THE
FORTUNATE ISLAND
AND OTHER STORIES
By MAX ADELER
AUTHOR OF “OUT OF THE HURLY BURLY” “ELBOW ROOM”
“RANDOM SHOTS” ETC.
BOSTON
LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM
1882
Copyright, 1881,
By Chas. Heber Clark.
All Rights Reserved.
PREFACE.
The custom which has ordained that a bookshall have a preface is useful enough to writerswho have to say to their readers something whichcould not properly be said in the body of the text;but it imposes a burden upon those who have nosuch communication to make. The author of thepresent volume considers that he may fairly performthe task by remarking that if the tales hereincontained are not so amusing as others he haswritten, they will perhaps be found to be quite asentertaining, and possibly, in some particulars,more instructive. If they shall be received by thepublic with the favor that was found by the precedingvolumes, the author will have reason to congratulatehimself that they have achieved successof a somewhat remarkable character.
Max Adeler.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| The Fortunate Island | 9 |
| The City of Burlesque | 107 |
| An Old Fogy | 221 |
| Major Dunwoody’s Leg | 252 |
| Jinnie | 311 |
THE FORTUNATE ISLAND
9
THE FORTUNATE ISLAND.
CHAPTER I.
THE ISLAND.
When the good ship “Morning Star,”bound to Liverpool from New York,foundered at sea, the officers, the crew,and all of the passengers but two, escaped in theboats. Professor E. L. Baffin and his daughter,Matilda Baffin, preferred to intrust themselves toa patent india-rubber life-raft, which the Professorwas carrying with him to Europe, with the hopethat he should sell certain patent rights in the contrivance.
There was time enough, before the ship sank, toinflate the raft and to place up