FLORIDA COAST ***




Produced by Al Haines.




[Illustration: Cover]




[Illustration: "Hallo!" cried Harold, his own voice husky with emotion.
.. Frontispiece]




                                  THE
                           YOUNG MAROONERS ON
                           THE FLORIDA COAST


                                   BY
                             F. R. GOULDING



                          WITH INTRODUCTION BY
                          JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
                             (Uncle Remus)



                              ILLUSTRATED



                                NEW YORK
                         DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
                                  1927




                            COPYRIGHT, 1862
                           BY F. R. GOULDING

                            COPYRIGHT, 1881
                           BY F. R. GOULDING

                            COPYRIGHT, 1887
                       BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY



                          PRINTED IN U. S. A.




                              INTRODUCTION


I have been asked to furnish an introduction for a new edition of "The
Young Marooners."  As an introduction is unnecessary, the writing of it
must be to some extent perfunctory.  The book is known in many lands and
languages.  It has survived its own success, and has entered into
literature.  It has become a classic. The young marooners themselves
have reached middle age, and some of them have passed away, but their
adventures are as fresh and as entertaining as ever.

Dr. Goulding's work possesses all the elements of enduring popularity.
It has the strength and vigour of simplicity; its narrative flows
continuously forward; its incidents are strange and thrilling, and
underneath all is a moral purpose sanely put.

The author himself was surprised at the great popularity of his story,
and has written a history of its origin as a preface.  The internal
evidence is that the book is not the result of literary ambition, but of
a strong desire to instruct and amuse his own children, and the story is
so deftly written that the instruction is a definite part of the
narrative.  The art here may be unconscious, but it is a very fine art
nevertheless.

Dr. Goulding lived a busy life.  He had the restless missionary spirit
which he inherited from the Puritans of Dorchester, England, who
established themselves in Dorchester, South Carolina, and in Dorchester,
Georgia, before the Revolutionary War.  Devoting his life to good works,
he nevertheless found time to indulge his literary faculty; he also
found time to indulge his taste for mechanical invention.  He invented
the first sewing-machine that was ever put in practical use in the
South. His family were using this machine a year before the Howe patents
were issued.  In his journal of that date (1845) he writes: "Having
satisfied myself about my machine, I laid it aside that I might attend
to other and weightier duties."  He applied for no patent.

"The Young Marooners" was begun in 1847, continued in a desultory way,
and completed in 1850.  Its first title was a quaint one, "Bobbins and
Cruisers Company."  It was afterward called "Robert and Harold; or, the
Young Marooners."  The history of the manuscript of the book is an
interesting parallel to that of many other successful books.  After
having been positively declined in New York, it was for months left in
Philadelphia, where one night, as the gentleman whose duty it was to
pass judgment upon the material offered had begun in a listless way his
task, he became so much absorbed in the story that he did not lay it
down until long after midnight, and hastening to the publishers early
next morning, insisted that it should be immediately put into print.
Three editions were issued in the first year, and it was soon reprinted
in England by Nisbet & Co., of London, followed by five other houses in
England and Scotland at later dates.

Dr. Goulding was the author of "Little Josephine," published in
Philadelphia (1848); "The Young Marooners" (1852); "Confederate
Soldiers' Hymn-Book," a compilation (1863); "Marooner's Island," an
independent sequel to "Young Marooners" (1868); "Frank Gordon; or, When
I was Little Boy" (1869), and "The Woodruff Stories" (1870).  With the
exception of "Little Josephine" and the "Hymn-Book," they have all been
republished abroad.  Born near Midway, Liberty County, Georgia,
September 28th, 1810, he died August 21st, 1881, and is buried in the
little churchyard at Roswell, Georgia.

JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.




                        THE HISTORY OF THIS BOOK


In a vine-covered piazza of the sunny South, a company of boys and girls
used to gather round me, of a summer evening, to hear the varied story
of my early years. As these boys and girls grew larger, I found it
necessary to change my plan of instruction. There were many _facts in
nature_ which I wished to communicate, and many _expedients_