By the Great Horn Spoon!
1963 novel by Sid Fleischman
By The Great Horn Spoon! is a children's novel by Sid Fleischman, published in 1963. It tells the story of a 12-year-old boy and his English butler and their adventures in the California Gold Rush. It was adapted into the Disney film The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin, starring Roddy McDowall and Suzanne Pleshette. Because of its setting, the novel is recommended by the California Department of Education as a literary selection for classroom use for grades 3-7.
Plot
Twelve-year-old Jack heads to California to search for gold after his Aunt Arabella loses all her money. He is accompanied by Aunt Arabella's butler, Praiseworthy. They plan to pay for passage on the ship Lady Wilma, but when a criminal named Cut-Eye Higgins steals their tickets, they stow away instead. Captain Swain catches them and forces them to work for their passage in the coal bunkers, but they expose Higgins and regain their berths. While aboard, they meet Dr.
The public source identifies “By the Great Horn Spoon!” as 1963 novel by Sid Fleischman. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Great, Horn and Spoon.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5003862. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1963.
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This entry incorporates text from “By the Great Horn Spoon!” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.