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SERIES: The Blue and the Gray AfloatCHAPTER ITHE UNITED STATES STEAMER BRONX"She is a fine little steamer, father, without the possibility of a doubt," said Lieutenant Passford, who was seated at the table with his father in the captain's cabin on board of the Bronx. "I don't feel quite at home here, and I don't quite like the idea of being taken out of the Bellevite.""You are not going to sea for the fun of it, my son," replied Captain Passford. "You are not setting out on a yachting excursion, but on the most serious business in the world.""I know and feel all that, father, but I have spent so many pleasant days, hours, weeks, and months on board of the Bellevite, that I am very sorry to leave her," added Christy Passford, who had put on his new uniform, which was that of 16 master in the United States Navy; and he was as becoming to the uniform as the uniform was to him."You cannot well help having some regrets at leaving the Bellevite; but you must remember that your life on board of her was mostly in the capacity of a pleasure-seeker, though you made a good use of your time and of your opportunities for improvement; and that is the reason why you have made such remarkable progress in your present profession.""I shall miss my friends on board of the Bellevite. I have sailed with all her officers, and Paul Vapoor and I have been cronies for years," continued Christy, with a shade of gloom on his bright face."You will probably see them occasionally, and if your life is spared you may again find yourself an officer of the Bellevite. But I think you have no occasion to indulge in any regrets," said Captain Passford, imparting a cheerful expression to his dignified countenance. "Allow me to call your attention to the fact that you are the commander of this fine little steamer. Here you are in your own cabin, and you are still nothing but a boy, hardly eighteen years old."17 "If I have not earned my rank, it is not my fault that I have it," answered Christy, hardly knowing whether to be glad or sorry for his rapid advancement. "I have never asked for anything; I did not ask or expect to be promoted. I was satisfied with my rank as a midshipman.""I did not ask for your promotion, though I could probably have procured for you the rank of master when you entered the navy. I do not like to ask favors for a member of my own family. I have wished you to feel that you were in the service of your country because it needs you, and not for glory or profit.""And I have tried to feel so, father.""I think you have felt so, my son; and I am prouder of the fact that you are a disinterested patriot than of the rank you have nobly and bravely won," said Captain Passford, as he took some letters from his pocket, from which he selected one bearing an English postage stamp. "I have a letter from one of my agents in England, which, I think, contains valuable information. I have called the attention of the government to these employes of mine, and they will soon pass from my service to that of the naval department. 18 The information sent me has sometimes been very important."

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"Across India" is the first volume of the third series of the "All-Over-the-World Library," in which the voyage of the Guardian-Mother is continued from Aden, where some important changes were made in the current of events, including the disposal of the little steamer Maud, which figured to a considerable extent in the later volumes of the library, though they also comprehended the addition of another and larger consort to the ship, in which the distinguished Pacha, as a reformed and entirely reconstructed person, sails in company with the voyagers.A few days out from the port of departure, a stirring event, a catastrophe of the sea, adds three very important personages to the cabin passengers of the Guardian-Mother, and affords two of the "live boys" an opportunity to distinguish themselves in a work of humanity requiring courage and skill. These additions to the company prove to be a very fortunate acquisition to the party; for they are entirely familiar with everything in and relating to India. They are titled individuals, two of the trio, who have not only travelled all over the peninsula, but have very influential relations with the officers of the government, and the native princes, rajahs, kings, maharajahs, and nobles.The commander, the professor, the surgeon, the young millionaire, and others who have hitherto given the "talks" and lectures for the instruction of the young people, and incidentally of the older ones also, find themselves almost entirely relieved from duty in this direction by those whom the ship's company have saved from inevitable death in the stormy billows of the Arabian Sea. The gratitude of the two titled members of the trio, and their earnest appreciation of the educational object of the long voyage, induce them to make themselves very useful on board.

