The Toll-keepers

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. This lively collection for young readers and general audiences moves from farmyard affection to naval adventure, colonial danger, and thoughtful natural history. It opens at Bushgrove farm with Sophy and Nelly Cousens, whose playful habit of "tolling" their father at the gate becomes a tender emblem of family love. From there, plainspoken sea tales deliver wit, moral irony, and courage: a monkey's theft leads to an unexpected judgment on honesty, while "A Short Account of Gibraltar" presents the fortress as a dramatic, strategically vital stronghold shaped by sieges, occupation, and patriotic pride. Elsewhere, a British brig's tense encounter with an American ship gives way to later respect between former enemies, and shipboard humor turns to caution in the story of Jack Fraser's drink-fueled mistake. The narrator also visits Malta's crowded harbor and macabre Capuchin burial customs, survives a comic scare in colonial Australia, and follows Jessie Barton's unruly puppy Gyp from spoiled pet to disciplined, loyal companion. Rounding out the volume are vivid reflections on fishing, the abundance of the sea, and a spirited defense of the donkey as a patient, cruelly mistreated creature worthy of sympathy.