AustLit

Mr and Mrs Jones' diminishing eyesight is tested by the newspaper. (PB)

Romance at a rectory. The intention of a cheerful young man of blithe effrontery and substantial property amuses the stern rector, who encourages his courtship of his daughter. Too late he discovers that the youth is the son of an old school-fellow who he had earlier refused to consider as a son-in-law. Light tale with lively repartee. (PB)

A father makes a personal trip to Oxford to ascertain the true behaviour of his son - and discovers a lady's parasol and glove. His decision to cut off his son without a penny is only reversed when he discovers they belong to his niece. (PB)

Humorous account of unsuccessful attempts to raise hens. (PB)

A new maid serves her mistress oysters without the 'inwards'. (PB)

The restless ghost of a rich merchant appears to the fiance of his adoptive grand-daughter and reveals the lost will entitling her to his fortune. (PB)

On the Lord's tolerance for human nature. (PB)

A practical joke meant to teach a conceited youth a lesson turns sour when it separates a man from his fiancee. The mystery is clarified only when another woman whose heart he has won hears his tale of trust betrayed and she confesses the truth. (PB)

A prisoner's tale. An English thief who came unluckily by a certain diamond ring loses it in Paris while picking a countryman's pocket - and thus convicts himself to the police when he claims it. (PB)

A lunatic's tale. A visitor to an asylum hears the tale of an inmate's headstrong girlhood. A writer, she could not bear to be good and sweet like other girls though she assumed the role long enough to win the man she loved. He dislikes her strong opinions, her dancing and her colourful costumes, and is increasingly attracted to a pretty modest girl. His fiancee is increasingly jealous and decides at last to kill her rival - for which attempt she was placed in the asylum. Engrossing subject, interesting style. The sadness of the tale continually interrupted by the direct, outspoken spirit of the speaker. Question of what is seen as a woman's disturbing behaviour and what is madness. (PB)

A sailor's body washed up on the beach identified only by a tattoo on his arm. (PB)

Evelyne Dunscombe hides in the wardrobe in her uncle's study to avoid being discovered comparing the handwriting of her uncle's secretary with a valentine she received. Overhearing her uncle censure the man for daring to think of her, Evelyne indignantly speaks up for herself ... (PB)

A wife replies to her military husband's pedantic joke with one of her own - but it pertains to food and the captain is not amused. (PB)

Anglo-American romance. Two businessmen, both disappointed in their first loves, informally arrange for their children to marry when they grow up. Years later their offspring learn of the arrangement, neither of them being enthusiastic. Headstrong American Rose Aylmer suffers a 'disappointment in love' and during a summer holiday meets Max Gillette who believes she is someone else. Only after she accepts his proposal does he reveal he knew her identity all the time. Surprising conclusion. (PB)

A judge, kind to drunkards as he is himself a reformed drinker, tries a woman who is revealed as his wife. (PB)

Tale of the supernatural. A young English officer, scalped by Indians during a war in the last half of the 18th century, dies in the hut of a French settler, his Indian wife and their children. His ghost haunts the cottage which is generally untenanted until a Chicago sculptor comes to recuperate there in 1887 - and is visited by the ghost. Taking his appearance as a warning he starts him and is drowned when his steamer sinks ... (PB)

A wreck found on the Jersey coast yields up a man's skeleton - waited for perhaps by those ignorant of his fate. (PB)

Romance is restored to a marriage when mother-in-law comes to stay and during her son-in-law's absence on business redeems her daughter from her slovenly ways. A Valentine cariacature is instrumental in the process. (PB)

A Dutch uncle advises boys to persevere in life despite society's derision. Robert Fulton [steam boats] and Benjamin Franklin cited as examples. (PB)

Tale told by a quiet Scotch trooper unable to write but who told tales enthrallingly from photographs. Cain and Abel tale: a 40ish man brings his brother out to help on his prosperous farm but they have a falling out, the recent arrival blinding his brother with a blow. The elder refuses to prosecute but casts his brother out. The exile kills his older brother and attempts to take his place but a town ragamuffin, the victim's daughter and her fiancee with the trooper foil him ... (PB)