Each person at some point in his life begins an adventure, after which he is destined to look back with a sensation very close to surprise. Someone said that adventure is for adventure. The vocation of a sailor in these times of giant steamboats is so much different from what it was in the old days of sailing ships and long voyages, that with the most ordinary luck, a person could easily climb along the ridges from the apprentice to the skipper less danger than that with which one might come across at the merchant's London office.