The girls of Central High had looked forward to this open-air exhibition of dancing and field athletics with great expectations. The pretty folk dances were enjoyed by the girl pupils of Central High in assembly. All of the girls who were physically able were expected to take part in such exercises, and Mrs. Case had trained her classes, separately and together, in several of the Morris dances, in the Maypole dance of England, and in the Italian Tarantella.
Besides these general dances there was a special class that danced the Hungarian Czardas and the Swedish Rheinlander as exhibition dances. The gymnasium dresses of the girls of Central High were a dark blue with white braid. In the special dances the class going through the exercises changed costumes in the bath houses and appeared in Hungarian and Swedish peasant costumes.
With these general exercises at this first field day of the school were also relay races—a simple relay, shuttle relay and potato relay. Following which the champion basket-ball team of the school would play a scrub team, although the field was not a really first class place for a basket-ball court.
For a finale the girls were to repeat the Maypole dance and then break up into running and skipping groups over the greensward of the field, the groups as a whole forming a picture pleasing and inspiring to the eyes of the spectators, who could view the proceedings from the grandstand that had been built along one side of the field.
Sprightly little Bobby Hargrew was a beautiful dancer, and enjoyed the exercise more than she did anything else in athletics. She had been one of Mrs. Case’s prize dancers before the unfortunate occurrence that had cut her out of the after-hour fun.
Of course, she took the exercises the physical instructor put into the regular work of the classes; but, forbidden by Mr. Sharp, she could not hope to take part in any of the events on the field. She would be obliged to sit in the stand and look on.
And this deprivation hurt the girl’s pride. She hated, too, to have it said that of all the girls of Central High, she was the one singled out for such punishment. It seemed hard, too, when she knew she was not guilty of the offense of which she stood accused.
However, she needed nobody to point out to her that her own thoughtlessness and love of joking had brought the thing about. Had she not deliberately set out to annoy Miss Carrington, her teacher, by appearing to smoke a cigarette, the Chinese punk would never have been in Mr. Sharp’s office. Then they could not have accused her of setting the fire.
It seemed to the fun-loving girl, however, that the punishment did not “fit the crime.” The punishment was so hard to bear! She began this last week before the Field Day in a very despondent mood, for her—for Clara Hargrew was not wont to despond over anything.
To her surprise, on Tuesday morning, however, she was called to Miss Carrington’s office. The teacher looked very seriously through her thick spectacles at the girl, and her face was a little flushed, Bobby thought.
“Miss Hargrew,” said Gee Gee, “you have proved to my satisfaction during the last few weeks that you can behave yourself almost as well as any other pupil in our school—if you so wish. Ahem!”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Bobby, demurely.
“And if you can behave so well for these weeks, why not all the time?”
“I don’t know, ma’am,” admitted Bobby.
“Can’t you?”
“Sometimes I fear I shall burst, Miss Carrington,” said the girl, bluntly.
“Well! you have improved,” admitted the teacher. “But you are not willing to say anything further about the fire?”
“I didn’t set it,” said Bobby, doggedly.
“And you did not go near that waste basket?”
“I did not.”
“Well! it is perfectly ridiculous. The fire could have been set in no other way. There was not a soul in the room but yourself. And the punk was afire when we all left you. That is so; is it not?”
“Yes, ma’am,” admitted the girl, with a flash in her eye. “But I want to repeat to you that Hester Grimes never saw me throw that match into the basket——”
“Wait!” observed Miss Carrington, holding up her hand reprovingly. “Do not say anything you would be sorry for about Hester.”
“I guess anything I’d say about her I’d not be sorry for,” declared Bobby, bluntly.
“But you would. Hester has done a very brave thing. And she has helped you in—er—Mr. Sharp’s estimation and—and in my own.”
“What’s that?” demanded the amazed Bobby.
“She has come to me and confessed that—out of pique—she made a mis-statement,” said Miss Carrington, gravely. “She admits that she did not see you put anything in the basket. She said it because she was angry with you——”
“Well! I declare!” burst forth Bobby. “Who ever knew Hessie to do a thing like that before?”
