Excerpt: “"Up with your helm there, Noddy! Luff her up or you'll have the Curlew on the rocks!" "That's right, luff!" cried Billy Raynor, adding his voice to Jack Ready's command. "That's what I luff to do," grinned the red-headed, former Bowery waif, Noddy Nipper, as, with a dexterous motion, he jerked over the tiller of the fine, speedy sloop in which the boys were enjoying a sail on Alexandria Bay, above the Thousand Islands. The mainsail and jib shivered, and the Curlew spun round like a top just as it seemed inevitable that she must end her career on some jagged rocks that had suddenly loomed up ahead. "Neatly done, Noddy," applauded Jack. "We'll forgive you even that awful pun for that skillful bit of boat-handling." The freckled lad grinned in appreciation of the compliment paid him by the Wireless Boy."
John Henry Goldfrap (1879 – November 21, 1917) was an English-born journalist and author of boys' books, participating in the "American series phenomenon". He always wrote under pseudonyms. John Goldfrap was a member of the staff of the Evening World. He was born in England, and worked first at San Francisco newspapers, and then came to New York in 1905. In addition to his children's stories and newspaper work, Goldfrap wrote movie scripts.