would slip through his
fingers, and he afterwards said that he considered it was mostly owing
to the very great attention paid to him by Ellis that he had escaped.
Ellis did more; he spoke to Harry, when his strength was returning, in a
way to touch his heart,--he told him how he had been saved from the jaws
of death by a God who loved his soul, and he showed how alone that soul
could be saved, and how freely and fully it would be saved, if he would
but accept the redemption offered him.

Notwithstanding the way Ellis had behaved during the fever, John Jones,
and men of his stamp, of whom there were many, continued to sneer at him
on account of his religion. "Any old woman, or young girl, could have
done as well as he did,--nursing a few sick men and boys: what was
that!" they said. "It didn't make him a bit more of a man."

From the West Indies we were sent to North America, to do away with the
effects of the fever. Knowing what a quiet man Ellis was, I was
somewhat surprised when one day, on the passage to Halifax, John Jones
came up to me on deck, fuming with rage, and preferred a formal charge
against him, for having assaulted and thrashed him. I, of course, as in
duty bound, sent for Ellis, and witnesses on both sides, to examine into
the case. Ellis appeared, hat in hand, and at once acknowledged that he
had thrashed Jones, but offered as an excuse that Jones and other men
had systematically annoyed him whenever he sat down to read the Bible,
and that at last Jones, encouraged by his previous forbearance, had
snatched up the book and made off with it, threatening to throw it
overboard. "I could bear it no longer, sir," said Ellis; "so I knocked
him over, that I might get back my Bible, and read it afterwards in
peace. Besides, sir, he said that people who read the Bible are never
worth anything, only just fit to nurse sick people, and that come a gale
of wind, or any danger, they would always be found skulking below."

"In that respect you, Jones, are wrong, and you had no business to
snatch away Ellis's Bible; but you, Ellis, broke through the rules of
discipline by knocking Jones over. You must reserve your blows for the
enemies of your country. I must therefore punish you. It is your first
offence, but it is too serious a one to be overlooked. Go below."

I inflicted as light a punishment as I well could on Ellis. After he
had undergone it, he came to me and expressed his regret at having lost
h