CHAPTER IASTOUNDING NEWS FROM THE SHORE"This is most astounding news!" exclaimed Captain Horatio Passford.It was on the deck of the magnificent steam-yacht Bellevite, of which he was the owner; and with the newspaper, in which he had read only a few of the many head-lines, still in his hand, he rushed furiously across the deck, in a state of the most intense agitation.It would take more than one figure to indicate the number of millions by which his vast wealth was measured, in the estimation of those who knew most about his affairs; and he was just returning from a winter cruise in his yacht.His wife and son were on board; but his daughter had spent the winter at the South with her 14 uncle, preferring this to a voyage at sea, being in rather delicate health, and the doctors thought a quiet residence in a genial climate was better for her.The Bellevite had been among the islands of the Atlantic, visiting the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, and was now coming from Bermuda. She had just taken a pilot fifty miles from Sandy Hook, and was bound to New York, for the captain's beautiful estate, Bonnydale, was located on the Hudson.As usual, the pilot had brought on board with him the latest New-York papers, and one of them contained the startling news which appeared to have thrown the owner of the Bellevite entirely off his balance; and it was quite astounding enough to produce this effect upon any American."What is it, sir?" demanded Christopher Passford, his son, a remarkably bright-looking young fellow of sixteen, as he followed his father across the deck."What is it, Horatio?" inquired Mrs. Passford, who had been seated with a book on the deck, as she also followed her husband.The captain was usually very cool and self-possessed, 15 and neither the wife nor the son had ever before seen him so shaken by agitation. He seemed to be unable to speak a word for the time, and took no notice whatever of his wife and son when they addressed him.For several minutes he continued to rush back and forth across the deck of the steamer, like a vessel which had suddenly caught a heavy flaw of wind, and had not yet come to her bearings."What is the matter, Horatio?" asked Mrs. Passford, when he came near her. "What in the world has happened to overcome you in this manner, for I never saw you so moved before?"But her husband did not reply even to this earnest interrogatory, but again darted across the deck, and his lips moved as though he were muttering something to himself. He did not look at the paper in his hands again; and whatever the startling intelligence it contained, he seemed to have taken it all in at a glance.Christy, as the remarkably good-looking young man was called by all in the family and on board of the Bellevite, appeared to be even more astonished than his mother at the singular conduct of his father; but he saw how intense was 16 his agitation, and he did not follow him in his impulsive flights across the deck.Though his father had always treated him with great consideration, and seldom if ever had occasion to exercise any of his paternal authority over him, the young man never took advantage of the familiarity existing between them. His father was certainly in a most extraordinary mood for him, and he could not venture to speak a word to him.

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THE FOURTH OF JULY COMING"How much money have you got, Frank?" asked Charles Hardy of his friend Frank Sedley."Four dollars and seventy-five cents.""That is more than twice as much as I have. Won't you have a glorious time?"It was the evening of the third of July, and the two boys were counting the money they had saved for Independence. Captain Sedley, the father of Frank, had promised to take him and his friend to Boston to attend the celebration; and they had long looked forward to the event with the liveliest anticipations of pleasure."I don't know, Charley," replied Frank Sedley, as he slid the money into his purse; "I was thinking of something else.""What, Frank?""I was thinking how poor the widow Weston is, and how much good this money I am going to throw away on fire-crackers and gingerbread would do her.""Perhaps it would.""I know it would.""But you are not going to spoil our fun by giving it to her, are you?""There are a great many boys who will have no money to spend to-morrow—Tony Weston, for instance," continued Frank."Tony is a good fellow.""That he is; and his mother has a terrible hard time of it to support herself and her son and daughter.""I suppose she has. Why don't you ask your father to help her?""He does help her. He gives her wood and flour, and a great many other things; and my mother employs her to do sewing. She is willing to work.""And Tony works too.""He is too young to do much; but he loves his mother, and tries to do all he can to lighten her burden.""He makes a dollar a week sometimes.""I was thinking just now that I would give Mrs. Weston the money I had saved for Independence.""Pooh! Frank.""It would do her a great deal of good."

Our Standard-Bearer : The Life of General Uysses S. GrantIn this volume my friend Captain Galligasken has been permitted to tell his story very much in his own way. As I fully and heartily indorse his positions, fully and heartily share in his enthusiasm, my task has consisted of nothing more than merely writing the book; and I assure the reader that I have enjoyed quite as much as my friend the captain the pleasant contemplation of the brilliant deeds of the illustrious soldier. There is something positively inspiring in the following out of such a career as that of General Grant; and when I declare that the enthusiasm of Captain Galligasken is nothing more than just and reasonable, I do it after a careful examination of the grounds on which it is based; after a patient, but exceedingly agreeable, study of the character of the man whom we have jointly eulogized; and after instituting a critical comparison between the general and the mighty men of the present and the past. I have twice read all that I have written, and I find no occasion to add any qualifying words, and no reason to moderate the warm enthusiasm of the captain.As the candidate for the presidency of the dominant party in the land, all of General Grant's sayings and doings will be subjected to the closest scrutiny by his political opponents. All that he has said and all that he has done will be remorselessly distorted by savage critics. Partisan prejudice and partisan hatred will pursue him into the privacies of life, as well as through every pathway and avenue of his public career; but Captain Galligasken joins me in the confident belief that no man has ever been held up to the gaze of the American people who could stand the test better; hardly one [6]who could stand it as well. In his private life the general has been pure and guileless, while in his public history he has been animated by the most noble and exalted patriotism, ever willing to sacrifice all that he was and all that he had for the cause in which he embarked.

