The Boy Tar
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Оглавление
Reid Mayne. The Boy Tar
Chapter One. My Boy Audience
Chapter Two. Saved by Swans
Chapter Three. The “Under-Tow.”
Chapter Four. The Dinghy
Chapter Five. The Reef
Chapter Six. The Gulls
Chapter Seven. Search for a Sea-Urchin
Chapter Eight. Loss of the Dinghy
Chapter Nine. The Signal-Staff
Chapter Ten. Climbing a smooth Pole
Chapter Eleven. The Returning Tide
Chapter Twelve. Hugging the Staff
Chapter Thirteen. A State of “Suspense.”
Chapter Fourteen. For Peru – To-morrow!
Chapter Fifteen. Running Away
Chapter Sixteen. The Inca and her Crew
Chapter Seventeen. Not big enough
Chapter Eighteen. Stealing Aboard
Chapter Nineteen. Hurrah! We are off!
Chapter Twenty. Sea-Sick
Chapter Twenty One. Entombed Alive
Chapter Twenty Two. Thirst
Chapter Twenty Three. A sweet Sound
Chapter Twenty Four. Tapping the Butt
Chapter Twenty Five. The Vent-Peg
Chapter Twenty Six. The Biscuit-Box
Chapter Twenty Seven. A Cask of Brandy
Chapter Twenty Eight. Going on “Rations.”
Chapter Twenty Nine. Gauging the Water-Cask
Chapter Thirty. My Measuring-Rule
Chapter Thirty One “Quod Erat Faciendum.”
Chapter Thirty Two. The Horror of Darkness
Chapter Thirty Three. The Storm
Chapter Thirty Four. A Novel Drinking-Cup
Chapter Thirty Five. Mysterious Disappearance
Chapter Thirty Six. An Ugly Intruder
Chapter Thirty Seven. Reflections on Rats
Chapter Thirty Eight. Oh! For a Steel Trap!
Chapter Thirty Nine. A Swarm of Intruders
Chapter Forty. The Norway Rat
Chapter Forty One. Dream and Reality
Chapter Forty Two. A Sound Sleep at Last
Chapter Forty Three. Search after another Biscuit-Box
Chapter Forty Four. The Crumbs Secured
Chapter Forty Five. Another Bite
Chapter Forty Six. The Bale of Linen
Chapter Forty Seven. Excelsior!
Chapter Forty Eight. A Torrent of Brandy
Chapter Forty Nine. A new Danger
Chapter Fifty. Where was my Knife?
Chapter Fifty One. A Grand Rat-Trap
Chapter Fifty Two. A Wholesale Take
Chapter Fifty Three. About Face!
Chapter Fifty Four. Conjectures
Chapter Fifty Five. The Luxury of Standing Erect
Chapter Fifty Six. Ship-Shape
Chapter Fifty Seven. A very grand Obstacle
Chapter Fifty Eight. Turning the Piano
Chapter Fifty Nine. The Broken Blade
Chapter Sixty. A Triangular Chamber
Chapter Sixty One. A Milliner’s Box
Chapter Sixty Two. Half Suffocated
Chapter Sixty Three. Light and Life
Chapter Sixty Four. An Astonished Crew
Chapter Sixty Five. The Dénouement
Отрывок из книги
From my earliest days, I was fond of the water – instinctively so. Had I been born a duck, or a water-dog, I could not have liked it better. My father had been a seaman, and his father before him, and grandfather too; so that perhaps I inherited the instinct. Whether or not, my aquatic tastes were as strong as if the water had been my natural element; and I have been told, though I do not myself remember it, that when still but a mere child, it was with difficulty I could be kept out of puddles and ponds. In fact, the first adventure of my life occurred in a pond, and that I remember well. Though it was neither so strange nor so terrible as many adventures that befell me afterwards, still it was rather a curious one, and I shall give you it, as illustrating the early penchant I had for aquatic pursuits. I was but a very little boy at the time, and the odd incident occurring, as it were, at the very threshold of my life, seemed to foreshadow the destiny of my future career – that I was to experience as in reality I have experienced, many vicissitudes and adventures.
I have said I was but a very little boy at the time – just big enough to go about, and just of that age when boys take to sailing paper-boats. I knew how to construct these out of the leaf of an old book, or a piece of a newspaper; and often had I sent them on voyages across the duck-pond, which was my ocean. I may ay, I had got a step beyond the mere paper-boats: with my six months’ stock of pocket-money, which I had saved for the purpose, I had succeeded in purchasing a full-rigged sloop, from an old fisherman, who had “built” her during his hours of leisure. She was only six inches in length of keel, by less than three in breadth of beam, and her tonnage, if registered – which it never was – would have been about half a pound avoirdupois. A small craft you will style her; but at that time, in my eyes, she was as grand as a three-decker.
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All six, who knew me well, with proud arching necks and wings slightly elevated, came gliding rapidly across the pond to meet me; and in a few seconds arrived under the bank, where they moved about with upstretched beaks, and eyes eagerly scanning my movements. They knew that I had called them thither to be kind to them.
Having procured a slight sapling, and split it at the end, I placed a piece of bread in the notch, and proceeded to amuse myself with the manoeuvres of the birds.
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