instruction to a brother to trust God. By Norman McLeod.

STORY. A spy named Harvey Birch causes chaos on a rainy night in 1780, while freeing Captain Henry Wharton. By James Fenimore Cooper.

STORY. Young Nathan Cathcart is awakened by soldiers in the middle of the night that are looking for a man. This man, Dawson is a rebel who shows up saying he lost the papers from George Washington. Soldiers show up again He hides Dawson and finds the papers. By Russel Gordon Carter.

POEM. A hero named Arnold Winkleried takes spears to his middle so his countrymen can free themselves (the Swiss). By James Montgomery.

STORY. Eva lives in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia and is told to take a message to the baker’s wife, who she is terrified of. She tries to be brave like her brother Thomaso. The message was a cod telling the baker, who runs an underground paper, that they have been discovered. The Nazis think that the name of the children’s game (the wind is free), is code. By Jan Masaryk.

POEM. A poem about the Campaign when Britain and France invaded the Crimean Peninsula in March of 1853 to capture Sevastopol, and it took them 322 days. There were many casualties and much disease on both sides. The 600 British men go into battle knowing they will die. By Lord Alfred Tennyson.

STORY. Sullivan Ballou, a major in the union army, writes to his wife only seven days before his death. By Sullivan Ballou.

STORY. Kate Shelley realized she must crawl across as trestle bridge in a howling storm to save hundreds of people on the midnight train from falling into the swollen Des Moines river. She saves the train. By Freeman H. Hubbard.

STORY. A discussion arises at a dinner party in India about the nerve control of men and women. One man realizes that there is a snake in the room. After they are out of danger he asks the hostess how she knew that there was a snake in the room. She responds that it was lying on her foot. By Mona Gardener.

POEM. About a person who goes to a moral duel against the world and dies. By Emily Dickinson.

STORY. A tyrannical Czar tells a priest to blot out some scripture of he will kill him. On the day of execution, an angel replaces the Czar and spares the priest. After several years living as a beggar, the angel lets the Czar rule again, but this time he rule justly. By an Unknown Author.

POEM. When a king mockingly has his jester pray at a feast, before the entire mocking court, the jester prays a phenomenal prayer and shows the court the error of their ways. By Edward Roland Sill.

STORY. The first clash between Noll (Oliver) Cromwell and Prince Charles the first. This foreshadows Oliver Cromwell’s later beheading of Prince Charles. By Nathaniel Hawthorn.

POEM. A lecture on looking out for proud words. By Carl Sandburg.

STORY. The vain and unhappy Madame Loisel losses the necklace that she borrowed from a friend to go to an expensive party with. Her clerk husband borrows money to replace the necklace ( 500 francs) and they do not tell the friend. After years of hard living in order to pay of the debts, Loisel tells the friend what happened. The friend tells Loisel that the necklace was fake, and worth almost nothing. By Guy de Maupassant.

POEM. A man resists the call of the Lord for him to admit his sin, but he finally accepts his sin and admits it. By Karle Wilson Baker.

STORY. Millionaire Toad escapes prison (for stealing a car) and goes to Water rat for help. Rat tells Toad that Toad Hall has being taken over by stoats and weasels. Toad is arrogant and attempts to take it back and almost gets killed, losing Rat’s boat in the process. Toad vows to always listen to Rat’s advice. By Kenneth Grahame.

STORY. Mr. Towers Chandler dresses on the attire of a wealthy man and entertains a young woman dressed in a humble shop keepers uniform and tried to impress here with tales of a nonexistent life. He made a good impression but then ruined it with his tale of idle life. It turns out the young woman was rich. By O. Henry.

STORY. Daisy has lived all her life in poverty and is eager to begin her job as a live-in helper for a middle class family. She has to realize that she is there to work. By Ruth Suckow.

STORY. Miss Havisham has sent word for Pip to come play with her. When he arrives, he finds a grumbling woman stubbornly nursing her bittern, broken heart and spreading her sorrow. By Charles Dickens.

STORY. Outlines how God protects and delivers the humble, and though a humble man may suffer shame, he will know deliverance. By Thomas A Kempis.

