AMERICAN BOYS’ SERIES
[Illustration]
The books selected for this series are all thoroughly American, by
such favorite American authors of boys’ books as Oliver Optic, Elijah
Kellogg, Prof. James de Mille, and others, now made for the first time
at a largely reduced price, in order to bring them within the reach of
all. Each volume complete in itself.
UNIFORM CLOTH BINDING ILLUSTRATED NEW AND ATTRACTIVE DIES Price per
volume $1.00
1. ADRIFT IN THE ICE FIELDS By Capt. Chas. W. Hall
2. ALL ABOARD or Life on the Lake By Oliver Optic
3. ARK OF ELM ISLAND By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
4. ARTHUR BROWN THE YOUNG CAPTAIN By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
5. BOAT CLUB, THE, or the Bunkers of Rippleton By Oliver Optic
6. BOY FARMERS OF ELM ISLAND, The By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
7. BOYS OF GRAND PRÉ SCHOOL By Prof. James de Mille
8. “B. O. W. C.” THE By Prof. James de Mille
9. BROUGHT TO THE FRONT or the Young Defenders By Rev. Elijah
Kellogg
10. BURYING THE HATCHET or the Young Brave of the Delawares
By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
11. CAST AWAY IN THE COLD By Dr. Isaac I. Hayes
12. CHARLIE BELL THE WAIF OF ELM ISLAND By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
13. CHILD OF THE ISLAND GLEN By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
14. CROSSING THE QUICKSANDS By Samuel W. Cozzens
15. CRUISE OF THE CASCO By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
16. FIRE IN THE WOODS By Prof. James de Mille
17. FISHER BOYS OF PLEASANT COVE By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
18. FOREST GLEN or the Mohawk’s Friendship By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
19. GOOD OLD TIMES By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
20. HARDSCRABBLE OF ELM ISLAND By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
21. HASTE OR WASTE or the Young Pilot of Lake Champlain By
Oliver Optic
22. HOPE AND HAVE By Oliver Optic
23. IN SCHOOL AND OUT or the Conquest of Richard Grant By
Oliver Optic
24. JOHN GODSOE’S LEGACY By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
25. JUST HIS LUCK By Oliver Optic
26. LION BEN OF ELM ISLAND By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
27. LITTLE BY LITTLE or the Cruise of the Flyaway By Oliver Optic
28. LIVE OAK BOYS or the Adventures of Richard Constable
Afloat and Ashore By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
29. LOST IN THE FOG By Prof. James de Mille
30. MISSION OF BLACK RIFLE or On the Trail By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
31. NOW OR NEVER or the Adventures of Bobby Bright By Oliver Optic
32. POOR AND PROUD or the Fortunes or Kate Redburn By Oliver Optic
33. RICH AND HUMBLE or the Mission of Bertha Grant By Oliver Optic
34. SOPHOMORES OF RADCLIFFE or James Trafton and His Boston Friends
By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
35. SOWED BY THE WIND or the Poor Boy’s Fortune By Rev
Elijah Kellogg
36. SPARK OF GENIUS or the College Life of James Trafton By
Elijah Kellogg
37. STOUT HEART or the Student from Over the Sea By Rev
Elijah Kellogg
38. STRONG ARM AND A MOTHER’S BLESSING By Rev. Elijah
Kellogg
39. TREASURE OF THE SEA By Prof. James de Mille
40. TRY AGAIN or the Trials and Triumphs of Harry West By
Oliver Optic
41. TURNING OF THE TIDE or Radcliffe Rich and his Patients
By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
42. UNSEEN HAND or James Renfew and His Boy Helpers By
Rev. Elijah Kellogg
43. WATCH AND WAIT or the Young Fugitives By Oliver Optic
44. WHISPERING PINE or the Graduates of Radcliffe By Rev.
Elijah Kellogg
45. WINNING HIS SPURS or Henry Morton’s First Trial By Rev
Elijah Kellogg
46. WOLF RUN or the Boys of the Wilderness By Rev. Elijah
Kellogg
47. WORK AND WIN or Noddy Newman on a Cruise By Oliver Optic
48. YOUNG DELIVERERS OF PLEASANT COVE By Rev. Elijah Kellogg
49. YOUNG SHIPBUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND By Rev. Elijah Kellogg.
50. YOUNG TRAIL HUNTERS By Samuel W. Cozzens
ADDED IN 1900
In 1899 we increased this immensely popular series of choice
copyrighted books by representative American writers for the young to
fifty titles. In 1900 we added the ten following well-known books,
making an important addition to an already strong list:
