Excerpt: "Father once told me he had known of a lot of silkworms that stopped eating and died because a sudden noise frightened them," observed Pierre. "Such a calamity is not at all unusual, Pierre," returned his mother. "And more than that, if anything alarms them after they have begun to spin they will frequently snap the thread of their cocoon and refuse to spin anymore; if they do continue the interruption causes a lump, or rough place, in the...

Excerpt: "I have seen some of the old Mexican or Aztec pottery," declared Dr. Swift, "and it was very interesting. It was of reddish clay, and I was told it was much like the variety made in Peru. Not only were there roughly modeled dishes and jars in the collection, but also all sorts of strange clay idols. You see, instead of worshipping the gods of goodness, Theo, these early peoples thought they could propitiate the gods of evil if they worshipped...

Excerpt: "Plum-cake!" he cried. "A dandy great loaf! And here's olives, and preserved ginger, and sweet chocolate. She's put in salted almonds, too; and look-here's a tin box of Hannah's molasses cookies, the kind I used to like when I was a kid. Isn't my mother a peach?"

Sara Ware Bassett (1872–1968) was a prolific American author of fiction and nonfiction. Her novels primarily deal with New England characters, and most of them are set in two fictional Cape Cod villages she created, Belleport and Wilton.Her educational books include "The Story of Lumber" (1912), "The Story of Wool" (1913), "The Story of Leather" (1915), "The Story of Glass" (1916), "The Story of Sugar" (1917), "The Story of Porcelain" (1919), "Paul...