Various - "Scientific American Supplement, No. 401, September 8, 1883"

Israel Zangwill - "Merely Mary Ann"

Robert Barr - "Jennie Baxter, Journalist"

Thomas Henry Huxley - "This is Essay #6 from Science and Hebrew Tradition"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Tom Swift and His Airship

V >> Victor Appleton >> Tom Swift and His Airship




In a room adjoining that of the president, Tom, his father and Mr.
Damon waited for the directors to meet. Mr. Foger could be heard
entering a little later.

"What's this I hear, Pendergast?" he cried, rubbing his hands. "The
bank robbers captured, eh? Well, that's good news. Of course we'll pay
the reward. I always knew my boy was a smart lad. Five thousand
dollars will be a tidy sum for him. Of course his chum, Sam Snedecker
is entitled to some, but not much. So they've caught Tom Swift and
that rascally Damon, eh? I always knew he was a scoundrel! Putting
money in here as a blind!"

Mr. Damon heard, and shook his fist.

"I'll make him suffer for that," he whispered.

"Tom Swift arrested, eh?" went on Mr. Foger. "I always knew he was a
bad egg. Who caught them? Where are they?"

"In the next room," replied Mr. Pendergast, who loved a joke almost as
well as did Tom. "They may come out now," added the president, opening
the door, and sending Ned Newton in to summon Tom, Mr. Swift and Mr.
Damon, who filed out before the board of directors.

"Gentlemen," began the president, "I have the pleasure of presenting
to you Mr. Thomas Swift, Mr. Barton Swift and Mr. Wakefield Damon. I
also have the honor to announce that Mr. Thomas Swift and Mr. Damon
have been instrumental in capturing the burglars who recently robbed
our bank, and I am happy to add that young Mr. Swift and Mr. Wakefeld
Damon have, this morning, brought to me all but a small part of the
money stolen from us. Which money they succeeded, after a desperate
fight "

"A fight partly with seltzer bottles," interrupted Mr. Damon proudly.
"Don't forget them."

"Partly with seltzer bottles," conceded the president with a smile.
"After a fight they succeeded in getting the money back. Here it is,
and I now suggest that we pay the reward we promised."

"What? Reward? Pay them? The money back? Isn't my son to receive the
five thousand dollars for informing as to the identity of the thief-
isn't he?" demanded Mr. Foger, almost suffocating from his
astonishment at the unexpected announcement.

"Hardly," answered Mr. Pendergast dryly. "Your son's information
happened to be very wrong. The tools he saw Tom have in the bag were
airship tools, not burglar's. And the same gang that once robbed Mr.
Swift robbed our, bank. Tom Swift captured them, and is entitled to
the reward. It will be necessary for us directors to make up the sum,
personally, and I, for one, am very glad to do so."

"So am I," came in a chorus from the others seated at the table.

"But-er-I understood that my son-" stammered Mr. Foger, who did not at
all relish having to see his son lose the reward.

"It was all a mistake about your son," commented Mr. Pendergast.
"Gentlemen, is it your desire that I write out a check for young Mr.
Swift?"

They all voted in the affirmative, even Mr. Foger being obliged to do
so, much against his wishes. He was a very much chagrined man, when
the directors' meeting broke up. Word was sent at once, by telegraph,
to all the cities where reward posters had been displayed, recalling
the offer, and stating that Tom Swift and Mr. Damon were cleared. Mr.
Sharp had never been really accused.

"Well, let's go home," suggested Tom when he had the five-thousand-
dollar check in his pocket.

"I want another ride in the Red Cloud as soon as it's repaired."

"So do I!" declared Mr. Damon.

The eccentric man and Mr. Swift walked on ahead, and Tom strolled down
toward the dock, for he thought he would take a short trip in his
motor-boat.

He was near the lake, not having met many persons, when he saw a
figure running up from the water. He knew who it was in an instant
Andy Foger. As for the bully, at the sight of Tom he hesitated, than
came boldly on. Evidently he had not heard of our hero's arrival.

"Ha!" exclaimed the red-haired lad, "I've been looking for you. The
police want you, Tom Swift."

"Oh, do they?" asked the young inventor gently.

"Yes; for robbery. I'm going to get the reward, too. You thought you
were smart, but I saw those burglar tools in your valise. I sent the
police after you. So you've come back, eh? I'm going to tell Chief
Simonson. You wait."

"Yes," answered Tom, "I'll wait. So the police want me, do they?"

"That's what they do," snarled Andy. "I told you I'd get even with
you, and I've done it."

"Well," burst out Tom, unable to longer contain himself, as he thought
of all he had suffered at the hands of the red-haired bully, "I said
I'd get even with you, but I haven't done it yet. I'm going to now.
Take off your coat, Andy. You and I are going to have a little
argument."

"Don't you dare lay a finger on me!" blustered the squint-eyed one.

Tom peeled off his coat. Andy, who saw that he could not escape,
rushed forward, and dealt the young inventor a blow on the chest. That
was all Tom wanted, and the next instant he went at Andy hammer and
tongs. The bully tried to fight, but he had no chance with his
antagonist, who was righteously angry, and who made every blow tell.
It was a sorry-looking Andy Foger who begged for mercy a little later.

Tom had no desire to administer more than a deserved reward to the
bully, but perhaps he did add a little for interest. At any rate Andy
thought so.

"You just wait!" he cried, as he limped off. "I'll make you sorry for
this."

"Oh, don't go to any trouble on my account," said Tom gently, as he
put on his coat. But Andy did go to considerable trouble to be
revenged on the young inventor, and whether be succeeded or not you
may learn by reading the fourth book of this series, to be called "Tom
Swift and His Submarine Boat; or, Under the Ocean for Sunken
Treasure," in which I shall relate the particulars of a voyage that
was marvelous in the extreme.

Tom reached home in a very pleasant frame of mind that afternoon.
Things had turned out much better than he thought they would. A few
weeks later the two bank robbers, who were found guilty, were
sentenced to long terms, but their companions were not captured. Tom
sent Sheriff Durkin a share of the reward, and the lad invested his
own share in bank stock, after giving some to Mr. Sharp. Mr. Damon
refused to accept any. As for Mr. Swift, once he saw matters
straightened out, and his son safe, he resumed his work on his prize
submarine boat, his son helping him.

As for Tom, he alternated his spare time between trips in the airship
and his motor-boat, and frequently a certain young lady from the
Rocksmond Seminary was his companion. I think you know her name by
this time. Now, for a while, we will take leave of Tom Swift and his
friends, trusting to meet them again.

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