Author
George Gladstone
1829-1890
George Gladstone (1829-1890) is a public-domain author available on Rivro. Read free books, explore subjects, and discover related classics.
Subjects
Books by George Gladstone
Tom Gillies : $b the knots he tied and untied
No description available.
Waiting for sailing orders : $b Fisher-life at the Land's End.
"Waiting for Sailing Orders: Fisher-Life at the Land's End" by Mrs. George Gladstone is a Christian juvenile story written in the late 19th century. Set among Cornish fishers at Newlyn, it follows the devout Trevan family—father John, mother Philippa, their twin daughters Dorothy and Judith, and venerable Captain Nance—as work, weather, and faith shape their days while they yearn for the return of a long-lost prodigal son, Willy. The narrative blends local seafaring life with moral reflection and Scripture, using “sailing orders” as a tender metaphor for death and readiness to meet God. The opening of the tale introduces bustling mackerel fishing in Mount’s Bay, the respected skipper John Trevan and his crew, and the homelife anchored by Philippa and her Bible-loving father, Captain Nance. We learn the family’s “great sorrow”: Willy, once wayward, ran off years earlier after stealing from his mother, leaving them to pray and hope. Amid twin birthday celebrations, the old sailor recounts sons lost at sea, and the family visit Land’s End, sing Wesley’s hymn, and hear lighthouse lore and giant legends. Further excursions to St. Michael’s Mount bring stories of St. Michael’s chair, “Jack the Giant-killer,” and Judith’s retelling of David and Goliath, sharpening the book’s moral and scriptural tone. Dorothy strives to master her temper and studies, the girls comfort their mother on Willy’s birthday with prayer on Paul Hill, and village life unfolds through Midsummer Eve bonfires and a trip to the Logan Rock, where a local recounts how it was toppled and reset—rich scene-setting that frames the family’s faith, work, and waiting.
Stick to the raft
"Stick to the raft" by Mrs. George Gladstone is a religious children''s novel written in the late 19th century. It is a moral tale set along the Saale in Bavaria, following Hans Richter, a woodcutter’s son whose dying father’s counsel—“stick to the raft”—becomes both rafting advice and a Christian motto. Taken in by the toll-master Karl Schmidt at Kösen, Hans faces grief, poverty, workplace trials at the weir, and a simmering rivalry with the miller’s son Robert and his scheming friend Paul, as faith, honesty, and courage are tested. The opening of the story introduces the Fichtel Mountains, Hans’s devout father and his deathbed charge, and Hans’s move to Kösen to help guide rafts over the weir under the stern-but-kind toll-master, Karl, and his gentle, invalid mother. Hans adopts “Stick to the Raft” as a call to cling to Christ while working the river; he is provoked by Robert and the malicious Paul, briefly loses his temper over a petty prank, and is lovingly corrected. As Hans trains for the town’s shooting festival, a visit to Naumburg’s cherry feast—and a lesson on the martyr John Huss—frame the book’s theme of patient endurance; there Paul secretly injures Hans with a squib, sidelining him from the competition. Robert wins amid guilt, Hans bears his setback with grace, and an elderly sausage-seller who overheard Paul’s plot arrives at the toll-house, intent on setting the wrong right.