The Ambitious Guest, Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

 The Beeman of Orn, Frank R. Stockton. 

 A Branch Road, Hamlin Garland. 

 Mateo Falcone, Prosper Mérimée. 

 The Death of the Dauphin, Alphonse Dadoed. 

 The Birds' Christmas Carol, Kate Douglas Wiggin. 

 Tennessee's Partner, Bret Harte. 

 

THE GRIFFIN AND THE MINOR CANAAN[1]

 By Frank R. Stockton (1834-1902) 

 Over the great door of an old, old church which stood in a quiet town of a far-away land there was carved in stone the figure of a large griffin. The old-time sculptor had done his work with great care, but the image he had made was not a pleasant one to look at. It had a large head, with enormous open mouth and savage teeth; from its back arose great wings, armed with sharp hooks and prongs; it had stout legs in front, with projecting claws; but there were no legs behind,—the body running out into a long and powerful tail, finished off at the end with a barbed point. This tail was coiled up under him, the end sticking up just back of his wings. 

 The sculptor, or the people who had ordered this stone figure, had evidently been very much pleased with it, for little copies of it, also in stone, had been placed here and there along the sides of the church, not very far from the ground, so that people could easily look at them, and ponder on their curious forms. There were a great many other sculptures on the outside of this church,—saints, martyrs, grotesque heads of men, beasts, and birds, as well as those of other creatures which cannot be named, because nobody knows exactly what they were; but none were so curious and interesting as the great griffin over the door, and the little griffins on the sides of the church. 

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