Many years ago there lived, in the southwestern part of Scotland, on the
beautiful bay called Solway Firth, a gentleman whose name was Mr. Craik.
In Scotland, a large farm is called an estate. Mr. Craik named his
estate Arbigland.
His large house stood high on the shore overlooking the sea. The lawn
sloped gradually to the firth.
Mr. Craik's gardener, John Paul, lived in a cottage on the estate. Mr.
Craik was very fond of John Paul, for he worked well. He made the
grounds like a beautiful park, and planted many trees, some of which are
still standing.
One day John Paul married Jean Macduff. She was the daughter of a
neighboring farmer. She and John lived very happily in their little
cottage. They had seven children. The fifth child was a boy, named for
his father, John Paul. He was born July 6, 1747.
When little John was large enough to run about he liked to play on the
beautiful lawn and to wander along the shore of the firth. Sometimes he
would sit still for hours watching the waves.
Sometimes he and Mr. Craik's little boy would play with tiny sailboats
and paddle about in the water. When they grew tired of this, they would
climb among the rocks on the mountains which were back of the estate.
When there were storms at sea, vessels would come into Solway Firth for
a safe harbor. The water was very deep near the shore. Because of this
the ships could come so near the lawn of Arbigland that their masts
seemed to touch the overhanging trees.
Little John Paul and his playmates liked to watch the sailors, and
sometimes could even talk to them. They heard many wonderful stories of
a land called America, where grew the tobacco that was packed in some of
the ships.
The children would often take their little sailboats to some inlet,
where they would play sailor. John Paul was always the captain. He had
listened carefully to the commands given by the captains of the large
vessels. These he would repeat correctly and with great dignity, though
he did not always understand them.
John Paul spent more time in this kind of play than in going to school.
In those days there were few schools, and book-learning was not thought
to be of much use. At a parish school near by, John learned to spell and
to repeat the rules of grammar.
When he was twelve years old he felt that the time had come when he
could be a real sailor. So his father allowed him to go across the firth
to an English town called Whitehaven. There he was apprenticed to Mr.
Younger, a merchant, who owned a ship and traded in goods brought from
foreign lands.
He soon went to sea in Mr. Younger's vessel, the _Friendship_. This ship
was bound for America to get tobacco from the Virginia fields.