rivers was his common practice, and tumbling into
deep pools was his most ordinary mishap. No wonder, then, that Bill
learned at an early age to swim, and also to fear nothing whatever,
except a blowing-up from his father. He feared that, but he did not
often get it, because, although full of mischief as an egg is full of
meat, he was good-humoured and bidable, and, like all lion-hearted
fellows, he had little or no malice in him.

He began his professional career very early in life. When in after
years he talked to his comrades on this subject, he used to say--

"Yes, mates, I did begin to study navigation w'en I was about two foot
high--more or less--an' I tell 'e what it is, there's nothin' like
takin' old Father Time by the forelock. I was about four year old when
I took my first start in the nautical way; and p'r'aps ye won't believe
it, but it's a fact, I launched my first ship myself; owned her;
commanded and navigated her, and was wrecked on my first voyage. It
happened this way; my father was a mill-wright, he was, and lived near a
small lake, where I used to splutter about a good deal. One day I got
hold of a big plank, launched it after half an hour o' the hardest work
I ever had, got on it with a bit of broken palm for an oar, an' shoved
off into deep water. It was a splendid burst! Away I went with my
heart in my mouth and my feet in the water tryin' to steady myself, but
as ill luck would have it, just as I had got my ship on an even keel an'
was beginnin' to dip my oar with great caution, a squall came down the
lake, caught me on the starboard quarter, and threw me on my beam-ends.
Of coorse I went sowse into the water, and had only time to give out one
awful yell when the water shut me up. Fortnitly my father heard me;
jumped in and pulled me out, but instead of kicking me or blowin' me up,
he told me that I should have kept my weather-eye open an' met the
squall head to wind. Then he got hold of the plank and made me try it
again, and didn't leave me till I was able to paddle about on that plank
almost as well as any Eskimo in his skin canoe. My good old dad
finished the lesson by tellin' me to keep always _in shoal water till I
could swim_, and to look out for squalls in future! It was lucky for me
that I had learned to obey him, for many a time I was capsized after
that, when nobody was near me, but bein' always in shoal water, I
managed to scramble ashore."

As Bill Bowls began life so