Muuttolintu by Hilja Aaltonen is a collection of poems written in the early 20th century. The book centers on grief, longing, love, and spiritual reflection, framed by the rhythms of rural Finnish life and the changing seasons. Across four parts, the poems move from intimate mourning to wider meditations on nature, love, and faith. The opening cycle grieves a mother with stark funeral scenes and tender lullabies, then turns to addresses to Thought and Loneliness, where worldly striving has dimmed the inner light; nature images—waterlily, storm, autumn plains—mirror poverty, isolation, and homesickness. The middle section traces a love story of distance and return: sea-borne separation, self-exile, the pull back home, praise of the beloved, and a hard-won renunciation for another’s good, with a companion piece on two friends sharing loss. The final section confronts life’s harshness and the nearness of death, listens for a higher Word, and finds moments of grace in Christmas bells, Easter bonfires, moonlit nights, and the day’s renewal. A long retrospective poem recalls ancestral toil, famine and war, and the cyclical labor of fields and looms, before the book closes on a spring evening’s quiet question about darkness, stars, and what endures. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility" by W. J. Sparrow-Simpson is a historical and theological study written in the early 20th century. It examines how significant numbers of Roman Catholic bishops, clergy, and laity struggled with, resisted, and ultimately were pressed to accept the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, especially around the First Vatican Council. Drawing almost entirely on Roman Catholic sources, it traces arguments across countries and centuries and emphasizes the inner history of the opposition rather than a full chronicle of Vatican I. The opening of the work sets out its aim: to narrate, from Roman Catholic evidence, the intellectual and moral difficulties many Catholics faced in assenting to Papal Infallibility, deliberately excluding Protestant critiques. The preface highlights newly available letters and biographies, notes the pressures shaping Ultramontane biographies, mentions the Indexing of Turmel’s book, and acknowledges scholarly assistance, before listing extensive authorities and a contents roadmap. The first chapter tests the scriptural cornerstone (Luke 22:32), arguing that Christ’s words to Peter do not establish papal inerrancy: the prayer is exclusive and conditional; “faith” concerns personal devotion rather than guaranteed utterances; “strengthen thy brethren” denotes moral support and a command, not an infallible promise; and successors are not implied. The next chapter surveys the Fathers, showing contested or limited support: appeals to Irenaeus, Cyprian, Augustine, Jerome, Gelasius, and especially Vincent of Lerins emphasize universality, antiquity, and consent, and illustrate councils critically weighing papal letters (e.g., Leo’s Tome at Chalcedon). The third chapter focuses on Pope Honorius and Monothelitism, recounting the Sixth Ecumenical Council’s condemnation of Honorius and later papal confirmations, the Liber Diurnus profession anathematising him, and the range of Roman Catholic attempts to explain or mitigate the case. The fourth chapter then turns to the scholastic era, noting the transformed context and the growth of papal (including temporal) power. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"Sven Hankatuuli" by Bernt Lie is a school novel written in the early 20th century. It follows an average, quick-witted but habitually unprepared boy, Sven, as he navigates strict classrooms, fragile pride, and the tug-of-war between talent and effort. Key figures include the sarcastic teacher Svenningsen, the fair and steady headmaster Holst, the principled classmate Anton Bech, and the competitive Simon Selmer. The story focuses on school life, friendship, and the moral fallout when small evasions grow into real trouble. The opening of the novel introduces Sven’s middling standing and his knack for guessing, excuses, and daydreaming, which earn him both a teasing nickname and teachers’ distrust. When Svenningsen finds and publicly reads Sven’s Columbus poem, refuses to return it, and strikes him for protesting, Anton Bech calmly defends Sven; later, headmaster Holst handles the matter with tact, returns the poem, and quietly wins Sven’s admiration, while a tentative friendship forms between Sven and Anton. The narrative then shifts to Sven’s worsening math troubles: a detention, ominous notes, and a letter from Holst advising private tutoring that Sven panics over, secretly opens and burns, then covers with lies about getting help and by buying a new gradebook. To keep the pretense, he copies Anton’s Saturday homework from the unlocked cabinet; after an ink mishap, he rewrites solutions from Simon Selmer’s work and unknowingly reproduces a telltale error, leading Lange to accuse Anton of cheating and lying, while Sven sits silent, gripped by fear as his deception begins to ensnare others. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Scepticism and Animal Faith (1923) is a later work by Spanish-born American philosopher George Santayana. He intended it to be "merely the introduction to a new system of philosophy," a work that would later be called The Realms of Being, which constitutes the bulk of his philosophy, along with The Life of Reason. Scepticism is Santayana's major treatise on epistemology; after its publication, he wrote no more on the topic. His preface begins humbly, with Santayana saying: Here is one more system of philosophy. If the reader is tempted to smile, I can assure him that I smile with him...I am merely trying to express for the reader the principles to which he appeals when he smiles. Moreover, he does not claim philosophical supremacy: I do not ask anyone to think in my terms if he prefers others. Let him clean better, if he can, the windows of his soul, that the variety and beauty of the prospect may spread more brightly before him. While Santayana acknowledges the importance of skepticism to philosophy, and begins by doubting almost everything; from here, he seeks to find some kind of epistemological truths. Idealism is correct, claims Santayana, but is of no consequence. He makes this pragmatic claim by asserting that men do not live by the principles of idealism, even if it is true. We have functioned for eons without adhering to such principles, and may continue, pragmatically, as such. He posits the necessity of the eponymous "Animal Faith", which is belief in that which our senses tell us; "Philosophy begins in medias res", he assures us at the beginning of his treatise. (This summary is from Wikipedia.)

