T.S. Arthur

Titles in Fiction category:

• After the Storm    

  No June day ever opened with a fairer promise. Not a single cloud flecked the sky, and the sun coursed onward through the azure sea until past meridian, without throwing to the earth a single shadow. Then, low in the west, appeared something obscure and hazy, blending the hill-tops with t ...

• All's For the Best

  "I have no faith in anything," said a poor doubter, who had trusted in human prudence, and been disappointed; who had endeavored to walk by the lumine of self-derived intelligence, instead of by the light of divine truth, and so lost his way in the world. He was fifty years old! What a sa ...

• Allen House, or Twenty Years Ago and Now, The

  We point to two ways in life, and if the young man and maiden, whose feet are lingering in soft green meadows and flowery walks, will consider these two ways in sober earnest, before moving onward, and choose the one that truth and reason tell them leads to honor, success, and happiness, ...

• Book of Memory, The

  "There is a book of record in your mind, Edwin," said an old man to his young friend, "a book of record, in which every act of your life is noted down. Each morning a blank page is turned, on which the day's history is written in lines that cannot be effaced. This book of record is your memory; ...

• Cast Adrift

  In this romance of real life, in which the truth is stranger than the fiction, I have lifted only in part the veil that hides the victims of intemperance and other terrible vices--after they have fallen to the lower deeps of degradation to be found in our large cities, where the vile and ...

• Danger; or Wounded in the House of a Friend

  All efforts at eradicating evil must, to be successful, begin as near the beginning as possible. It is easier to destroy a weed when but an inch above the ground than after it has attained a rank growth and set its hundred rootlets in the soil. Better if the evil seed were not sown at all ...

• Jenny Lawson

  Mark Clifford had come up from New York to spend a few weeks with his maternal grandfather, Mr. Lofton, who lived almost alone on his beautiful estate a few miles from the Hudson, amid the rich valleys of Orange county. Mr. Lofton belonged to one of the oldest families in the country, and retai ...

Titles in Short Stories category:

• After a Shadow

  "Arty! Arty!" called Mrs. Mayflower, from the window, one bright June morning. "Arty, darling! What is the child after? Just look at him, Mr. Mayflower!"

• Alice and the Pigeon

  One evening in winter as Alice, a dear little girl whom everybody loved, pushed aside the curtains of her bedroom window, she saw the moon half hidden by great banks of clouds, and only a few stars peeping out here and there. Below, the earth lay dark, and cold. The trees looked like grea ...

• Amy's Question    

  "Amy!"

• Andy Lovell    

  All the village was getting out with Andy Lovell, the shoemaker; and yet Andy Lovell's shoes fitted so neatly, and wore so long, that the village people could ill afford to break with him. The work made by Tompkins was strong enough, but Tompkins was no artist in leather. Lyon's fit was g ...

• Angel in Disguise, An    

  Idleness, vice, and intemperance had done their miserable work, and the dead mother lay cold and still amid her wretched children. She had fallen upon the threshold of her own door in a drunken fit, and died in the presence of her frightened little ones.

• Aunt Mary's Suggestion

  "John Thomas!" Mr. Belknap spoke in a firm, rather authoritative voice. It was evident that he anticipated some reluctance on the boy's part, and therefore, assumed, in the outset, a very decided manner.

• Both to Blame

  "Of course, both are to blame."

• Brilliant and the Commonplace, The

  Day after day I worked at my life-task, and worked in an earnest spirit. Not much did I seem to accomplish; yet the little that was done had on it the impress of good. Still, I was dissatisfied, because my gifts were less dazzling than those of which many around me could boast. When I thought o ...

• Coffee vs. Brandy

  "We shall have to give them a wedding party," said Mrs. Eldridge to her husband.

• Common People

  "Are you going to call upon Mrs. Clayton and her daughters, Mrs. Marygold?" asked a neighbor, alluding to a family that had just moved into Sycamore Row.

• Dollar on the Conscience, A

  "Fifty-five cents a yard, I believe you said?" The customer was opening her purse.

