and be honest? I will now call to my mind some examples to stimulate
thee in thy career."

Here the Dominie brought forward about forty or fifty instances from
history, in which people from nothing had risen to the highest rank and
consideration; but although I listened to them very attentively, the
reader will probably not regret the omission of the Dominie's catalogue.
Having concluded, the Dominie gave me a Latin Testament, the Whole Duty
of Man, and his blessing. The matron added to them a large slice of
seed-cake and by the time that I had returned to Mr Drummond's, both
the Dominie's precepts and the matron's considerate addition had been
well digested.

It was six o'clock the next morning that we cast off our fastenings and
pulled into the stream. The day was lovely, the sun had risen above the
trees, which feathered their boughs down on the sloping lawns in front
of the many beautiful retreats of the nobility and gentry which border
the river; and the lamp of day poured a flood of light upon the smooth
and rapidly ebbing river. The heavy dew which had fallen during the
night studded the sides of the barge, and glittered like necklaces of
diamonds; the mist and the fog had ascended, except here and there,
where it partially concealed the landscape; boats laden with the produce
of the market-gardens in the vicinity were hastening down with the tide
to supply the metropolis; the watermen were in their wherries, cleaning
and mopping them out, ready for their fares; the smoke of the chimneys
ascended in a straight line to heaven; and the distant chirping of the
birds in the trees added to the hilarity and lightness of heart with
which I now commenced my career as an apprentice.

I was forward, looking down the river, when Marables called me to take
the helm, while they went to breakfast. He commenced giving me
instructions; but I cut them short by proving to him that I knew the
river as well as he did. Pleased at the information, he joined Fleming,
who was preparing the breakfast in the cabin, and I was left on the deck
by myself. There, as we glided by every object which for years I had
not seen, but which was immediately recognised and welcomed as an old
friend, with what rapidity did former scenes connected with them flash
into my memory! There was the inn at the water-side, where my father
used to replenish the stone bottle; it was just where the barge now was
that I had hooked and pulled up the large