STAYING ASHORE. 383 



productive of a speedy annihilation of my hopes. 

 " I would like to take you," said the kindest man 

 to whom I had occasion to apply, " but a sailor, 

 you know, would never do for me. You wouli 

 not remain a month at any steady employment." 



After a week spent in vain applications in New 

 York, I shipped in a brig for Philadelphia. Here 

 I was kindly but suspiciously received by good 

 people who had befriended me when I first set out 

 from home to go to sea. What struggles were 

 necessary before I was able, even here, with the 

 assistance of friends, to gain a firm footing ; how 

 I was on every hand met with suspicion and dis- 

 trust ; how no one could believe that I would 

 remain steadily ashore ; and how this very unbelief 

 led me oft-times to think seriously of returning 

 to my sea-life doubting myself, because others 

 doubted me none of this need be more than 

 mentioned here. Suffice it, that by a persistent 

 effort, and a struggle through which I would net 

 like again to pass, I at length proved to doubting 

 friends that there is redemption for even a sailor. 



But to this day my firmest friends mildly doult 

 the permanency of my shore life. Shall I owi/, 

 that I sometimes see that in a sailor's (ixigteiv s 

 which is Dreferable to some lives on land ? 



