Gerald at Court.
Page 35.
THE
FOUNDLING OF THE WRECK.
The Happy Discovery.
Page 41.
London:
GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
THE
FOUNDLING OF THE WRECK.
CHAPTER I.
A SHIPWRECK.
If our young readers will take a map of Europe, and look to the west,they will see a broad wide sea called the Baltic, stretching northwardand separating the countries of Norway and Sweden from Russia. To theeast of this sea is a gulf, called the Gulf of Finland, and at theextremity of that gulf, at the mouth of the river Neva, stands the cityof St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia in Europe.
St. Petersburg is at the present time a populous and beautiful city. Itcontains so many splendid buildings, that it is sometimes called a cityof palaces, but about the beginning of the eighteenth century (which isa hundred and fifty years ago,) the ground on which it stands was animmense bog, or marsh, surrounded by dreary forests. The only personswho dwelt on the then desolate spot were some fishermen who built afew little cabins near the water’s edge; but as the river at certainseasons of the year frequently overflowed its banks, and the cabinswere sometimes washed away, even these few little tenements were oftendeserted.
I dare say most of our young readers have heard or read of Peter theGreat, the celebrated Emperor, or Czar of Russia. He built the city ofSt. Petersburg, and called it after his own name; but of that[Pg 6] we shallspeak hereafter, at present we have to do with a humble individual,named Michael Kopt, who lived in one of the cabins we have spoken of.
Michael’s father was a Swede, and could read and write, and wastherefore far in advance of the ignorant Russian serfs, among whomhe lived. Having been carried prisoner to Russia, during one of thenumerous wars between the Russians and Swedes, he had been compelled toobtain his living as a fisherman. He taught his son Michael all thathe had himself learned, and also brought him up to his trade. WhenMichael became a man, he married a young woman, the daughter of one ofthe same craft; they were very poor, but they lived happily together,for Margaret was thrifty and affectionate, and Michael steady, soberand industrious. During the fishing season, Michael applied himselfvery diligently to his business, and with his wife’s assistance, driedand salted the greater part of the fish which he caught, then, when thefloods were expected, they removed to a village some miles distant, andlived on the produce of their joint labour.
One season Michael and his wife remained in the fishing-hut, a fewweeks later than usual, on account of the fineness of the weather, andthere being no signs of the floods. However, on the day before thatfixed for their departure, a violent storm suddenly arose, and it wasevident that the cabins were in