IT began in the swimming pool at Glen Ellen. Between swims it was our wont tocome out and lie in the sand and let our skins breathe the warm air and soak in thesunshine. Roscoe was a yachtsman. I had followed the sea a bit. It was inevitablethat we should talk about boats. We talked about small boats, and theseaworthiness of small boats. We instanced Captain Slocum and his three years'voyage around the world in the Spray.We asserted that we were not afraid to go around the world in a small boat, sayforty feet long. We asserted furthermore that we would like to do it. We assertedfinally that there was nothing in this world we'd like better than a chance to do it."Let us do it," we said . . . in fun.Then I asked Charmian privily if she'd really care to do it, and she said that it wastoo good to be true.The next time we breathed our skins in the sand by the swimming pool I said toRoscoe, "Let us do it."I was in earnest, and so was he, for he said: "When shall we start?"I had a house to build on the ranch, also an orchard, a vineyard, and several hedgesto plant, and a number of other things to do. We thought we would start in four orfive years. Then the lure of the adventure began to grip us. Why not start at once?We'd never be younger, any of us. Let the orchard, vineyard, and hedges be growingup while we were away. When we came back, they would be ready for us, and wecould live in the barn while we built the house.So the trip was decided upon, and the building of the Snark began. We named herthe Snark because we could not think of any other name-this information is givenfor the benefit of those who otherwise might think there is something occult in thename.Our friends cannot understand why we make this voyage. They shudder, and moan, and raise their hands. No amount of explanation can make them comprehend thatwe are moving along the line of least resistance; that it is easier for us to go downto the sea in a small ship than to remain on dry land, just as it is easier for them to 4remain on dry land than to go down to the sea in the small ship. This state of mindcomes of an undue prominence of the ego. They cannot get away from themselves.They cannot come out of themselves long enough to see that their line of leastresistance is not necessarily everybody else's line of least resistance. They make oftheir own bundle of desires, likes, and dislikes a yardstick wherewith to measurethe desires, likes, and dislikes of all creatures. This is unfair. I tell them so. But theycannot get away from their own miserable egos long enough to hear me. They thinkI am crazy. In return, I am sympathetic. It is a state of mind familiar to me. We areall prone to think there is something wrong with the mental processes of the manwho disagrees with u