6 MAKING A MASTER. 



times repeated instructions, and at the end of the 

 lesson I went below and worked out the correct 

 solution to the problem, which I handed to the 

 surprised and delighted master, who thereafter 

 taught me navigation with great thoroughness, 

 and depended upon me to keep the ship's time. 



It was continually being made evident that this 

 captain of ready blows and fierce language had 

 yet a place in his heart which could be touched 

 by real merit and conscientious devotion to duty, 

 and I often found that presents followed kickings, 

 and the imparting of valuable knowledge or the 

 granting of privileges a torrent of abuse. 



So rapid was my advancement that during this 

 first voyage, as I became boat-steerer, I was 

 mentally, morally, and physically becoming the 

 well-rounded man. Many a cruise as mate and 

 master did I make after this initial one, but 

 that fifty-four months of untold hardships, of 

 uncounted humiliations, gave me the readiness, 

 the knowledge, the experience, and the resolves 

 from the fusion of which there was evolved the 

 captain of my dreams. 



