s later.

At Portsmouth, however, the Friends were not idle. They went ashore
and held a meeting, or, as Robert Fowler puts it, 'They went forth and
gathered sticks and kindled a fire, and left it burning.' Not real
sticks for a real fire, of course, but a fire of love and service in
people's hearts, that would help to keep the cold world warm in after
days.

This was their last task in England. A few hours later they had
quitted her shores. The coast-line that followed them faithfully at
first, dropped behind gradually, growing fainter and paler, then
resting like a thought upon the sea, till it finally disappeared. Only
a vast expanse of heaving waters surrounded the travellers.

At first it seemed as if their courage was not to be too severely
tested. 'Three pretty large ships which were for the Newfoundland'
appeared, and bore the _Woodhouse_ company for some fifty leagues. In
their vicinity the smaller vessel might have made the voyage, perilous
at best, with a certain amount of confidence. But the Dutch warships
were known to be not far distant, and in order to escape them the
three 'pretty large ships made off to the northward, and left us
without hope or help as to the outward.'

The manner of the departure of the ships was on this wise. Early in
the morning it was shown to Humphrey Norton--who seems to have been
especially sensitive to messages from the invisible world--'that those
were nigh unto us who sought our lives.' He called Robert Fowler, and
gave him this warning, and added, 'Thus saith the Lord, ye shall be
carried away as in a mist.' 'Presently,' says Robert Fowler, 'we
espied a great ship making up to us, and the three great ships were
much afraid, and tacked about with what speed they could; in the very
interim the Lord fulfilled His promise, and struck our enemies in the
face with a contrary wind, wonderfully to our refreshment. Then upon
our parting from these three ships we were brought to ask counsel of
the Lord, and the word was from Him, "Cut through and steer your
straight course and mind nothing but Me."'

'Cut through and steer your straight course, and mind nothing but Me!'
Alone upon the broad Atlantic in this cockle-shell of a boat! Only a
cockle-shell truly, yet it held a bit of heaven within it--the heaven
of obedience. Every day the little company of Friends met in that
ship's hold together, and 'He Himself met with us and manifested
himself largely unto us,' words that have be