CHAPTER I.IN CAPTAIN BOOMSBY'S SALOON."I don't think it's quite the thing, Alick," said my cousin, Owen Garningham, as we were walking through Bay Street after our return to Jacksonville from the interior of Florida."What is not quite the thing, Owen?" I inquired, for he had given me no clue to what he was thinking about."After I chartered your steamer for a year to come here, and go up the Mississippi River—by the way, this river is called 'The Father of Waters,' isn't it?" asked Owen, flying off from the subject in his mind, as he was in the habit of doing."Every schoolboy in this country learns that from his geography," I replied."Happily, I was never a schoolboy in this country, and I didn't find it out from the geography. If the Mississippi is the Father of Waters, can you tell me who is the mother of them?""The Miss'ouri.""O, ah! Don't you feel faint, Captain Alick?" added Owen, stopping short on the sidewalk, and gazing into my face with a look of mock anxiety."Not at all; I think I could swallow a burly Briton or two, if the occasion required.""Don't do it! It would ruin your digestion. But it strikes me those two rivers are but one.""I think so, too, and they ought to be. Father and mother—man and wife—ought to be one," I answered, as indifferently as I could. "But something was not quite the thing; and if there is anything in this country that is not quite the thing, I want to know what it is.""When I chartered the Sylvania to come down here, and then go up the 'Father of Waters,' it isn't quite the thing for your father to declare the whole thing off at this point of the cruise," replied Owen. "I was going to have a jolly good time going up the river.""You may have it yet, for I have given you a cordial invitation to go 'up the river' with me; and I mean every word I said about the matter," I added, in soothing tones."But your father says the charter arrangement is ended, and you may go where you like in your steamer.""And I concluded at once to carry out all the arrangements for this trip, just as we made them at Detroit," I replied. "I have invited the Shepards and the Tiffanys to join us, and everything will go on just as it did before, except that you will not pay the bills.""Which means that, if I join you at all, I shall not be myself," returned Owen, with a look of disgust. "In other words, I shall not be my own master, and I must go where my uncle and you may choose to take me.""Not at all; we are going up the Mississippi simply because that is the route you selected, and because I desire to carry out your plan of travel to the letter," I replied, rather warmly. "I don't think I could do anything more to meet your views than I have done."

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"TAKEN BY THE ENEMY" is the first of a new series of six volumes which are to be associated under the general title of "The Blue and the Gray Series," which sufficiently indicates the character of the books. At the conclusion of the war of the Rebellion, and before the writer had completed "The Army and Navy Series," over twenty years ago, some of his friends advised him to make all possible haste to bring his war stories to a conclusion, declaring that there could be no demand for such works when the war had come to an end. But the volumes of the series mentioned are as much in demand to-day as any of his other stories, though from their nature the field of their circulation is more limited. Surprising as this may appear, it is still the fact; and certainly the author has received more commendatory letters from young people in regard to the books of this series than concerning those of any other. Among these letters there has occasionally been one, though rarely, in which the writer objected to this series for the reason that he was "on the other side" of the great issue which shook the nation to the centre of its being for four years. Doubtless the writers of these letters, and many who wrote no letters, will be surprised and grieved at the announcement of another series by the author on war topics. The writer had little inclination to undertake this task; for he has believed for twenty years that the war is over, and he has not been disposed to keep alive old issues which had better remain buried. He has spent some time in the South, and has always found himself among friends there. He became personally acquainted with those who fought on the Confederate side, from generals to privates, and he still values their friendship. He certainly is not disposed to write any thing that would cause him to forfeit his title to the kind feeling that was extended to him. It is not, therefore, with the desire or intention to rekindle the fires of sectional animosity, now happily subdued, that the writer begins another series relating to the war. The call upon him to use the topics of the war has been so urgent, and its ample field of stirring events has been so inviting, that he could not resist; but, while his own opinions in regard to the great question of five-and-twenty years ago remain unchanged, he hopes to do more ample justice than perhaps was done before to those "who fought on the other side." The present volume introduces those which are to follow it, and presents many of the characters that are to figure in them. Though written from the Union standpoint, the author hopes that it will not be found unfair or unjust to those who looked from the opposite point of view. Dorchester, June 12, 1888. ...............................From the archives comes the Civil War Classic Library. Dozens of books out of print for years is now back in print for the casual reader and the collector. Now is the time to collect and build a classic library and get them all before they fall out of print forever replaced by digital files.