Children's Fiction

Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader

The Great Pacific is the scene of our story. On a beautiful morning, many years ago, a little schooner might have been seen floating, light and graceful as a sea-mew, on the breast of the slumbering ocean. She was one of those low black-hulled vessels, with raking, taper masts...

Chapters

31. Chapter 31

An hour before the appointed time Ole Thorwald, under cover of a dark night, stole out of his own dwelling with slow and wary step, and crossed the little plot of ground that la...

11. Chapter 11

"Corrie," said Jo Bumpus, solemnly, with a troubled expression on his grave face: "I've heer'd a-many a cry in this life, both ashore and afloat; but, since I was half as long a...

4. Chapter 4

Sandy Cove was a small settlement inhabited partly by native converts to Christianity, and partly by a few European traders, who, having found that the place was in the usual tr...

21. Chapter 21

Such was the remark which our stout seaman addressed to himself when he awoke on the second morning after the departure of the _Wasp_. If the thought was really as pleasant as h...

24. Chapter 24

It was not without some difficulty that the boat reached the shore after the squall burst upon them. On landing, the party observed, dark though it was, that their leader's coun...

19. Chapter 19

There are times in the life of every one when the heart seems unable to bear the load of sorrow and suffering that is laid upon it;--times when the anguish of the soul is such t...

16. Chapter 16

When the wild-pig, referred to in the last chapter, was first observed, it was standing on the margin of a thicket, from which it had just issued, gazing, with the profoundly ph...

8. Chapter 8

The sound of the Sabbath bell fell sweetly on the pastor's ear as he descended to his dwelling to make a few final preparations for the duties of the day, and from every hut in...

28. Chapter 28

When Alice Mason was a little child, there was a certain tree near her father's house to which, in her hours of sorrow, she was wont to run and tell it all the grief of her over...

20. Chapter 20

"A pretty morning's work I have made of it, mother," said Henry, as he flung himself into a chair in the cottage parlour, on his return from the weary and fruitless chase which...

18. Chapter 18

When Ole Thorwald was landed at the foot of that wild gorge in the cliffs, which has been designated the Goat's Pass, he felt himself to be an aggrieved man, and growled accordi...

22. Chapter 22

About five or six days' sail from the scene of our tale there lies one of those small rocks or islets with which the breast of the Pacific is in many places thickly studded.

5. Chapter 5

When the conference in the widow's cottage closed, Henry Stuart and Gascoyne hastened into the woods together, and followed a narrow footpath which led towards the interior of t...

15. Chapter 15

It is time now to return to our unfortunate friends, Corrie, Alice, and Poopy, who have been left long enough exposed on the summit of the cliffs, from which they had expected t...

23. Chapter 23

The cutter was a fast sailer, and although the pirate schooner had left Sandy Cove nearly two days before her, the _Wasp_, having had a fair wind, followed close on her heels. T...

2. Chapter 2

The captain of the schooner, whose deep voice had so suddenly terminated the meditations of John Bumpus, was one of those men who seem to have been formed for the special purpos...

3. Chapter 3

It is said, in the proverbial philosophy of nautical men, that "a stern chase is a long one." The present instance was an exception to the general rule. Keona was wounded. Young...

26. Chapter 26

Eight days after the rescue of Henry Stuart from a horrible death, as related in the last chapter, the _Talisman_ found herself, late in the afternoon, within about forty hours'...

12. Chapter 12

We turn now to the _Talisman_, which, it will be remembered, we left making her way slowly through the reefs towards the northern end of the island, under the pilotage of Gascoyne.

27. Chapter 27

The Pacific is not always calm, but neither is it always stormy. We think it necessary to make this latter observation, because the succession of short-lived gales and squalls w...

13. Chapter 13

The nature of this part of our story requires that we should turn back, repeatedly, in order to trace the movements of the different parties which co-operated with each other.

9. Chapter 9

While the men assembled round the prostrate form of Mr Mason were attempting to rescue him from his state of stupor, poor Corrie began to shew symptoms of returning vitality. A...

30. Chapter 30

On the particular day of which we are writing, Alice Mason felt an unusual depression of spirits. She had been told by her father of the intended departure of the widow and her...

7. Chapter 7

The Sabbath morning which succeeded the events we have just narrated dawned on the settlement of Sandy Cove in unclouded splendour, and the deep repose of nature was still unbro...

6. Chapter 6

Gascoyne, followed by his man Jo Bumpus, sped over the rugged mountains and descended the slopes on the opposite side of the island soon after nightfall, and long before Captain...

25. Chapter 25

When that vessel went in chase of the _Foam_, after her daring passage across the reefs, she managed to keep her in view until the island was out of sight astern. Then the incre...

17. Chapter 17

The instant that Captain Montague stepped over the side of the schooner, a handkerchief was pressed tightly over his mouth and nose. At the same time, he was seized by four stro...

10. Chapter 10

The shades of night had begun to descend upon the island when Master Corrie reached the summit of the mountain ridge that divided the bay in which the _Foam_ was anchored from t...

14. Chapter 14

The instant the broadside of the cruiser burst with such violence, and in such close proximity, on Manton's ears, he felt that he had run into the very jaws of the lion; and tha...

29. Chapter 29

"It's a puzzler," said Jo Bumpus to himself--for Jo was much in the habit of conversing with himself; and a very good habit it is, one that is often attended with much profit to...

1. Chapter 1

The Great Pacific is the scene of our story. On a beautiful morning, many years ago, a little schooner might have been seen floating, light and graceful as a sea-mew, on the bre...