Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from scans of public domain material produced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) [Illustration: "The little steamer rushed madly into the opening." Page 293.] THE GREAT WESTERN SERIES UP THE RIVER OR YACHTING ON THE MISSISSIPPI BY OLIVER OPTIC AUTHOR OF "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD" "THE ARMY AND NAVY SERIES" "THE WOODVILLE SERIES" "THE STARRY FLAG SERIES" "THE BOAT CLUB STORIES" "THE LAKE SHORE SERIES" "THE UPWARD AND ONWARD SERIES" "THE YACHT CLUB SERIES" "THE RIVERDALE STORIES" ETC. _WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS_ BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS NEW YORK CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM 1882 COPYRIGHT, 1881, BY WILLIAM T. ADAMS. BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, NO. 4 PEARL STREET. TO MY YOUNG FRIEND MINNIE ETHEL ADAMS, This Book IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. THE GREAT WESTERN SERIES. GOING WEST; OR, THE PERILS OF A POOR BOY. OUT WEST; OR, ROUGHING IT ON THE GREAT LAKES. LAKE BREEZES; OR, THE CRUISE OF THE SYLVANIA. GOING SOUTH; OR, YACHTING ON THE ATLANTIC COAST. DOWN SOUTH; OR, YACHT ADVENTURES IN FLORIDA. UP THE RIVER; OR, YACHTING ON THE MISSISSIPPI. LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston. PREFACE. UP THE RIVER is the sixth and last of "The Great Western Series." The events of the story occur on the coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, and on the Mississippi River. The volume and the series close with the return of the hero, by a route not often taken by tourists, to his home in Michigan. His voyaging on the ocean, the Great Lakes, and the Father of Waters, is finished for the present; but the writer believes that his principal character has grown wiser and better since he was first introduced to the reader. He has made mistakes of judgment, but whatever of example and inspiration he may impart to the reader will be that of a true and noble boy, with no vices to disfigure his character, and no low aims to lead him from "the straight and narrow path" of duty. The author has a copy of his first book before him as he writes. On the title-page is this line: "A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-West." The preface, dated 1852, contains this passage: "In the summer of 1848, the author of the following tale was a passenger on board of a steamboat from New Orleans to Cincinnati. During the passage--one of the most prolonged and uncomfortable in the annals of western river navigation--the plot of this story was arranged. Many of its incidents, and all of its descriptions of steamboat life will be recognized by the voyager on the Mississippi." Since that time the author has travelled on the upper waters of the great river.