dy could tell positively what occupation _his_ father
had followed; but my dear mother used to assert that he had been a
midshipman, whose grandfather, on the mother's side, had been an admiral
in the royal navy. At anyrate we knew that, as far back as our family
could be traced, it had been intimately connected with the great watery
waste. Indeed this was the case on both sides of the house; for my
mother always went to sea with my father on his long voyages, and so
spent the greater part of her life upon the water.

Thus it was, I suppose, that I came to inherit a roving disposition. Soon
after I was born, my father, being old, retired from a seafaring life,
purchased a small cottage in a fishing village on the west coast of
England, and settled down to spend the evening of his life on the shores
of that sea which had for so many years been his home. It was not long
after this that I began to show the roving spirit that dwelt within me.
For some time past my infant legs had been gaining strength, so that I
came to be dissatisfied with rubbing the skin off my chubby knees by
walking on them, and made many attempts to stand up and walk like a man;
all of which attempts, however, resulted in my sitting down violently and
in sudden surprise. One day I took advantage of my dear mother's absence
to make another effort; and, to my joy, I actually succeeded in reaching
the doorstep, over which I tumbled into a pool of muddy water that lay
before my father's cottage door. Ah, how vividly I remember the horror
of my poor mother when she found me sweltering in the mud amongst a group
of cackling ducks, and the tenderness with which she stripped off my
dripping clothes and washed my dirty little body! From this time forth
my rambles became more frequent, and, as I grew older, more distant,
until at last I had wandered far and near on the shore and in the woods
around our humble dwelling, and did not rest content until my father
bound me apprentice to a coasting vessel, and let me go to sea.

For some years I was happy in visiting the sea-ports, and in coasting
along the shores of my native land. My Christian name was Ralph, and my
comrades added to this the name of Rover, in consequence of the passion
which I always evinced for travelling. Rover was not my real name, but
as I never received any other I came at last to answer to it as naturally
as to my proper name; and, as it is not a bad one, I see no good reason
why I