Produced by David Garcia, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Kentuckiana Digital Library) [Illustration: WORK AND WIN OLIVER OPTIC] [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration: Signature: William T. Adams] WORK AND WIN OR NODDY NEWMAN ON A CRUISE A Story for Young People BY OLIVER OPTIC AUTHOR OF "BOAT CLUB," "ALL ABOARD," "NOW OR NEVER," ETC., ETC. NEW YORK HURST & COMPANY PUBLISHERS To MY YOUNG FRIEND, Edward C. Bellows, THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. PREFACE. In the preparation of this volume, the author has had in his mind the intention to delineate the progress of a boy whose education had been neglected, and whose moral attributes were of the lowest order, from vice and indifference to the development of a high moral and religious principle in the heart, which is the rule and guide of a pure and true life. The incidents which make up the story are introduced to illustrate the moral status of the youth, at the beginning, and to develop the influences from which proceeded a gentle and Christian character. Mollie, the captain's daughter, whose simple purity of life, whose filial devotion to an erring parent, and whose trusting faith in the hour of adversity, won the love and respect of Noddy, was not the least of these influences. If the writer has not "moralized," it was because the true life, seen with the living eye, is better than any precept, however skilfully it may be dressed by the rhetorical genius of the moralist. Once more the author takes pleasure in acknowledging the kindness of his young friends, who have so favorably received his former works; and he hopes that "WORK AND WIN," the fourth of the Woodville Stories, will have as pleasant a welcome as its predecessors. WILLIAM T. ADAMS. HARRISON SQUARE. MASS., November 10, 1865. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. The Mischief-Makers 9 II. The Circus at Whitestone 21 III. A Moral Question 33 IV. Noddy's Confession 45 V. Squire Wriggs at Woodville 57 VI. Noddy's Engagement 70 VII. The Ring-Master 81 VIII. Good-by to Woodville 93 IX. An Attempt to Work and Win 105 X. Poor Mollie 117 XI. The Schooner Roebuck 129 XII. The Drunken Captain 141 XIII. The Shark 154 XIV. The Yellow Fever 167 XV. The Demon of the Cup 180 XVI. Night and Storm 193