51. =Field and Forest= or The Fortunes of a Farmer By Oliver Optic
52. =Outward Bound= or Young America Afloat By Oliver Optic
53. =The Soldier Boy= or Tom Somers in the Army By Oliver Optic
54. =The Starry Flag= or The Young Fisherman of Cape Ann By Oliver
Optic
55. =Through by Daylight= or The Young Engineer of the Lake Shore
Railroad By Oliver Optic
56. =Cruises with Captain Bob around the Kitchen Fire=
By B. P. Shillaber (Mrs. Partington)
57. =The Double-Runner Club= or The Lively Boys of Rivertown
By B. P. Shillaber (Mrs. Partington)
58. =Ike Partington and His Friends= or The Humors of a Human Boy
By B. P. Shillaber (Mrs. Partington)
59. =Locke Amsden the Schoolmaster= By Judge D. P. Thompson
60. =The Rangers= By Judge D. P. Thompson
ADDED IN 1901
This year we still further increase this list, which has become
standard throughout the country, by adding the ever-popular “Green
Mountain Boys” and four volumes of “Oliver Optic,” “All Over the World
Library,” especially timely books in view of the present interest in
Asiatic matters.
61. =The Green Mountain Boys= By Judge D. P. Thompson
62. =A Missing Million= or The Adventures of Louis Belgrave
By Oliver Optic
63. =A Millionaire at Sixteen= or The Cruise of the “Guardian Mother”
By Oliver Optic
64. =A Young Knight Errant= or Cruising in the West Indies By Oliver
Optic
65. =Strange Sights Abroad= or Adventures in European Waters
By Oliver Optic
LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston
[Illustration]
_THE LAKE SHORE SERIES._
THROUGH BY DAYLIGHT;
OR,
THE YOUNG ENGINEER
OF THE
LAKE SHORE RAILROAD.
BY
OLIVER OPTIC
_Author of “Army and Navy Stories,” “Great Western Series,” “Onward
and Upward Stories,” “Woodville Stories,” Famous “Boat-Club
Series,” “The Starry-Flag Series,” “Young America Abroad,”
“Lake-Shore Series,” “Riverdale Storybook,” “Yacht-Club
Series,” and “The Boat-Builder Series.”_
BOSTON
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
WILLIAM T. ADAMS,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court
of the District of Massachusetts.
Copyright, 1897, by Alice Adams Russell.
_All Rights Reserved._
THROUGH BY DAYLIGHT.
TO
MY YOUNG FRIEND,
JAMES ELLIOT BAKER,
This Book
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
THE LAKE SHORE SERIES, of which this book is the first volume, includes
six stories, whose locality and principal characters are nearly the
same, and which were originally published in Oliver Optic’s Magazine,
Our Boys and Girls. The railroad, which is the basis of the incidents
in the first and second volumes, was suggested by the experience
of several young gentlemen in Ohio, who had formed a company, and
transacted all the business of a railroad in regular form, for the
purpose of obtaining a practical knowledge of the details of such a
corporation. They issued certificates of shares, bonds, with interest
coupons, elected officers, and appointed all the employees required for
the management of a well-ordered railroad. The author is the fortunate
possessor of one of the bonds of this company--“The Miami Valley
Railroad.”
The young engineer is doubtless a smart boy; but so far as his
mechanical skill is concerned, several counterparts of him have come
to the knowledge of the writer. If he has an “old head,” he has a young
heart, which he endeavors to keep pure and true. As he appears in this
and the subsequent volumes of the series, the author is willing to
commend him as an example of the moral and Christian hero, who cannot
lead his imitators astray; for he loves truth and goodness, and is
willing to forgive and serve his enemies.
HARRISON SQUARE, MASS.,
July 21, 1869.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE
MR. WADDIE WIMPLETON 11
CHAPTER II.
A TREMENDOUS EXPLOSION 21
CHAPTER III.
WOLF’S FATHER 32
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE LOCOMOTIVE 42
CHAPTER V.
CHRISTY HOLGATE 52
CHAPTER VI.
ON THE LOCOMOTIVE 62
CHAPTER VII.
THE VIAL OF WRATH 72
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DUMMY ENGINE 83
CHAPTER IX.
TOPPLETONIANS AND WIMPLETONIANS 94
CHAPTER X.
COLONEL WIMPLETON AND SON 105
CHAPTER XI.
BETTER THOUGHTS AND DEEDS 116
CHAPTER XII.
WOLF’S FORTRESS 127
CHAPTER XIII.
CAPTAIN SYNDERS 138
CHAPTER XIV.
RAISING THE DUMMY 150
CHAPTER XV.
GETTING UP STEAM 161
CHAPTER XVI.
THE FIRST TRIP OF THE DUMMY 172
CHAPTER XVII.
