ould be very miserable if I saw you killed and could not
feel sure that you had gone to heaven. I should be unhappy in either
case; but it would be ten times worse if I thought that I should not
meet you again."

"Do you really, Archie, think that I am so wicked that if I was to be
killed I should not go to heaven?" said Tom.

"I only know what the Bible says about it, and I believe that," answered
Archie firmly. "Just obey God, and you'll be all right, and it won't
make you a bit less brave than you are now."

"I will," said Tom; "still I hope that neither you nor I will be hit
to-night, though the shot are falling pretty thickly about us."

The moment after he had spoken, a loud cry was heard from one of the
crew of the nearest gun, and the sound of a person falling heavily.
They sprang to the spot, and found a seaman stretched on the deck. They
tried to lift him up, but, inexperienced though they were, they both
felt convinced that he was dead. Others, coming up, confirmed their
opinion; the shot had struck his chest, and killed him in a moment.

Notwithstanding the heavy fire to which his ship was exposed, Jack
continued at his post, firing away till the hour arrived at which he was
directed to leave the harbour; and he and his French consort steamed
away to rejoin the fleet. Tom was unusually serious during the
following day.

"I say, Rogers, what's the matter with you?" asked Billy Blueblazes.

"He didn't quite like the fun we had last night," observed Dicky Duff.

"I'll tell you what, youngster," said Tom, "you wouldn't have thought it
any fun if either of you had one of those Russian round-shot walking
into you, as poor Norris had."

On which Tom spoke to them as Archie had been speaking to him, much to
the latter's satisfaction, for it showed him that his words had not been
thrown away. Tom, indeed, afterwards came to him, and begged that he
would get out his Bible, and more fully explain what he had been talking
about on the previous night. Archie gladly did so. It was the
beginning of many Bible readings they had together. Others joined them,
and they then to their surprise found that several of the men had long
been in the practice of meeting together to pray and study God's Word.
They heard also that such was done on board many of the ships in the
fleet, and that the men who thus occupied themselves were looked upon as
the best and steadiest of their respective crews.

The next night Mur