Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/243

 "Come now, Johnson, you must go to sleep after that," said Sam. "You 're exciting yourself too much; remember that I am your doctor, and obedience is the first law of nature—when one is out of health."

"Very good, sir," returned the seaman; "but before I turn over Mr. Wright must read me a few verses out o' that bible his mother gave him."

"Why, how do you know that my mother gave me a bible?" asked Robin in great surprise.

"Didn't I know your mother?" replied the sailor with a flush of enthusiasm; "an' don't I know that she would sooner have let you go to sea without her blessing than without the Word of God? She was the first human bein' as ever spoke to me about my miserable soul, and the love of God in sendin' His Son to save it. Many a one has asked me about my health, and warned me to fly from drink, and offered to help me on in life, but she was the first that ever asked after my soul, or tried to impress on me that Eternity and its affairs were of more importance than Time. I didn't say much at the time, but the seed that your mother planted nigh twenty years ago has bin watered, thank God, an' kep' alive ever since."

There was a tone of seriousness and gratitude in this off-hand seaman's manner, while speaking of his mother, which touched Robin deeply. Without a