CHAPTER VIII 

 First Lessons in Life 



If I had exchanged my New York brown- 

 stone house for a log cabin in the woods on 

 the shores of the Chesapeake it would have 

 been a good trade, if the boys could have 

 had boats. 



A boy who learns early to handle a boat 

 has achieved more in education than he who 

 graduates at the head of his class in the city 

 high school. 



A boat teaches him the first lessons of 

 life — Law and Obedience — in vital ways. 

 You can talk about Law to a boy hours and 

 hours. It goes in at one ear and out at the 

 other. The fact is, few of us ever learn things 

 in the abstract. We rarely learn anything 

 until Nature raps us over the knuckles and 

 calls our attention to it. 



