TURNING POINTS IN THE LIFE OF A HERO

I. THE FIRST TURNING POINT


David Farragut was acting as cabin boy to his father, who was on
his way to New Orleans with the infant navy of the United States.
The boy thought he had the qualities that make a man. "I could
swear like an old salt," he says, "could drink as stiff a glass of
grog as if I had doubled Cape Horn, and could smoke like a
locomotive. I was great at cards, and was fond of gambling in
every shape. At the close of dinner one day," he continues, "my
father turned everybody out of the cabin, locked the door, and
said to me, 'David, what do you mean to be?'

"'I mean to follow the sea,' I said.

'"Follow the sea!' exclaimed father, 'yes, be a poor, miserable,
drunken sailor before the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world,
and die in some fever hospital in a foreign clime!'

"'No, father,' I replied, 'I will tread the quarterdeck, and
command as you do.'

"'No, David; no boy ever trod the quarterdeck with such principles
as you have and such habits as you exhibit. You will have to