He loved his children and, despite her faults, he loved his wife.

As he held his baby in his arms and listened to her gentle crowing and heard the merry prattle of his boy at play, he asked himself if he should ever see those children again, were he to go away.
John had three friends in whom he reposed great confidence.

They were Drummond, Lawerence, and Cheeseman.

One evening he met them at the home of Drummond and, relating his condition, asked: "Knowing all as you do, what do you advise ?" "By all means, go to London," answered Drummond.
"Ought I to leave my wife and children ?" "Wherefore not ?" "If I perish on the voyage, they will be wholly unprovided for." "Your father was a sailor." "But his son is not." "Yet methinks the son should inherit some of the father's courage." John Stevens' cheek reddened at the delicate insinuation against his courage, and he responded: "Have I not, on more than one hard-fought field, established my claim to courage ?" "True, yet why shrink from this voyage ?" "A soothsayer once predicted that dire calamities would overcome me, were I ever to venture upon the sea." At this Cheeseman and Drummond laughed and even the thoughtful Mr.
Lawerence smiled.

Though soothsayers in those days were not generally gainsaid, those four men at Drummond's house lived in advance of their age.
"Go on your voyage and save the sum in jeopardy," was Drummond's advice.
"If your going will make sure the sum, hesitate not a single moment," interposed Cheeseman.
"How much is involved ?" asked the thoughtful Mr.Lawrerence.
"Eight hundred pounds." "Quite a sum." "Verily, it is.