Foreword by Alexander Woolcott -- Preface to "All men are brothers" by Shih Nai-an -- The lady's maid's bell by Edith Wharton -- Joe by Gustav Eckstein -- A Christmas garland by Max Beerbohm -- The portrait of M. M. by D. H. Lawrence -- Two friends by Willa Cather -- Cakes and ale: or The skeleton in the cupboard by W. S. Maugham -- Boswell and the girl from Botany bay by F. A. Pottle -- The golden age by Kenneth Grahame -- Peter Rugg the missing man by William Austin -- My Aunt Daisy by Albert Halper.-- Three stories by Dorothy Parker: The little hours. Arrangement in black and white. The waltz -- Big two-hearted river by Ernest Hemingway -- The self-help of G. J. Smith, by William Bolitho.--All kneeling by Anne Parrish -- Whilomville stories by Stephen Crane -- To the Reverend Dr. Hyde by R. L. Stevenson -- Rab and his friends by Dr. John Brown -- God and my father by Clarence Day -- Thanksgiving proclamation by Governor W. L. Cross

1. American prose literature
2. English prose literature
3. Readers