“Why, Miss Hargrew, you seem to be ungrateful!” cried the teacher. “And you do not appreciate what a sacrifice your school friend has made for you. Her conscience would not let her remain silent longer. She had to tell me. She came to me yesterday morning——”
“All her lonesome—by herself, I mean?” demanded Bobby.
“Certainly.”
“And nobody made her tell the truth?”
“Her conscience only.”
Bobby had been thinking hard, however. She was amazed at this outcome of the matter, but she was not so glad that she could not see some reason for the change of heart on the part of Hester Grimes. “I bet a cent,” thought Bobby, to herself, “that Laura had something to do with it. She ran out and spoke to Hessie and her mother Saturday. She had something on Hessie, and made her do this.”
But the girl saw it would not be wise to indicate her suspicions to Gee Gee. Besides, Laura evidently wished to keep the matter a secret.
“Of course, Clara,” said the teacher, stiffly, “this does not reinstate you in the school. It merely gives you a further chance. We have nothing but circumstantial evidence against you. The fire must be explained, however, before Mr. Sharp can pass upon your name as a member of the junior class for next year.”
“Oh, dear, Miss Carrington!” cried Bobby. “He won’t suspend me?”
“He will have no choice,” said the teacher, rather hardly. “It will be expulsion. You may take your place in the field exercises on Friday and, later, you will have your part in the graduation exercises of your class. He will make that concession. But unless the matter of that fire is cleared up, you cannot return to Central High next fall.”
The decision gave poor Bobby little comfort. To be denied the privilege of the high school—which Mr. Sharp would have a perfect right to do considering the seriousness of the offense supposed to have been committed by the grocer’s daughter—was an awful thing, to Bobby’s mind. Perhaps her father would have to send her away to private school. All the fun of Central High would be denied her. Worse still, she must go to a strange school with the stigma of having been expelled from her local school. Bobby did something that she seldom did—she cried herself to sleep that night.
She could not help taking Laura into her confidence, and telling her all about it. Laura saw that Hester Grimes had taken the opportunity of putting her fault in the best light possible before Miss Carrington. Indeed, Hester’s conduct really seemed to redound to her own credit in that teacher’s opinion.
But Laura was not one to go back on her word. She had assured Hester that if she told the truth about Bobby’s affair, she, Laura, would remain forever silent about the mystery of the haunted house. And Laura would keep faith.
She saw, however, that Mr. Sharp had conceded all he possibly could to the girl under suspicion. Bobby might take part in the Field Day exercises; but when the term was ended she would cease to be a member of the school and therefore could not take part in any of the further athletics of the girls of Central High.
“It’s a hard case, Bobby,” was all she could say to the troubled girl. “Let us hope something may turn up to explain the mystery of that fire.”
“You try and turn it up, then, Laura,” begged Bobby. “I know you can find out about it, if you put your mind to it. Do, do, DO!”
And Laura promised. But she had no idea what she could do, nor how she should go about hunting down the clue which might lead to the explanation of that most mysterious blaze.
The eventful Friday came, however, and Laura had made no progress in poor Bobby’s trouble. It was a beautiful day, and the Central High girls marched to the athletic field right after the noon recess. They carried a banner, and were cheered along the short march by their neighbors and friends.
So many people wished to get into the field to see the games that the school authorities had to be careful about the distribution of the tickets. But Laura noted that Colonel Swayne had a prominent seat in the grandstand. She smiled as she saw the old gentleman, and she hoped with all her heart that what the wealthy man saw of the athletics of the Girls’ Branch that day would open the “way to his pocket-book,” as Jess Morse had expressed it.
Whether Colonel Richard Swayne was an enthusiastic and interested spectator of the sports Laura fielding did not know at the time. She was too busy on the field herself.
She and her closest friends were in the relay races; and of course she played in the basket-ball game. This time Hester Grimes managed to behave herself. She was playing under the eyes of the instructors, her own parents, and the parents of her schoolmates, and she restrained her temper.
Besides, since Laura had caught her in the matter of the veil, and she had been obliged to acknowledge that she had told a falsehood about Bobby Hargrew, Miss Grimes was much subdued.
“Really, she acts like a tame cat. What do you suppose has happened to Hester?” demanded Laura’s chum, Jess Morse, in the dressing room.
But Laura kept her own counsel.
