I CALL it an old town, but it is only relatively old. When one reflects on the countless centuries that have gone to the for-mation of this crust of earth on which we temporarily move, the most ancient cities on its surface seem merely things of the week before last. It was only the other day, then - that is to say, in the month of June, 1603 - that one Martin Pring, in the ship Speedwell, an enormous ship of nearly fifty tons burden, from Bristol, England, sailed up the Piscataqua River. The Speedwell, numbering thirty men, officers and crew, had for consort the Discoverer, of twenty-six...

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - I CALL it an old town, but it is only relatively old. When one reflects on the countless centuries that have gone to the for-mation of this crust of earth on which we temporarily move, the most ancient cities on its surface seem merely things of the week before last. It was only the other day, then - that is to say, in the month of June, 1603 - that one Martin Pring, in the ship Speedwell, an enormous ship of nearly fifty tons...

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - This is the story of a bad boy. Well, not such a very bad, but a pretty bad boy; and I ought to know, for I am, or rather I was, that boy myself. Lest the title should mislead the reader, I hasten to assure him here that I have no dark confessions to make. I call my story the story of a bad boy, partly to distinguish myself from those faultless young gentlemen who generally figure in narratives of this kind, and partly because I...

Purchase one of 1st World Librarys Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - It is close upon daybreak. The great wall of pines and hemlocks that keep off the west wind from Stillwater stretches black and indeterminate against the sky. At intervals a dull, metallic sound, like the guttural twang of a violin string, rises form the frog-invested swamp skirting the highway. Suddenly the birds stir in their nests over there in the woodland, and break into that wild jargoning chorus with which they herald...

Purchase one of 1st World Librarys Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - In the month of June, 1872, Mr. Edward Lynde, the assistant cashier and bookkeeper of the Nautilus Bank at Rivermouth, found himself in a position to execute a plan which he had long meditated in secret. A statement like this at the present time, when integrity in a place of trust has become almost an anomaly, immediately suggests a defalcation; but Mr. Lyndes plan involved nothing more criminal than a horseback...

Thomas Aldrich was an American poet, novelist, traveler and editor. This semi-autobiographical novel was published in 1869. The Story of a Bad Boy was the first novel to depict realistically the life of a boy in America. It may be the precursor to Huckleberry Finn. The story begins with the adventures of a young boy at school. While on a sea voyage from New Orleans to Rivermouth he meets Sailor Ben. Ben later appears in his life bringing happiness.

In a time when children's books were populated with well-behaved little gentlemen, Thomas Bailey Aldrich dared to present an alternative point of view - childhood as he remembered it. Tom Bailey is no angel. At times a bully, a vandal, and a troublemaker, he has a healthy zest for life and a perhaps over-developed love of mischief. The book follows Tom as he engages in a series of adventures which take him from his New Hampshire hometown to New Orleans and beyond. A fictionalized account of the author's own childhood, The Story of a Bad Boy was controversial when it first appeared in 1869,...