The Project Gutenberg EBook of Freaks of Fortune, by Oliver Optic

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Title: Freaks of Fortune
or, Half Round the World

Author: Oliver Optic

Release Date: February 16, 2008 [EBook #24631]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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STARRY FLAG SERIES

OLIVER OPTIC

[Illustration: THE WRECK OF THE CARIBBEE.--Page 273.]

FREAKS OF FORTUNE;

OR,

HALF ROUND THE WORLD.

BY

OLIVER OPTIC,

AUTHOR OF "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD," "THE ARMY AND NAVY STORIES,"
"THE WOODVILLE STORIES," "THE BOAT-CLUB STORIES,"
"THE RIVERDALE STORIES," ETC.

BOSTON
LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
WILLIAM T. ADAMS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court
of the District of Massachusetts.

COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY WILLIAM T. ADAMS,
All rights reserved.

FREAKS OF FORTUNE.

TO

MY YOUNG FRIEND,

_THOMAS POWELL, JR._

This Book

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

"FREAKS OF FORTUNE" is the fourth of the serial stories published in
"OUR BOYS AND GIRLS." It was written in response to a great number of
calls for a sequel to "THE STARRY FLAG." The author was pleased to
learn that Levi Fairfield had made so pleasant an impression upon his
young friends, and the gratifying reception extended to him in the
present story, as it appeared in the Magazine, was quite as flattering
to the writer as to Levi himself. When a good boy, like the hero of
"The Starry Flag," is regarded with so much kindly interest by our boys
and girls, it is convincing evidence that they have the capacity to
appreciate noble conduct, daring deeds, and a true life.

The author is not disposed to apologize for the "exciting" element--as
some have been pleased to denominate it--of this and others of his
stories. If goodness and truth have been cast down, if vice and sin
have been raised up, in the story, an explan