The basket-ball game went off splendidly. So did most of the exercises. The dancing, that was interspersed between the games, pleased the parents immensely. And the final number—the dance around the Maypole erected in the middle of the green—was as pretty an outdoor picture as one could imagine, despite the fact that the girls wore dark gymnasium suits.
At the end, the running and skipping on the grass delighted the parents. To see these girls, so merry and untrammeled, with the natural grace of healthy bodies displayed in their movements, was charming. At the end of the afternoon Laura saw Colonel Swayne in close consultation with Mr. Sharp and members of the Board of Education. But the girl heard no particulars of that conference until she went to school the following Monday morning.
Just before noon she chanced to have an errand in the principal’s office. Mr. Sharp looked up at the young girl as she entered, nodded to her, and said, with a smile:
“And how does Central High’s fairy-godmother do to-day?”
Laura looked astonished, but she smiled. “Do you mean me, Mr. Sharp?”
“Who else would I mean?” he asked, chuckling. “Haven’t you heard the news?”
“Not that I was a fairy-godmother,” she returned, puzzled.
“Don’t you know that in the estimation of a certain gentleman you are the very smartest and wittiest girl who goes to this school? Because you made a thunderstorm for him, and saved a man from falling from a church steeple, he believes that it is athletics for you girls that puts the wit into your heads! But I tell him, in your case, it is ‘Mother wit.’”
“You mean Colonel Swayne?” whispered Laura, with sparkling eyes.
“I do, indeed.”
“And he has agreed to do something for us?”
“He says he will do a great deal for us,” said Mr. Sharp. “He agrees to make Central High a gift of twenty-five thousand dollars for a proper athletic field for you girls, if the Board of Education will find a like amount. And it will be found, I believe. Before many months the girls of Central High will have one of the finest athletic fields in the State.”
“Isn’t he a dear, good man?” cried Laura, with tears in her eyes. “But it wasn’t I who did it. It was because he saw us the other day, and saw how happy we were. And—perhaps—because he wants us girls to grow up and be different women from his own daughter.”
“Ah! perhaps that last is true, too,” said the principal, softly.
The sun shining in at the long window behind the principal almost dazzled Laura, yet as she looked toward him through her tears she saw something that made her dart forward.
“What’s the matter?” asked Mr. Sharp.
“Oh! the poor fish!” cried the girl. “That sun is pouring right in upon them.”
The four new goldfish in the principal’s bowl were swimming around and around madly. Mr. Sharp saw the reason for these activities at once.
“I declare!” he said, with contrition. “I usually remember to pull down the shade.”
“Oh! the water is almost hot!” cried Laura, putting her hand in the bowl.
“Let me move that stand,” said the principal.
But Laura suddenly held up her hand with such a bright, yet amazed expression on her face, that the principal was startled.
“Please! Please, Mr. Sharp, send for John! Tell him to bring a pail of fresh water and the scoop net. Let him take the fish out of the water here. I have a—a tremendous idea.”
“What’s this? what’s this?” demanded the principal, with a puzzled smile. “One of your great ideas, Miss Belding.”
“Don’t make fun of me, sir,” cried the girl, earnestly. “It is the very greatest idea I ever had. And if it is a true idea, then it is bound to make a certain person the happiest girl in Centerport to-day!”
Mr. Sharp picked up the desk telephone and called the janitor. In five minutes the old man appeared and the struggling fish were scooped out of the water.
“Now, young lady?” demanded the principal.
“Let the bowl of water stand just as it does. See! Look at the ‘spot-light’ on the floor. Why, the oil in the floor fairly smokes! See! A great burning-glass!”
She swished the wastepaper basket, again almost full of scrap paper, so that the rays of the sun, passing through window pane and water-filled bowl, struck upon the loose papers. In a few minutes a light smoke began to rise from the basket. A bit of the paper turned brown slowly, and then curled up and broke into flame.
“Great Heavens!” gasped the principal. “John, put that out! The girl is a regular little firebug! Is that what you have learned from your dipping into physics and chemistry?”
He ran and pulled down the shade to shut out the sun. Then he turned with both his hands held out to the trembling girl.
“I see! I see!” he cried. “I should have seen it before. ‘Mother wit,’ indeed! Colonel Swayne is right. You are an extraordinarily smart girl. That is how the fire started before—and the fish were dead when you emptied the bowl of water upon the burning basket.