• Don't Mention It

  "Don't mention it again for your life."

• Dressed for a Party    

  A lady sat reading. She was so absorbed in her book as to be nearly motionless. Her face, in repose, was serious, almost sad; for twice a score of years had not passed without leaving the shadow of a cloud or the mark of a tempest. The door opened, and, as she looked up, pleasant smile la ...

• Fatal Error, The

  "Clinton!" said Margaret Hubert, with a look of supreme contempt. Don't speak of him to me, Lizzy. His very name is an offence to my ears!" and the lady's whole manner became disturbed.

• Following the Fashions

  "What is this?" asked Henry Grove of his sister Mary, lifting, as he spoke, a print from the centre-table.

• Going to the Springs; or, Vulgar People

  "I suppose you will all be off to Saratoga, in a week or two," said Uncle Joseph Garland to his three nieces, as he sat chatting with them and their mother, one hot day, about the first of July.

• Good Name, A

  Two boys, named Jacob Peters and Ralph Gilpin were passing along Chestnut Street one evening about ten years ago, when one of them, stopped, and said,--

• Good-Hearted People

  There are two classes in the world: one acts from impulse, and the other from reason; one consults the heart, and the other the head. Persons belonging to the former class are very much liked by the majority of those who come in contact with them: while those of the latter class make many enemi ...

• Hadn't Time for Trouble

  Mrs. Caldwell was so unfortunate as to have a rich husband. Not that the possession of a rich husband is to be declared a misfortune, per se, but, considering the temperament of Mrs. Caldwell, the fact was against her happiness, and therefore is to be regarded, taking the ordinary ...

• Heiress, The

  Kate Darlington was a belle and a beauty; and had, as might be supposed, not a few admirers. Some were attracted by her person; some by her winning manners, and not a few by the wealth of her family. But though sweet Kate was both a belle and a beauty, she was a shrewd, clear-seeing girl, and h ...

• Helping the Poor

  "I'm on a begging expedition," said Mr. Jonas, as he came bustling into the counting-room of a fellow merchant named Prescott. "And, as you are a benevolent man, I hope to get at least five dollars here in aid of a family in extremely indigent circumstances. My wife heard of them yesterday; and ...

• Humbled Pharisee, The

  "What was that?" exclaimed Mrs. Andrews, to the lady who was seated next to her, as a single strain of music vibrated for a few moments on the atmosphere.

• In the Way of Temptation

  Martin Green was a young man of good habits and a good conceit of himself. He had listened, often and again, with as much patience as he could assume, to warning and suggestion touching the dangers that beset the feet of those who go out into this wicked world, and become subject to its l ...

• It's None of My Business

  "Wasn't that young Sanford?" asked Mrs. Larkin of her husband, as the two stood at a window of their dwelling one Sunday afternoon, noticing the passers by. The individual she alluded to was a young man who had ridden gaily along on a spirited horse.

• Little Lizzie    

  "If they wouldn't let him have it!" said Mrs. Leslie, weeping. "O, if they wouldn't sell him liquor, there'd be no trouble! He's one of the best of men when he doesn't drink. He never brings liquor into the house; and he tries hard enough, I know, to keep sober, but he cannot pass Jenks's ...

• Making a Sensation

  "Do you intend going to Mrs. Walshingham's party, next week, Caroline?" asked Miss Melvina Fenton of her friend Caroline Gay. "It is said that it will be a splendid affair."

• Married Sisters, The

  "Come, William, a single day, out of three hundred and sixty-five, is not much,"

• Mother's Promise, The

  A lady, handsomely dressed, was about leaving her house to make a few calls, when a little boy ran out from the nursery, and clasping one of her gloved hands in both of his, looked up into her face with a glance of winning entreaty, saying, as he did so:

• Mystery Explained, A

  "Going to the Falls and to the White Mountains!"