"The Girl He Loved" by Adelaide Stirling is a novel written in the early 20th century. It charts a romantic drama of secret vows, pride, and social scheming, centering on Ravenel Annesley, her brother Tommy, their calculating stepmother Lady Annesley, the dashing Captain Adrian Gordon, and the cynical aristocrat Lord Levallion. Early signals point to a tale of love imperiled by class ambition and manipulation, with a vulnerable heroine forced to choose between her heart and her safety. The opening of the story introduces Ravenel and Tommy living under Lady Annesley’s tight control at Annesley Chase. Ravenel secretly pledges herself to Captain Adrian Gordon, accepts a distinctive emerald-and-opal ring, and agrees to a clandestine wedding at Effingham before his post to India—plans overheard by the stepmother’s spying maid. The ring mysteriously disappears after Lady Annesley outfits Ravenel in white for the duchess’s garden party; Adrian fails to appear, and Lord Levallion (intrigued and oddly protective) drives the distraught girl home, later coolly announcing that Gordon has sailed, which breaks her spirit. The duchess whisks Ravenel and Tommy to London, while Lady Annesley enlists Mrs. Hester Murray to wound Ravenel with “a bit of the truth,” implying Adrian has a wife; stung into icy pride, Ravenel dazzles at the duchess’s ball, where Levallion pointedly courts her and proposes marriage as an escape from Sylvia’s power. Reeling and bent on revenge—and to secure Tommy’s future—Ravenel accepts, setting the novel’s central conflict in motion. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"Reineke Fuchs" by Helene Fuchs is a children's retelling of a medieval beast epic written in the early 20th century. The tale follows the cunning fox Reineke as he navigates a court of talking animals ruled by King Nobel the lion, pitting wit and rhetoric against the brute force and grievances of foes like Isegrim the wolf and Braun the bear. It blends lively adventure with satirical jabs at courtly, clerical, and social pretensions. The opening of the story first situates the work within the long tradition of animal fable and the Reynard cycle, then moves to King Nobel’s Whitsuntide court, where a stream of animals denounce Reineke’s tricks and thefts. After Henning the cock mourns a slain daughter, the king sends Braun to summon the fox; Reineke lures him into a split tree “honey” trap, and later ensnares Hinze the cat in a parson’s barn. Grimbart the badger escorts Reineke to court after a mock “confession,” where, despite bold self-defense, the fox is condemned and led to the gallows. On the ladder he spins a gripping tale of a secret conspiracy and a hidden treasure, implicating powerful foes and even his kin; the king and queen relent, pardon him, and jail his enemies, whose hides become Reineke’s “pilgrim” gear. The section closes with the fox, newly favored and outwardly penitent, setting off on a supposed pilgrimage to Rome. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"Im Banne der Furcht" by Ernst Kotz is an ethnographic monograph written in the early 20th century. It examines the customs, beliefs, and daily life of the Wapare (Pare) people of East Africa from a missionary-ethnologist’s vantage point, with particular attention to religion, language, law, and rites of passage. The book blends close field observation with a critical view of fear, magic, and healing as forces structuring community life. The opening of the work presents a laudatory foreword that defends collaboration between mission and ethnography and frames the study as scientifically valuable and candid about intimate customs. A detailed contents list signals wide scope, from “Negro psychology and language” to birth, initiation, law, economy, cult, superstition, illness, and mission. The first chapter urges empathetic engagement and mastery of local languages, illustrating the tonal complexity of Chasu and the pitfalls of colonial miscommunication. Subsequent sections depict pregnancy and birth rites, the roles of healer (mganga) versus sorcerer (msavi), and coercive midwifery practices, while condemning fear-driven infanticide when taboos are breached. Early childhood customs for girls follow—naming, tooth rituals and their dangers, protective amulets, and early female circumcision. The narrative then outlines the first and second women’s festivals: seclusion of the “house virgin,” drumming, erotic night dances, strict sanctions for transgression, and the start of her public “bringing out” marked by communal brewing, songs, and ritual weeping. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

