Volume Four of the Journeys Through Bookland Series contains the story of Cid Compeador, the hero of Spain, biographies of Hawthorne and Longfellow, Alfred the Great by Dickens, The Death of Hector by Homer, etc. It marks a shift from stories and poems in the series, to getting the young reader to think about the authors themselves, history and historical context. There are stories from Classics, such as Ulysses from the Odyssey, The Wooden Horse from Virgil's Aeneid. It also has wonderful bits of Americana such as the story of Chevy Chase or John Bunyan. See the review of volume one for the purpose of the series.