A ripping story of adventure by sea is regarded by every true-hearted
boy as the very best story of all. The yarn--that's the thing! If the
sea is a northern sea, full of ice and swept by big gales, if the
adventures are real, if the hero is _not_ a prig, if the tale concerns
itself with heroic deeds and moves like a full-rigged ship with all sail
spread to a rousing breeze, the boy will say "Bully!" and read the story
again. "The Adventures of Billy Topsail" is a book to be chummy with. It
is crowded with adventure, every page of it, from the time young Billy
is nearly drowned by his dog, until in a big blizzard, lost on an
ice-floe, he rescues Sir Archibald's son, and the old _Dictator_
weathers the gale.
There is "something doing" every minute--something exciting and real and
inspiring. The book is big enough and broad enough to make Billy Topsail
a tried friend of every reader--just the sort of friend Archie found him
to be. And Billy is good company. He is _not_ a prig; he is a real boy,
full of spirit and fun and courage and the wish to distinguish himself.
In a word, as the lads say, he's "all right, all right!" He sails,
fishes, travels the ice, goes whaling, is swept to sea with the ice,
captures a devil-fish, hunts a pirates' cave, gets lost on a cliff, is
wrecked, runs away to join a sealer, and makes himself interesting in a
hundred ways. He's a good chum, in calm or gale, on water, ice or
shore--that's what Billy Topsail o' Ruddy Cove is.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------