The olive branch, and other stories by A. L. O. E.. is a collection of short, didactic Christian tales for children written in the Victorian era. Through fables, domestic sketches, and moral anecdotes, it teaches everyday virtue and faith—peacemaking, humility, honesty, patience, charity, courage, and trust in God. The title story shows little Rosina healing a family quarrel by delivering her mother’s kisses and returning with an olive sprig of reconciliation. Across the volume, boastfulness is unmasked (“the ass in the lion’s skin”), calm endurance shrugs off mockery, cheerful usefulness shines in a poor London back-kitchen, and kindness and self-denial are rewarded (a girl yields her pony to a spiteful rival; a boy risks his outing to aid an injured stranger and is helped in turn). Other pieces warn against grasping at uncertain pleasures, oppose empty wishes with real help, and prefer deeds to words (a devoted dog saves a child while a parrot only chatters). Contrasts between living for self and for others, and a soldier’s tale of brave friendship that points to Christ’s greater love, deepen the lessons. An allegory urges pressing through “Difficulty” with the wings of faith and love, while closing reflections bid readers measure life by Scripture and cherish the heavenly inheritance that outlasts earthly wealth. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"Colour in woven design" by Roberts Beaumont is a technical treatise written in the early 20th century. It unites colour science with loom technology to show how to plan, balance, and apply colour across woollen, worsted, cotton, and silk fabrics, from mixtures and stripes to checks, figured and double weaves, and warp- or weft-coloured effects. Aimed at designers, manufacturers, and students, it combines theory, standards, and abundant illustrated examples to guide practical textile colouring. The opening of the treatise sets the scope and purpose: to fill a gap between general colour theory and the practical needs of textile design, now expanded in a rewritten second edition with new illustrations and a chapter on colour standardization. After the transcriber’s notes and dedications, the prefaces explain the audience and plan, and the detailed contents map chapters from colour theory and harmony through mixtures, simple and compound colourings, special weaves, spotting, double weaves, and warp/weft-figured fabrics. The first chapter defines the three elements of woven pattern—weave, form, and colour—and shows how colour’s effect depends on fibre, fabric structure, and method of application (blends, warp/weft orders, extra yarns). It then introduces light and spectrum basics, prismatic experiments, and the distinction between mixing lights and pigments, identifies pigment primaries (red, yellow, blue) with their secondary and tertiary compounds, and explains the constants of colour (purity, luminosity, hue) and heat absorption. The start of the next chapter outlines the skills of a textile colourist, the role of pure colours as brighteners when carefully balanced, and begins a close study of red—its power, derivatives, and modification by black, white, and other hues for effective use as grounds and accents in woven designs. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"The claims of decorative art" by Walter Crane is a collection of essays on art and design written in the late 19th century. It argues for the dignity and centrality of the decorative and applied arts, their unity with architecture, and their deep ties to everyday life, labour, and social conditions. The work critiques commercialism and machine production for degrading taste, and champions craftsmanship, pattern, and figurative thought as foundations of a healthy artistic culture. The opening of the work sets out a manifesto: decorative art is not a lesser field but the root system that sustains painting and sculpture, and beauty must permeate daily surroundings to nourish higher arts. Crane insists art is a language shaped by material, use, and social environment; he rebukes exhibition culture and “flatness-only” clichés, arguing adaptability, harmony, and decorum are the true tests of decoration. He broadens “architecture” to mean the structural background of life and thought, showing how economic forces and commercialism fragment the arts and stifle spontaneity, while a more communal mode of living could restore their unity. He then surveys figurative art’s vitality from satire to ideal allegory, defends sculpture and painting from a decorator’s standpoint, outlines the logic and evolution of pattern (from square and circle to scrolls, frets, and fans), and links art to labour, calling for revived handicraft against mechanised production and its erosion of both joy in work and public taste. