n from the lap of the waves against the shore,
the murmur of leaves, and the rustle of wings those lessons which Nature
teaches in her quiet moods.

These experiences and impressions sank into Cooper's heart, and were
relived again long after in the pages of his romances with such
vividness that they are plainly seen to be real memories.

Leaving his home while still a young boy, Cooper went to Albany to study
under a private tutor, and in 1803 entered Yale College, which, owing to
some trouble with the authorities, he left in the third year of his
course. It was now decided that he should enter the navy, and he left
New York in the autumn of 1806, being then in his fifteenth year, on a
vessel of the merchant marine. There was then no Naval Academy in
America, and a boy could only fit himself for entering the navy before
the mast; his ship, the _Sterling_, visiting Portugal and Spain,
carrying cargoes from port to port, and taking life in a leisurely
manner that belonged to the merchant sailing-vessels of that day. It was
a time of interest to all seamen, and Cooper's mind was keenly alive to
the new life around him. The English were expecting a French invasion,
and the channel was full of ships of war, while every port on the
southern coast was arming for defence. The Mediterranean was yet subject
to incursions of the Barbary pirates, who would descend under cover of
night upon any unprotected merchant-vessel, steal the cargo, scuttle the
ship, and carry away the crew to be sold as slaves to the Tripolitan and
Algerian husbandmen, whose orchards of dates were cultivated by many a
white person from across the Atlantic, held there in cruel slavery.

The waters of the Mediterranean were full of merchant-men of all
nations. Here, side by side, could be seen the Italian, French, and
English sailor, while the flags of Russia, Turkey, Egypt, and Greece
dotted the farther horizon.

[Illustration: HIS PLACE WAS ON THE DECK AMONG THE SAILORS.]

Cooper passed through all these stirring scenes, known to those around
him only as a boy before the mast, but in reality the clever student and
observer of men and events. His work was hard and dangerous; he was
never admitted to the cabin, though an equal, socially, to the officers
of the ship; in storm or wind or other danger his place was on the deck
among the rough sailors, who were his only companions during the voyage.
But this training developed the good material that was in hi