My new bos was, in some respects, a remarkable man, but not a very good sort of one for a boy to be bound apprentice to.  He paid very little attention to his business, which he seemed to think unworthy of his genius.  He was a kind-hearted man, fond of company and frolics, in which he indulged himself freely, and much given to speeches and harangues, in which he had a good deal of fluency.  In religion he professed to be a Universalist, holding to doctrines and opinions very different from those which my mother had instilled into me.  He ridiculed those opinions, and argued against them, but without converting me to his way of thinking; though, as far as practice went, I was ready enough to imitate his example.  My Sundays were spent principally in taverns, playing at dominos, which then was, and still is, a favorite game in that part of the country; and, as the unsuccessful party was expected to treat, I at times ran up a bill at the bar as high as four or six dollars,—­no small indebtedness for a young apprentice with no more means than I had.

As I grew older this method of living grew less and less satisfactory to me; and as I saw that no good of any kind, not even a knowledge of the trade he had undertaken to teach me, was to be got of my present bos, I bought my time of him, and went to work with another man to pay for it.  Before I had succeeded in doing that, and while I was not yet nineteen, I took upon myself the still further responsibility of marriage.  This was a step into which I was led rather by the impulse of youthful passion than by any thoughtful foresight.  Yet it had at least this advantage, that it obliged me to set diligently to work to provide for the increasing family which I soon found growing up around me.

I had never liked the shoe-making business, to which my father had bound me an apprentice.  I had always desired to follow the water.  The vessels which I had seen sailing up and down the Delaware Bay still haunted my fancy; and I engaged myself as cook on board a sloop, employed in carrying wood from Maurice river to Philadelphia.  Promotion in this line is sufficiently rapid; for in four months, after commencing as cook, I rose to be captain.  This wood business, in which I remained for two years, is carried on by vessels of from thirty to sixty tons, known as bay-craft.  They are built so as to draw but little water, which is their chief distinction from the coasters, which are fit for the open sea.  They will carry from twenty-five to fifty cords of wood, on which a profit is expected of a dollar and upwards.  They have usually about three hands, the captain, or skipper, included.  The men used to be hired, when I entered the business, for eight or ten dollars the month, but they now get nearly or quite twice as much.  The captain usually sails the vessel on shares (unless he is himself owner in whole, or in part), victualling the vessel and hiring the men, and paying over to the