Charlie Bell, The Waif of Elm Island

The cover was produced by the transcriber using elements from the original publication, and has been placed in the public domain.
ELM ISLAND STORIES.
CHARLIE BELL, THE WAIF OF ELM ISLAND.
BY REV. ELIJAH KELLOGG, AUTHOR OF “SPARTACUS TO THE GLADIATORS,” “LION BEN,” “THE BOY FARMERS,” “THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS,” “THE HARD-SCRABBLE,” THE “PLEASANT COVE STORIES,” THE “WHISPERING PINE SERIES,” ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by LEE AND SHEPARD In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
Copyright, 1896, by Elijah Kellogg. All rights reserved.
CHARLIE BELL.
There is a period in the life of all boys, when, in the homely phrase of Uncle Isaac, “they stand up edgeways.” At this critical period, as streams are tinged by the soils through which they filter, so their character for life is in a great measure shaped by their playmates, the examples set before them, and the associations amid which they grow up.
Lion Ben, the principal character in the first volume of the series, with nothing but his hands, narrow axe, and a true-hearted, loving woman,—his equal in enterprise,—goes on to an island, an unbroken forest in the midst of breakers, that, by reason of the peril of living on it, can be bought cheap, thus coming within their scanty means, there to struggle for a homestead and acres of their own.
Though bred a seaman, yet cherishing a love for the soil, with qualities of mind and heart commensurate with his great physical power, he appreciates the beauty of the spot.