in work at once."

Not only did Buffett thereafter become to Adams as a right arm in the
school, but he assisted in the church services on Sundays, and
eventually came to read sermons, which, for the fixing of them more
effectually on the minds of the people, he was wont to deliver three
times over.

But Buffett could tell stories as well as read sermons. One afternoon
some of the youngsters caught him meditating under a cocoa-nut tree, and
insisted on his telling the story of his life.

"It ain't a long story, boys an' girls," said he, "for I've only lived
some six-and-twenty years yet. I was born in 1797, near Bristol, and
was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker. Not takin' kindly to that sort o'
work, I gave it up an' went to sea. However, I'm bound to say, that the
experience I had with the saw and plane has been of the greatest service
to me ever since; and it's my opinion, that what ever a man is, or
whoever he may be, he should learn a trade; ay, even though he should be
a king."

The Pitcairn juveniles did not see the full force of this remark, but
nevertheless they believed it heartily.

"It was the American merchant service I entered," continued Buffett,
"an' my first voyage was to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. I was wrecked
there, and most o' the crew perished; but I swam ashore and was saved,
through God's mercy. Mark that, child'n. It wasn't by good luck, or
good swimmin', or chance, or fate, or anything else in the shape of a
second cause, but it was the good God himself that saved, or rather
spared me. Now, I say that because there's plenty of people who don't
like to give their Maker credit for anything, 'cept when they do it in a
humdrum, matter-of-course way at church."

These last remarks were quite thrown away upon the children, whose
training from birth had been to acknowledge the goodness of God in
everything, and who could not, of course, comprehend the allusions to
formalism.

"Well," he continued, "after suffering a good deal, I was picked up by
some Canadian fishermen, and again went to sea, to be once again wrecked
and saved. That was in the year 1821. Then I went to England, and
entered on board a ship bound for China, from which we proceeded to
Manilla, and afterwards to California, where I stayed some time. Then I
entered an English whaler homeward bound, intendin' to go home, and the
Lord _did_ bring me home, for he brought me here, and here I mean to
stay."

"And we're all