The short story commenced its career as a verbal utterance, or, as Robert Louis Stevenson puts it, with "the first men who told their stories round the savage campfire."The short story is today our most common literary product. It is read by everyone. Not every boy or girl will read novels after leaving school, but every boy or girl is certain to read short stories. It is important in the high school to guide taste and appreciation in short story reading, so that the reading of days when school life is over will be healthful and encouraging.Here is a collection that is entirely modern. The authors represented are among the leading authors of the day, the stories are principally stories of present-day life, the themes are themes of present-day thought. The students who read this book will be more awake to the present, and will be better citizens of today.The great number of stories presented has given opportunity to illustrate different types of short story writing.Contents:Washington Irving. The Legend of Sleepy HollowEdgar Allan Poe. The Gold BugHerman Melville. Bartleby, the ScrivenerBret Harte. The Luck of Roaring CampLeo Tolstoy. The Death of Ivan IlyichFyodor Dostoevsky. The Dream of a Ridiculous ManRudyard Kipling. Rikki-Tikki-TaviCharlotte Perkins Gilman. The Yellow WallpaperAnton Chekhov. The Lady with the DogD.H. Lawrence. The Prussian OfficerJames Joyce. ArabyIvan Turgenev. First LoveNikolay Gogol. The MantleMikhail Bulgakov. The Embroidered TowelIvan Bunin. The Gentleman from San FranciscoJoseph Sheridan Le Fanu. CarmillaO.Henry. The Gift of the MagiAmbrose Gwinnett Bierce. An Occurrence at Owl Creek BridgeRobert Louis Stevenson. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeH.G. Wells. The Magic ShopW.W. Jacobs. The Monkey's PawArthur Conan Doyle. His Last BowHenry James. Daisy MillerH.P. Lovecraft. The Call of CthulhuAlexsandr Pushkin. The Queen of SpadesG.K. Chesterton. The Blue Cross