I did what all those men did in the Bonin Islands.

I did what millions of men over the world were doing at that particular point in time.

I did it because the way led to it, because I was only a human boy, a creature of my environment, and neither an anaemic nor a god.

I was just human, and I was taking the path in the world that men took--men whom I admired, if you please; full-blooded men, lusty, breedy, chesty men, free spirits and anything but niggards in the way they foamed life away.
And the way was open.

It was like an uncovered well in a yard where children play.