Shifting Winds A Story of the Sea by R. M. Ballantyne

Shifting Winds
A Story of the Sea
R. M. Ballantyne
Philadelphia: Porter and Coates
No publication date found
Alta edition
Black and white frontispiece
414 pages

The binding is weakening but still in acceptable condition. The pages are clean but tanned and there is an owners stamp on the title page.  The cover has a small amount of corner wear, the spine is darkened and shows wear at the ends. Good. Hardcover.

Chapter 1:  The family board was spread; the family kettle--an unusually fat one--was singing on the fire, and the family chimney was roaring like a lion by reason of the wind, which blew a hurricane outside, and shook the family mansion, a small wooden hut, to its foundations.

The hour was midnight. This fact was indicated by the family clock--a Dutch one, with a face which had once been white, but was now become greenish yellow, probably from horror at the profanity of the artist who had painted a basket of unrecognisable fruit above it, an irate cockatoo below it, and a blue church with a pink steeple as near to the centre of it as the hands would admit of.   (#00002003)