“Your young friend is freed of suspicion, Miss Belding. I congratulate her on having such a friend. I congratulate you—— Why, why! my dear child! You are crying?”
“Because I am such a dunce!” gasped Laura, through her tears, and with both hands over her face.
“Such a dunce?” demanded the amazed principal.
“Ye—yes, sir! I should have known what started the fire all the time. I should have seen it at once!”
“Why, pray?”
“Because it was a burning glass that started another fire in Bobby’s father’s store that very day—and I put it out by shutting out the sun. I should have seen this right then and there, and saved poor Bobby all this trouble. Don’t call me smart! I—I’m a regular dunce.”
But other people did not think just as Laura did about it. Indeed, the principal’s statement that she possessed “Mother wit,” went the rounds of the school and the neighborhood, and those who loved Laura Belding—and they were many—began to call her from that time, in gentle sportiveness, by that nickname—“Mother Wit.” And if you wish to read more about Laura Belding, and her friends, and the athletic trials and triumphs of the girls of Central High, they will be found narrated in the second volume of this series, entitled, “The Girls of Central High on Lake Luna; Or, The Crew That Won.”
Bobby Hargrew’s delight when she was called up publicly before the whole school at Morning Assembly, and Principal Sharp told her that she was freed from any taint of blame in connection with the fire in his office, can scarcely be described. But she knew who to thank particularly for her escape from expulsion, and if one would wish to find a more loyal supporter of Laura Belding than Clara Hargrew, one must search “the hill district” of Centerport well.
And the other girls were glad that Bobby was freed from suspicion, too. Now the crew of the eight-oared shell hoped to make a better showing in the forthcoming water sports. Bobby was active in other athletics. The girls of Central High were out to win all honors, and in the future it was hoped that the standing of the school in the Girls’ Branch League would be high indeed.
And with that hope we will leave them.
THE END
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES
By LAURA LEE HOPE
AUTHOR OF THE EVER POPULAR “BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS”
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These tales take in the various adventures participated in by several bright, up-to-date girls who love outdoor life. They are clean and wholesome, free from sensationalism, absorbing from the first chapter to the last.
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Or Camping and Tramping for Fun and Health.
Telling how the girls organized their Camping and Tramping Club, how they went on a tour, and of various adventures which befell them.
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE
Or Stirring Cruise of the Motor Boat Gem.
One of the girls becomes the proud possessor of a motor boat and at once invites her club members to take a trip with her down the river to Rainbow Lake, a beautiful sheet of water lying between the mountains.
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR
Or The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley.
One of the girls has learned to run a big motor car, and she invites the club to go on a tour with her, to visit some distant relatives. On the way they stop at a deserted mansion, said to be haunted and make a most surprising discovery.
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The adventures of Ruth and Alice DeVere. Their father, a widower, is an actor who has taken up work for the “movies.” Both girls wish to aid him in his work. At first, they do work in “parlor dramas” only, but later on, visit various localities to act in all sorts of pictures.
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS
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Having lost his voice, the father of the girls goes into the movies and the girls follow. Tells how many “parlor dramas” are filmed.
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Full of fun in the country, the haps and mishaps of taking film plays, and giving an account of two unusual discoveries.
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How they went to the land of palms, played many parts in dramas before the clicking machine, and were lost and aided others who were also lost.
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THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH
Or Rivals for all Honors.
A stirring tale of high school life, full of fun, with a touch of mystery and a strange initiation.
THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON LAKE LUNA
Or The Crew That Won.
Telling of water sports and fun galore, and of fine times in camp.
THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH AT BASKETBALL
Or The Great Gymnasium Mystery.
Here we have a number of thrilling contests at basket-ball and in addition, the solving of a mystery which had bothered the high school authorities for a long while.
THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON THE STAGE
Or The Play That Took the Prize.
How the girls went in for theatricals and how one of them wrote a play which afterward was made over for the professional stage and brought in some much-needed money.
THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON TRACK AND FIELD
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These spirited tales convey in a realistic way the wonderful advances in land and sea locomotion. Stories like these are impressed upon the youthful memory and their reading is productive only of good.
