Across India; Or, Live Boys in the Far East

Across India; Or, Live Boys in the Far East

Oliver Optic

Adventure / Children's

"Across India" is the first volume of the third series of the "All-Over-the-World Library," in which the voyage of the Guardian-Mother is continued from Aden, where some important changes were made in the current of events, including the disposal of the little steamer Maud, which figured to a considerable extent in the later volumes of the library, though they also comprehended the addition of another and larger consort to the ship, in which the distinguished Pacha, as a reformed and entirely reconstructed person, sails in company with the voyagers.
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Plane and Plank; or, The Mishaps of a Mechanic

Plane and Plank; or, The Mishaps of a Mechanic

Oliver Optic

Adventure / Children's

"Plane and Plank" is the second of The Upward and Onward Series, in which the hero, Phil Farringford, appears as a mechanic. The events of the story are located on the Missouri River and in the city of St. Louis. Phil learns the trade of a carpenter, and the contrast between a young mechanic of an inquiring mind, earnestly laboring to master his business, and one who feels above his calling, and overvalues his own skill, is presented to the young reader, with the hope that he will accept the lesson.Incidentally, in the person and history of Phil\'s father the terrible evils of intemperance are depicted, and the value of Christian love and earnest prayer in the reformation of the unfortunate inebriate is exhibited.Though the incidents of the hero\'s career are quite stirring, and some of the situations rather surprising, yet Phil is always true to himself; and those who find themselves in sympathy with him cannot possibly be led astray, while they respect his Christian principles, reverence the Bible, and strive with him to do their whole duty to God and man.Harrison Square, Boston, June 7, 1870.IN WHICH PHIL MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF MR. LEONIDAS LYNCHPINNE."What do you think you shall do for a living, Phil Farringford, when you arrive at St. Louis?" asked Mr. Gracewood, as we sat on the hurricane deck of a Missouri River steamer."I don\'t care much what I do, if I can only get into some mechanical business," I replied. "I want to learn a trade. I don\'t think I\'m very vain when I say that I have about half learned one now.""Perhaps you have half learned several," added my excellent friend, with a smile. "I have no doubt you will make a good mechanic, for you are handy in the use of tools; and you have been thrown so much upon your own resources that you are full of expedients.""I am always delighted when I have a difficult job to do. Nothing pleases me so much as to study up the means of overcoming an obstacle," I added."The first qualification for any pursuit is to have a taste for it. You will make a good mechanic.""I am only afraid that after I have learned a trade, I shall not care to work at it.""That won\'t do," protested Mr. Gracewood. "You mustn\'t keep jumping from one thing to another. Frequent change is the enemy of progress. You must not be fickle.""But, after I have learned my trade, or rather finished learning it, there will be no more difficulties to overcome.""Yes, there will. What trade do you mean to learn?""The carpenter\'s, I think.""There may be an infinite variety in the trade.""I know there may be, but there is not. One house must be very much like every other one, I don\'t think I could be contented to keep doing the same thing over and over again.""If you wish to succeed, you must stick to your trade, Phil Farringford.""Should I stick to it if I can do better at something else?""You must, at least, be very sure that you can do better at something else.""Of course I shall; but, if I learn my trade, I shall always have it to fall back upon.""That is very true; but I wish to impress it upon your mind that fickleness of purpose is fatal to any real success in morals, in science, and in business."Our conversation was interrupted by the stopping of the steamer at a wood-yard; for I never lost an opportunity, on those occasions, to take a walk on shore. I was nervously anxious to see everything there was to be seen. All was new and strange; and every day, as the settlements on the banks of the great river increased in number and extent, afforded me a new sensation. As I had been brought up far away from the haunts of civilization, even a house was a curiosity to me; and I gazed with astonishment at the busy scenes which were presented to me in some of the larger towns. At St. Joseph we had taken on board quite a number of passengers, and the scene in the cabin had become much livelier than before.ILLUSTRATIONSOn The Missouri Steamer.Phil Escapes From Glynn.Phil A
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Poor and Proud; Or, The Fortunes of Katy Redburn: A Story for Young Folks

Poor and Proud; Or, The Fortunes of Katy Redburn: A Story for Young Folks

Oliver Optic

Adventure / Children's

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world\'s literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Taken by the Enemy

