s, and
went back to farming, which had been his original occupation. I remained
with him for a year and a half, or thereabouts, when my father bound me
out apprentice to a shoe-maker.

My new bos was, in some respects, a remarkable man, but not a very good
sort of one for a boy to be bound apprentice to. He paid very little
attention to his business, which he seemed to think unworthy of his
genius. He was a kind-hearted man, fond of company and frolics, in which
he indulged himself freely, and much given to speeches and harangues, in
which he had a good deal of fluency. In religion he professed to be a
Universalist, holding to doctrines and opinions very different from
those which my mother had instilled into me. He ridiculed those
opinions, and argued against them, but without converting me to his way
of thinking; though, as far as practice went, I was ready enough to
imitate his example. My Sundays were spent principally in taverns,
playing at dominos, which then was, and still is, a favorite game in
that part of the country; and, as the unsuccessful party was expected to
treat, I at times ran up a bill at the bar as high as four or six
dollars,--no small indebtedness for a young apprentice with no more
means than I had.

As I grew older this method of living grew less and less satisfactory
to me; and as I saw that no good of any kind, not even a knowledge of
the trade he had undertaken to teach me, was to be got of my present
bos, I bought my time of him, and went to work with another man to pay
for it. Before I had succeeded in doing that, and while I was not yet
nineteen, I took upon myself the still further responsibility of
marriage. This was a step into which I was led rather by the impulse of
youthful passion than by any thoughtful foresight. Yet it had at least
this advantage, that it obliged me to set diligently to work to provide
for the increasing family which I soon found growing up around me.

I had never liked the shoe-making business, to which my father had bound
me an apprentice. I had always desired to follow the water. The vessels
which I had seen sailing up and down the Delaware Bay still haunted my
fancy; and I engaged myself as cook on board a sloop, employed in
carrying wood from Maurice river to Philadelphia. Promotion in this line
is sufficiently rapid; for in four months, after commencing as cook, I
rose to be captain. This wood business, in which I remained for two
years, is carried on by