title: The Gold Bug and Other Tales of Mystery
author: Edgar Allan Poe
description: Classic collection of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and poetry including The Gold Bug, The Man That Was Used Up, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Balloon-Hoax, A Descent Into the Maelstrom, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, Found in A Bottle, The Raven, and Annabel Lee.
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  [Chapter 6](Porch_Lights_split_004.html#filepos5748)
  
  > > “In supposing it to be a bug of real gold” . . .
  
  > > “This bug is to make my fortune,” he continued, with a triumphant smile,
  > “to reinstate me in my family possessions. Is it any wonder, then, that I
  > prize it?”
  
  > > —Edgar Allan Poe, “The Gold-Bug”
  
  Annie
  
  She was wrong. Charlie slept like a stone. But I felt so perfectly horrible
  about what Jackie had said that I was up half the night myself checking on him
  and checking on him. I knew that Charlie had been having trouble sleeping, but
  I hadn’t realized he was so impressionable or I never would have told him
  anything at bedtime that might have frightened him. Never in a million years.
  Why, I wouldn’t hurt a hair on that child’s head. Didn’t Jackie know that?
  Lord, this was giving me some terrible anxiety. The worst part was that she
  was probably right. Oh, hells bells. No more death stories from me!
  
  It was getting 