=Biography.= Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-⸺) is an English author. He was educated in Stonyhurst College and at the University of Edinburgh. In 1885 he was graduated as a doctor of medicine and soon afterwards began practice. It was about this time that his first book, _A Study in Scarlet_, was published. His greatest success came with the publication of _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_, a collection of detective stories that introduced a character who has become as famous as if he had actually lived. Other books that have added to his fame are _The Lost World_, _The New Revelation_, and _The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes_. He has written many interesting articles on the World War, particularly descriptions of the western campaigns. In 1902 he was knighted. =Discussion.= 1. Who is supposed to be telling the story? 2. Why were the soldiers of the Twenty-first so disheartened? 3. What effect upon them had the arrival of the Guards? 4. Do you think that you would have felt like cheering if you had been a soldier of the Twenty-first? 5. What effect upon you has the line “Dressing as straight as a hem”? 6. What picture does the last stanza give you? 7. Does the poet make you see the Guards as they came through? 8. What do the last three lines suggest? 9. What does “Blighty” mean to you? 10. Why does the one who is telling the story say that _we_ could not understand? =Phrases= shell-swept slope, 188, 19 waiting and wincing, 188, 24 swank and dash, 189, 19 arms at the trail, 189, 26 STORIES OF THE SEA [Illustration] A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM EDGAR ALLAN POE MY FIRST VIEW OF THE MAELSTROM We had now reached the summit of the loftiest crag. For some minutes the old man seemed too much exhausted to speak. “Not long ago,” said he at length, “and I could have guided you on this route as well as the youngest of my sons; but, about three years past, there happened to me an event such as never happened before to mortal man—or at least such as no man ever survived to tell of—and the six hours of deadly terror which I then endured have broken me up, body and soul. You suppose me a _very_ old man—but I am not. It took less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my nerves, so that I tremble at the least exertion, and am frightened at a shadow. Do you know I can scarcely look over this little cliff without getting giddy?”