6 "Well! well! it will, perhaps, be best to let you into the secret at once of making sail,' by letting out the reefs of what sail you carry, or by hoisting additional small sails. What say you to this, boys?" "We say that we understand you now very well, Captain. We are off. Farewell, and thank you." Arrival at Cape Come-again-The note of invitation-Barbary dates-Captain's biscuits-Slavery-The garden-The summer-house-The goodly prospect-The pocket compass-The old sea Captain's address. "GLAD to see you! Glad to see you, boys! But how come you to stand for Cape Come-again to-day? How is it that you are not riding in the harbour at Cape Academy!" Oh, Captain! You know the reason!" "You don't seem to bear down upon me with any unfriendly intention, though I saw that you carried as much sail as you could spread. This is the first time you ever entered the port on a Sunday." "And we should not have entered it now, if it had not been for the kind note which you sent. much obliged to you, Captain." 66 We are Why, for the matter of that, I am quite as much pleased as you are. Thinks I to myself, yesterday, as I hauled down the union jack, My young friends at Cape Academy will go to church in the morning, but they cannot go in the afternoon, nor at night, seeing that there is no Divine service within three or four miles of the place. There can be no harm, then, in my sending a bit of a note, to ask leave for them to take a cup of tea with the old sea Captain. Thinks I, we have never been alongside one another on the sabbath day, and as we have talked pretty freely together about sea affairs, why should we not have a word or two about better things? I have no Bethel flag to run up on my flagstaff; but that will not matter; for the old sea Captain was never cut out for a chaplain. But come, haul down your top-gallant-studding-sails, and enter the cabin. You must taste what kind of biscuits I keep in my bread-room. This way, boys, this way!" "Oh! how nice you have got every thing! If we had been admirals, you could hardly have treated us better." "Plain food, boys! plain food, and a hearty welcome! Sit down! sit down! But before we begin to eat, let us ask a blessing. May every bit that we eat, and every drop we drink, strengthen our bodies; and God's grace dispose our hearts to live more and more to the Redeemer's glory." "What are these, Captain? they look very nice: what are they?" "They are Barbary dates, and I thought they might be a treat to you. Try them! try them! The date tree grows in Egypt, Arabia, the East Indies, Persia, Italy, and Spain. But drink your tea! These are captain's biscuits, and you see there's plenty of them, and of plain bread and butter too." "The dates are capital, and so are the biscuits, Captain." 66 Help yourselves to the biscuits and the dates, boys; and don't forget the strawberries: they are fresh from my garden. After tea, we will sit awhile in the summerhouse; for the air will be pleasant to us all. What a blessing is the sabbath! It is oil and balm to a wounded heart, and like a cordial to one that is at ease. And what a blessing, too, is the house of God! Well might David say, 'I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness,' Psa. lxxxiv. 10. Drink your tea, boys; drink your tea!" "There is an anchor at the bottom of all the cups and saucers, Captain!" "Yes! yes! Old sailors like to be reminded of their calling. Come, another cup, boys, another cup! If you were at Sierra Leone, or off the coast of Madagascar, you would drink more thirstily. Try the dates and strawberries again, and the bread and butter. If I do not give you sugar enough, take up the pearl shell and help yourselves. The sugar is not of slave growth, that's a comfort. If you had seen what I have seen in the slave countries, you would be ready to bless God that slavery is done away in the British colonies." "The sooner it is done away every where the better." "Right, boys. He who deprives another of liberty, is unworthy to enjoy it himself. Now, one more cup, and then for the summer-house. The flowers smell so sweet, the air is so pleasant, and the bees and butterflies are roaming about so happy, that it does one's heart good to get out of doors. You shall have a walk round the garden." "Yes, that will be very pleasant." "Oh that we were all more worthy of the abundant mercies that surround our path. "There's mercy on the sea and land, In every passing hour; In every breath of air we draw, "Now, then, take a walk round the garden by yourselves; and if you should find any flowers you like, so much the better. By and by, I will join you in the summer-house." 66 Well, boys! you have had a walk round my garden; now let us go into the summer-house together. There! |