l you wait to see us boarded for empty trunks?"

"I'll wait," returned Captain Bream.

Soon the steamer hove-to, not far from the admiral's vessel. The smacks
came crowding round like bees round a hive, each one lowering a boat
when near enough.

And once again was enacted a scene similar in many respects to that
which we have described in a previous chapter, with this difference,
that the scramble now was partly for the purpose of obtaining empty
boxes. Another steamer had taken off most of their fish early that day,
and the one just arrived meant to wait for the fish of the next morning.

It chanced that a good many of the rougher men of the fleet came on
board that evening, so that Captain Bream, whose recent experiences had
led him half to expect that all the North Sea fishermen were amiable
lions, had his mind sadly but effectively disabused of that false idea.
The steamer's deck soon swarmed with some four hundred of the roughest
and most boisterous men he had ever seen, and the air was filled with
coarse and profane language, while a tendency to fight was exhibited by
several of them.

"They're a rough lot, sir," said the mate as he leant on the rail of the
bridge, gazing down on the animated scene, "but they were a rougher lot
before the gospel-ship came out to stay among them, and some of the
brightest Christians now in the fleet were as bad as the worst you see
down there."

"Ay, Jesus came to save the _lost_, and the worst," said the captain in
a low tone--"praise to His name!"

As soon as the trunks had been received, the admiral bore away to
windward, and the fleet began to follow and make preparation for the
night's fishing; for the fish which were destined so soon to smoke on
London tables were at that moment gambolling at the bottom of the sea!

"We must run down to the mission smack, and put you aboard at once,
sir," said the mate, "for she follows the admiral--though she does not
fish on Saturday nights, so that the hold may be clear of fish and ready
for service on Sundays."

Captain Bream was ready.

"They know you are coming, I suppose?"

"Yes, they expect me."

In a few minutes the steamer was close to the mission-ship, and soon
after, the powerful arms of its hospitable skipper and mate were
extended to help the expected invalid out of the boat which had been
sent for him.

"We're makin' things all snug for the night," said the skipper, as he
led his guest into the little cabin,