The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Powder Monkey, by George Manville Fenn

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Title: The Powder Monkey

Author: George Manville Fenn

Illustrator: Ambrose Dudley

Release Date: May 8, 2007 [EBook #21362]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POWDER MONKEY ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Powder Monkey, by George Manville Fenn.

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This is a very short book, probably intended for a younger market than
most of Fenn's books. An old seaman finds a ragged and hungry young
boy, to whom he talks, finding out that the boy was being brought up by
an aunt and her brother. The uncle used to beat the boy too severely to
bear, and he had run away from home. The seaman, Jack Jeens, decides to
take charge of the boy, but both of them are taken by the press-gang,
and end up serving on HMS Victory. The boy, Phil Leigh, gets on well
with the other seamen, but is especially fond of Jack. At first he
doesn't get on well with the other ship's boys, but one day they are
chasing each other round the rigging, and one of the boys, Tom Dodds,
falls. Phil is made, as a punishment for causing the fall, to be Tom's
nurse, for Tom has broken his leg badly.

In the next scene we find ourselves in the midst of the Battle of
Trafalgar, and Phil's protector, Jack, is very badly wounded, so now
Phil has a second person to nurse.

In the final scene we are back in Portsmouth, where the Aunt appears,
and tells Phil that the Uncle has gone away, and that he should come
home. Phil is unwilling to leave Jack, but the Aunt promises to have
him come with them, and be nursed at her house, so that is where the
story is complete.

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THE POWDER MONKEY, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.

CHAPTER ONE.

"Hi-lo!"

The little boy raised his head with a sudden start.

"Hilli--hi--ho! What cheer?"

The little fellow started to his feet from where he had been sitting
upon a sloping bank, and caught at the bars of the gate close by. He
said nothing, but stared through th