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Martin Rattler

A Boy's Adventures in the Forests of Brazil
English, published in 1858
62,205 words (181 pages)
Categories: Adventure, Nautical, Fiction

The story of Martin Rattler, a mischievous boy with a good heart who mistakenly ends up on the ship Firefly, headed to the South Seas. With his friend Barney O'Flannagan, Martin escape pirates, survives a shipwreck, and explores South America in one adventure after another.

Excerpt

boy, trembling with eagerness as he stared across the fields.

"Turn your back on it, I say!" reiterated the master in a loud tone, at the same time striking the desk violently with his cane.

"Oh, sir, let me out! There's Bob Croaker with my kitten. He's going to drown it. I know he is,--he said he would; and if he does aunty will die, for she loves it next to me; and I must save it, and--and, if you _don't_ let me out--you'll be a murderer!"

At this concluding burst, Martin sprang forward and stood before his master with clenched fists and a face blazing with excitement. The schoolmaster's gaze of astonishment gradually gave place to a dark frown strangely mingled with a smile, and, when the boy concluded, he said quietly--"You may go."

No second bidding was needed. The door flew open with a bang; and the gravel of the play-ground, spurned right and left, dashed against the window panes as Martin flew across it. The paling that fenced it off from the fields beyond was low, but too high fo