MOTHER’S ADVICE 183
CHAPTER XVIII.
WADDIE’S MISTAKE 194
CHAPTER XIX.
RICH MEN’S QUARRELS 205
CHAPTER XX.
THE BEAUTIFUL PASSENGER 216
CHAPTER XXI.
SOME TALK WITH COLONEL WIMPLETON 227
CHAPTER XXII.
THE CONSTRUCTION TRAIN 239
CHAPTER XXIII.
OFF THE TRACK 251
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE GRAND PICNIC 263
CHAPTER XXV.
WOLF’S SPEECH 275
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE AUCTION SALE 287
THROUGH BY DAYLIGHT;
OR,
THE YOUNG ENGINEER OF THE LAKE-SHORE RAILROAD.
CHAPTER I.
MR. WADDIE WIMPLETON.
Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop--six pops.
Mr. Waddie Wimpleton, an elegant young gentleman of fifteen, by all
odds the nicest young man in Centreport, was firing at a mark with a
revolver. It was a very beautiful revolver, too, silver-mounted, richly
chased, and highly polished in all its parts, discharging six shots at
each revolution, not often at the target, in the unskilful hands of Mr.
Waddie, but sometimes near enough to indicate what the marksman was
shooting at.
Even the target was quite an elaborate affair; and though Mr. Waddie
had been shooting at it for a week, it was hardly damaged by the trial
to which it had been subjected. It was two feet in diameter, having in
its centre a tolerably correct resemblance of one of the optics of a
bovine masculine; and this enigma, being literally interpreted, meant
the bull’s eye, which Mr. Waddie was expected to hit, or at least to
try to hit. Around it were several circles in black, red, yellow,
green, and blue, each indicating a certain distance from the objective
point of the shooter. There were a few holes in the target within these
circles, but the central eye was not put out, and still glared defiance
at the ambitious marksman.
Mr. Waddie Wimpleton had everything he wanted, and therefore never
wanted anything he had. There was no end to the ponies, sail-boats,
row-boats, guns, pistols, fishing-rods, and other sporting gear, which
came into his possession, and of which he soon became weary. His father
was as rich as an East-Indian prince, and Mr. Waddie being an only
son, though there were two daughters who partially “put his nose out
of joint,” his paternal parent had labored industriously to spoil the
child from babyhood. I am forced to acknowledge that he succeeded even
better than he intended.
Mr. Waddie was always waiting and watching for a new sensation. A
magnificent kite, of party-colored silk, had evidently occupied his
attention during the earlier hours of the morning, and it now lay
neglected on the ground, the line stretched off in the direction of the
lake. The young gentleman had become tired of the plaything, and when
I approached him he was blazing away at the target with the revolver,
at the rate of six shots in three seconds. I halted at a respectful
distance from the marksman. He was not shooting at me, but I regarded
this as the very reason why he would be likely to hit me. If he had
been aiming at me, I should have approached him with more confidence.
Keeping well in the rear of the young gentleman, I came within hailing
distance of him. I did not belong to the “upper-ten” of Centreport, and
I could not be said to be familiarly acquainted with him. My father
was the engineer in his father’s steam-flouring mills, and a person of
my humble connections was of no account in his estimation. But I am
forced to confess that I had not that awe and respect for Mr. Waddie
which wealth and a lofty social position demand of the humble classes.
I had the audacity to approach the young scion of an influential house;
and it was audacious, considered in reference to his pistol, if not to
his social position.
Pop, pop, pop, went the revolver again, as I placed myself about five
rods in his rear, feeling tolerably safe in this position. When he had
fired the three shots, he stopped and looked at me. I could not help
noticing that his face wore an unusual aspect. Though he was at play,
engaged in what would have been exceedingly exciting sport to a boy of
my simple tastes, he did not appear to enjoy it. To be entirely candid,
he looked ugly, and seemed to have no interest whatever in his game.
Mr. Waddie Wimpleton could not only look ugly, but he could be ugly--as
ugly as sin itself. Only the day before he had been concerned in an
awful row on board of a canal boat, which lay at the pier a dozen
rods from the spot where he was shooting. The boat had brought down
a load of coal for the use of the steam mill, and, having discharged
her cargo, was waiting till a fleet should be gathered of sufficient
numbers to employ a small steamer to tow them up the lake. Mr. Waddie
had gone on board. The owner’s family, according to the custom, lived
in the cabin, and the young gentleman had employed his leisure moments
in teasing the skipper’s daughter, a pretty and spirited girl of his
own age. She answered his taunting speech with so much vim that Mr.
Waddie got mad, and absolutely insulted her, using language which no
gentleman would use in the presence of a female.
