Bound to be an Electrician

Bound to be an Electrician (1903)
by Edward Stratemeyer

Second volume in the Working Upwards series

4158869Bound to be an Electrician1903Edward Stratemeyer

WORKING UPWARD SERIES

BOUND TO BE AN ELECTRICIAN

OR

FRANKLIN BELL'S SUCCESS

BY

EDWARD STRATEMEYER

AUTHOR OF "SHORTHAND TOM, THE REPORTER,"
"THE YOUNG AUCTIONEER," "OLD GLORY
SERIES," "COLONIAL SERIES," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

BOSTON

LEE AND SHEPARD

1903

The young electrician was thoroughly interested⁠Page 46

PREFACE.

"Bound to be an Electrician" forms the second volume of a line of juvenile stories called "The Working Upward Series."

The tale is complete in itself, and tells of the numerous adventures of a manly youth who determines to become an electrician. Franklin Bell finds his road no easy one to travel, but he is full of pluck and quiet determination. His pluck gains for him the opening he seeks, and from that time on his advancement is steady if not rapid.

In this work I have, for the first time, taken my readers into the great factory life of our country, to show them how thousands of our boys, with scarcely any schooling, have to toil for their daily living. The hero is cast among both the good and the bad, the tender-hearted and the vicious, and he is made to understand only too well that he must either fight his way through or go down in that pitiless struggle which never ceases.

Again thanking my young readers for their cordial reception of former works, I place this story in their hands, in the earnest hope that its perusal will do them much good.

Edward Stratemeyer.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	The Young Electrician	5
II.	Franklin Finds Employment	13
III.	Franklin Gets Into Difficulty	23
IV.	Franklin Makes a Friend	30
V.	Franklin Visits Edison's Works	39
VI.	A Moment of Peril	47
VII.	A Lively Pursuit	55
VIII.	At Close Quarters	63
IX.	Enemies	69
X.	A Hard Place to Fill	75
XI.	Franklin Shows His Grit	82
XII.	A Plot Against Franklin	90
XIII.	The Broken Machine	97
XIV.	Harry LeClair's Statement	104
XV.	A Midnight Mystery	112
XVI.	Belden Brice Says Something	120
XVII.	Clues and a Confession	129
XVIII.	Franklin Makes a New Move	136
XIX.	The Meeting in the Cottage	145
XX.	Andy Gresson is Astonished	152
XXI.	Franklin Bell's Mission	159
XXII.	Franklin Shows His Courage	167
XXIII.	Franklin Makes a New Friend	175
XXIV.	A Surprising Statement	183
XXV.	An Interesting Conversation	190
XXVI.	On Lake Michigan	197
XXVII.	A Meeting in a Strange City	204
XXVIII.	An Interesting Meeting	211
XXIX.	Franklin Decided to Act	218
XXX.	Franklin Shows His Pluck	225
XXXI.	A Battery Turns the Tables	232
XXXII.	The Dead Alive	238
XXXIII.	Conclusion	244

ILLUSTRATIONS

	Page
The young electrician was thoroughly interested (Frontispiece)	46
The girls shrieked and the boys laughed	11
Franklin sprang over the fence at a bound	55
"Bell, come here and explain this at once"	96

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1931, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 92 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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