User:Jphilbrick/Madge Morton

Madge Morton is the titular character of a series of four books for girls, published by Altemus in 1914. At least some volumes were reprinted by Saalfield Publishing. The High School Girls Series, College Girls Series, Grace Harlowe Overseas Series, and Grace Harlowe Overland Riders Series were written by Josephine Chase, under the pseudonym Jessie Graham Flower.

Titles in the series
====Madge Morton, Captain of the Merry Maid (1914)==== Madge Morton and her friends, Eleanor Butler, Phyllis Alden, and Lillian Seldon attend Miss Tolliver's college preparatory school at Harborpoint, near Baltimore. Madge never knew her parents, and lives with her aunt and uncle, Eleanor's parents, in Virginia. Rather than take Madge for the summer vacation, an aunt gives her two hundred dollars. Madge and the girls decide to buy a houseboat, find a chaperone, and spend the summer on the water. They find a canal boat and convert it to their "ship of dreams," the Merry Maid. While anchored off the Maryland shore, Madge and Phil meet a poor girl who is abused by her father and stepmother, and who can't seem to remember anything about her past. They also meet Mrs. Curtis and her son, Tom, with whom they become great friends. They solve the girl's mystery, and Madge endears herself to the Curtises.

====Madge Morton's Secret (1914)==== Later in the same summer, Mrs. Curtis invites the houseboat girls to be her guests at Old Point Comfort. While looking through a trunk in the Butlers' attic, Madge finds her a log book and letter, written by her father. He had been an officer in the Navy, but had been discharged by court-martial for brutality; Madge's mother died soon afterward and her father was never heard from again. In these documents, Madge finds evidence that clears his name, but she keeps it a secret until she can find further proof. Once at Old Point Comfort, Phil makes friends with a Naval Lieutenant, who entrusts here with information regarding a ship he is developing for the government. Meanwhile, Madge makes an enemy and another of Tom's friends secretly plots to steal the Lieutenant's project for his father's company's profit.

The Merry Maid is set adrift one night during a storm, and the girls drift until they reach a deserted island somewhere off the coast. The live off the land for several months, until they discover a house across the island, which houses a prisoner, is guarded by two gypsies, and overseen by two strange men. Madge and Phil free the prisoner and the girls escape with him. Back at Old Point Comfort, the Lieutenant's project is rescued and Madge finds a way to clear her father's name.

====Madge Morton's Trust (1914)==== The next summer finds Madge returning from Boston to Virginia, and she stops at Phil's home in Connecticut on the way. There, she meets a spinster, Miss Betsey Taylor, and her cousin/hired boy, David. The girls are unable to finance another houseboat adventure until Miss Betsey agrees to go with them to Virginia, as Phil's physician father recommends she spend some time outdoors. The girls all reunite (with Miss Betsey) on the Merry Maid, with the plan that Tom and his friends will tow them with Tom's motorboat. David is to attend as Tom's mechanic. Tom's friends tend to treat him contemptuously, which David greatly resents.

Madge gets lost along the shore one night and winds up the prisoner of a man and old gypsy woman.

====Madge Morton's Victory (1914)====

Contemporary Series
Altemus published series books with pages of advertising for other series. Some that can be found in Madge Morton books include: Grace Harlowe, The Meadow-Brook Girls, and boys' series like: Dave Darrin, Submarine Boys, and Dick Prescott. Altemus even occasionally cross-referenced series, as when Madge Morton makes a cameo appearance in Grace Harlowe's Problem.

Other contemporary series published for school girls include: Betty Gordon, Marjorie Dean, The Outdoor Girls, The Moving Picture Girls, Jane Allen, Betty Wales, Ruth Fielding, The Girls of Central High, Friendly Terrace, Fairmount Girls, Helen Grant, Hadley Hall, Nancy Lee, Isabel Carleton, Molly Brown.