Taken by the Enemy

Oliver Optic

Adventure / Children's

CHAPTER I ASTOUNDING NEWS FROM THE SHORE "This is most astounding news!" exclaimed Captain Horatio Passford. It was on the deck of the magnificent steam-yacht Bellevite, of which he was the owner; and with the newspaper, in which he had read only a few of the many head-lines, still in his hand, he rushed furiously across the deck, in a state of the most intense agitation. It would take more than one figure to indicate the number of millions by which his vast wealth was measured, in the estimation of those who knew most about his affairs; and he was just returning from a winter cruise in his yacht. His wife and son were on board; but his daughter had spent the winter at the South with her uncle, preferring this to a voyage at sea, being in rather delicate health, and the doctors thought a quiet residence in a genial climate was better for her. The Bellevite had been among the islands of the Atlantic, visiting the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, and was now coming from Bermuda. She had just taken a pilot fifty miles from Sandy Hook, and was bound to New York, for the captain\'s beautiful estate, Bonnydale, was located on the Hudson. As usual, the pilot had brought on board with him the latest New-York papers, and one of them contained the startling news which appeared to have thrown the owner of the Bellevite entirely off his balance; and it was quite astounding enough to produce this effect upon any American. "What is it, sir?" demanded Christopher Passford, his son, a remarkably bright-looking young fellow of sixteen, as he followed his father across the deck. "What is it, Horatio?" inquired Mrs. Passford, who had been seated with a book on the deck, as she also followed her husband. The captain was usually very cool and self-possessed, and neither the wife nor the son had ever before seen him so shaken by agitation. He seemed to be unable to speak a word for the time, and took no notice whatever of his wife and son when they addressed him. For several minutes he continued to rush back and forth across the deck of the steamer, like a vessel which had suddenly caught a heavy flaw of wind, and had not yet come to her bearings. "What is the matter, Horatio?" asked Mrs. Passford, when he came near her. "What in the world has happened to overcome you in this manner, for I never saw you so moved before?" But her husband did not reply even to this earnest interrogatory, but again darted across the deck, and his lips moved as though he were muttering something to himself. He did not look at the paper in his hands again; and whatever the startling intelligence it contained, he seemed to have taken it all in at a glance. Christy, as the remarkably good-looking young man was called by all in the family and on board of the Bellevite, appeared to be even more astonished than his mother at the singular conduct of his father; but he saw how intense was his agitation, and he did not follow him in his impulsive flights across the deck. Though his father had always treated him with great consideration, and seldom if ever had occasion to exercise any of his paternal authority over him, the young man never took advantage of the familiarity existing between them....
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Up the River; or, Yachting on the Mississippi

Up the River; or, Yachting on the Mississippi

Oliver Optic

Adventure / Children's

CHAPTER I. IN CAPTAIN BOOMSBY\'S SALOON. "I don\'t think it\'s quite the thing, Alick," said my cousin, Owen Garningham, as we were walking through Bay Street after our return to Jacksonville from the interior of Florida. "What is not quite the thing, Owen?" I inquired, for he had given me no clue to what he was thinking about. "After I chartered your steamer for a year to come here, and go up the Mississippi River—by the way, this river is called \'The Father of Waters,\' isn\'t it?" asked Owen, flying off from the subject in his mind, as he was in the habit of doing. "Every schoolboy in this country learns that from his geography," I replied. "Happily, I was never a schoolboy in this country, and I didn\'t find it out from the geography. If the Mississippi is the Father of Waters, can you tell me who is the mother of them?" "The Miss\'ouri." "O, ah! Don\'t you feel faint, Captain Alick?" added Owen, stopping short on the sidewalk, and gazing into my face with a look of mock anxiety. "Not at all; I think I could swallow a burly Briton or two, if the occasion required." "Don\'t do it! It would ruin your digestion. But it strikes me those two rivers are but one." "I think so, too, and they ought to be. Father and mother—man and wife—ought to be one," I answered, as indifferently as I could. "But something was not quite the thing; and if there is anything in this country that is not quite the thing, I want to know what it is." "When I chartered the Sylvania to come down here, and then go up the \'Father of Waters,\' it isn\'t quite the thing for your father to declare the whole thing off at this point of the cruise," replied Owen. "I was going to have a jolly good time going up the river." "You may have it yet, for I have given you a cordial invitation to go \'up the river\' with me; and I mean every word I said about the matter," I added, in soothing tones. "But your father says the charter arrangement is ended, and you may go where you like in your steamer." "And I concluded at once to carry out all the arrangements for this trip, just as we made them at Detroit," I replied. "I have invited the Shepards and the Tiffanys to join us, and everything will go on just as it did before, except that you will not pay the bills." "Which means that, if I join you at all, I shall not be myself," returned Owen, with a look of disgust. "In other words, I shall not be my own master, and I must go where my uncle and you may choose to take me." "Not at all; we are going up the Mississippi simply because that is the route you selected, and because I desire to carry out your plan of travel to the letter," I replied, rather warmly. "I don\'t think I could do anything more to meet your views than I have done." "You are as noble, grand, magnanimous, as it is possible for any fellow to be, Alick; but that don\'t make me any more willing to be under obligations to you every day of my life." "You need feel under no obligations to me." "Ah, but I do, you see; and I still think it was not just the thing to break away from the written agreement we made," continued Owen, unable to conceal his vexation....
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A Lieutenant at Eighteen

