white as if it had been
lime-washed; but I remembered the flour. My face alone was to be seen,
and that was almost as white as the rest--white, and wan, and bony as
that of a skeleton! I saw that suffering and meagre fare had made sad
havoc with my flesh.

The captain seated me on a sofa, and, having summoned his steward,
ordered him to fill me out a glass of port wine. He uttered not a word
till I had drunk it; and then, turning to me, with a look in which I
could read nothing of sternness, he said--

"Now, my lad, tell me all about it!"

It was a long story, but I told it from first to last. I concealed
nothing--neither of the motives that had led me to run away from my
home, nor yet any item of the vast damage I had done to the cargo.
This, however, was already well-known to him, as half the crew had long
since visited my lair behind the water-butt, and ascertained everything.

When I had gone through every circumstance, I wound up with the proposal
I had resolved to make to him; and then, with an anxious heart, I
awaited his response. My anxiety was soon at an end.

"Brave lad!" he exclaimed, rising to his feet, and going towards the
door, "you wish to be a sailor? You _deserve_ to be a sailor; and by
the memory of your noble father, whom I chanced to know, you _shall_ be
a sailor!"

"Here, Waters!" he continued, calling to the big tar, who was waiting
outside, "take this youngster, have him fresh rigged; and, as soon as he
is strong enough, see that he be properly taught the ropes."

And Waters did see that I was taught the ropes--every one of them, and
in the proper manner. For many years afterwards he was my shipmate,
under that same kind-hearted captain, until I rose from the condition of
a mere "boy tar," and was rated upon the _Inca's_ books as an "able
seaman."

But my promotion did not end there. "_Excelsior_" was my motto; and,
assisted by the generous captain, I soon after became a third mate, and
afterwards a second mate, and, still later, a first mate, and, last of
all, a _captain_!

In course of time, too--still better than all--I became _captain of my
own ship_.

That was the crowning ambition of my life; for then I was free to go and
come as I pleased, and plough the great ocean in any direction, and
trade with whatever part of the world I might think proper.

One of my very first and most successful voyages--I mean in my own
ship--was to Peru; and I remember well that I carried