Quick Read by Stephen Leacock. A professional photographer humiliates a customer during his sitting by criticizing and trying to manipulate every aspect of his facial features and posture. Later, when the customer views the developed product, his face has been so digitally altered as to be unrecognizable.
Grade 7-8 Story by Heywood Broun. The headmaster of “Knight School” decides that the best way to reform a cowardly student is to train him as a dragon slayer. It’s a bad year for dragons and when the lad complains, the headmaster provides him with a magic invisibility spell.
Novelette by Jean Stafford. Orphan sisters are fostered out to “Gran”, a harsh, unloving woman who runs a boarding house. Academically backward and teased at school, they become friends with a drunken Irishman who gives them a puppy. Sadly, Gran converts the loveable pup into a ferocious attack dog.
Quick Reads by Isaac Babel. Three stories from the author’s time as a journalist covering the Polish-Soviet War of 1920. They provide a graphic insight into the human impact of the war on those fighting it, as well as the casualties and brutalities inflicted by both sides on innocent civilians.
Short Story by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. A love triangle exists between life-long best friends and the wife of one of them. When the husband asks his friend to come urgently to his house, the frightened man consults a fortune-teller to make sure that it is safe.