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE
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TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT
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TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP
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TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT
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TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT
Or The Speediest Car on the Road
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE
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TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS
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TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE
Or The Wreck of the Airship
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER
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TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE
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TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD
Or Marvelous Adventures Underground
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER
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TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY
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TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA
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TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT
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TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE
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THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH SERIES
By GRAHAM B. FORBES
Never was there a cleaner, brighter, more manly boy than Frank Allen, the hero of this series of boys’ tales, and never was there a better crowd of lads to associate with than the students of the School. All boys will read these stories with deep interest. The rivalry between the towns along the river was of the keenest, and plots and counterplots to win the championships, at baseball, at football, at boat racing, at track athletics, and at ice hockey, were without number. Any lad reading one volume of this series will surely want the others.
The Boys of Columbia High;
Or The All Around Rivals of the School.
The Boys of Columbia High on the Diamond;
Or Winning Out by Pluck.
The Boys of Columbia High on the River;
Or The Boat Race Plot that Failed.
The Boys of Columbia High on the Gridiron;
Or The Struggle for the Silver Cup.
The Boys of Columbia High on the Ice;
Or Out for the Hockey Championship.
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By CAPTAIN QUINCY ALLEN
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THE OUTDOOR CHUMS
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THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE LAKE
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THE OUTDOOR CHUMS IN THE FOREST
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THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE GULF
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THE OUTDOOR CHUMS AFTER BIG GAME
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BY HOWARD R. GARIS
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FROM OFFICE BOY TO REPORTER
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LARRY DEXTER, THE YOUNG REPORTER
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LARRY DEXTER’S GREAT SEARCH
Or The Hunt for a Missing Millionaire.
LARRY DEXTER AND THE BANK MYSTERY
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LARRY DEXTER AND THE STOLEN BOY
Or A Young Reporter on the Lakes.
THE SEA TREASURE SERIES
BY ROY ROCKWOOD
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ADRIFT ON THE PACIFIC
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THE CRUISE OF THE TREASURE SHIP
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THE RIVAL OCEAN DIVERS
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JACK NORTH’S TREASURE HUNT
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THE RISE IN LIFE SERIES
By Horatio Alger, Jr.
These are Copyrighted Stories which cannot be obtained elsewhere. They are the stories last written by this famous author.
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THE YOUNG BOOK AGENT, Or Frank Hardy’s Road to Success
A plain but uncommonly interesting tale of everyday life, describing the ups and downs of a boy book-agent.
FROM FARM TO FORTUNE, Or Nat Nason’s Strange Experience
Nat was a poor country lad. Work on the farm was hard, and after a quarrel with his uncle, with whom he resided, he struck out for himself.
OUT FOR BUSINESS, Or Robert Frost’s Strange Career
Relates the adventures of a country boy who is compelled to leave home and seek his fortune in the great world at large.
FALLING IN WITH FORTUNE, Or The Experiences of a Young Secretary
This is a companion tale to “Out for Business,” but complete in itself, and tells of the further doings of Robert Frost as private secretary.
YOUNG CAPTAIN JACK, Or The Son of a Soldier
The scene is laid in the South during the Civil War, and the hero is a waif who was cast up by the sea and adopted by a rich Southern planter.
NELSON THE NEWSBOY, Or Afloat in New York
Mr. Alger is always at his best in the portrayal of life in New York City, and this story is among the best he has given our young readers.
LOST AT SEA, Or Robert Roscoe’s Strange Cruise
A sea story of uncommon interest. The hero falls in with a strange derelict—a ship given over to the wild animals of a menagerie.
JERRY, THE BACKWOODS BOY, Or the Parkhurst Treasure
Depicts life on a farm of New York State. The mystery of the treasure will fascinate every boy. Jerry is a character well worth knowing.
RANDY OF THE RIVER, Or the adventures of a Young Deckhand
Life on a river steamboat is not so romantic as some young people may imagine, but Randy Thompson wanted work and took what was offered.
JOE, THE HOTEL BOY, Or Winning Out by Pluck.
A graphic account of the adventures of a country boy in the city.
BEN LOGAN’S TRIUMPH, Or The Boys of Boxwood Academy
The trials and triumphs of a city newsboy in the country.
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