one, that a hulking lad of ten years should have more pride than
to beg his way from door to door.

It is with shame I here set down the fact, that many weeks passed
before I came to understand, in ever so slight a degree, what a
milksop I must be, thus eating the bread of idleness when I should
have won the right, by labor, to a livelihood in this world.

This last thought had just begun to take root in my heart when
Nathaniel Peacock, whose mother had been a good friend of mine
during a certain time after I was made an orphan, and I, heard
that a remarkably brave soldier was in the city of London, making
ready to go into the new world, with the intent to build there a
town for the king.



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH COMES TO LONDON


This man was no other than Captain John Smith, who, although at this
time not above six and twenty years of age, had already served in
the French, in the Dutch, and in the Transylvanian armies, where
he had met and overcome many dangers.

He had been robbed and beaten and thrown into the sea because of
not believing in the religion of the men who attacked him; he had
been a slave among the Turks; he had fought, one after another,
three of the bravest in the Turkish army, and had cut off the head
of each in turn.