The adventures of a boy who is cast upon the Atlantic shore of a Southern State and taken into the home of one of the leading families. The youth grows up as a member of the family, knowing little or nothing of his past. Set at the time of the Civil War, fears of battle and bloodshed fill him and his adopted clan.

Arthur M. Winfield was a pseudonym of Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930), an American publisher and writer. He created numerous juvenile series, including The Rover Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew.

Dick, do you notice how the wind is freshening? "Yes, Sam, I've been watching it for ten minutes. I think we are in for a storm." "Exactly my idea, and I shouldn't be surprised if it proved a heavy one, too. How far are we from shore?" "Not over three miles, to my reckoning." "Perhaps we had better turn back," and Sam Rover, the youngest of the three Rover brothers, shook his head doubtfully. "Oh, I reckon we'll be safe enough," responded Dick Rover, who was several years older. "I know more about sailing a yacht than I did when we followed up the Baxters on the Atlantic Ocean."

Zip! Boom! Ah! "Hurrah for Putnam Hall!" "Let her go, Peleg, lively now, and mind you don't upset us, or we'll use you worse than we did the football." "All right, young gents. All in? Hold fast, everybody, or I won't be responsible, nohow, if you drop off. Git along, Jack; up with ye, Sally!" And with a crack of the whip, a tooting of tin horns, and it mad yelling and cheering from the students, the long Putnam Hall stage left the football enclosure attached to the Pornell Academy grounds and started along the lake road for Putnam Hall.

Whoop! hurrah! Zip, boom, ah! Rockets! "For gracious' sake, Tom, what's all the racket about? I thought we had all the noise we wanted last night, when we broke up camp." "It's news, Dick, glorious news," returned Tom Rover, and he began to dance a jig on the tent flooring. "It's the best ever." "It won't be glorious news if you bring this tent down on our heads," answered Dick Rover. "Have you discovered a gold mine?" "Better than that, Dick. I've discovered what we are going to do with ourselves this summer." "I thought we were going back to the farm, to rest up, now that the term at Putnam Hall is at an end."

Luft up a little, Sam, or the Spray will run on the rocks. "All right, Dick. I haven't got sailing down quite as One as you yet. How far do you suppose we are from Albany?" "Not over eight or nine miles. If this wind holds out we'll make that city by six o'clock. I'll tell you what, sailing on the Hudson suits me first-rate." "And it suits me, too," put in Tom Rover, addressing both of his brothers. "I like it ten times better than staying on Uncle Randolph's farm." "But I can't say that I like it better than life at Putnam Hall," smiled Sam Rover, as he threw over the tiller of the little yacht. "I'm quite anxious to meet Captain Putnam and Fred, Frank, and Larry again." "Oh, so am I," answered Tom Rover. "But an outing on the Hudson is just the best of a vacation. By the way, I wonder if all four old friends will be back?"

Well, Dick, here we are in San Francisco at last. "Yes, Tom, and what a fine large city it is." "We'll have to take care, or we'll get lost," came from a third boy, the youngest of the party. "Just listen to Sam!" cried Tom Rover. "Get lost! As if we weren't in the habit of taking care of ourselves." "Sam is joking," came from Dick Rover. "Still we might get lost here as well as in New York or any other large city." "Boston is the place to get lost in," said Tom Rover. "Got streets that curve in all directions. But let us go on. Where is the hotel?"

Back to Putnam Hall again, boys! Hurrah! "Yes, back again, Tom, and glad of it," returned Dick Rover. "I can tell you, the academy is getting to be a regular second home." "Right you are, Dick," came from Sam Rover, the youngest of the three brothers. "I'd rather be here than up to the farm, even if Uncle Randolph and Aunt Martha are kind and considerate. The farm is so slow-" "While here we have our full share of adventures and more," finished Tom. "I wonder what will happen to us this term? The other terms kept us mighty busy, didn't they?" "I'm not looking for any more outside adventures," said Dick, with a serious shake of his head. "Our enemies have been disposed of, and I don't want, to hear of or see them again."

