I The Court of Chancery 383 II Lady Dedlock's Secret 390 III Little Joe Plays a Part 398 IV Esther Becomes the Mistress of Bleak House 405 HARD TIMES I Mr. Gradgrind and His "System" 413 II The Robbery of Bounderby's Bank 420 III Harthouse's Plan Fails 427 IV Stephen's Return 432 THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD I John Jasper 441 II The Coming of Neville Landless 444 III The Choirmaster's Dinner 449 IV Jasper Shows His Teeth 455 INDEX TO CHARACTERS 463 TALES FROM DICKENS CHARLES DICKENS Charles John Huffham Dickens, the master story-teller, was born in Landport, England, February 7, 1812. His father was a clerk in one of the offices of the Navy, and he was one of eight children. When he was four years old, his father moved to the town of Chatham, near the old city of Rochester. Round about are chalk hills, green lanes, forests and marshes, and amid such scenes the little Charles's genius first began to show itself. He did not like the rougher sports of his school-fellows and preferred to amuse himself in his own way, or to wander about with his older sister, Fanny, whom he especially loved. They loved to watch the stars together, and there was one particular star which they used to pretend was their own. People called him a "very queer small boy" because he was always thinking or reading instead of playing. The children of the neighborhood would gather around him to listen while he told them stories or sang comic songs to them, and when he was only eight years old he taught them to act in plays which he invented. He was fond of reading books of travel, and most of all he loved _The Arabian Nights_ and _Robinson Crusoe_. He had a great affection for Chatham and Rochester, and after he began to write stories that were printed, he often used to put these places into them. It was at Chatham that poor little David in the story, _David Copperfield_, lay down to sleep when he was running away from London to find his aunt, Miss Betsy Trotwood. It was to Rochester that Mr. Pickwick in _Pickwick Papers_, rode with Jingle. Rochester was really the "Cloisterham" where the wicked choir master, John Jasper, killed his nephew, in _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_. And it was in those very marshes near by, that Magwitch, the escaped convict in _Great Expectations_, so frightened little Pip. It is easy to see that the young Charles Dickens noted carefully and remembered everything he saw, and this habit was of great use to him all his life.