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    The Damned Thing 1898, From "In the Midst of Life"
    The Damned Thing 1898, From "In the Midst of Life"
    The Damned Thing 1898, From "In the Midst of Life"
    Ebook38 pages21 minutes

    The Damned Thing 1898, From "In the Midst of Life"

    By Ambrose Bierce

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    The Damned Thing 1898, From "In the Midst of Life"
    Author

    Ambrose Bierce

    Ambrose Bierce was an American writer, critic and war veteran. Bierce fought for the Union Army during the American Civil War, eventually rising to the rank of brevet major before resigning from the Army following an 1866 expedition across the Great Plains. Bierce’s harrowing experiences during the Civil War, particularly those at the Battle of Shiloh, shaped a writing career that included editorials, novels, short stories and poetry. Among his most famous works are “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” “The Boarded Window,” “Chickamauga,” and What I Saw of Shiloh. While on a tour of Civil-War battlefields in 1913, Bierce is believed to have joined Pancho Villa’s army before disappearing in the chaos of the Mexican Revolution.

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      Book preview

      The Damned Thing 1898, From "In the Midst of Life" - Ambrose Bierce

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Damned Thing, by Ambrose Bierce

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Damned Thing

             1898, From In the Midst of Life

      Author: Ambrose Bierce

      Release Date: October 24, 2007 [EBook #23172]

      Last Updated: January 9, 2013

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAMNED THING ***

      Produced by David Widger

      THE DAMNED THING

      By Ambrose Bierce

      Reprinted by permission. From In the Midst of Life,

      Copyright, 1898, by G. P. Putnam's Sons

      Contents

      I

      By THE light of a tallow candle, which had been placed on one end of a rough table, a man was reading something written in a book. It was an old account book, greatly worn; and the writing was not, apparently, very legible, for the man sometimes held the page close to the flame of the candle to get a stronger light upon it. The shadow of the book would then throw into obscurity a half of the room, darkening a number of faces and figures; for besides the reader, eight other men were present. Seven of them sat against the rough log walls, silent and motionless, and, the room being small, not very far from the table. By extending an arm any one of them could have touched the eighth man, who lay on the table, face upward, partly covered by a sheet, his arms at his sides. He was dead.

      The man with the book was not reading aloud, and no one spoke; all seemed to be waiting for something to occur; the dead man only was without expectation. From the blank darkness outside came in,

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