mother of Josiah Quincy that
she would never let him take off his wet shoes, regarding it as an
effeminate practice.

On approaching the time of entering college his father met with
misfortunes and could not bear the expense. Two aunts of his, who could
well afford it, offered to pay his expenses in college. He firmly
declined the offer. The foundation of his character and career was a
love of independence. He asked to be apprenticed, as the custom then
was, to a mercantile house, and remained in it as long as it held
together. After its failure he tried for months to obtain a clerkship,
but, not succeeding, he arranged with a carpenter to learn his trade.
Just before putting on the carpenter's apron an opening occurred in his
own business, and he became a merchant. About the year 1801 he went out
to China as supercargo, and continued to visit that part of the world in
similar capacities for many years, occasionally making small ventures of
his own, and slowly accumulating a little capital. He had a series of
the most discouraging misfortunes. In the year 1813 he wrote to his
sister from Cadiz:--

"It is a melancholy truth that in the whole course of my life I never
arrived at a good market."

On that occasion everything promised well. He had a ship full of
valuable goods, and the market to which he was carrying them was in an
excellent condition for his purpose, but within twenty-four hours of his
port he was captured, and detained ten weeks a prisoner. After the peace
of 1815, merchants could send their ships across the ocean without fear
of their being taken by English or French cruisers. From that time he
had better luck, and gradually gained a moderate fortune, upon which he
retired. He never kept a store, or had any sort of warehouse, but made
his fortune by sending or taking merchandise from a port which had too
much of it to one that was in want of it.

On one of his winter passages to Europe he found the sailors suffering
extremely from handling frozen ropes, as they were not provided with
mittens. Being a Yankee, and having been brought up to _do_ things as
well as read about them, he took one of his thick overcoats and made
with his own hands a pair of mittens for every sailor.

On another occasion, in the ship Atahualpa, in 1809, bound to China, the
vessel was attacked off Macao by pirates, in twenty-two junks, some of
them being twice the tonnage of the vessel. Captain Sturgis, who
commanded the vess