Small octavo rose pictorial cloth with couple standing under a tree on bevelled boards (slight chipping of grey color of picture/tips rubbed) 256pp +8pp publisher's catalogue. Prize inscription dated 1896 to Louisa Johns, Swindon on fly leaf. Marginal smudge to two leaves else clean, tight bright copy. *A surprisingly un-condemnatory tale of three boys who decide to become pirates and go to a nearby island and live in a cave. All does not go to plan, they find a cave but as the tide turns it fills with water and they nearly drown, they then hide in a shack but something they mistake for a monster disturbs their rest. They find their food contaminated with seawater, burn down the shack by mistake but are rescued by fishermen and have to go home and confess to their worried families. There is surprisingly little moralizing in this Victorian adventure.