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To little Billy, who had been left in sole charge of the deck, and whose little mind had been strangely impressed on board the mission-ship, the words and sounds, to say nothing of the fumes, which proceeded from the cabin furnished much food for meditation.
"You'll get things cheaper aboard the mission-ship, for they'll give you physic, an' books, an good advice, and help as far as they can, all for nothing which is cheaper than the Coper's wares." "Right you are, Luke. Pitch into him," cried David Bright who was fast drinking himself into a state of madness. "Father," whispered Billy, with an anxious look, "don't you think you've had enough?"
Very considerable trouble and expense have to be incurred by the mission, however, for the tobacco has to be fetched from a foreign port; but the result amply repays the cost for the men naturally prefer paying only 1 shilling per pound on board the mission-ship, to paying 1 shilling 6 pence on board the "coper."
"It might ha' bin worse, Billy, but don't you take on so, my boy. We'll be all right an' ship-shape when we gets it spliced or fixed up somehow, on board the mission-ship." The hand was not however, so easily fixed up as David Bright seemed to expect. "Come down an' let's have a look at it, David," said the skipper, when the vessel's deck was gained.
The conversation was interrupted here by a general move to the vessel's hold, where the usual arrangements had been made a table for a pulpit and fish-boxes for seats. "Do you feel well enough to speak to us to-day, Captain Bream?" asked the skipper of the mission-ship. "Oh yes, I'll be happy to do so. The trip out has begun to work wonders already," said the captain.
When, therefore, the Lifeboat hymn burst forth in tones that no cathedral organ ever equalled, and shook the timbers of the mission-ship from stem to stern, the captain turned round, yawned, and opened his eyes wide, and when the singers came to "Leave the poor old stranded wreck, and pull for the shore," he leaped out of his bunk with tremendous energy.
"Nebber mind, you long-nosed white gorilla," was Zulu's civil rejoinder, "you kin git another pair when nixt we goes aboard de mission-ship. Till den you kin grin an enjoy you'self."
They were spending the colder part of the year at home, and hoped shortly to be called for by the mission-ship to return, and resume their course of instruction. Owen had come to an understanding with the chief and the Samoans, and had decided on landing his lieutenant, and it was accordingly done, with very little consciousness on the patient's part.
Williams lost the power of writing sooner, and no more is known of his end, though probably he died first, and Pearce must have been trying to prepare his grave when he, too, sank. What words can befit this piteous history better than "This is the patience of the saints"? The memorial to Allen Gardiner has been a mission-ship bearing his name, with her head-quarters at the Falkland Isles.
The benign spirit of Christianity has lifted woman from the position she held under other religious systems and elevated her to a higher sphere. She is brought forward as a teacher; she displays a martyr's courage in the presence of pestilence, or ascends the deck of the mission-ship to take her part in "perils among the heathen."
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