Rodney Ray

The Life and Adventures of a Scapegrace. A story of school and the sea. Excerpt: FOR a scrapegrace. some considerable talent is necessary. A dunce may be a- blackguard or villain, but could never attain or imitate that singular mixture of good spirits, good humour, bad behaviour, good looks, and bad habits, good fortune, and great impudence, which go to make up that anomalous character. Your genuine scrapegrace is always getting into trouble, and getting out again, in the most marvellous and unexpected manner. Difficulties do not daunt him, misfortune does not dispirit him, hardships rarely affect his buoyant devil-me-care nature. On the other hand, good fortune does him no good. He is no sooner out of one scrape than in another, and the more lavishly the blind goddess scatters her gifts on him, the more lavishly does he in turn scatter and use them up. Our hero was an excellent type of the genus scrapegrace.