liam Hunter; but it was given me early to realize that there is no
such thing as being cut off unbetimes. If I were called at the end of
a day's stint, or the pen fell from my hand in the midst of it, that
which was appointed me was done; if well done, what mattered the rest?
This quietness came to me through a chain of thought. I had been
experiencing, as many others have, the weariness of a long-winded job,
the end of which seemed to recede with each day's progress; and there
came to my mind Long-fellow's "Village Blacksmith:"

"Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
_Each evening sees it close_."

Would it were so with me! And a voice replied, "Is it not so with you?
with all?" Since then I have understood; though the flesh is often
weak, and even the calm of the study cannot always exclude the
contagious fever of our American pace. In the particular juncture, the
Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Tracy, took my view of relative
importances, and time was secured me. The manuscript was complete by
the late spring of 1892, and the book published in December, having
meantime been used for lectures in the first session of the College in
its new building; a renewal of life which has since proved continuous.

During this interval occurred another presidential campaign. Mr.
Harrison was defeated and Mr. Cleveland elected. I was now ready to go
to sea, but by this time had decided that authorship had for me
greater attractions than following up my profession, and promised a
fuller and more successful old age. I would have retired immediately,
had I then fulfilled the necessary forty years' service; but of these
I still lacked four. My purpose was to take up at once the War of
1812, while the history of the preceding events was fresh in my mind;
and in this view I asked to be excused from sea duty, undertaking that
I would retire when my forty years were complete. The request was
probably inadmissible, for I could have given no guarantees; and the
precedent might have been bad. At any rate, it was not granted,
luckily for me; for by a combination of unforeseen circumstances the
ship to which I was ordered, the _Chicago_, was sent to Europe as
flag-ship of that station, and on her visit to England, in 1894,
occasion was taken by naval officers and others to express in public
manner their recognition of the value they thought my work had been to
the appreci