The Project Gutenberg EBook of Now or Never, by Oliver Optic

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Now or Never
The Adventures of Bobby Bright

Author: Oliver Optic

Release Date: October 5, 2006 [EBook #19473]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOW OR NEVER ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tom Allen and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: "I'm big enough to protect my Mother, and I'll do
it."

_p. 42._]

NOW OR NEVER

OR

THE ADVENTURES OF BOBBY BRIGHT

_A STORY FOR YOUNG FOLKS_

OLIVER OPTIC

_NEW EDITION_

NEW YORK
THE MERSHON COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by

WILLIAM T. ADAMS,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.

Copyright, 1884,
By WILLIAM T. ADAMS.

NOW OR NEVER.

To my Nephew

CHARLES HENRY POPE

THIS BOOK

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

PREFACE

The story contained in this volume is a record of youthful struggles,
not only in the world without, but in the world within; and the
success of the little hero is not merely a gathering up of wealth and
honors, but a triumph over the temptations that beset the pilgrim on
the plain of life. The attainment of worldly prosperity is not the
truest victory; and the author has endeavored to make the interest of
his story depend more on the hero's devotion to principles than on his
success in business.

Bobby Bright is a smart boy; perhaps the reader will think he is
altogether too smart for one of his years. This is a progressive age,
and anything which young America may do need not surprise any
person. That little gentleman is older than his father, knows more
than his mother, can talk politics, smoke cigars, and drive a 2:40
horse. He orders "one stew" with as much ease as a man of forty, and
can even pronounce correctly the villanous names of sundry French and
German wines and liqueurs. One would suppose, to hear him talk, that
he had been intimate with Socrates and Solon, with Napoleon and Noah
Webster; in short, that whatever he did not know was no