* * * * *

The _Votaress_, swinging westward, left the picture behind, and the
neglected exhorter, caring far less for cranes and clouds than for
pelicans and sinners, reopened, this time on Hugh: "But that's anotheh
thing 'at rises my bristles, ev'm ef it don't the bishop's."

"What rises them?" asked the solemn Hugh, the commodore's attention
wandering.

"Shell I spit it out? Wall, it's folks a-_proj_-eckin' togetheh--church
membehs an' non-membehs a-_proj_-eckin' _togetheh_--fo' to drownd Gawd
A'mighty's chas-tise_ments_ in the devil's delights. _You_ know they
a-layin' fo' to do that on this boat this ve'y evenin'. You know they
a-_proj_-eckin' fo' to raise filthy lucre by fiddlin' an' play-actin'
an' a-singin' o' worl'ly songs an', to top all, a-dayncin'!--right oveh
the heads o' the sick an' dyin', my Gawd! You know that, don't you?"

"Yes, I'm mixed up in it."

"An' they a-doin' it fo' what? Fo' no betteh reason 'an to he'p them-ah
damn' ovehwhelmin' furrinehs to escape the righteous judg-_ments_ o' the
Lawd! Young brotheh, my name is Jawn. Jawn the Babtiss, I am, an' as
sich I p'otess! An' also an' mo'oveh I p'otess ag'in' any mo' leadin's
f'om them-ah 'Piscopaliam play-actohs, an' still mo' f'om that-ah
bodacious brick-top gal o' Gid Hayle's. Which she made opem spote o'
_my_ leadin's in 'istiddy's meet'n'! An' o' co'se! havin' a popish
motheh."

"Oh!--my!--Lawd!" gasped Joy, and the commodore had begun to meet
protest with protest, when Hugh touched him.

"This is too small for you. May I----?"

"Take it," said the grandfather and turned inquiringly to the nurse.

"Yaas, suh," she hurried to say, "my mist'ess ax de honoh to see you at
de stateroom o' Mahs' Basile."

Meantime Hugh answered the complainant: "My friend, that young lady--you
mustn't call her anything else again--made no sport of you whatever."

"Oh, dat she didn't, boss!" put in old Joy, breaking off from her talk
with the commodore.

"Honestly, sir," continued Hugh, "I was afraid some one would, but I
happened to see her from first to last, and----"

"Happ'm'd! The hell you happ'm'd! Yo' eyes 'uz dead _sot_ on heh when
they'd ought to been upraise' in prah!"

Hugh laughed--a laugh so hearty it might have been the brick-top's own.
The texas tender enjoyed it as he bore a tray of dishes from the room of
the twins. Down beyond the bell it drew the father's smile and up at the
wheel the stoical gaze of Watso