• Not at Home

  Jonas Bebee has one merit, if he possesses no other, and that is, the merit of being able to make himself completely at home with all his friends, male or female, high or low, rich or poor, under any and all circumstances. His good opinion of himself leaves no room for his imagination to concei ...

• Not Great, But Happy

  How pure and sweet is the love of young hearts! How little does it contain of earth--how much of heaven! No selfish passions mar its beauty. Its tenderness, its pathos, its devotion, who does not remember, even when the sere leaves of autumn are rustling beneath his feet? How little does it reg ...

• On Guard    

  "O, Mamma! See that wicked-looking cat on the fence! She'll have one of those dear little rabbits in a minute!"

• Other People's Eyes    

  "Our parlor carpet is beginning to look real shabby," said Mrs. Cartwright. "I declare! if I don't feel right down ashamed of it, every time a visitor, who is anybody, calls in to see me."

• Portrait, The

  "Bless the happy art!" ejaculated Mrs. Morton, wiping the moisture from her eyes. "Could anything be more perfect than that likeness of his sweet, innocent face? Dear little Willie! I fear I love him too much."

• Rights and Wrongs

  It is a little singular--yet certainly true--that people who are very tenacious of their own rights, and prompt in maintaining them, usually have rather vague notions touching the rights of others. Like the too eager merchant, in securing their own, they are very apt to get a little more than b ...

• Romance and Reality

  "I met with a most splendid girl last evening," remarked to his friend a young man, whose fine, intellectual forehead, and clear bright eye, gave indications of more than ordinary mental endowments.

• School Girl, The

  "Where now?" said Frederick Williams to his friend Charles Lawson, on entering his own office and finding the latter, carpet-bag in hand, awaiting his arrival.

• Shadows

  A happy-hearted child was Madeline Henry, for the glad sunshine ever lay upon the threshold of her early home. Her father, a cheerful, unselfish man, left the world and its business cares behind him when he placed his hand upon the door of entrance to his household treasures. Like other men, he ...

• Slow and Sure

  "You'd better take the whole case. These goods will sell as fast as they can be measured off."

• Something for a Cold

  "Henry," said Mr. Green to his little son Henry, a lad in his eighth year, "I want you to go to the store for me."

• Thankless Office, The

  "An object of real charity," said Andrew Lyon to his wife, as a poor woman withdrew from the room in which they were seated.

• Two Husbands, The

  "Jane, how can you tolerate that dull, spiritless creature? I never sat by his side for five minutes, without getting sleepy."

• Unredeemed Pledges

  Two men were walking along a public thoroughfare in New York. One of them was a young merchant--the other a man past the prime of life, and belonging to the community of Friends. They were in conversation, and the manner of the former, earnest and emphatic, was in marked contrast with the quiet ...

• Very Poor

  "What has become of the Wightmans?" I asked of my old friend Payson. I had returned to my native place after an absence of several years. Payson looked grave.

• Visit with the Doctor, A    

  "How are you to-day, Mrs. Carleton?" asked Dr. Farleigh, as he sat down by his patient, who reclined languidly in a large cushioned chair.

• Visiting as Neighbors

  "I see that the house next door has been taken," remarked Mr. Leland to his wife, as they sat alone one pleasant summer evening.

• What Can I Do?

  He was a poor cripple--with fingers twisted out of all useful shape, and lower limbs paralyzed so that he had to drag them after him wearily when he moved through the short distances that limited his sphere of locomotion--a poor, unhappy, murmuring, and, at times, ill-natured cripple, eat ...

• Which Was Most the Lady?    

  "Did you ever see such a queer looking figure?" exclaimed a young lady, speaking loud enough to be heard by the object of her remark. She was riding slowly along in an open carriage, a short distance from the city, accompanied by a relative. The young man, her companion, looked across the ...

• Wife, The

  "I am hopeless!" said the young man, in a voice that was painfully desponding. "Utterly hopeless! Heaven knows I have tried hard to get employment! But no one has need of my service. The pittance doled out by your father, and which comes with a sense of humiliation that is absolutely heart-crus ...