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"Mission of fear" by George Harmon Coxe is a mystery novel written in the mid-20th century. It centers on John Hayden, whose marriage is threatened when a slick stranger claims Hayden’s wife’s supposedly dead ex-husband may be alive, a claim that quickly spirals into blackmail and murder. With State Police scrutiny closing in, Hayden is driven to uncover the truth before suspicion and scandal destroy his life. The opening of the novel follows Hayden through an ordinary after-work stop that turns ominous when he learns a man named Sam Adler has been asking about him and is staying at the local motel. At home, his wife Marion reveals Adler’s shocking claim: her first husband, Ted Corbin—believed dead in a plane crash—appears alive, backed by a recent snapshot and a photographed fingerprint, and Adler wants $20,000 to keep quiet. After consulting their lawyer, Roger Denham, Hayden goes to the motel to confront Adler but finds him stabbed to death; in a panic to shield his marriage, he removes the photo and fingerprint images from Adler’s wallet and slips away unseen. Soon Lieutenant Garvey and Detective Ball arrive to question the Haydens, armed with witnesses who confirm Adler visited their house that afternoon; Marion, steadied but fearful, presents Adler as a book salesman as the interrogation intensifies. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"On the frontier" by C. H. Pearson is a collection of frontier sketches and moral tales written in the mid-19th century. Through episodic, first-person scenes from the Upper Mississippi and Minnesota prairies, a New England clergyman-narrator observes hardship, danger, and neighborly generosity while pressing the claims of faith amid a raw, fast-forming society. The opening of this work moves through vivid vignettes: a tense night on a crowded Mississippi steamer ends harmlessly after a key mix-up; a boy named Judson freezes on the prairie, prompting the narrator’s pastoral visit and planting seeds for gospel work in a bereaved community; and a comic, perilous ox-team run for lumber careens through runaway cattle, broken gear, fog, and unexpected help. These experiences lead to a permanent ministry in a new settlement, where a grim, anti-religious “aunt Flora” is quietly softened, reads Scripture alone one Sunday, and soon dies rejoicing, having been reached by childhood Bible echoes. A barefoot bridegroom’s Western wedding brings a river swim on horseback, a tender, dying mother, a steadfast suitor, and a Millerite father whose end-times fervor colors the feast and even his reading of Nahum. A brief lyric mourns a child’s grave, and a final sketch begins with a wary walk beside a desperate, fever-worn stranger who unburdens a story of lost love, faltering faith, and aimless wandering in the West. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"Buddhism & science" by Paul Dahlke is a philosophical treatise written in the early 20th century. It argues that Buddhism provides a rigorous world-theory that surpasses both faith-based religion and mechanistic science by grounding meaning, morality, and knowledge in direct insight into actuality. The work develops a Buddhist account of causality, consciousness, karma, and rebirth, and sets this framework against questions in physics, biology, and cosmology. The opening of the treatise declares its purpose and audience: it seeks thinking readers dissatisfied with both dogmatic belief and purely technical science, and it frames three perennial questions—What am I? How should I act? To what end am I here? It contends that morality and religion must be functions of cognition, not mere emotion, and that neither faith (which posits a transcendent “adequate cause in itself”) nor science (which restricts itself to the sensible and the mechanical) can answer these questions. The author critiques faith as contrary to sense and ultimately selfish in motivation, and portrays science as amoral, limited to re-actual (measurable) processes, and incapable of providing existential support. He then introduces the Buddha’s “teaching of actuality,” situating it historically and linguistically, and emphasizing its radical, experiential grasp of transience and suffering. The doctrinal core begins by placing the Buddha between faith and science: all phenomena are conditioned (Sankhāra); living processes require real, non-sensible energies; individuality is an “in-force” (Kamma) expressed through the five aggregates and disclosed as consciousness, without a permanent self (anattā). With the Fire Sermon’s “all is burning” as motif, the text explains volitional action as a self-sustaining process, develops dependent arising, and presents rebirth as the continuity of Kamma via consciousness linking existences—beginningless, personal, and non-identical from life to life. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"The history of witchcraft and demonology" by Montague Summers is a historical account written in the early 20th century. It contends that witchcraft was a real, organized, diabolic cult intertwined with heresy, law, and society, and that grasping it is essential to understanding European civilization. Drawing on inquisitorial records, trial narratives, and classic demonologists, it challenges rationalist skepticism, links modern spiritualism to old sorcery, and even considers the witch’s portrayal on the stage. The opening of this work sets out a selective, document-driven method, arguing for depth over breadth and announcing a companion volume on regional witch panics. Summers laments English historians’ neglect, attacks materialist dismissals, and insists the obscene and criminal elements of witchcraft must be faced to understand its social danger. He critiques modern scholars—rejecting blanket skepticism (Notestein) and disputing the “survivalist” Dianic-cult thesis (M. A. Murray)—while commending careful use of evidence. Beginning his argument, he defines the witch via Bodin as one who seeks ends through the Devil, rejects romantic and antiquarian trivializations, and explains contested motifs (broom “flights” as ritual acts; the Sabbat’s “Devil” often a human grand master; curses abetted by poison). He maintains confessions are not mere hysteria, traces legal repression of sorcery back to the Roman Empire, and sketches how the medieval Inquisition emerged to combat heresy with judicial procedure. He then links witchcraft to Gnostic and Manichaean currents (Bogomiles, Cathari, Albigenses), treating it as Satanism rather than a benign pre-Christian fertility religion, and illustrates the continuity with early medieval cases and later practices. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"Hiihtokilpailu" by Juudas Puustinen is a humorous novella written in the early 20th century. It lampoons small-town zeal as a restless schoolmaster ignites a ski club and a grand “nationwide” competition, pulling the whole community into a frenzy. Central figures include the driving force Pekka Teräs, the practical Uncle Mooses, his keen nephews Antti and Ville, and the worldly Heikki, whose modern gear and bravado set the tone. The opening of the book follows Teräs’s boredom in the provincial town of Pihkasalmi turning into a bold plan for a ski club and spectacular races, sold to locals through fiery speeches and newspaper hype. Training fever grips the town, with colorful would‑be champions vying for glory. In the countryside, Heikki returns with sleek modern skis, dazzles Mooses and the boys with technique, and spurs a secret campaign: Mooses crafts exhibition-worthy skis while Antti and Ville grind through timed laps around the lake. After comic village reactions and quiet plotting, the group travels by sleigh to the city, submits skis and handmade boots to the exhibition, and registers amid bustling crowds, Heikki’s breezy confidence contrasting with the boys’ nerves as the long-anticipated race day looms. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Jack Hall by Robert Grant is a novel written in the late 19th century. It centers on the spirited schooldays of a Boston boy, Jack Hall, tracing his pranks, friendships, and formative scrapes as he inches toward greater responsibility. Expect brisk episodes of winter sport and street mischief, a tight-knit circle of boys, and the tension between boyish daring and a devoted mother’s guidance. The opening of the novel drops us into Washington’s Birthday in Boston, where thirteen-year-old Jack revels in snowballing a grocer’s clerk, hitching behind sleighs, candy-shop indulgences, and headlong coasting that ends in a spill. He and his friends wage a raucous neighborhood snowball battle against “muckers,” with Jack toppling the feared Joe Herring before a policeman disperses the fray. That evening they feast at home and pull off nocturnal pranks—chalk “letters,” a bell-string trip that humiliates a stern neighbor—while Jack candidly admits to his mother that he tried smoking rattan. By morning he has measles, the grocer arrives to protest ongoing mischief and petty pilfering, and Jack’s mother reflects on his forebears, the limits of city boyhood, and whether a country school might better shape his character. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"Through green glasses" by Edmund Downey is a collection of short stories written in the late 19th century. It offers humorous Irish tall tales told in lively dialect, blending folklore and mock-history with playful anachronism. A genial narrator channels a homespun raconteur to recast kings, saints, and rogues in an Irish key, with figures like the swaggering fisherman Andy Merrigan and assorted historical notables at the fore. The opening of the book frames the voice: the narrator meets Dan, an illiterate but irresistible storyteller whose simple, vivid language and cheerful disdain for chronology shape every yarn. In the first tale, Andy Merrigan boasts to King Cormac that he has discovered a vast western land, bargains to sell it for cash while keeping the right to haul away its “gold,” and returns under suspicion of piracy; when ordered to fetch his foreign bride as proof, he sails