STORY. As an attempt to get back at Mr.Skinner, Winn and his cousin Shan sow grass seeds into one of his fields. This turns on them when his dog chases them back home and they are discovered. By Jesse Stuart.

STORY. Alice is in the royal court of Wonderland, at the trail of the Knave of Hearts. He is on trial for stealing the Queen’s tarts. Alice witnesses the pure absurdity of Wonderland, before waking to realize that the whole thing was just a dream. By Lewis Carrol.

STORY. An Algerian king (Bauakas) sets out in the guise of a merchant to see if one of his kingdom’s judges is as good as the people say he is. On the way, he gets involved in a dispute with a beggar over his horse. Bauakas witnesses the judges phenomenal detecting powers. When Bauakas reveals that he is the king, the judge says that he needs no reward, and that his king’s thanks are enough for him. By Leo Tolstoy.

POEM. A metaphorical comparison from a mill to how God judges all people. By Friedrich von Logau.

STORY. A long tale of how a man who took part in the Aaron Burr rebellion accidentally sentences himself to not be able to hear the name of his country.

STORY. Uncle Buscabeatas grows pumpkins. When he is ready to go to town to sell them, they are stolen. He finds one in the market and takes the merchant selling it to court. After the real thief is brought in (he sold the pumpkins to the merchant), Buscabeatas unveils his secret proof. A handkerchief folded up with the stubs from his pumpkins inside. In then end he sells the pumpkins. By Pedro Alarcon.

STORY. When three colonels are sentenced to death for insubordination, they refuse to draw lots for which one must die. Oliver Cromwell devises a “random” technique for the decision to be made for them. He sends for the first child the guard sees, by which he unknowingly brings in one of the colonel’s daughter (Colonel Mayfair). The daughter, who is very young, is supposed to drop wax into each of the men’s hands. Not knowing the consequences she gives her father the prettiest one, not knowing it is the one holding the sentence. Cromwell, realizing the horribleness of the situation, frees them all. By Mark Twain.

POEM. About how a man who overcomes his base temptations is braver than the battlefield heroes. By an unknown author.

STORY. Pooh goes out and visits Rabbit, and while he is at Rabbit’s house, he eats a massive amount of food. Attempting to go out the front door, Pooh gets stuck in the doorway. The animals go get Christopher Robin (a human boy), and Christopher puts Pooh on a week long fast. The animals read to pooh while he is stuck in the doorway, and after the week they are finally (but not easily) able to pull him out. By A. A. Milne.

STORY.When Dr. Heidegger offers four aged friends water from the fabled ” fountain of youth” they readily agree to try the elixir. Ignoring the doctors advice to draw up some rules to guide them through their second youth, the four begin to drink. In their folly, they lose their opportunity. By Marvin G. Robinson.

POEM. A father advises his son in many ways, how to act and how to treat people. He finishes by telling the son to never be false to any man. By William Shakespeare.

STORY. Pahom is a peasant. He buys 300 acres from a lady and is filled with joy. Volga is selling more land, so he buys that and sells the old land. He is unsatisfied, so he rents another’s land for 3 years. He wants more, so he goes to the Bashkirs’ land. He can get all the land he wants at 1,000 rubles a day. Return to your starting point before the sun sets. Pahom is greedy and runs to beat the sun. He dies upon reaching the fox fur hat. In the end he only needed 6 feet. By Leo Tolstoy.

POEM. A thought about how the world will die, either in fire or in ice. The narrator says he would favor fire, but ice is also good for destruction, and it would do too. By Robert Frost.

STORY. Jane Eyre goes to Lowood Institution, a boarding school. Once there she meets Helen Burns, a slightly older girl who has an unexplainably noble air about her. One day Jane witnesses Helen being whipped by a teacher with a bundle of rods as punishment for not being “clean”. Helen does not protest or shed a tear. Later Helen tells Jane that it would is better not to react then to react rashly. B Charlotte Bronte.

POEM. Tells that God will crown with glory your careful, yet persistent and tireless work. By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

STORY. About how Joseph was to marry Mary and found out she was pregnant. He was told by an angel that they would name the child Jesus, and not to fear marrying Mary. So Joseph married her, and when the Child was born, he named Him Jesus. The passage is Matthew 1:18-25

POEM. About the joy of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Describes Christ as a wondrous gift coming to abide with us. By Phillip Brooks.

