e of Fiji's fiercest kings
formerly, with himself and his warriors on board.

"My preaching place was on what had been the dancing grounds of a
village. I had a mat stretched on three poles for an awning--such a mat
as they make for sails;--and around me were nine others prepared in
like manner. This was my chapel. Just at my left hand was a spot of
ground where were ten boiling springs; and until that Sunday, one of
them had been the due appointed place for cooking human bodies. That
was the place and the preparation I looked at in the still Sunday
morning, before service time.

"At that time, the time appointed for service, a drum was beat and the
conch shell blown; the same shell which had been used to give the war
call. Directly all those canoes were covered with men, and they were
plunging into the water and wading to shore. These were Thakomban and
his warriors. Not blacked and stripped and armed for fighting, but
washed and clothed. They were stopping in that place on their way
somewhere else, and now coming and gathering to hear the preaching. On
the other side came a procession from the village; and down every
hillside and along every path, I could see scattering groups and lines
of comers from the neighbouring country. _These_ were the heathen
inhabitants, coming up now to hear the truth and profess by a public
act of worship that they were heathens no longer. They all gathered
round me there under the mat awnings, and sat on the grass looking up
to hear, while I told them of Jesus."

Mr. Rhys's voice was choked and he broke off abruptly. Eleanor guessed
how he had talked to that audience; she could see it in his flushing
face and quivering lip. She could not find a word to say, and let him
lead her in silence and slowly away from the chapel and towards the
mission house. Before entering the plantation again, Eleanor stopped
and said in a low voice,

"What can I do?"

He gave her a look of that moved sweetness she had seen in him all day,
and answered with his usual abruptness,

"You can pray."

"I do that."

"Pray as Paul prayed--for your mother, and for Julia, and for Fiji, and
for me. Do you know how that was?"

"I know what some of his prayers were."

"Yes, but I never thought how Paul prayed, until the other day. You
must put the scattered hints together. Wait until we are at home--I
will shew you."

He pushed open the wicket and they went in; and the rest of the evening
Eleanor talked to