The Project Gutenberg eBook, Stories of American Life and Adventure, by
Edward Eggleston

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Title: Stories of American Life and Adventure

Author: Edward Eggleston

Release Date: April 9, 2005 [eBook #15597]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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STORIES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND ADVENTURE

by

EDWARD EGGLESTON

Author of _Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans_,
_A First Book in American History_, and
_A History of the United States and its People for the Use of Schools_

American Book Company
New York : Cincinnati : Chicago

1895, 1923

[Illustration: Grand Canyon.]

PREFACE.

This book is intended to serve three main purposes.

One of these is to make school reading pleasant by supplying matter
simple and direct in style, and sufficiently interesting and exciting
to hold the reader's attention in a state of constant wakefulness;
that is, to keep the mind in the condition in which instruction can be
received with the greatest advantage.

A second object is to cultivate an interest in narratives of fact by
selecting chiefly incidents full of action, such as are attractive to
the minds of boys and girls whose pulses are yet quick with youthful
life. The early establishment of a preference for stories of this sort
is the most effective antidote to the prevalent vice of reading
inferior fiction for mere stimulation.

But the principal aim of this book is to make the reader acquainted
with American life and manners in other times. The history of life
has come to be esteemed of capital importance, but it finds, as yet,
small place in school instruction. The stories and sketches in this
book relate mainly