Identifier: boytarorvoyagein00reid (find matches)
Title: The boy tar; or, A voyage in the dark
Year: 1860 (1860s)
Authors: Reid, Mayne, 1818-1883 Keene, Charles, 1823-1891
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, Ticknor and Fields
Contributing Library: Information and Library Science Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Digitizing Sponsor: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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narrationof some remarkable incident that has happened to you.A stirring passage we should prefer, for we know thatmany of these have befallen you during your adventu-rous life ; but choose whatever one it may be most pleas-ant for you to relate; and we shall promise to listen at-tentively, since one and all of us know that it will be aneasy thing to keep that promise. And now, dear cap-tain, grant us the favor we ask, and your petitionersshall be forever grateful. Such a polite request could not be refused ; and with-out hesitation I declared my intention to gratify myyoung friends with a chapter from my life. The chap- 6 THE BOY TAR. ter chosen was one which I thought would be most in-teresting to them —as it gaTC some account of my ownboy-life, and of my first voyage to sea — which, fromthe odd circumstances under which it was made, I havetermed a Voyage in the Dark. Seating myself upon the pebbly beach, in full viewof the bright sea, and placing my auditory around me,I began.
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CHAPTER n. SAVED BY SWANS. From my earliest days, I was fond of the water —instinctively so. Had I been born a duck, or a water-dog, I could not have hked it better. My father hadbeen a seaman, and his father before him, and grand-father too; so that perhaps I inherited the instinct.Whether or not, my aquatic tastes were as strong as ifthe water had been my natural element; and I havebeen told — though I do not myself remember it, thatwhen still but a mere child, it was with difficulty Icould be kept out of puddles and ponds. In fact, thefirst adventure of my life occurred in a pond, and thatI remember well. Though it was neither so strangenor so terrible as many adventures that befell me after-wards, still it was rather a curious one, and I shaU giveyou it, as illustrating the early penchant I had foraquatic pursuits. I was but a very little boy at thetime, and the odd incident occurring, as it were, at thevery threshold of ray life, seemed to foreshadow thedestiny of my future c

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