ome way or other, connected
with salt water. Swimming and boating early became absolute passions
with me; I was never quite happy unless I happened to be either in or on
the water; _then_, indeed, all other pleasures were less than nothing to
me. As a natural consequence, I soon became the intimate companion of
every boatman in the harbour; I acquired, to a considerable extent,
their tastes and prejudices, and soon mastered all the nautical lore
which it was in their power to teach me. I could sail a boat before I
could read; and by the time that I had learned to write, was able to
hand, reef, and steer with the best of them. My conversation--except
when it was addressed to my father--was copiously interlarded with
nautical phrases; and by the time I had attained the age of fourteen--at
which period this history begins--I was not only acquainted with the
name, place, and use of every rope and spar in a ship, but I had also an
accurate knowledge of the various rigs, and a distinct opinion as to
what constituted a good model. The astute reader will have gathered
from this confession that I was, from my earliest childhood, left pretty
much my own master; and such was in fact the case. My mother died in
giving birth to my only sister Eva (two years my junior); a misfortune
which, in consequence of my father's absorption in the duties of his
practice, left me entirely to the care of the servants, by whom I was
shamefully neglected. But for this I should doubtless have been trained
to obedience and a respectful deference to my father's wishes. The
mischief, however, was done; I had acquired a love of the sea, and my
highest ambition was to become a naval officer. This fact my father at
length reluctantly recognised, and by persistent entreaty I finally
prevailed upon him to take the necessary steps to gratify my heart's
desire--with the result already known to the reader.

The sombre reflections induced by the thought of my father's
disappointment did not, I confess with shame, last long. They vanished
as a morning mist is dissipated before the rising sun, when I recalled
to mind that I was not only going to sea, but that I was actually going
to sail in the _Daphne_. This particular craft was my _beau-ideal_ of
what a ship ought to be; and in this opinion I was by no means alone--
all my cronies hailing from the Hard agreeing, without exception, that
she was far and away the handsomest and most perfect model they ha