He did not propose to pauperize his farm by applying his personal ignorance to working it.

No, he put the farm into the hands of an agricultural expert to be worked on shares--out of every three loads of corn the expert to have two and the pilot the third.
But at the end of the season the pilot received no corn.

The expert explained that his share was not reached.

The farm produced only two loads.
Some of the pilots whom I had known had had adventures--the outcome fortunate, sometimes, but not in all cases.

Captain Montgomery, whom I had steered for when he was a pilot, commanded the Confederate fleet in the great battle before Memphis; when his vessel went down, he swam ashore, fought his way through a squad of soldiers, and made a gallant and narrow escape.