Lion Ben of Elm Island

by Elijah Kellogg

  Produced by David Edwards and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)

  ELM ISLAND STORIES.

  LION BEN OF ELM ISLAND.

  BY REV. ELIJAH KELLOGG,

  AUTHOR OF “SPARTACUS TO THE GLADIATORS,” “GOOD OLD TIMES,” ETC.

  BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD. 1869.

  Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by LEE AND SHEPARD, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

  ELECTROTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, 19 Spring Lane.

  _ELM ISLAND STORIES._

  1. LION BEN OF ELM ISLAND. 2. CHARLIE BELL, THE WAIF OF ELM ISLAND.

  Others in preparation.

  PREFACE.

  If the writer ever tasted unalloyed happiness, it has been whenexciting to manly effort a noble boy, whose nature responded to theimpulse as a generous horse leaps under the pressure of the knee.

  Hours and years thus spent have brought their own reward. The desireto meet a want not as yet fully satisfied, to impart pleasure, and, atthe same time, inspire respect for labor, integrity, and every noblesentiment, has originated the stories contained in the “Elm IslandSeries,” in which we shall endeavor to place before American youth thehome life of those from whom they sprung; the boy life of those whogrew up amid the exciting scenes and peculiar perils and enjoymentsincident to frontier life, by sea and land; in fine, that type ofcharacter which has transformed a wilderness into a land of liberty andwealth, and replaced the log canoe of the pioneer by a commerce, themarvel of the age;--to the intent that, as insects take the color ofthe bark on which they feed, they also may learn to despise effeminacyand vice, and sympathize with, and emulate, the virtues they here findportrayed.

  CONTENTS.

  CHAPTER PAGE

  I. ELM ISLAND. 9

  II. THE RHINES FAMILY. 25

  III. TIGE RHINES. 39

  IV. BEN’S COURTSHIP. 50

  V. SALLY TELLS HER MOTHER ALL ABOUT IT. 64

  VI. BEN BUYS ELM ISLAND. 70

  VII. CAPTAIN RHINES RIDING OUT A GALE BEFORE THE FIRE. 77

  VIII. BREAKING GROUND ON ELM ISLAND. 88

  IX. TOO GOOD A CHANCE TO LOSE. 107

  X. THE SURPRISE PARTY. 115

  XI. THE CHRISTENING. 122

  XII. THE PULL-UP. 127

  XIII. INJURED PEOPLE HAVE LONG MEMORIES. 135

  XIV. BEN CONFIDES IN UNCLE ISAAC, AND IS COMFORTED. 145

  XV. ENCOURAGING NATIVE TALENT. 153

  XVI. BEN OUTWITTED, AND UNCLE ISAAC ASTONISHED. 164

  XVII. THEY MARRY, AND GO ON TO THE ISLAND. 172

  XVIII. THE BRIDAL CALL. 184

  XIX. AN UNGRATEFUL BOY. 193

  XX. PETER CLASH AND THE WOLF-TRAP. 201

  XXI. WHY THE BOYS LIKED UNCLE ISAAC. 210

  XXII. BEN’S NOVEL SHIP. 224

  XXIII. PETE, IN QUEST OF REVENGE, COMES TO GRIEF. 245

  LION BEN OF ELM ISLAND.