essy
Quintal lost her husband and brother in the same year, but she was not
without comfort. She had been early taught to carry her cares to Jesus,
and found Him now a very present help. Besides, she had now two little
sons, John and Matthew, who were old enough to fondle her and sympathise
with her to some extent, though they scarce understood her sorrow; and
her fast friend and comforter, Sally Christian, did not fail her in the
hour of need. Indeed, that warm-hearted Otaheitan would have taken poor
Bessy into her house to live with her and Charlie, but for the
difficulty that six riotous little creatures of her own, named Fletcher,
Edward, Charles, Isaac, Sarah, and Maria, already filled it to
overflowing.

A little more than six years after this, there came a visitant of a rare
and heart-gladdening kind, namely, a parcel of _books_. Although the
Government of England was too busy to think of the far-off isle, there
were Englishmen who did not forget her. The _Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge_, happening, in 1819, to hear of an opportunity of
communicating with Pitcairn, made up and despatched to it a parcel of
books, containing, besides Bibles and Prayer-books, "works of
instruction fitted for all ages." Who can imagine the delight produced
by this gift to minds which had been well educated and were thirsting
for more knowledge? It must have been as food to the starving; as water
to the dry ground.

Four years after that, a whale-ship from London, named the _Cyrus_,
touched in passing.

As this visit was a noteworthy epoch in the lonely island, we shall
devote a new chapter to it.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

NEW ARRIVALS AND STRANGE ADVENTURES.

"My dear," said Adams one morning to his spouse, as he was about to go
forth to superintend the working of his busy hive, "I'm beginnin' to
feel as if I was gettin' old, and would soon have to lay up like an old
hulk."

"You've done good service for the Master, John; perhaps He thinks you
should rest now," answered his wife. "You've got plenty able helpers to
take the heavy work off your hands."

"True, old woman, able, willin', and good helpers, thank God, but they
want a headpiece still. However, there's a deal of life in the old dog
yet. If that dear angel, Otaheitan Sally, were only a man, now, I could
resign the command of the ship without a thought. But I've committed
the matter to the Lord. He will provide in His own good time.
Good-da