Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) VAGABOND ADVENTURES. BY RALPH KEELER. [Illustration: colophon] BOSTON: FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO. 1870. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, BY RALPH KEELER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO., CAMBRIDGE. TO My old Friend EDWARD P. BASSETT, ESQ., This book is affectionately inscribed, with the wish, which is hardly a hope, that the public may take my Life half as easily and good-naturedly as he takes his own. R. K. CONTENTS. BOOK I. AMONG WHARVES AND CABINS. ÆT. 11. CHAPTER I. PREFATORY 11 CHAPTER II. FAMILY MATTERS 14 CHAPTER III. A FUGITIVE 23 CHAPTER IV. A STORMY TIME 34 CHAPTER V. A BOY’S PARADISE 47 CHAPTER VI. THE CONTUMELY OF CAPTAINS 54 CHAPTER VII. ALMOST A TRAGEDY 62 CHAPTER VIII. TAKEN PRISONER 71 CHAPTER IX. SQUALOR 80 CHAPTER X. A FINAL TRIUMPH 90 BOOK II. THREE YEARS AS A NEGRO-MINSTREL. ÆT. 12-15. CHAPTER I. MY FIRST COMPANY 101 CHAPTER II. I BECOME A BENEFICIARY 108 CHAPTER III. THE FATE OF THE SERENADERS 116 CHAPTER IV. THE TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF THE “BOOKER TROUPE” 129 CHAPTER V. THE LAST OF THE “BOOKER TROUPE” 145 CHAPTER VI. “THE MITCHELLS” 156 CHAPTER VII. ON THE FLOATING PALACE 173 CHAPTER VIII.