Excerpt from Drowned Gold Being the Story, of a Sailor's Life My father was not there when I graduated, but sent messages by my mother. He was too busy experimenting with a yacht that he had built mostly with his own hands on extemporized ways, and that he had caused to be laid down just where the lawn of our garden in Cotuit met the beach. He came aboard the first ship to which I was ordered, and gravely inspected her from fore to aft, making no comment, asking now and then a question, and staring up at her basket masts as if disapproving of anything in top-hamper that could not carry sail. He fought shy of introductions, sniffed at the luxury of my cabin, merely poked his head into the ward room, and neglected to look back at me after he stepped on the deck landing of the side ladder; but I saw that for a long time he stood on the edge of the pier where he was landed, staring at the cruiser. Again I had that strange, crying desire to go ashore and put my arms around him; and somehow my awe and reverence increased, and there came to me with poignancy the knowledge that I had never fully appreciated his rugged worth and native greatness. I sustained some immense wish to melt from him the hardened outer shell and know the splendid love and warmth that glowed fervently beneath! I always remember him thus, stand ing on the edge of the pier, firmly set upon his legs and feet, and scanning with a sailor's clear eye the ship on which his only son abode, for it was the last time I ever saw him. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.