accy and
brandy."

"Ay, bad brandy," said the mate; "but, skipper, you can get baccy
cheaper aboard the mission ships now than aboard the _coper_."

"What! at a shillin' a pound?"

"Ay, at a shillin' a pound."

"I don't believe it."

"But it's a fact," returned the mate firmly, "for Simon Brooks, as was
in the Short-Blue fleet last week, told me it's a noo regulation--
they've started the sale o' baccy in the Gospel ships, just to keep us
from going to the _copers_."

"That'll not keep _me_ from going to the _copers_," said Groggy Fox,
with an oath.

"Nor me," said his mate, with a laugh; "but, skipper, as we are pretty
nigh out o' baccy just now, an' as the mission ship is near us, an' the
breeze down, I don't see no reason why we shouldn't go aboard an' see
whether the reports be true. We go to buy baccy, you know, an' we're
not bound to buy everything the shop has to sell! We don't want their
religion, an' they can't force it down our throats whether we will or
no."

Groggy Fox vented a loud laugh at the bare supposition of such treatment
of his throat, admitted that his mate was right, and gave orders to
launch the boat. In a few minutes they were rowing over the still
heaving but now somewhat calmer sea, for the wind had fallen suddenly,
and the smacks lay knocking about at no great distance from each other.

It was evident from the bustle on board many of them, and the launching
of boats over their bulwarks, that not a few of the men intended to take
advantage of this unexpected visit of a mission vessel. No doubt their
motives were various. Probably some went, like the men of the
_Cormorant_, merely for baccy; some for medicine; others, perhaps, out
of curiosity; while a few, no doubt, went with more or less of desire
after the "good tidings," which they were aware had been carried to
several of the other fleets that laboured on the same fishing-grounds.

Whatever the reasons, it was evident that a goodly number of men were
making for the vessel with the great blue flag. Some had already
reached her; more were on their way. The _Cormorant's_ boat was among
the last to arrive.

"What does MDSF stand for?" asked Skipper Fox, as they drew near.

"Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen," answered the mate, whose knowledge on
this and other points of the Mission were due to his intercourse with
his friend Simon Brooks of the Short-Blue. "But it means more than
that," he continued. "When we are close en