I just picked up the complete works of G.A. Henty for 1.99 on Kindle at Amazon. Go here to take a gander at it. Henty lived from 1832-1902, and what an adventurous life he led, first as an officer in the British Army and then as a military journalist. He participated in, or covered, many of the major military campaigns of the 19th century from the Crimean War forward. On the side he wrote some 122 novels aimed at boys on historical-military topics ranging from ancient Egypt to our Civil War. Each book he took pains to make as historically accurate as possible, and filled with old fashioned virtues that have fallen out of fashion in our contemporary world: courage, honor, fortitude, honesty, etc. Henty was a man of his times, and anyone afraid of offending twenty-first century pieties should look elsewhere. But for those interested in encouraging a growing boy to read, and gain a mental map of the past, I think this would make a grand Christmas gift. These books will teach him that the past is another country but that it is populated by men and women, boys and girls, and that there is much to learn from their triumphs and their tragedies. Same goes for historically minded girls, especially since young heroines also populate the pages.
“I did not think anything about it,” Malchus said; “I saw you pushed in and followed without thinking at all.”
Although they imperfectly understood each other’s words the meaning was clear; the girl put her hand on his shoulder and looked frankly up in his face.
“I thank you,” she said, “just the same as if you had saved my life. You meant to do so, and it was very good of you, a great chief of this army, to hazard your life for a Gaulish maiden. Clotilde will never forget.”
