Contained in this volume is a fascinating story of travel and adventure, written by the esteemed academic William Taylor Adams. The fourth in the "Young America Abroad" series, this text is a continuation of the history of the Academy Ship and her consort in the waters of Holland and Belgium. This book was written for young people in the hope that they will take a keen interest in the regions visited in this book and that they will find this volume as attractive as the story books of the day; great care has been taken to make the historical content factual and reliable, making it as educational as it is entertaining and the perfect book to inspire young minds of worldly adventure. William Taylor Adams was an author, academic, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Originally published in 1874, this rare book is republished here with a new prefatory biography of the author.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.

"Deck Lyon is promoted to the rank of lieutenant even though he is only eighteen."--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 explanation would not, and ought not to, atone for the crime. The writer degrades no saints, he canonizes no villains. He believes that his young friends admire and love the youthful heroes of the story because they are good and true, because they are noble and self-sacrificing, and because they are generous and courageous, and not merely because they engage in stirring adventures. Exciting the youthful mind in the right direction is one thing; exciting it in the wrong direction is quite another thing. Once more it becomes the writer's pleasant duty to acknowledge the kindness of his young friends, as well as of very many parents and guardians, who have so often and so freely expressed their approbation of his efforts to please his readers. He has been continually cheered by their kind letters, and by their constant favor, however manifested; and he cannot help wondering that one who deserves so little should receive so much. William T. Adams.