into a storm and goes down in a dramatic wreck, leaving locals to muse that he may have found the New World. Next, From Portlaw to Paradise follows Paddy Power, who dies mid-absolution and banters at Heaven’s gate with a saint (revealed as St. Patrick) before St. Peter tweaks the ledger and lets him in as Portlaw’s first representative. Then King John and the Mayor delivers a Waterford spoof: the king insults the bearded mayor, must be carried ashore through mud, loses his crown in the “Pill,” and departs wearing the mayor’s battered hat. The section closes by starting The Wonderful Escape of James II, where the fugitive king reaches a toll gate at dawn and the keeper, Jimmy Murphy, cleverly ushers him through a side door so he can truthfully misdirect the pursuers. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

A perfect gentleman by Mark Price is a Western short story written in the early 20th century. The story follows a tough cowboy-gambler who tries to live up to a young woman’s ideal of a “perfect gentleman” while facing down a crooked saloon boss in a frontier town. A wandering gun-hand rides into Oakwood, falls for shopkeeper Carol Hoyt, and hides his identity as Trigger Caswell by calling himself Joe Smith. To please her stated ideal of a mild, non-fighting gentleman, he swallows insults and holds back even as Hal Spencer, a crooked gambler, forges a debt to seize her store and threatens to force her into marriage. When Spencer goes too far, the drifter decides to act: he outplays the house at poker, shoots his way clear when they try to rob him, then thrashes Spencer in a savage fistfight and hands Carol the winnings to reclaim her store. Exposed as Trigger but spared by the intimidated law, he rides with Carol to safety, confesses the truth, and learns she values strength and bravery after all; they admit their love and head to the county seat to be married. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

The Wilderness Hunter by Theodore Roosevelt is a collection of hunting narratives and natural history sketches written in the late 19th century. It chronicles the American wilderness, frontier hunters, and big-game animals through firsthand adventures and reflective essays drawn from ranch life and long hunts across the West. Readers can expect vivid landscapes, practical hunting lore, and portraits of species such as bison, elk, deer, antelope, sheep, and moose. The opening of this work surveys America’s varied wild lands—eastern hardwoods, northern forests, plains, deserts, and the Rockies—then sketches the rise and decline of wilderness hunters and soldiers, from Boone, Crockett, Houston, and Carson to the buffalo hunters and the regular army, as settlement closes the frontier. Roosevelt catalogs the chief game animals and their ranges, names Montana–Wyoming as prime hunting ground, and shifts into first-person scenes of ranch and round-up life: driving saddle bands, cutting and branding cattle, and roping mavericks. He explains how and where to hunt blacktail and whitetail deer, favoring fair still-hunting over unsportsmanlike methods, and relates crisp episodes of drives with hounds in river bottoms, bucking horses, missed chances, and lucky shots, along with the camp routines of wagon trips. This opening section concludes with his ride to join a post–round-up crew on the open plains, pronghorn scattered across the grasslands, and the setting of the night guard in cow-camp. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

"Narracions estranyes" by Antoni Careta y Vidal is a collection of short stories written in the early 20th century. The tales fuse everyday Catalan settings with uncanny turns and moral reckonings, showing how small choices can spiral into eerie consequences. The opening story follows a young conscript from Sant Feliu whose temptations in Barcelona collide with a disturbing, life-altering warning from the uncanny. The opening of this collection follows a weaver engaged to Tereseta who, hoping to dodge the draft, even obeys a Barcelona charlatan’s advice to steal a cemetery bone and pray a novena—an act that fails, landing him in the artillery in Barcelona. Lonely and impressionable, he falls under Sergeant Robles’s bawdy influence, flirts with Susagna, a maid he meets near the Boqueria, and dines with her while her employers are away; when they return, she locks him in the pantry. There he falls into a nightmarish dream: he is arrested with Susagna, accused of murdering the old couple, tried by a military tribunal under a state of siege, consoled by a humane lieutenant and a chaplain, and finally executed by firing squad. He jolts awake at dawn in the pantry, takes the vision as a warning, breaks off with Susagna despite her pleas, sickens with remorse, and is tended by Robles and his Galician friend Pombo as he resolves to live decently. (This is an automatically generated summary.)