STORY. Della and Jim are a young couple who do not make much money. Della wants to buy Jim a Christmas present, but she only has $1.87, not enough to buy him something nice. So she sells her treasure, her long, beautiful hair. With the twenty dollars she gets for it, she buys him a silver fob chain for his treasure, his golden pocket watch. Jim, wanting to buy Della something, sells the watch, not knowing of her gift, to buy her a set of tortoiseshell combs for her hair. When he comes home, they realize that they have bought accessories for vanished treasures, and love each other more for it. By O. Henry.

POEM. Metaphorically describes snowfall as a mysterious architect spinning his marvelous work over nature. By Ralph Waldo Emerson.

STORY. A pastor and his wife, living with their three children on the frontier, despair because they do not have enough money for food, let alone the Christmas present their children seem to think will appear. On Christmas Eve, when even their clothes are not adequate, a mysterious box arrives. In it are lots of clothes for them and their children, and the Christmas presents their children wanted. Part way through unpacking the box, they stop to thank God, for they know that the box is a gift from Him. By an unknown author.

STORY. Floyd Dell is a child looking forward until Christmas. In the weeks leading up to the day, he starts to grow suspicious of his parents, because they say nothing about it. In the time until Christmas, odd things happen involving his parents behavior, and his father being out of work. On Christmas Eve, Floyd asks them why they have not said a word about Christmas, and they laugh him off. While in bed, Floyd realizes that they are poor. Next morning, he finds a bag with some popcorn and a pencil, his attempted Christmas present. By Floyd Dell.

STORY. A crippled (hunchbacked) shepherd boy is on his hill watching his sheep when a stranger comes up. The stranger is a tall, kind man, with an air that fascinates and captivates the boy. The night is Christmas Eve, thirty years after the birth of Christ, and the boy is hoping to see the star, as his father did then. The stranger eats with the boy, and the boy finally decides to give the stranger his cake, which he had been hiding, the stranger then splits it with him. After they eat, the stranger says he must go, so the boy gets upset. As the stranger leaves he heals the boy’s crippled back. After he notices this, the boy realizes that the stranger was Jesus. By Margaret E. Sangster.

POEM. A man exposes the joy of knowing that whatever happens, God will keep him safe. By Robert Lowry.

POEM. A prisoner has come to terms with being there and sits in his cell all day, singing to God, as well as anyone who can hear him. Even though he is imprisoned, he is happy and at peace. By Madame Guyon.

POEM. An eight year old blind girl (Fanny Crosby) expresses how she will not be burdened down by her handicap. She states that she enjoys blessing that other people don’t. By Fanny Crosby.

STORY. A devotional tells how having a good conscience ensures joy. By Thomas A’ Kempis.

STORY. A devotional tells how to bring peace to yourself, and, by doing so, bring peace to everyone else. A peaceable man will let people be, including himself. A passionate man will let no one be, especially himself. By Thomas A’ Kempis.

STORY. About how great God is. How great is God that he makes us to worship Him, as a particle of his creation. By St. Augustine.

POEM. Not to worry, for as you sleep, God watches over you always, and guards you, never sleeping. By Francis Quarles.

POEM. Two brothers (one telling the story) fight over a small thing and the argument turns huge. The afternoon is ruined, until the other brother thumps the main one on the back and says that they can’t go about this all night. By Eleanor Farjeon.

STORY. A feud is started between two neighboring families (Ivan’s and Gabriel’s) over an egg and results in a long, hard seven years for both families. Ivan’s father tries to convince Ivan to make peace, but he will not. The two families properties burned down when it is taken too far by Gabriel and the half the village suffers from it, as well as Ivan’s father, who dies from burns. Ivan takes his father’s last words to heart and makes peace with Gabriel. By Leo Tolstoy.

POEM. The center of the cyclone is the place of peace, and the hollow of God’s palm is the place of peace from the storm of the world. By Edwin Markham.

POEM. A Robin asks a Sparrow why the humans run around and worry so much. The Sparrow answers that it is because they do not have a heavenly Father, such as cares for the two birds. By Elizabeth Cheney.

