E-text prepared by Al Haines
Or, The Adventures of Bobby Bright.
A Story for Young Folks
by
Author of The Boat Club, All Aboard, In Doors and Out, etc.
Boston: Lee and Shepard, Publishers.
New York: Lee, Shepard & Dillingham, 49 Greene Street
1872
This Book
The story contained in this volume is a record of youthful struggles,not only in the world without, but in the world within; and the successof the little hero is not merely a gathering up of wealth and honors,but a triumph over the temptations that beget the pilgrim on the plainof life. The attainment of worldly prosperity is not the truestvictory, and the author has endeavored to make the interest of hisstory depend more on the hero's devotion to principles than on hissuccess in business.
Bobby Bright is a smart boy; perhaps the reader will think he isaltogether too smart for one of his years. This is a progressive age,and any thing which Young America may do need not surprise any person.That little gentleman is older than his father, knows more than hismother, can talk politics, smoke cigars, and drive a 2:40 horse. Heorders "one stew" with as much ease as a man of forty, and can evenpronounce correctly the villanous names of sundry French and Germanwines and liqueurs. One would suppose, to hear him talk, that he hadbeen intimate with Socrates and Solon, with Napoleon and Noah Webster;in short, that whatever he did not know was not worth knowing.
In the face of these manifestations of exuberant genius, it would beabsurd to accuse the author of making his hero do too much. All he hasdone is to give this genius a right direction; and for politics,cigars, 2:40 horses, and "one stew," he has substituted the duties of arational and accountable being, regarding them as better fitted todevelop the young gentleman's mind, heart, and soul.
Bobby Bright is something more than a smart boy. He is a good boy, andmakes a true man. His daily life is the moral of the story, and theauthor hopes that his devotion to principle will make a strongerimpression upon the mind of the young reader, than even the mostexciting incidents of his eventful career.
DORCHESTER, Nov. 15, 1856.
CHAP. I.—In which Bobby goes a fishing, and catches a Horse.
CHAP. II.—In which Bobby blushes several Times, and does a Sum in
Arithmetic.
CHAP. III.—In which the Little Black House is bought, but not paid for.
CHAP. IV.—In which Bobby gets out of one Scrape, and into another.
CHAP. V.—In which Bobby gives his Note for Sixty Dollars.
CHAP. VI.—In which Bobby sets out on his Travels.
CHAP. VII.—In which Bobby stands up for certain "Inalienable Rights."
CHAP. VIII.—In which Mr. Timmins is astonished, and Bobby dines in
Chestnut Street.
CHAP. IX.—In which Bobby opens various Accounts, and wins his first
Victory.
CHAP X.—In which Bobby is a little too smart.
CHAP. XI.—In which Bobby strikes a B