The Waif of the Cynthia by Jules Verne. Short summary

5 seconds

After another fishing trip, a Norwegian returned home with an unusual catch. It turned out to be a cradle with an infant floating on the Norwegian Sea. No one was looking for the missing boy.

1 minute

While fishing, the Norwegian saw an unusual object that was not like what you usually see on the river. It was a cradle with a baby inside. Noticing the cradle, the fisherman decides to take it with him.

On the way home, the fisherman wondered whose baby it was and who might be looking for it. However, on the way home, it never became clear who the true owners of the baby were. When the fisherman returned home, he decided to keep the child. And so the Norwegian family had one more member. And the boy got a new name — Erik.

Many years had passed since then. Erik had time to grow up, grow strong and became a full-fledged member of his new family, taking his foster parents’ surname — Gerseb. Though outwardly he did not look Scandinavian. None of the locals knew what ethnicity he belonged to.

At school, the young man stood out from the other students with his intelligence, and Erik’s demonstrated interest in the sciences attracted the attention of others. Among them was Dr. Roff Schwariencron.