Jacob Faithful
Authorship not stated
You are eleven-year-old Jacob Faithful, left in charge of the family lighter on the Thames while your parents drink below deck. Fire breaks out in the cabin in the night; your father, panicking, goes over the side into the current, and your mother does not survive the smoke. Alone, you bring the loaded lighter safely into Mr Drummond's wharf by morning, where his daughter Sarah decides an orphan who can sail a barge unaided deserves to be asked what he wants next, and starts teaching you your letters.
Read Jacob FaithfulChapters
- Alone upon the LighterRiver Thames