after Christianity had fairly taken hold of the people, and they loved
to sing over and over again their favorite hymns, these village
prayer-meetings formed a most blessed close to every day, and set the
far-distant bush echoing with the praises of God.

Nor is our week-day life less crowded or busy, though in different ways.
At gray dawn on Monday, and every morning, the _Tavaka_ (= the canoe
drum) is struck in every village on Aniwa. The whole inhabitants turn in
to the early School, which lasts about an hour and a half, and then the
Natives are off to their plantations. Having partaken of breakfast, I
then spend my forenoon in translating or printing, or visiting the sick,
or whatever else is most urgent. About two o'clock the Natives return
from their work, bathe in the sea, and dine off cocoanut, breadfruit, or
anything else that comes handily in the way. At three o'clock the bell
rings, and the afternoon School for the Teachers and the more advanced
learners then occupy my wife and myself for about an hour and a half.
After this, the Natives spend their time in fishing or lounging or
preparing supper,--which is amongst them always _the_ meal of the day.
Towards sundown the _Tavaka_ sounds again, and the day closes amid the
echoes of village prayers from under their several banyan trees.

Thus day after day and week after week passed over us on Aniwa; and much
the same on all the Islands where the Missionary has found a home. In
many respects it is a simple and happy and beautiful life; and the man
whose heart is full of things that are dear to Jesus, feels no desire to
exchange it for the poor frivolities of what calls itself "Society,"
which seems to find its life in pleasures that Christ cannot be asked to
share, and in which, therefore, Christians should have neither lot nor
part.

CHAPTER LXXV.
THE ORPHANS AND THEIR BISCUITS.

THE habits of morning and evening Family Prayer and of Grace at Meat
took a very wonderful hold upon the people; and became, as I have shown
elsewhere, a distinctive badge of Christian versus Heathen. This was
strikingly manifested during a time of bitter scarcity that befell us. I
heard a father, for instance, at his hut door, with his family around
him, reverently blessing God for the food provided for them, and for all
His mercies in Christ Jesus. Drawing near and conversing with them, I
found that their meals consisted of fig leaves which they had gathered
and cooked--a poo