EBOOK Martin Rattler

"e;MARTIN RATTLER"e; was one of, Robert Michael Ballantyne&'s early books.   Born at Edinburgh in 1825,[1] he was sent to Rupert&'s Land as a   trading-clerk in the Hudson Bay Fur Company&'s service when he left   school, a boy of sixteen. There, to relieve his home-sickness, he first   practised his pen in long letters home to his mother. Soon after his   return to Scotland in 1848 he published a first book on Hudson&'s Bay.   Then he passed some years in a Scottish publisher&'s office; and in 1855 a   chance suggestion from another publisher led to his writing his first   book for boys-"e;Snowflakes and Sunbeams, or The Young Fur Traders."e; That   story showed he had found his vocation, and he poured forth its   successors to the tune in all of some fourscore volumes. "e;Martin Rattler"e;   appeared in 1858. In his "e;Personal Reminiscences"e; Ballantyne wrote: "e;How   many thousands of lads have an intense liking for the idea of a sailor&'s   life!"e; and he pointed out there the other side of the romantic picture:   the long watches "e;in dirty unromantic weather,"e; and the hard work of   holystoning the decks, scraping down the masts and cleaning out the   coal-hole. But though his books show something of this reverse side too,   there is no doubt they have helped to set many boys dreaming o