I had already found that it was not good to be alone, and so I made companionship with what there was around me, sometimes with the universe and sometimes with my own insignificant self; but my books were always my friends, let fail all else.

Nothing could be easier or more restful than my voyage in the trade-winds.
I sailed with a free wind day after day, marking the position of my ship on the chart with considerable precision; but this was done by intuition, I think, more than by slavish calculations.

For one whole month my vessel held her course true; I had not, the while, so much as a light in the binnacle.

The Southern Cross I saw every night abeam.
The sun every morning came up astern; every evening it went down ahead.

I wished for no other compass to guide me, for these were true.
If I doubted my reckoning after a long time at sea I verified it by reading the clock aloft made by the Great Architect, and it was right.
There was no denying that the comical side of the strange life appeared.