All Adrift; Or, The Goldwing Club Read online

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  THE BOAT BUILDER SERIES

  OLIVER OPTIC

  William T. Adams]

  The Boat-Builder Series.

  I.

  ALL ADRIFT;OR,THE GOLDWING CLUB.

  II.SNUG HARBOR;OR,THE CHAMPLAIN MECHANICS.

  III.SQUARE AND COMPASS;OR,BUILDING THE HOUSE.

  IV.STEM TO STERN;OR,BUILDING THE BOAT.

  V.ALL TAUT;OR,RIGGING THE BOAT.

  VI.READY ABOUT;OR,SAILING THE BOAT.

  "WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE? DEMANDED PEARL." PAGE252.]

  OLIVER OPTIC'S

  BOAT-BUILDER SERIES.

  ALL ADRIFT.

  BOSTON, LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS.]

  _The Boat-Builder Series_

  ALL ADRIFT

  OR

  THE GOLDWING CLUB

  BY

  OLIVER OPTIC

  AUTHOR OF "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD" "THE GREAT WESTERN SERIES" "THE ARMYAND NAVY SERIES" "THE WOODVILLE SERIES" "THE STARRY-FLAG SERIES" "THEBOAT-CLUB STORIES" "THE UPWARD AND ONWARD SERIES" "THE YACHT-CLUBSERIES" "THE LAKE-SHORE SERIES" "THE RIVERDALE STORIES" ETC. ETC.

  _WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS_

  BOSTONLEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERSNEW YORKCHARLES T. DILLINGHAM1883

  COPYRIGHT, 1882,BY WILLIAM T. ADAMS.

  _All rights reserved._

  TO MY GRANDSON

  ROBERT ELMER RUSSELL

  This Book

  IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.

  PREFACE.

  "All Adrift" is the first volume of a new set of books, to be known as"THE BOAT-BUILDER SERIES." The story contains the adventures of a boywho is trying to do something to help support the family, but who findshimself all adrift in the world. He has the reputation of being rather"wild," though he proves that he is honest, loves the truth, and iswilling to work for a living. Having been born and brought up on theshore of Lake Champlain, he could not well avoid being a boatman,especially as his father was a pilot on a steamer. Nearly all the scenesof the story are on the water; and the boy shows not only that he canhandle a boat, but that he has ingenuity, and fertility of resource.

  The narrative of the hero's adventures contained in this volume is theintroduction to the remaining volumes of the series, in which this boyand others are put in the way of obtaining a great deal of usefulinformation, by which the readers of these books are expected to profit.Captain Royal Gildrock, a wealthy retired shipmaster, has some ideas ofhis own in regard to boys. He thinks that one great need of this countryis educated mechanics, more skilled labor. He has the means to carry hisideas into practice, and actively engages in the work of instructing andbuilding up the boys in a knowledge of the useful arts. He believes inreligion, morality, and social and political virtue. He insists uponpractice in addition to precept and theory, as well in the inculcationof the duties of social life as in mechanics and useful arts.

  If the first volume is all story and adventure, those that follow itwill not be wholly given up to the details of the mechanic arts. Thecaptain has a steam-yacht; and the hero of the first story has a finesailboat, to say nothing of a whole fleet of other craft belonging tothe nabob. The boys are not of the tame sort: they are not of thehumdrum kind, and they are inclined to make things lively. In fact, theyare live boys, and the captain sometimes has his hands full in managingthem.

  With this explanation, the author sends out the first volume with thehope that this book and those which follow it will be as successful astheir numerous predecessors in pleasing his young friends--and his oldfriends, he may add, as he treads the downhill of life.

  DORCHESTER, MASS., AUG. 21, 1882.