creatures were allowed all the powers of a monarch, and
disdained the commonest rights of humanity. The captain was
said to have expressed a sense of pride in what he termed
the smart capture of his erring apprentice, and some talk
was heard of the contemplated exploits of drilling after
sailing again. Poor man! He was never to have the
opportunity of gratifying an ignoble desire, for the night
after the vessel's arrival the youthful incorrigible
disembarked with a vow that he would never return to her
again; and he kept his word. Could those fields and lanes in
Scotland speak out the thoughts and the sufferings of the
days that were spent there, what an ineffable record of woe
they would lay bare!

Tramping by night, and concealed part of the way by day,
this child of respectable parents was driven by cruel wrong
to abandon himself to the privations of hunger, the rigour
of a biting climate, and to the chance of his strength
giving way before he had reached the destination that was to
open out newer and brighter opportunities to him. Four weeks
after deserting his vessel he landed at a large seaport on
the north-east coast of England, and then began a new era.
For many years he led a chequered and eventful life, which,
however, did not prevent him from rising quickly to the head
of his profession. Before he was twenty-two years of age he
was given the command of a handsome sailing vessel, and at
twenty-six he commanded a steamer. He had not seen his old
captain for many years, though he often desired to do so.
One day he came across him in London, and addressed him with
the same regard to quarter-deck etiquette as he was