The Mail Carrier

"The Mail Carrier" by Harry Castlemon is a novel written in the late 19th century. The story centers around David Evans, a young boy trapper who earns money by catching quails to fulfill a contract, which incites jealousy from other boys in the settlement and threatens his hard-won success. The plot is intertwined with family dynamics, as David navigates his ambitions while dealing with the shadows of his father's criminal past and the mischievous designs of his brother Dan. At the start of the story, David triumphantly returns home after successfully shipping quails and receiving payment, but he is quickly overshadowed by his brother Dan's attempts to sabotage him. The opening introduces a cast of characters, including Godfrey Evans, David's disgraced father, who is eager to reclaim control over David’s earnings for his selfish desires. When Dan learns of David's newfound wealth, he informs Godfrey, leading to plans for robbery. This sets the stage for conflict as David tries to keep his money safe from both his father and his brother. Through the interactions and underlying tensions, the narrative hints at themes of ambition, loyalty, and the struggles within familial relationships. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Charles Austin Fosdick, better known by his nom de plume Harry Castlemon, was a prolific writer of juvenile stories and novels, intended mainly for boys. He was born in Randolph, New York, and received a high school diploma from Central High School in Buffalo, New York. He served in the Union Navy from 1862 to 1865, during the American Civil War, acting as the receiver and superintendent of coal for the Mississippi River Squadron. Fosdick had begun to write as a teenager, and drew on his experiences serving in the Navy in such early novels as Frank on a Gunboat (1864) and Frank on the Lower Mississippi (1867). He soon became the most-read author for boys in the post-Civil War era, the golden age of children's literature.