Excerpt from Up Among the Ice-Floes He had been left to the care of a childless aunt, who, though affectionate and anxious enough, knew nothing about boy nature, and failed entirely to understand her vigorous, enterprising charge. He therefore not only missed a mother's sympathy and patience, but never came to feel at ease in his aunt's house, everything there being too quiet and precise for his vivacious ways. And so the brightest periods in his life were when his father would return from one of his long voyages, bringing with him wonderful gifts, and, what was still better, causing a temporary suspension of the firm discipline that made his boy's life unhappy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.