STORY. After receiving word that the local Indians are on the warpath, John and Mary must decide whether or not they should lock their door because they think that it is against God to do so. They bring in the latchstring, but change their minds and put it back out. In the morning six Indians loom in on them and spare them. A captured Indian later says that if the had brought in their latchstring, they would be dead along with everyone else. By Berthalee Broyles.

POEM. As the day ends, the peace of the night flows in, and the cares and worries of the day fold their tents and slink away. By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

POEM. A tree does grow during the day, its fruit bearing and its blossoms coming out, but if all there was was day the fields would wither and the tree would die. Night if needed to. By Robert Nathan.

STORY. A story about an eccentric family, and the main character’s bed fell on him. The mother thought that the bed fell through in the attic where the father was sleeping, and the cousin thought he had stopped breathing. The house descends into chaos, and it is eventually all pieced together what really happened. In the end the only bad result is the father catches cold from being barefoot. By James Thurber.

POEM. Summarizes how a beautiful thing will always remain with us even if it, or us, pass away. By John Keats.

POEM. About how we praise the Lord for everything he has created, especially the glory of this earth. Folloit S. Pierpont.

STORY. Helen Keller tells what she would do if she had three days to see. She says that she would she her friends and everything in her environment. She would also see nature. Then she would see the art that other men consider beautiful. She would also observe people going about their lives. By Helen Keller.

POEM. Tells how God is always at the anvil, hammering and beating the sun. Hammering out the glory of the day to come, and making a frame for the silver stars. By Lew Sarett.

POEM. About how the natural earth (the garden, lilies, plants and the wind) is the temple of the Lord. If you are in nature long enough, you might just find it. By Helen Keller.

POEM. Thanking God for all he has made and all he has done. By Edward Everett Hale.

POEM. Tells about the beauty of the sky and stars that God has created, and how the planets revolve in the sky. By Joseph Addison.

STORY. A man tells how mankind appreciates all of God’s creations except the sky. He tells how wonderful it is, and how it affects the world in general. By John Ruskin.

POEM. About how the beautiful trees will age and might be around for hundreds of years, whereas human life is short and may only last a few decades. By A.E. Housman.

STORY. About the life of Grant Wood. He strived hard to make a name for himself as an artist, while still sustaining his mother and little sister. After much traveling and soul searching, he finally came to terms with the fact that he could never go paint peasants in Europe. After realizing this he finally made his name himself painting his rural surroundings. By Charlie May Simon.

POEM. About how wherever you are, the peace of night is never far away. By Sara Teasdale.

POEM. The poet writes about the beauty of the city that he sees and the potential it has for something greater than he can ever imagine. By William Wordsworth.

STORY. Beethoven is walking with a friend when he hears a girl playing his sonata. He goes in her house and realizes that she is blind. After he plays for her and her brother, they realize who he is and plead for him to play again. Beethoven looks at the harpsichord in the moonlight and begins to play and amazing, enthralling, enchanting melody. After he and his friend leave, Beethoven goes home and writes down what is now known as the moonlight sonata. By an unknown author.

POEM. About how refreshing the morning is, with its singing birds and dew upon the grass, and soft showers and rising sun. By John Milton.

STORY. When Katy’s Cousin Helen, who is an invalid, comes to visit, the Carr’s house is thrown into disarray. Cousin Helen is amazingly sweet and kind, and even though she is chronically sick and cannot take much noise or excitement, she wishes to see the kids all the time. Katy tries to be as much like her as she can, even though she is naturally a tomboy. When Helen gives Katy a vase as a going away present, Katy vows that she will always try to be like Helen. By Susan Coolidge.

POEM. Describes the thing that the narrator has loved, such as the swaying flowers and the sunlit raindrops. By Rupert Brooke.

STORY. An unattractive princesses’ father plots to marry her to a handsome prince by switching her with her servant until the wedding day. It turns out that the prince did this to, so he and the princess meet while posing as servants, they tell each other this and realize why she suddenly became beautiful. She had been enchanted as a baby to be unattractive until her wedding day. It all ends happily. By A.A. Milne.

POEM. The speaker says we should glorify God because he has given us dappled things. The narrator stresses the beauty of the creations that have different colors, especially those that are speckled. By Gerard Manley Hopkins.

