Cupid of Campion

Clarence Esmond is ten years old and absolutely certain that adventure is waiting for him somewhere in the streets of McGregor. He sets out to find her the "Bright-eyed Goddess of Adventure" who has been calling to him from somewhere beyond the ordinary. What he finds instead is a string of misadventures: a mischievous encounter with the butcher's boy Abe Thompson leaves him stranded on a river, floating helplessly toward a band of gypsies who quickly capture him. Every step toward his goddess leads him deeper into trouble. But here's the twist young Clarence doesn't yet understand: trouble, it turns out, is sometimes the long way around to something good. A good Lady watches over him from heaven, and through unlikely devotees scattered across his path, she draws good out of the very evil that threatens him. Clarence learns that adventure isn't quite what he imagined but perhaps exactly what he needed. Francis J. Finn writes with gentle humor and genuine warmth about boyhood's earnest longing for something more. This is old-fashioned adventure fiction at its most charming.