but when I urged on my father that he would never have become
a great captain had he remained in the coasting trade, he saw the truth
of what I said, and gave his consent. My dear mother, seeing that my
father had made up his mind, no longer offered opposition to my wishes.
"But oh, Ralph," she said, on the day I bade her adieu, "come back soon
to us, my dear boy, for we are getting old now, Ralph, and may not have
many years to live."

I will not take up my reader's time with a minute account of all that
occurred before I took my final leave of my dear parents. Suffice it to
say, that my father placed me under the charge of an old mess-mate of his
own, a merchant captain, who was on the point of sailing to the South
Seas in his own ship, the Arrow. My mother gave me her blessing and a
small Bible; and her last request was, that I would never forget to read
a chapter every day, and say my prayers; which I promised, with tears in
my eyes, that I would certainly do.

Soon afterwards I went on board the Arrow, which was a fine large ship,
and set sail for the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

CHAPTER II.

The departure--The sea--My companions--Some account of the wonderful
sights we saw on the great deep--A dreadful storm and a frightful wreck.

It was a bright, beautiful, warm day when our ship spread her canvass to
the breeze, and sailed for the regions of the south. Oh, how my heart
bounded with delight as I listened to the merry chorus of the sailors,
while they hauled at the ropes and got in the anchor! The captain
shouted--the men ran to obey--the noble ship bent over to the breeze, and
the shore gradually faded from my view, while I stood looking on with a
kind of feeling that the whole was a delightful dream.

The first thing that struck me as being different from anything I had yet
seen during my short career on the sea, was the hoisting of the anchor on
deck, and lashing it firmly down with ropes, as if we had now bid adieu
to the land for ever, and would require its services no more.

"There, lass," cried a broad-shouldered jack-tar, giving the fluke of the
anchor a hearty slap with his hand after the housing was
completed--"there, lass, take a good nap now, for we shan't ask you to
kiss the mud again for many a long day to come!"

And so it was. That anchor did not "kiss the mud" for many long days
afterwards; and when at last it did, it was for the last time!

There were a number of boys i