Yours truly,

G. FRANK UNDERWOOD.

G. F. RANK.

I have received hundreds of similar letters, containing substantially
the same testimony. In December of the year this letter came to me, I
was confined to my hotel in England by a London fog one day; and in the
first daily paper I picked up in the reading-room I was surprised to
find myself "written up" in terms that made me blush; but the article
pleased me because it contained the same idea my young friend had
embodied in his letter.

Gratefully remembering my friends of over forty years' standing, and
with a hearty recognition of those of more recent years, I return to
them all my most sincere thanks for their generous appreciation of the
work of my lifetime, and for their continued kindness to me from the
first appearance of "The Boat Club" to the present time. I heartily
wish them all continued health, prosperity, and happiness; and I do so
in the sincere belief that I have never morally harmed any of my
readers, but have added pleasure as well as moral and intellectual
profit to their lives.

WILLIAM T. ADAMS
"Oliver Optic"

DORCHESTER, _October_ 9, 1896

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE FOURTH OF JULY COMING 19

II. THE WIDOW WESTON 32

III. A DISAPPOINTED BOY 47

IV. THE FOURTH OF JULY 60

V. THE CLUB BOAT 77

VI. THE EMBARKATION 89

VII. GIVE WAY TOGETHER 102

VIII. THE SECOND LESSON 116

IX. THE STOLEN WALLET 138

X. TONY'S CASE 152

XI. THE BOAT-HOUSE 166

XII. THE FIRST MEETING IN ZEPHYR HALL 180

XIII. THE THUNDERBOLT 194

XIV. THE COLLISION 207

XV. CENTRE ISLAND 221

XVI. THE GEOGRAPHY OF WOOD LAKE 236

XVII. OVERBOARD 251

XVIII. TIM BUNKER 268

XIX. THE TRIAL OF TONY