My Ambitions 33 



sometimes from the rising to the setting of the sun. 

 And the outcome is often that the old king is beaten, 

 deposed, and driven forth to wander soUtary, it may be 

 for many years, through the wide oceans where once he 

 ranged as an ocean monarch, leader of a great family, 

 but now doomed to finish his journey alone. 



Now in this long digression I have sought to show 

 the customs of our people as regards family life, for the 

 reason that to me was rapidly approaching the time 

 when I must needs do battle with my peers for the right 

 to lead. I had no choice, nor did I desire any. I felt 

 keenly eager to fight, the more so because my two 

 exploits had already brought rne fame, as it is under- 

 stood by us, and also because there were several win- 

 some cows who looked lovingly upon me. They kept 

 near me in the school when we were on our passages, 

 in spite of the jealous efforts made by the other young 

 bulls to edge between us. Many attempts were made 

 to provoke me to fight, but I disregarded them all. 

 Mine was a loftier aim, a higher ambition. I aspired 

 to leadership of the school, although there was no sign 

 visible that our chief was growing too old to lead. All 

 the more glory I felt, for me, if I could overcome him 

 and take his place. 



Consequently battle after battle took place among 

 my young fellow-bulls, and several new families were 

 founded and led away, as we journeyed about the oceans 

 of the world. One battle royal took place in the Indian 

 Ocean, near where I was bom, and a contemporary of 

 my own, bom three days after me, led off four young 

 cows triumphantly. Another founded a new family 

 on the coast of Japan, another off the Sandwich Islands, 

 another in the North Atlantic, where a great ship-full 

 of men and women paused to view the fight and held 

 their breath to see how fiercely strove the monarchs 



