Adrift in a Boat

Adrift in a Boat is credited to William Henry Giles Kingston. Chapter One is headed The Picnic on the Sands, The Midshipman, Harry Merryweather and David Moreton Caught by the Tide, and The Alarm. The text says few parts of the shores of old England present more beautiful and romantic scenery than is to be found on the coast of Cornwall, and places a large party in one of its bays on a bright afternoon in the early part of autumn.

No two boys could have had a more sincere regard for each other than had David Moreton and Harry Merryweather, and David was longing to go to sea with Harry, but his father was greatly averse to his going. Two boys stood holding on by the mast of a raft, watching eagerly the movements of the two frigates, and Harry exclaims that there is the glorious old flag of England, and the other is French. A character named Pierre says that his countrymen have determined to attack and take the provisions by force, and that they already suspected him of assisting Miss Rymer.