He was an engineer for one thing, and an inventive and
practical mechanician; held two patents of his own creating, which
yielded him a good income both at home and in Great Britain. Such results
are seldom achieved without deep study and seclusion; and, accordingly,
Joshua Fullalove, when the inventive fit was on, would be buried deep as
Archimedes for a twelvemonth, burning the midnight oil: then, his active
element predominating, the pale student would dash into the forest or the
prairie, with a rifle and an Indian, and come out bronzed, and more or
less be-panthered or be-buffaloed; thence invariably to sea for a year or
two. There, Anglo-Saxon to the backbone, his romance had ever an eye to
business; he was always after foreign mechanical inventions--he was now
importing a excellent one from Japan--and ready to do lucrative feats of
knowledge: thus he bought a Turkish ship at the bottom of the Dardanelles
for twelve hundred dollars, raised her cargo (hardware), and sold it for
six thousand dollars; then weighed the empty ship, pumped her, repaired
he; and navigated her himself into Boston harbour, Massachusetts.
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