or jacket. Sometimes I would set a week's work,
and let them get through it as they liked, provided they had earned
their food. I thus very early found out their characters, and the
amount of perseverance and energy they possessed, and managed them
accordingly. They all got through their work in the set time, but in
different ways. One would set to work the moment he knew what he was to
do, and toil away till it was completed; another would commence more
leisurely, then go to some other occupation or amusement, and then
return to his regular labours; a third would take the whole time to
complete the undertaking, but it was invariably done well. I taught my
own boys the advantages of industry, and they soon learned to like
labour for itself. They have never been idle, and consequently have
never been vicious.

For six or seven years I lived on with my old friends, spending all the
day on the river assisting the boatmen to take care of their boats, and,
as I grew bigger, in rowing, till I had saved enough money to get a
share of a boat myself, while every evening that Mr Hamlin was able to
receive me I paid him a visit. At the time I was fourteen my wish to go
to sea, grew stronger than ever, and Mr Wells at once acceded to it,
and told me that he would gladly find me a berth in one of his own
vessels, for he was, what I forgot before to say, an extensive
shipowner. He advised me to sell my share in the boat, and to invest
the amount, with my subsequent savings, in the savings bank, telling me
that he had such entire confidence in me that he would gladly advance
the money for my outfit.

I was accordingly entered as an apprentice, and made my first voyage, in
the good ship the _Mary Jane_, to the Brazils. The next was round Cape
Horn to the coast of Chili and Peru, and on my return I made a trip up
the Baltic. Indeed, for many years I was constantly at sea, during
which time I visited various parts of the world.

When I was out of my apprenticeship I began to lay by half of my wages,
and then to do a little trading on my own account, by which I made
money. I at last worked my way from before the mast to the
quarter-deck, and became third officer of a fine ship trading to the
Cape. I probably should have become master of her in time, but on my
return home I fell in love and married. My wife was young, pretty, and
well educated according to my taste--that is to say, she had been
brought up at home by a good