A Lieutenant at Eighteen

Oliver Optic

Adventure / Children's

"Are you an honest man, sir?" asked a very pretty young woman, not more than twenty years old, as she stopped in the open field in front of Sergeant Life Knox of the Riverlawn Cavalry, as it was generally called, though the squadron belonged to a numbered regiment in Kentucky.
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Down the River; Or, Buck Bradford and His Tyrants

Down the River; Or, Buck Bradford and His Tyrants

Oliver Optic

Adventure / Children's

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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The Yacht Club; or, The Young Boat-Builder

The Yacht Club; or, The Young Boat-Builder

Oliver Optic

Adventure / Children's

CHAPTER I. DON JOHN OF BELFAST, AND FRIENDS. "Why, Don John, how you frightened me!" exclaimed Miss Nellie Patterdale, as she sprang up from her reclining position in a lolling-chair. It was an intensely warm day near the close of June, and the young lady had chosen the coolest and shadiest place she could find on the piazza of her father\'s elegant mansion in Belfast. She was as pretty as she was bright and vivacious, and was a general favorite among the pupils of the High School, which she attended. She was deeply absorbed in the reading of a story in one of the July magazines, which had just come from the post-office, when she heard a step near her. The sound startled her, it was so near; and, looking up, she discovered the young man whom she had spoken to close beside her. He was not Don John of Austria, but Donald John Ramsay of Belfast, who had been addressed by his companions simply as Don, a natural abbreviation of his first name, until he of Austria happened to be mentioned in the history recitation in school, when the whole class looked at Don, and smiled; some of the girls even giggled, and got a check for it; but the republican young gentleman became a titular Spanish hidalgo from that moment. Though he was the son of a boat-builder, by trade a ship carpenter, he was a good-looking, and gentlemanly fellow, and was treated with kindness and consideration by most of the sons and daughters of the wealthy men of Belfast, who attended the High School. It was hardly a secret that Don John regarded Miss Nellie with especial admiration, or that, while he was polite to all the young ladies, he was particularly so to her. It is a fact, too, that he blushed when she turned her startled gaze upon him on the piazza; and it is just as true that Miss Nellie colored deeply, though it may have been only the natural consequence of her surprise. "I beg your pardon, Nellie; I did not mean to frighten you," replied Donald. "I don\'t suppose you did, Don John; but you startled me just as much as though you had meant it," added she, with a pleasant smile, so forgiving that the young man had no fear of the consequences. "How terribly hot it is! I am almost melted." "It is very warm," answered Donald, who, somehow or other, found it very difficult to carry on a conversation with Nellie; and his eyes seemed to him to be twice as serviceable as his tongue. "It is dreadful warm." And so they went on repeating the same thing over and over again, till there was no other known form of expression for warm weather. "How in the world did you get to the side of my chair without my hearing you?" demanded Nellie, when it was evidently impossible to say anything more about the heat. "I came up the front steps, and was walking around on the piazza to your father\'s library. I didn\'t see you till you spoke," replied Donald, reminded by this explanation that he had come to Captain Patterdale\'s house for a purpose. "Is Ned at home?" "No; he has gone up to Searsport to stay over Sunday with uncle Henry." "Has he?...
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Hope and Have; or, Fanny Grant Among the Indians: A Story for Young People

Hope and Have; or, Fanny Grant Among the Indians: A Story for Young People

Oliver Optic

Adventure / Children's

Hope and Have - or, Fanny Grant Among the Indians, A Story for Young People is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Oliver Optic is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Oliver Optic then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.
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