Fo' de land sakes, Massa Dick, wot am dat contraption yo' boys dun put togedder back ob de bahn yesterday? "Why, Aleck, don't you know what that is?" returned Dick Rover, with a smile at the colored man. "That's a biplane." "A biplane, eh?" repeated Alexander Pop, the colored helper around the Rover homestead. He scratched his woolly head thoughtfully. "Yo' don't mean to say it am lak a plane a carpenter man uses, does yo', Massa Dick? 'Pears lak to me it was moah lak some ship sails layin' down, -somethin' lak dem ships we see over in Africy, when we went into dem jungles to find yo' fadder."

Boys, what do you say to a trip in the Dartaway this afternoon? "Suits me, Sam," replied Tom Rover. "Providing the breeze doesn't get too strong," returned Dick Rover, as he put up his hand to feel the air. "Oh, I don't think it will blow too much," went on Sam Rover. "I don't mind some air." "But no more storms for me " cried his brother Tom, with a shake of his head. "That last old corker was enough for me." "Where shall we go?" questioned Dick, with a queer little smile creeping around the corners of his mouth. "Oh, my, just to hear Dick " cried Tom, with a grin. "As if he would go anywhere but to Hope Seminary, to call on Dora "

Hurrah, Sam, it is settled at last that we are to go to boarding school! "Are you certain, Tom? Don't let me raise any false hopes." "Yes, I am certain, for I heard Uncle Randolph tell Aunt Martha that he wouldn't keep us in the house another week. He said he would rather put up with the Central Park menagerie-think of that!" and Tom Rover began to laugh. "That's rather rough on us, but I don't know but what we deserve it," answered Sam Rover, Tom's younger brother. "We have been giving it pretty strong lately, with playing tricks on Sarah the cook, Jack the hired man, and Uncle Randolph's pet dog Alexander. But then we, had to do something-or go into a dry rot. Life in the country is all well enough, but it's mighty slow for me."

We're making time now, Tom. "Making time?" repeated Tom Rover as he gazed out of the car window at the telegraph poles flashing past. "I should say we were, Sam! Why, we must be running sixty miles an hour!" "If we are not we are making pretty close to it," came from a third boy of the party in the parlor car. "I think the engineer is trying to make up some of the time we lost at the last stop."

Here we are again, as the clown says in the circus! "Right you are, Pepper. And I'll be glad to get back to Putnam Hall once more," responded Major Jack Ruddy, as he followed his chum from the lake steamer to the Cedarville dock. "Hello, there is Andy!" cried Pepper Ditmore, as he caught sight of a familiar face in the crowd of cadets, "Andy, where have you been? Why didn't you come on the boat with us?" "I got in last night," answered Andy Snow. "How are you, anyway?" And he shook hands cordially.

For gracious sake! what's that racket? exclaimed Dick Rover, as he threw down the newspaper he was reading and leaped to his feet. "Sounds to me as if there was a battle royal going on," returned his younger brother, Sam, who was at a desk in the library of the old farmhouse, writing a letter. "It's those boys!" exclaimed Tom Rover, as he tossed aside a copy of a comic paper which he had been looking over. "I'll wager they're up to some mischief again." "Well, if they are your boys, Tom, you mustn't find fault with them," answered Sam Rover, with a twinkle in his eye. "If ever there were chips of the old block, your twins are It with a capital I."

MY DEAR BOYS: This book is a complete story in itself, but forms the fourth volume in a line issued under the general title, "The Second Rover Boys Series for Young Americans."

Sam, this isn't the path. "I know it, Tom." "We've missed our way," went on Tom Rover, with a serious look on his usually sunny face. "It looks that way to me," answered Sam Rover, his younger brother. "I think we made a wrong turn after we slid down the cliff."