In the Track of the Troops

by R.M. Ballantyne

The remarkable-I might even say amazing-personal adventures which I am about to relate occurred quite recently. They are so full of interest to myself and to my old mother, that I hasten to write them down while yet vivid and fresh in my memory, in the hope that they may prove interesting, -to say nothing of elevating and instructive-to the English-speaking portions of the human race throughout the world. The dear old lady to whom I have just referred-my mother-is one of the gentlest, meekest, tenderest beings of my acquaintance. Her regard for me is almost idolatrous. My feelings towards her are tinged with adoration. From my earliest years I have been addicted to analysis. Some of my younger readers may not perhaps know that by analysis is meant the reduction of compound things to their elements-the turning of things, as it were, inside out and tearing them to pieces. All the complex toys of infancy I was wont to reduce to their elements; I turned them inside out to see what they were made of, and how they worked. A doll, not my own, but my sister Bella's, which had moveable eyelids and a musical stomach, was treated by me in this manner, the result being that I learned little, while my poor sister suffered much. Everything in my father's house suffered more or less from this inquiring tendency of my mind

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1878

About the author

R. M. Ballantyne was a Scottish writer of juvenile fiction.

Born Robert Michael Ballantyne in Edinburgh, he was part of a famous family of printers and publishers. At the age of 16 he went to Canada and where he served for six years with the Hudson's Bay Company. He returned to Scotland in 1847, and published his first book the following year, Hudson's Bay: or Life in the Wilds of North America. For some time he was employed by Messrs Constable, the publishers, but in 1856 he gave up business for literature, and began the series of adventure stories for the young with which his name is popularly associated.