souls, no brains, no minds, no hintellects."

"They've got no use for books, bless you! All they wants is wittles an'
grog--"

The boy pulled up at this point, for Stubley made a rush at him, but Pat
was too quick for him.

"Well said, youngster; give it him hot," cried one of the men
approvingly, while the others laughed; but they were too much interested
in the books to be diverted from these for more than a few seconds.
Many of them were down on their knees beside the mate, who continued in
a semi-jocular strain--"Now then, take your time, my hearties; lots o'
books here, and lots more where these came from. The British public
will never run dry. I'm cheap John! Here they are, all for nothin',
_on loan_; small wollum--the title ain't clear, ah!--_The Little Man as
Lost his Mother_; big wollum--_Shakespeare; Pickwick_; books by Hesba
Stretton; Almanac; Missionary Williams; _Polar Seas an' Regions;
Pilgrim's Progress_--all sorts to suit all tastes--Catechisms, Noo
Testaments, _Robinson Crusoe_."

"Hold on there, mate; let's have a look at that!" cried Bob Lumsden
eagerly--so eagerly that the mate handed the book to him with a laugh.

"Come here, Pat," whispered Bob, dragging his friend out of the crowd to
a retired spot beside the boat of the _Sunbeam_, which lay on deck near
the mainmast. "Did you ever read _Robinson Crusoe_?"

"No, never--never so much as 'eard of 'im."

"You can read, I suppose?"

"Oh yes; I can read well enough."

"What have you read?" demanded Bob.

"On'y bits of old noospapers," replied Pat, with a look of contempt,
"an' I don't like readin'."

"Don't like it? Of course you don't, you ignorant curmudgeon, if
noospapers is all you've read. Now, Pat, I got this book, not for
myself but a purpus for _you_."

"Thankee for nothin'," said Pat; "I doesn't want it."

"Doesn't want it!" repeated Bob. "D'ee know that this is the very best
book as ever was written?"

"You seems pretty cock-sure," returned Pat, who was in a contradictory
mood that day; "but you know scholards sometimes differ in their
opinions about books."

"Pat I'll be hard upon you just now if you don't look out!" said Bob
seriously. "Howsever, you're not so far wrong, arter all. People
_does_ differ about books, so I'll only say that _Robinson Crusoe_ is
the best book as was ever written, in _my_ opinion, an' so it'll be in
yours, too, when you have read it; for there's shipwrecks, an' desert
islands, an' sa