l three
were seen returning.

"Any one hurt, Mr Gibson?" inquired the captain, as the whale was
brought alongside.

"Sorry to say, sir, that Rob Burton has gone," was the answer. "Either
the whale or the boat struck him, and he went down like a shot."

"Poor Rob Burton!" exclaimed several voices. "The gayest and
best-hearted fellow aboard."

"Dickey, you said he was likely to live as long as any of us," remarked
Harry, very much shocked. "I wonder whether he listened to what old Tom
said to him?"

"It's not a subject I like to think about," answered Dickey. "I wish it
had not happened."

"So do I. But our wishes cannot bring poor Burton to life again,"
observed Harry. "I cannot help thinking that old Tom must be right; and
when he speaks to me I think I ought to listen to what he says."

"Now, Harry, don't let this thing make you turn Methodist!" exclaimed
Bass, after a silence of some minutes. "It is very shocking, of course;
but that's no reason why we should mope and grow serious, and fancy that
the same is going to happen to us. I don't feel quite comfortable
myself, I own; but we shall get over it in a few days, and all hands
will be as merry as ever."

Such, indeed, was the case. Poor Burton's clothes were put up to
auction and disposed of among the crew, and his name was seldom or never
mentioned afterwards. Too often the same thing happens on board ship
when a seaman is lost, much as his shipmates may mourn for him at the
time.

Old Tom did not, however, fail to speak to Harry about Burton.

"I was talking to him on the state of his soul only just two or three
days before he had to go and stand in the presence of his Maker, and
give an account of the deeds done in the body," said the old man. "I
asked him whether he knew that it was washed in the blood of the
Saviour, or whether he had his sins still clinging to him. He did not
know, poor lad, that his soul needed cleansing; and when I said that it
was vile and foul, and loaded with sin, and that unless it was washed he
could not enter heaven and stand before the all-righteous Judge, he
asked me how that was to be done. So I told him the way God has
appointed--the only way by which it could be done--through faith in the
blood of the risen Saviour shed for us on Calvary. And I tell you,
Harry, that it gives me great joy to think that his answer was, `I do
believe Jesus died for me. May God in His mercy help my unbelief.' I
told him t