Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. HTML version by Al Haines. CONDENSED NOVELS by BRET HARTE Contents: HANDSOME IS AS HANDSOME DOES LOTHAW, or THE ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG GENTLEMAN IN SEARCH OF A RELIGION MUCK-A-MUCK, A MODERN INDIAN NOVEL, AFTER JAMES FENIMORE COOPER TERENCE DENVILLE SELINA SEDILIA THE NINETY-NINE GUARDSMEN [AFTER THE THREE MUSKETEERS, BY DUMAS] THE HAUNTED MAN MISS MIX [AFTER CHARLOTTE BRONTE] GUY HEAVYSTONE; OR, "ENTIRE." MR. MIDSHIPMAN BREEZY JOHN JENKINS; OR, THE SMOKER REFORMED NO TITLE [AFTER WILKIE COLLINS] Contains: MARY JONES'S NARRATIVE THE SLIM YOUNG MAN'S STORY NO. 27 LIMEHOUSE ROAD COUNT MOSCOW'S NARRATIVE DR. DIGGS'S STATEMENT BEING A NOVEL IN THE FRENCH PARAGRAPHIC STYLE FANTINE LA FEMME MARY MCGILLUP, A SOUTHERN NOVEL, AFTER BELLE BOYD HANDSOME IS AS HANDSOME DOES. BY CH--S R--DE. CHAPTER I. The Dodds were dead. For twenty year they had slept under the green graves of Kittery churchyard. The townfolk still spoke of them kindly. The keeper of the alehouse, where David had smoked his pipe, regretted him regularly, and Mistress Kitty, Mrs. Dodd's maid, whose trim figure always looked well in her mistress's gowns, was inconsolable. The Hardins were in America. Raby was aristocratically gouty; Mrs. Raby, religious. Briefly, then, we have disposed of-- 1. Mr. and Mrs. Dodd (dead). 2. Mr. and Mrs. Hardin (translated). 3. Raby, baron et femme. (Yet I don't know about the former; he came of a long-lived family, and the gout is an uncertain disease.) We have active at the present writing (place aux dames)-- 1. Lady Caroline Coventry, niece of Sir Frederick. 2. Faraday Huxley Little, son of Henry and Grace Little, deceased. Sequitur to the above, A HERO AND HEROINE. CHAPTER II. On the death of his parents, Faraday Little was taken to Raby Hall. In accepting his guardianship, Mr. Raby struggled stoutly against two prejudices: Faraday was plain-looking and sceptical. "Handsome is as handsome does, sweetheart," pleaded Jael, interceding for the orphan with arms that were still beautiful. "Dear knows, it is not his fault if he does not look like--his father," she added with a great gulp. Jael was a woman, and vindicated her womanhood by never entirely forgiving a former rival. "It's not that alone, madam," screamed Raby, "but, d--m it, the little rascal's a scientist,--an atheist, a radical, a scoffer! Disbelieves in the Bible, ma'am; is full of this Darwinian stuff about natural selection and descent. Descent, forsooth! In my day, madam, gentlemen were content to trace their ancestors back to gentlemen, and not to--monkeys!" "Dear heart, the boy is clever," urged Jael. "Clever!" roared Raby; "what does a gentleman want with cleverness?" CHAPTER III. Young Little WAS clever. At seven he had constructed a telescope; at nine, a flying-machine. At ten he saved a valuable life.