POEM. Summarizes what faith in God can do for us. Not just on a metaphysical level but on an actual, tangible level. Excerpt from the Bible.

STORY. Christian and his traveling companion Hopeful stray from the path in an attempt to find an easier route to the Celestial City. Because of this, they are Captured by the Giant of Despair and throw into the dungeons of Doubting Castle. They eventually escape by finding their internal keys, but only after much prayer. By John Bunyan.

POEM. States that if you have faith, you will find a stable path even in the worse of voids. By John Greenleaf Whittier.

STORY. George Mueller had a record if lying and stealing and went to jail for stealing tax money. When he was saved, his life changed and decided to spend his life serving others and relying on God for funds. He founded orphanages and helped thousands of orphans over the years. In order to get funds, he prayed many times, and God always provided, and Mueller always had faith that he would. By Anna Talbott McPherson.

POEM. Tells about the greatness of a swallow’s faith. She works and works, and can only trust in God that everything will be okay. By Robert Southey.

STORY. About how J. Hudson Taylors mission in China saved many souls. Instead of pleading to others for money, he simply trusted in God that the money would come. As the years went by, he shouldered more and more responsibilities, including he and his group running a hospital that was shutting down. By Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor.

POEM. About how faith will show you the path, and if you trust in God, you will never lose it. By John Henry Newman.

STORY. All Columbus had to guide his three ships was faith. But he trusted in God, and against all the odds, he was able to find land. By Washington Irving.

POEM. About how Hope is the thing that survives all trials, that is perched nearby and flies back to its how when the trouble is over. By Emily Dickenson..

POEM. About the bravery and grandeur of the sailors who used to rule the seas, and the ease with which they lived this most difficult of lives. Focus on their love and trust in God to get them home. By Robert P. Tristram Coffin.

STORY. Washington had nothing to work with, no one to help him, and a nation to raise from servitude. At Valley Forge he rode to the woods, knelt, and prayed to the only one who could help him, the God who he trusted so much. By Thomas Fleming.

VERSE. About how faith, hope and charity are all great in the eyes of God, but of these charity is the greatest. From the Bible.

STORY. Martin the cobbler has a dream while he is reading his Bible that Jesus will visit him tomorrow. Three normal people visit him and martin shows them kindness. At the end of the day, when he has given up hope, he has a vision from God that tells him that Christ was in the three people. By Leo Tolstoy.

STORY. Luke Baldwin is so heavily bonded to his Uncle’s collie Dan, that when his Uncle, a practical man, decides it time to get rid of him, Luke must plan a way to get him back. After his Uncle tries to drown Dan, Luke convinces a farmer up the road to let him work for him. In the end, his Uncle lets him pay him to keep the dog. By Morley Callaghan.

STORY. After Tom’s schoolyard crush is home sick, Tom begins to feel sick himself. His aunt does not realize that he is simply dejected, so she tries all of her “remedies” on him. None work, so she buys some pain-killer, it tastes so bad that when she gives it to Tom to take, he gives it to the cat. After watching the cat zoom around for a while, he goes to bed. The next day, Becky is back at school and Tom starts showing off. She is disgusted, and Tom heartbroken. By Mark Twain.

POEM. About how love is like a red rose, and whatever it goes through, it will still be as red as ever. By Robert Burns.

STORY. Sarah has gone to the city and her boyfriend (Walter) has not written back to her. She is working as a typist and is typing menus for restaurants. Suddenly Walter thunders up and sweeps her into his arms. She had, in despair, typed, “Dearest Walter, with hard-boiled egg.” By O. Henry.

POEM. Tells how love can make you see things and feel things that you never saw before. One of these being unimaginable pain if you turn away from it. By Sidney Royse Lysaght.

POEM. About how true love does not set tasks for the other party to complete, simply to prove their love. By Leigh Hunt.

STORY. About an Acadian couple (Gabriel and Evangeline) who loose each other during an English raid. Evangeline spends her entire life trying to find Gabriel and she finally does, when they are in their eighties and he is dying on a sickbed in the convent that she joined. By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

POEM. About how the Lord is all the more glorious because he gave life through death. By Edmund Spencer.

