David Farragut was acting as cabin boy to his father, who was on his
way to New Orleans with the infant navy of the United States. The boy
thought he had the qualities that make a man. "I could swear like an
old salt," he says, "could drink as stiff a glass of grog as if I had
doubled Cape Horn, and could smoke like a locomotive. I was great at
cards, and was fond of gambling in every shape. At the close of dinner
one day," he continues, "my father turned everybody out of the cabin,
locked the door, and said to me, 'David, what do you mean to be?'
"'I mean to follow the sea,' I said.
"'Follow the sea!' exclaimed father, 'yes, be a poor, miserable,
drunken sailor before the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, and
die in some fever hospital in a foreign clime!'
"'No, father,' I replied, 'I will tread the quarterdeck, and command as
you do.'
"'No, David; no boy ever trod the quarterdeck with such principles as
you have and such habits as you exhibit. You will have to change your
whole course of life if you ever become a man.'
"My father left me and went on deck. I was stunned by the rebuke, and
overwhelmed with mortification. 'A poor, miserable, drunken sailor
before the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, and die in some
fever hospital!' 'That's my fate, is it? I'll change my life, and _I_
WILL CHANGE IT AT ONCE. I will never utter another oath, never drink
another drop of intoxicating liquor, never gamble,' and, as God is my
witness," said the admiral, solemnly, "I have kept these three vows to
this hour."