Produced by David Edwards, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) [Illustration: THE BOAT BUILDER SERIES OLIVER OPTIC William T. Adams] The Boat-Builder Series. I. ALL ADRIFT; OR, THE GOLDWING CLUB. II. SNUG HARBOR; OR, THE CHAMPLAIN MECHANICS. III. SQUARE AND COMPASS; OR, BUILDING THE HOUSE. IV. STEM TO STERN; OR, BUILDING THE BOAT. V. ALL TAUT; OR, RIGGING THE BOAT. VI. READY ABOUT; OR, SAILING THE BOAT. [Illustration: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE? DEMANDED PEARL." PAGE 252.] [Illustration: OLIVER OPTIC'S BOAT-BUILDER SERIES. ALL ADRIFT. BOSTON, LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS.] _The Boat-Builder Series_ ALL ADRIFT OR THE GOLDWING CLUB BY OLIVER OPTIC AUTHOR OF "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD" "THE GREAT WESTERN SERIES" "THE ARMY AND NAVY SERIES" "THE WOODVILLE SERIES" "THE STARRY-FLAG SERIES" "THE BOAT-CLUB STORIES" "THE UPWARD AND ONWARD SERIES" "THE YACHT-CLUB SERIES" "THE LAKE-SHORE SERIES" "THE RIVERDALE STORIES" ETC. ETC. _WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS_ BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS NEW YORK CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM 1883 COPYRIGHT, 1882, BY WILLIAM T. ADAMS. _All rights reserved._ TO MY GRANDSON ROBERT ELMER RUSSELL This Book IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. PREFACE. "All Adrift" is the first volume of a new set of books, to be known as "THE BOAT-BUILDER SERIES." The story contains the adventures of a boy who is trying to do something to help support the family, but who finds himself all adrift in the world. He has the reputation of being rather "wild," though he proves that he is honest, loves the truth, and is willing to work for a living. Having been born and brought up on the shore of Lake Champlain, he could not well avoid being a boatman, especially as his father was a pilot on a steamer. Nearly all the scenes of the story are on the water; and the boy shows not only that he can handle a boat, but that he has ingenuity, and fertility of resource. The narrative of the hero's adventures contained in this volume is the introduction to the remaining volumes of the series, in which this boy and others are put in the way of obtaining a great deal of useful information, by which the readers of these books are expected to profit. Captain Royal Gildrock, a wealthy retired shipmaster, has some ideas of his own in regard to boys. He thinks that one great need of this country is educated mechanics, more skilled labor. He has the means to carry his ideas into practice, and actively engages in the work of instructing and building up the boys in a knowledge of the useful arts. He believes in religion, morality, and social and political virtue. He insists upon practice in addition to precept and theory, as well in the inculcation of the duties of social life as in mechanics and useful arts.