raffic in human
flesh, such as--"love your enemies," "seek peace with all men," "be
kindly affectioned one to another," "whatsoever ye would that men should
do unto you, do ye even so to them." An absolute infidel, he thought,
could not fail to perceive that a most blessed change would come over
the face of Africa if such principles prevailed among its inhabitants,
even in an extremely moderate degree.

But to return, the unfortunate travellers were now "at sea" altogether
in regard to the Sabbath as well as the day of the month. Indeed their
minds were not very clear as to the month itself!

"Hows'ever," said Disco, when this subject afterwards came to be
discussed, "it don't matter much. Wot is it that the Scriptur'
says,--`Six days shalt thou labour an' do all that thou hast to do, but
the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do
no work.' I wos used always to stick at that pint w'en my poor mother
was a-teachin' of me. Never got past it. But it's enough for present
use anyhow, for the orders is, work six days an' don't work the seventh.
Werry good, we'll begin to-day an' call it Monday; we'll work for six
days, an' w'en the seventh day comes we'll call it Sunday. If it ain't
the right day, _we_ can't help it; moreover, wot's the odds? It's the
_seventh_ day, so that to us it'll be the Sabbath."

But we anticipate. Harold was still--at the beginning of this
digression--in the delirium of fever, though there were symptoms of
improvement about him.

One afternoon one of these symptoms was strongly manifested in a long,
profound slumber. While he slept Disco sat on a low stool beside him,
busily engaged with a clasp-knife on some species of manufacture, the
nature of which was not apparent at a glance.

His admirer, Jumbo, was seated on a stool opposite, gazing at him
open-mouthed, with a countenance that reflected every passing feeling of
his dusky bosom.

Both men were so deeply absorbed in their occupation--Disco in his
manufacture, and Jumbo in staring at Disco--that they failed for a
considerable time to observe that Harold had wakened suddenly, though
quietly, and was gazing at them with a look of lazy, easy-going
surprise.

The mariner kept up a running commentary on his work, addressed to Jumbo
indeed, but in a quiet interjectional manner that seemed to imply that
he was merely soliloquising, and did not want or expect a reply.

"It's the most 'stror'nary notion, J