GEORGE MACDONALD

Since printing throughout the title Orts, a doubt has arisen in my mind as to its fitting the nature of the volume. It could hardly, however, be imagined that I associate the idea of worthlessness with the work contained in it. No one would insult his readers by offering them what he counted valueless scraps, and telling them they were such. The...

THE SHOP It was an evening early in May. The sun was low, and the street was mottled with the shadows of its paving-stones-smooth enough, but far from evenly set. The sky was clear, except for a few clouds in the west, hardly visible in the dazzle of the huge light, which lay among them like a liquid that had broken its vessel, and was pouring o...

WHAT! NO CHILDREN? Once upon a time, so long ago that I have quite forgotten the date, there lived a king and queen who had no children. And the king said to himself, ""All the queens of my acquaintance have children, some three, some seven, and some as many as twelve; and my queen has not one. I feel ill-used."" So he made up his mind to be cro...

MISS HORN ""Na, na; I hae nae feelin's, I'm thankfu' to say. I never kent ony guid come o' them. They're a terrible sicht i' the gait."" ""Naebody ever thoucht o' layin' 't to yer chairge, mem."" ""'Deed, I aye had eneuch adu to du the thing I had to du, no to say the thing 'at naebody wad du but mysel'. I hae had nae leisur' for feelin's an' th...

JANUARY. 1. LORD, what I once had done with youthful might, Had I been from the first true to the truth, Grant me, now old, to do-with better sight, And humbler heart, if not the brain of youth; So wilt thou, in thy gentleness and ruth, Lead back thy old soul, by the path of pain, Round to his best-young eyes and heart and brain. 2. A dim aurora...