Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/32

 l8 DICK SANDS, THE BOY CAPTAI N. Dick was fifteen years old ; he was a foundling, his unknown parents having abandoned him at his bîrth, and he had been brought up în a public charitable institution. He had been called Dick, after the benevolent passer-by who had discovered him when he was but an infant a few hours old, and he had received the surname of Sands as a mémorial of the spot where he had been exposed, Sandy Hook, a point at the mouth of the Hudson, where it forms an entrance to the harbour of New York. As Dick was so young it was most likely he would yet grow a little taller, but it did not seem probable that he would ever exceed middle height, he looked too stoutly and strongly built to grow much. His complexion was dark, but his bcaming blue eyes attested, with scarcely room for doubt, his Anglo-Saxon origin, and his countcnance bctokened cncrgy and intelligence. The profession that he had adoptcd seemed to hâve equipped him betimes for fighting the battle of lifc. Misquotcd often as Virgil's are the words " Audaces fortuna juvat !" but the true rcading is " Aud entes fortuna juvat !" and, slight as the différence may seem, it is very significant. It is upon the confident rather than the rash, the daring rathcr than the bold, that Fortune sheds her smiles ; the bold man often acts without thinking, whilst the daring always thinks before he acts. And Dick Sands was truly courageous ; he was one of the daring. At fifteen years old, an âge at which few boys hâve laid aside the frivolities of childhood, he had acquired the stability of a man, and the most casual observer could scarcely fail to be attracted by his bright, yet thoughtful countenance. At an early period of his life he had realized ail the difficulties of his position, and had made a resolution, from which nothing tempted him to flinch, that he would carve out for himself an honourable and independent career. Lithe and agile in his movements, he was an adept in every kind of athlctic exercise ; and so marvellous was his