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[Illustration: THE BOAT CLUB
               OLIVER OPTIC]

[Illustration: Tim seized an Oar. _P._ 217.]




THE BOAT CLUB
OR
THE BUNKERS OF RIPPLETON



By

OLIVER OPTIC


_NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED_


NEW YORK
THE MERSHON COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1896,
By LEE AND SHEPARD




IN MEMORY OF
_MY NEPHEW_,
WILLIAM PARKER JEWETT
Who Died January 4, 1884,
TO WHOM
This Book
WAS ORIGINALLY DEDICATED




AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION


"THE BOAT CLUB" was written and published more than forty years ago,
and was the first juvenile book the author had ever presented to the
public. Young people who read it at the age of eighteen have now
reached threescore, and those who read it at ten have passed their
half-century of life. The electrotype plates from which it has been
printed for more than a generation o