Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1152

Catalog Note *Ned Hazel, The Boy Trapper; The Phantom Princess* by Capt. J. F. C. Adams appears in this 1878 Beadle's Half-Dime Library issue. The opening installment introduces Nick Whiffles, a weathered Oregon frontier trapper of the Hudson's Bay Company era, who settles on the Elk River awaiting a fur brigade. Whiffles, accompanied by his dog Calamity and horse Shagbark, reflects on his lifelong misadventures before being joined by Ned Hazel, a fifteen-year-old ward whom he's raised since childhood, arriving by canoe downriver. The brigade of fur traders appears moments later, led by Hudson's Bay Company man William Mackintosh, who accepts Whiffles and Ned aboard. Mackintosh's curious questioning about Ned's origins—noting the boy bears no resemblance to the old trapper—prompts Whiffles to refuse elaboration, establishing mystery around the boy's background and circumstances.