ISBN: 2940013266001

CHAPTER ONE.BEGINNING--MY EARLY LIFE AND CHARACTER--I THIRST FOR ADVENTURE INFOREIGN LANDS, AND GO TO SEA.Roving has always been, and still is, my ruling passion, the joy of myheart, the … mais…

CHAPTER ONE.BEGINNING--MY EARLY LIFE AND CHARACTER--I THIRST FOR ADVENTURE INFOREIGN LANDS, AND GO TO SEA.Roving has always been, and still is, my ruling passion, the joy of myheart, the very sunshine of my existence. In childhood, in boyhood, andin man's estate I have been a rover; not a mere rambler among the woodyglens and upon the hill-tops of my own native land, but an enthusiasticrover throughout the length and breadth of the wide, wide world.It was a wild, black night of howling storm, the night on which I wasborn on the foaming bosom of the broad Atlantic Ocean. My father was asea-captain; my grandfather was a sea-captain; my great-grandfather hadbeen a marine. Nobody could tell positively what occupation _his_father had followed; but my dear mother used to assert that he had beena midshipman, whose grandfather, on the mother's side, had been anadmiral in the Royal Navy. At any rate, we knew that as far back as ourfamily could be traced, it had been intimately connected with the greatwatery waste. Indeed, this was the case on both sides of the house; formy mother always went to sea with my father on his long voyages, and sospent the greater part of her life upon the water.Thus it was, I suppose, that I came to inherit a roving disposition.Soon after I was born, my father, being old, retired from a seafaringlife, purchased a small cottage in a fishing village on the west coastof England, and settled down to spend the evening of his life on theshores of that sea which had for so many years been his home. It wasnot long after this that I began to show the roving spirit that dweltwithin me. For some time past my infant legs had been gaining strength,so that I came to be dissatisfied with rubbing the skin off my chubbyknees by walking on them, and made many attempts to stand up and walklike a man--all of which attempts, however, resulted in my sitting downviolently and in sudden surprise. One day I took advantage of my dearmother's absence to make another effort; and, to my joy, I actuallysucceeded in reaching the doorstep, over which I tumbled into a pool ofmuddy water that lay before my father's cottage door. Ah, how vividly Iremember the horror of my poor mother when she found me sweltering inthe mud amongst a group of cackling ducks, and the tenderness with whichshe stripped off my dripping clothes and washed my dirty little body!From this time forth my rambles became more frequent and, as I grewolder, more distant, until at last I had wandered far and near on theshore and in the woods around our humble dwelling, and did not restcontent until my father bound me apprentice to a coasting-vessel and letme go to sea. Digital Content>E-books>Fiction>Fiction>Fiction, SAP Digital >16<

ISBN: 2940013266001

The Coral Island Coral-Island~~R-M-Ballantyne Fiction>Fiction>Fiction NOOK Book (eBook), SAP