continued the speaker in a cheerful
voice, "the dear boy was a follower of Jesus, and he is now with Him."

When this was said, "Praise the Lord!" and "Thank God!" broke from
several of the men in tones of unmistakable sincerity.

It was at this point that the boat of the _Evening Star_ ranged
alongside. The master of the mission smack went to the side and held
out his hand, which David Bright grasped with his right, grappling the
smack's rail at the same time with his left, and vaulted inboard with a
hearty salutation. As heartily was it returned, especially by the
unbelievers on board, who, perchance, regarded him as a welcome
accession to their numbers!

Billy, Gunter, and the others tumbled on to the deck in the usual
indescribable manner, and the former, making fast the long painter,
added the _Evening Star's_ boat to the lengthening flotilla astern.

"Your man seems to be hurt," said the master of the mission smack--whom
we may well style the missionary--"not badly, I hope. You're limpin' a
bit."

"Oh! nothin' to speak of," growled Gunter, "on'y a bit o' skin knocked
off."

"We'll put that all right soon," returned the missionary, shaking hands
with the other members of the crew. "But p'r'aps you'd like to go below
with us, first. We're goin' to hold a little service. It'll be more
comfortable under hatches than on deck."

"No, thank 'ee," replied Gunter with decision. "I'll wait till yer
done."

"P'r'aps _you_ would like to come?" said the missionary to the captain.

"Well, I--I may as well as not," said David with some hesitation.

"Come along then, lads," and the genial sailor-missionary led the way to
the capacious hold, which had been swept clean, and some dozens of
fish-boxes set up on end in rows. These, besides being handy, formed
excellent seats to men who were not much used to arm-chairs.

In a few seconds the little church on the Ocean Wilderness was nearly
full of earnest, thoughtful men, for these fishermen were charmingly
natural as well as enthusiastic. They did not assume solemn
expressions, but all thought of sky-larking or levity seemed to have
vanished as they entered the hold, and earnestness almost necessarily
involves gravity.

With eager expectation they gazed at their leader while he gave out a
hymn.

"You'll find little books on the table here, those of you who haven't
got 'em," he said, pointing to a little pile of red-covered booklets at
his side. "We'll sing t