There is a period in the life of all boys, when, in the homely phrase of Uncle Isaac, “they stand up edgeways.” At this critical period, as streams are tinged by the soils through which they filter, so their character for life is in a great measure shaped by their playmates, the examples set before them, and the associations amid which they grow up.

Lion Ben, the principal character in the first volume of the series, with nothing but his hands, narrow axe, and a true-hearted, loving woman,—his equal in enterprise,—goes on to an island, an unbroken forest in the midst of breakers, that, by reason of the peril of living on it, can be bought cheap, thus coming within their scanty means, there to struggle for a homestead and acres of their own. Though bred a seaman, yet cherishing a love for the soil, with qualities of mind and heart commensurate with his great physical power, he appreciates the beauty of the spot.

His reluctance to devote it to axe and firebrand excites him to efforts equally daring and original, in order that he may so husband his resources as to pay for the land without stripping it of its majestic coronal of timber and forests, any farther than is necessary to render it available for cultivation.

In this he is aided by the counsels of an old friend of himself and his family,—a most original and sagacious man,—Isaac Murch. In their sayings and doings is represented the subsoil of American character—the home life and modes of thought of those who made the culture and progress; thus endeavoring, in a pleasing manner, to teach those great truths which lie at the foundation of thrift, progress, and morality.

Charlie Bell, the hero of the second volume of the series, is an English orphan, flung at a tender age upon the stormy sea of life, to sink or swim, as it should please Heaven. Friendless, starving on a wharf at Halifax, he ships in a vessel with men, who, under the guise of fishermen, are little better than pirates. Landing at Elm Island, they insult the wife of Lion Ben, who inflicts upon them a merited chastisement, and adopts the orphan.

In his boy life, and that of his young associates, their daily employments, and those exciting adventures which a new country, rude state of society, and a ragged reach of sea-coast afford to boys full of blue veins and vitriol, are seen the germs of qualities that ripen into characters of the greatest usefulness.

As the volumes are closely connected, it is hoped this sketch may render the second volume readable to those who take it up without having read the first.