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[Illustration: THE BOAT BUILDER SERIES

OLIVER OPTIC

William T. Adams]




The Boat-Builder Series.

I.

ALL ADRIFT;
OR,
THE GOLDWING CLUB.

II.
SNUG HARBOR;
OR,
THE CHAMPLAIN MECHANICS.

III.
SQUARE AND COMPASS;
OR,
BUILDING THE HOUSE.

IV.
STEM TO STERN;
OR,
BUILDING THE BOAT.

V.
ALL TAUT;
OR,
RIGGING THE BOAT.

VI.
READY ABOUT;
OR,
SAILING THE BOAT.

[Illustration: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE? DEMANDED PEARL." PAGE
252.]

[Illustration: OLIVER OPTIC'S

BOAT-BUILDER SERIES.

ALL ADRIFT.

BOSTON, LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS.]




_The Boat-Builder Series_

ALL ADRIFT

OR

THE GOLDWING CLUB

BY

OLIVER OPTIC

AUTHOR OF "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD" "THE GREAT WESTERN SERIES" "THE ARMY
AND NAVY SERIES" "THE WOODVILLE SERIES" "THE STARRY-FLAG SERIES" "THE
BOAT-CLUB STORIES" "THE UPWARD AND ONWARD SERIES" "THE YACHT-CLUB
SERIES" "THE LAKE-SHORE SERIES" "THE RIVERDALE STORIES" ETC. ETC.

_WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS_

BOSTON
LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM
1883

COPYRIGHT, 1882,
BY WILLIAM T. ADAMS.

_All rights reserved._


    TO MY GRANDSON

    ROBERT ELMER RUSSELL

    This Book

    IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.




PREFACE.


"All Adrift" is the first volume of a new set of books, to be known as
"THE BOAT-BUILDER SERIES." The story contains the adventures of a boy
who is trying to do something to help support the family, but who finds
himself all adrift in the world. He has the reputation of being rather
"wild," though he proves that he is honest, loves the truth, and is
willing to work for a living. Having been born and brought up on the
shore of Lake Champlain, he could not well avoid being a boatman,
especially as his father was a pilot on a steamer. Nearly all the scenes
of the story are on the water; and the boy shows not only that he can
handle a boat, but that he has ingenuity, and fertility of resource.

The narrative of the hero's adventures contained in this volume is the
introduction to the remaining volumes of the series, in which this boy
and others are put in the way of obtaining a great deal of useful
information, by which the readers of these books are expected to profit.
Captain Royal Gildrock, a wealthy retired shipmaster, has some ideas of
his own in regard to boys. He thinks that one great need of this country
is educated mechanics, more skilled labor. He has the means to carry his
ideas into practice, and actively engages in the work of instructing and
building up the boys in a knowledge of the useful arts. He believes in
religion, morality, and social and political virtue. He insists upon
practice in addition to precept and theory, as well in the inculcation
of the duties of social life as in mechanics and useful arts.

If the first volume is all story and adventure, those that follow it
will not be wholly given up to the details of the mechanic arts. The
captain has a steam-yacht; and the hero of the first story has a fine
sailboat, to say nothing of a whole fleet of other craft belonging to
the nabob. The boys are not of the tame sort: they are not of the
humdrum kind, and they are inclined to make things lively. In fact, they
are live boys, and the captain sometimes has his hands full in managing
them.

With this explanation, the author sends out the first volume with the
hope that this book and those which follow it will be as successful as
their numerous predecessors in pleasing his young friends--and his old
friends, he may add, as he treads the downhill of life.

DORCHESTER, MASS., AUG. 21, 1882.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.                                            PAGE
A GROWLING PASSENGER                                    13

