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Later: Shelley Powers suggests two stories from the link below (in Links for the Senses), and offers an illustration.
Short reads: Classic Short Stories is a superb collection of complete short stories online -- 155 tales by authors such as O. Henry, Guy de Maupassant, Dorothy Parker, Shirley Jackson, H.G. Wells, E.B. White, Poe, Twain and many more.
When I was making the transition from children's books to adult fiction, short-story anthologies were the bridge: I could work my way through the easier ones, work up to the tougher going. I still love to spend an afternoon with a collection, reading a few paragraphs of each, continuing with those that grab me. Science fiction and mysteries, especially, lend themselves to this buffet treatment.
These are pre-vetted -- no first experiments here -- and might be worth printing and compiling into your own e-book for the bathroom or the road. A few titles:
The Lady, or the Tiger?--Frank StocktonThe Use of Force--William Carlos Williams
The Tell-Tale Heart--Edgar Allan Poe
A Haunted House--Virginia Woolf
The Gift of the Magi--O. Henry (1862-1910)
The site also has a fine page of links to other short-story sites -- mystery stories, Jewish stories, children's stories, F. Scott Fitzgerald...
Unfortunately, there are no illustrations, but I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't floating loose around the Web somewhere, illustrations in search of a story.
Weekend search: A typical line in my referrer log, especially on weekends: "Google Search: is there any way to cook frozen pot roast"
For everybody who didn't plan ahead, here's Crockpot recipe: Frozen pot roast with Jack Daniel's again.
