The Rival Campers; Or, The Adventures of Henry Burns

By Ruel P. Smith
ILLUSTRATED BY A. B. SHUTE
BOSTON L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 1905
Copyright , 1905 By L. C. Page & Company (INCORPORATED)
All rights reserved
Published July, 1905
Second Impression Third Impression, July, 1906
COLONIAL PRESS Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. Boston. U. S. A.
WITH LOVE TO Ruel Stevenson Smith
On a certain afternoon in the latter part of the month of June, the little fishing village of Southport, on Grand Island in Samoset Bay, was awakened from its customary nap by the familiar whistle of the steamboat from up the river. Southport, opening a sleepy eye at the sound, made deliberate preparation to receive its daily visitor, knowing that the steamer was as yet some distance up the island, and not even in sight, for behind the bluff around which the steamer must eventually come the town lay straggling irregularly along the shore of a deeply indented cove.
A few loungers about the village grocery-store seemed roused to a renewed interest in life, removed their pipes, and, with evident satisfaction at this relief from island monotony, sauntered lazily down to the wharf. The storekeeper and the freight-agent, as became men burdened with the present responsibility of seeing that the steamer was offered all possible assistance in making its landing, bustled about with importance.
Soon a wagon or two from down the island came rattling into the village, while from the hotel, a quarter of a mile distant, a number of guests appeared on the veranda, curious to scrutinize such new arrivals as might appear. From the summer cottages here and there flags were hastily run up, and from one a salute was fired; all of which might be taken to indicate that the coming of the steamer was the event of the day at Southport—as, indeed, it was.