I live on the banks of one of America's noblest rivers, the Susquehanna. A hundred years ago one could throw a line overboard and draw out fish without number. Now, one can fish half a day without getting a nibble. Some day, perhaps, we shall have fish again in the Susquehanna. But it will be in the same way that we are gradually reforesting our denuded Pennsylvania mountains—at enormous cost, which means perpetually high priced lumber. It will be the same with our oysters. The enormous beds, which, properly conserved, would have supplied the nation with cheap oysters for generations, are gone.

Most of us know less about oyster production than we do about lumbering or oil drilling. Yet oystering is one of the few truly picturesque occupations that survive in American life. This book, like its immediate predecessor, The Young Wireless Operator—As a Fire Patrol, is written in the hope that young readers may come to understand the real results of such wastes—the permanent imposition of unnecessary and burdensome costs for necessities of life which should be cheap.

Contents

I. A Friend in Need[9]
II. The Fleet Sets Sail[18]
III. Over the Bar[28]
IV. Dredging Oysters[42]
V. Evening at the Oyster Pier[56]
VI. Overboard in the Dark[67]
VII. A Letter for Alec[78]
VIII. Alec's First Lesson in Oyster-Culture[89]
IX. Under a Cloud[100]
X. Alec's Decision[108]
XI. A Wireless Telephone[118]
XII. Alec Gets a New Job[133]
XIII. An Unlooked-for Friend[150]
XIV. The Corner-Stone that Alec Found[161]
XV. A New Light[168]
XVI. The Planting Season Begins[180]
XVII. A Search for Truth[193]
XVIII. A Long Chase[214]
XIX. Home Again[234]
XX. The Osprey's Nest[247]
XXI. The Great Secret[264]
XXII. The New Captain of the Bertha B[272]
XXIII. Adrift in the Storm[282]
XXIV. Misfortunes Never Come Singly[298]
XXV. The Crisis[309]
XXVI. Victory[318]

The Young Wireless Operator—
With the Oyster Fleet

CHAPTER I A FRIEND IN NEED