To her memory I affectionately dedicate this volume.
S. H. K.
Preface
WHEN a boy, as a part of my training on shipboard, I unlaid the strands of old hemp rope, and separated the yarns. Then after knotting the ropeyarns together, the spinning jenny was secured on the top gallant forecastle, where I tugged at the bit of rope which was the motive power for revolving the spinning wheel. An able seaman rubbed the twirling ropeyarns with a piece of old canvas, thereby making spunyarn enough for the voyage. The remembrance of the oaths, cuffs and kicks from a cruel boatswain, on finding some of the ropeyarns poorly knotted, makes me offer in fear and trembling this literary “Bunch of Rope Yarns.” Still I hope that my reader may find some of the yarns knotted in seamanlike fashion.
STANTON H. KING
Sailors’ Haven, Mission for Seamen,
Charlestown, Mass.
HOW I WAS EDUCATED
How I Was Educated
WITHIN a week after my first attempt in the literary field had been placed on sale, I received a letter from a woman in Vermont, asking me to answer the four following questions:
“Was it the words of the hymn that brought about your conversion that Sunday afternoon, when you say you decided to sever yourself from every evil association?”