At this point her father interfered, and reproved the nice young man
so sharply, and withal so justly, that Waddie’s wrath turned from the
daughter to the parent, and in his anger he picked up a piece of coal
and hurled it at the honest skipper’s head. The latter, being the
independent owner and master of the canal boat, and also an American
citizen with certain unalienable rights, dodged the missile, and
resented the impudence by seizing the young scion of an influential
house by the collar of his coat, and after giving him a thorough
shaking, much to the discomfiture of his purple and fine linen, threw
him on the pier, very much as a Scotch terrier disposes of a rat after
he has sufficiently mauled him.
Mr. Waddie was not accustomed to this sort of treatment. Whatever he
did in Centreport, and especially about his father’s estate and the
steam mills, no one thought of opposing him. If he set any one’s shed
on fire, shot anybody’s cow, or did other mischief, the only remedy
was to carry a bill of damages to the young gentleman’s father; and
then, though the claim was for double the value of the cow or the shed,
the fond parent paid it without murmuring. No one had ever thought of
taking satisfaction for injuries by laying violent hands on the scion.
But the worthy captain of the canal boat, though he knew Colonel
Wimpleton very well, had not learned to appraise an insult to him or
his family in dollars and cents. The “young rascal,” as he profanely
called the young gentleman, had insulted his daughter, had used vile
and unbecoming language to her, and, if he had had a cowhide in his
hand at the time, he would have used it unmercifully upon the soft
skin of the dainty scion. He had no weapon but in his strong arms. Mr.
Waddie had been made to feel the weight of his muscle, and to see more
stars than often twinkled over the tranquil surface of Lake Ucayga.
Perhaps, if the indignant skipper of the canal boat had known Mr.
Waddie better, he would have been disposed to moderate his wrath, and
to have chosen a less objectionable mode of chastising his victim;
though on this point I am not clear, for he was an American citizen,
and an unprovoked insult to his daughter was more than he could
patiently endure.
Mr. Waddie struck the pier on his “beam ends.” I beg to inform my
readers that I am a fresh-water sailor, and from the force of habit
sometimes indulge in salt expressions. In the rapid evolutions which
he had been compelled to make under the energetic treatment of the
stalwart skipper, his ideas were considerably “mixed.” His body had
performed so many unwonted and involuntary gyrations, that his muscles
and limbs had been twisted into an aching condition. Besides, he
struck the planks, whereof the pier was composed, so heavily, that the
shock jounced from his body almost all the breath which had not been
expended in the gust of passion preceding the final catastrophe.
The scion lay on the pier like a branch detached from the parent tree;
for if he realized anything in that moment of defeat and disaster,
it was that not even his father’s influence had, on this occasion,
saved him from deserved retribution. He must have felt for the instant
like one alone in the world. Mr. Waddie was ugly, as I have before
suggested. The dose which had just been administered to him needed
to be repeated many times, in order to effect a radical cure of his
besetting sin. He was well punished, but unfortunately his antecedents
had not been such as to prepare him for the remedial agency. It did him
no good.
Mr. Waddie lay upon the pier roaring like a bull. According to the
legends of his childhood, some one ought to come and pick him up;
some one ought to appear and mollify his rage, by promising summary
vengeance upon the “naughty man” who had upset his philosophy, and
almost riven his joints asunder. But no one came. His father and mother
were not within the hearing of his voice--no one but myself and the
irate skipper and his family. The young gentleman lay on the pier and
roared. All the traditions of the past were falsified, for no one
came to his aid. I did not consider it my duty to meddle, under the
circumstances, and the skipper would sooner have shaken him again than
undone the good deed he had accomplished.
As no one came to comfort him, Mr. Waddie roared till he was tired of
roaring--till the breath came back to his body, and the full measure
of ugliness came back to his mind. He got up. He walked down to the
side of the canal boat, where the honest captain was sitting composedly
on his stool. Mr. Waddie stormed furiously; Mr. Waddie even swore
violently. Mr. Waddie inquired, in heated terms, if the honest skipper
knew who he was.
The honest skipper did not care who he was. He was an “unlicked cub.”
No man or boy should insult his “darter” without as heavy a thrashing
as he felt able to give him; and if the young gentleman gave him any
more “sarse,” he would just step ashore and dip him a few times in the
lake, just by way of cooling his heated blood, and giving him a lesson
in good manners.
Mr. Waddie had already tasted the quality of the skipper’s muscle, and
he slowly retreated from the pier; but as he went, he vowed vengeance
upon the author of his disaster. As he passed the spot where I was
stopping a leak in an old skiff belonging to my father, he repeated his
threats, and I felt confident at the time that Mr. Waddie intended to
annihilate the honest skipper at the first convenient opportunity.