change your whole course of life if you ever become a man.'

"My father left me and went on deck. I was stunned by the rebuke,
and overwhelmed with mortification. 'A poor, miserable, drunken
sailor before the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, and die
in some fever hospital!' 'That's my fate, is it? I'll change my
life, and _I_ WILL CHANGE IT AT ONCE. I will never utter another
oath, never drink another drop of intoxicating liquor, never
gamble,' and, as God is my witness," said the admiral, solemnly,
"I have kept these three vows to this hour."





II. A BORN LEADER


The event which proved David Glasgow Farragut's qualities as a
leader happened before he was thirteen.

He was with his adopted father, Captain Porter, on board the
Essex, when war was declared with England in 1812. A number of
prizes were captured by the Essex, and David was ordered by
Captain Porter to take one of the captured vessels, with her
commander as navigator, to Valparaiso. Although inwardly quailing
before the violent-tempered old captain of the prize ship, of
whom, as he afterward confessed, he was really "a little afraid,"
the boy assumed the command with a fearless air.