A Book O' Nine Tales Author:Arlo Bates General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1891 Original Publisher: Roberts brothers Subjects: Fiction / General Fiction / Anthologies Fiction / Literary Fiction / Short Stories Juvenile Fiction / Short Stories Literary Criticism / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It ha... more »s no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: A BOOK O' NINE TALES. A STRANGE IDYL. JE lay upon an old-fashioned bedstead whose carved quaintness would once have pleased him, but to which he was now indifferent. He rested upon his back, staring at the ceiling, on . whose white surface were twinkling golden dots and lines in a network which even his broken mind knew must be the sunlight reflected from off the water somewhere. The windows of the chamber were open, and the sweet summer air came in laden with the perfume of flowers piquantly mingled with pungent sea odors. Now and then a bee buzzed by the casement, or a butterfly seemed tempted to enter the sick-room -- apparently thought better of it, and went on its careless way. Of all these things the sick man who lay there was unconscious, and the sweet younggirl sitting by his bed was too deeply buried in her book to notice them. For some time there was no movement in the chamber, until, the close of a chapter releasing for an instant the reader's attention, she looked to discover that the patient's eyes were open. Seeing him awake, she rose and came a step nearer, thereby making the second discovery, more startling than the first, that the light of reason had replaced in those eyes the stare of delirium. "Ah," she said, softly, "you are awake!" The invalid turned his gaze toward her, far too feeble to make any other movement; but he made no attempt to speak. " No," she continued, with that li...« less