Gilbert Byron grew up on Maryland's Eastern Shore, a waterman's son like his young hero. A schoolteacher for twenty-eight years, he began writing full time in 1957 and was the author of eleven books. His beloved classic, The Lord's Oysters, is also available from Johns Hopkins.

This is literally a wonderful book. The wonder is that of a boy, Noah Marlin, growing up along the Chester River near the Chesapeake Bay. Inevitably there is something of Twain and Tarkington in his pranks, hooky-playing, and fishing. But other qualities distinctly Gilbert Byron's make the novel more than a nostalgic re-creation of an American childhood. This isn't childhood we're reading about, it's life. Saturday Review Crabs, perch, terrapin and frogs enter the episodes, but they are the only things fishy about this very happy sequence of a boy's growing. New York Times Book Review

• Prologue1. Rose Mack and Miss Emma2. A Breath of Fresh Air3. Rags! Rags! Rags!4. Come Dogwood Time5. Frogs and Turtles and Puppy Dog Tails6. Puss! Puss! Puss!7. Mr. Greenley's Ghost8. On the Lower Deck9. The Hunter Is a Sissy10. Birds of a Feather11. To the Victor12. the Birth of Hypochondria13. Izzy Comes to Town14. Vision of Miss Sally15. Noah and Jonah16. Catching the Devil17. Mr. Lewy and the Age of Speed18. Grandpappy's Foggy Day19. Rip20. The Christian Thing to Do21. My Lewy Had Wings22. The Prodigal Son23. Cupid and the Little City Girl24. Long Pants or a Mustache25. Wig26. The Passing of the River Rats27. Batty: Wildnerness Scout28. The Lord's Oysters