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[Illustration: OLD MATT AND THE HORSE-THIEVES. Page 12.]
AUTHOR OF "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD," "THE ARMY AND NAVY STORIES," "THE WOODVILLE STORIES," "THE BOAT-CLUB STORIES," "THE STARRY FLAG STORIES," "THE LAKE-SHORE STORIES," ETC.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, BY WILLIAM T. ADAMS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
ELECTROTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.
1. _Field and Forest_; OR, THE FORTUNES OF A FARMER.
2. _Plane and Plank_; OR, THE MISHAPS OF A MECHANIC.
3. _Desk and Debit_; OR, THE CATASTROPHES OF A CLERK.
4. _Cringle and Cross-Tree_; OR, THE SEA SWASHES OF A SAILOR.
5. _Bivouac and Battle_; OR, THE STRUGGLES OF A SOLDIER.
6. _Sea and Shore_; OR, THE TRAMPS OF A TRAVELLER.
"FIELD AND FOREST" is the first of THE UPWARD AND ONWARD SERIES, in which the career of a youth from his childhood to manhood is illustrated and described. In following out the plan which the author adopted when he began to write books for the young, and which he has steadily pursued in the fifty volumes now before the public, he has endeavored to make his hero a young man of high aims and lofty purposes, however strange, stirring, or even improbable his adventures might seem. Phil Farringford, the leading character of this series, though he may have some of the conceit which belongs to youth, is always honest, true to principle, and faithful to the light which he seeks in the gospel, and in all the other sources of wisdom. He aims to be a Christian young man, respects and loves all the institutions of religion, and labors to make his life an "Upward and Onward" progress.
The scene of the story is laid upon the waters of the upper Missouri: and while the writer hopes the reader will find the story sufficiently stirring and exciting to engage his attention, he also trusts that Phil's Christian principles, his reverence for the Bible, and his devotion to duty and principle, will receive the earnest consideration of his young friends.
CHAPTER I. IN WHICH PHIL COMES HOME WITH PLENTY OF FISH. 11