TALKING LEAVES. An Indian Story. By W. O. STODDARD.
WHO WAS PAUL GRAYSON? By JOHN HABBERTON, Author of "Helen's Babies."
PRINCE LAZYBONES, AND OTHER STORIES. By Mrs. W. J. HAYS.
THE ICE QUEEN. By ERNEST INGERSOLL.
CHAPTERS ON PLANT LIFE. By Mrs. S. B. HERRICK.
STRANGE STORIES FROM HISTORY. By GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON.

PUBLISHED BY Harper & Brothers, NEW YORK.

_Any of the above works will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, to
any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price._

Copyright, 1885, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

PREFACE.

In calling the tales in this volume "Strange Stories" I have sought
simply to indicate that, in the main, they are unfamiliar to youthful
readers, and that most of them relate deeds and occurrences some what
out of the common. In choosing the themes I have tried to avoid the
tales that have been often used, and to tell only those of which young
readers generally have not before heard.

Of course, a book of this kind can make no pretension to originality of
matter, as the facts used in it are to be found in historical works of
recognized authority, though many of them have been drawn from books
that are not easily accessible to the majority of readers. If there is
any originality in my little volume it is in the manner in which the
tales are told. I have endeavored to tell them as simply as possible,
and at the same time with as much dramatic force and fervor as I could
command, while adhering rigidly to the facts of history.

It would be impossible for me to say to what sources I am indebted for
materials. The incidents related have been familiar to me for years, as
they are to all persons whose reading of history has been at all
extensive, and I cannot say with any certainty how much of each I
learned from one and how much from another historical writer. Nor is it
in any way necessary that I should do so, as the recorded facts of
history are common property. But a special acknowledgment is due to Mr.
James Parton in the case of the tale of the Negro Fort, and also for
certain details in those relating to the New Orleans campaign of
1814-15. In that field Mr. Parton is an original investigator, to whose
labors every writer on the subject must be indebted. I wish also to
acknowledge my obligation to Mr. A. B. Meek, the author of a little
work entitled "Romantic Passages in Southwestern History," for the main
facts in the stories of the Charge of the Hounds and