FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25  
26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   >>  
The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Wreck of the Golden Mary, by Charles Dickens This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Wreck of the Golden Mary Author: Charles Dickens Release Date: April 4, 2005 [eBook #1465] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRECK OF THE GOLDEN MARY*** Transcribed from the 1894 Chapman and Hall edition of "Christmas Stories" by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk THE WRECK OF THE GOLDEN MARY THE WRECK I was apprenticed to the Sea when I was twelve years old, and I have encountered a great deal of rough weather, both literal and metaphorical. It has always been my opinion since I first possessed such a thing as an opinion, that the man who knows only one subject is next tiresome to the man who knows no subject. Therefore, in the course of my life I have taught myself whatever I could, and although I am not an educated man, I am able, I am thankful to say, to have an intelligent interest in most things. A person might suppose, from reading the above, that I am in the habit of holding forth about number one. That is not the case. Just as if I was to come into a room among strangers, and must either be introduced or introduce myself, so I have taken the liberty of passing these few remarks, simply and plainly that it may be known who and what I am. I will add no more of the sort than that my name is William George Ravender, that I was born at Penrith half a year after my own father was drowned, and that I am on the second day of this present blessed Christmas week of one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, fifty-six years of age. When the rumour first went flying up and down that there was gold in California--which, as most people know, was before it was discovered in the British colony of Australia--I was in the West Indies, trading among the Islands. Being in command and likewise part-owner of a smart schooner, I had my work cut out for me, and I was doing it. Consequently, gold in California was no business of mine. But, by the time when I came home to England again, the thing was as clear as your hand held up before you at noon-day. T
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25  
26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   >>  



Top keywords:
Christmas
 

California

 

GOLDEN

 

subject

 

opinion

 

Dickens

 
Golden
 

Charles

 

Gutenberg

 
Project

William

 

Penrith

 

George

 

Ravender

 
remarks
 

simply

 

passing

 
liberty
 

introduce

 

strangers


plainly

 

introduced

 
schooner
 

people

 

Australia

 

Indies

 
trading
 

Islands

 
colony
 
command

likewise

 

discovered

 

British

 

flying

 

present

 

blessed

 

England

 

father

 

drowned

 
thousand

rumour
 

Consequently

 

business

 

hundred

 
encoding
 

Character

 

Language

 
English
 

PROJECT

 

GUTENBERG