STORY. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet are in love, and their families are involved in a feud. Romeo scales the wall of the Capulet’s house and speaks to Juliet as she stands on her balcony. By William Shakespeare.

POEM. About how though love toils and works all day, the reward is simple. Its family. By Margaret E. Sangster.

POEM. About how in time, after we die, God will raise us up from the dust that time has made us into. By Sir Walter Raleigh.

STORY. A boy gets the flu and 104 degree fever. No matter how his father tries to cheer him up, the boy remains withdrawn and somber, even refusing to let anyone into his room. At last, he asks his father how long it is before he dies. The boy’s father tells him that he is not going to die from a 104 fever. The boy reveals that a person cannot live above 44 degrees Celsius. After the father tells him that they are using Fahrenheit, he becomes fragile, and cries at little things. By Ernest Hemingway.

POEM. About how natures first hue is gold, not green, but only for a short time. By Robert Frost.

STORY. Jo, Meg, and Beth are sisters and Beth is dying. Beth is a kind soul, and her family dotes upon her as she dies. Jo, who writes, writes a poem for Beth about her, and about how much Beth’s simple kindness has changed her. Beth finds it, and tells Jo how much it means to her. After Beth dies, her family’s pain is eased by her goodness and willingness to die. By Louisa May Alcott.

STORY. Two friends in New York, Sue and Johnsy (Johanna), share a flat, both of them working as artists. Johnsy is struck down by Pneumonia, and the doctor secretly tells Sue that the only thing between Johnsy and death is will. Johnsy decides that when the last leaf falls from the vine, she will die. The next day, as the leaf has not fallen, Johnsy says she will not die. They later find an old artist from downstairs, Mr. Behrman, frozen outside, after he painted a leaf on the wall behind the vine. By O. Henry.

STORY. Two landowners, Ulrich and Georg, go out on the same night to kill each other over an old feud. When they find each other, the storm blows over a tree and it traps them both underneath it. After a while of verbal abuse, Ulrich extends an offer of friendship. Georg excepts, and they call together for their men. They attract something, wolves. By Saki (H. H. Munroe)

POEM. About how after a long walk through a hellish life, death is a chair in which to rest. By George Herbert.

POEM. About how the greatest weapons and people from history are now but rusty lumps and shelved memories. By Arthur Guiterman.

STORY. A soldier, dying on the battlefield, is told by the medic that if he can live till sundown the next day, he will survive his wounds. His thoughts of his wife, kids, and parents, carry him through until the medics come back to get him. By Henry Woodfin Grady.

POEM. About how we are led by our will and we wander until the lord takes us into his house at night. By Robert Louis Stevenson.

POEM. If your death was honorable, you will be revered, but the fact that you are dead does not matter, it is how you died. By Edmund Vance Cooke.

STORY. Petey’s dad is getting remarried and he is sending grandpa away. Grandpa is playing his fiddle when dad and his fiancé walk up, and a dispute erupts about the blanket that dad is giving grandpa. The fiancé leaves and dad does not send grandpa away. By Floyd Dell.

STORY. John Williams was an English missionary who used his life to bring the gospel to the people of the South Pacific Islands. By Basil Mathews.

STORY. Francois Millet and his three artist friends realized that artists are only respected after they are dead. They then went around selling his paintings. After they had sold many paintings in many different towns, they fabricated an elaborate scheme and fake Francois’s death. He put on a disguise and helped to carry his own coffin. The price skyrocketed, and made them all rich. By Mark Twain.

STORY. John is a simple lad who is in love with a girl named Sally. He finds a book of poetry and tells one to her, pretending he made it up. She falls madly in love with him and they get married and have children. One day, one of the daughters finds his book of poetry, she tells her mother, but her mother tells her to keep it quiet or it will breaks daddy’s heart. Sally then begins to die of pneumonia, and on her deathbed she asks John to make one up, he does and she dies happy. John never knowns that she knew. By Frances Frost.

STORY. Cotton Mather was a preacher, who discovered the inoculation for smallpox, which was then sweeping across the country, killing hundreds. Mather was persecuted by the people of his town, for they said that he was trying to kill their children. After he had died, the townspeople finally realized that Cotton Mather’s greatest work was the very thing that they persecuted him for. By Nathaniel Hawthorne.