swallows, but they too soon plunged
into the blue and sought below that the cool green depths. Into this
tranquil scene steamed the _Kinfauns Castle_ in a triangle of snow, a
big porpoise rolling and rollicking along beside her, now rising on this
side, now on that. When he came very close he could see into the saloon
windows, and presently he saw the Captain standing at the end of a table
spread with the Union Jack and a great crowd of people sitting round the
tables.

"Dearly beloved brethren," began the Captain, and then the porpoise's
tail came up and his head went down with a "pflough!"

When he came up again near enough to see, all the people were muttering
and gobbling over the Psalms, the Captain rolling out his short
alternate verses as though he were directing his own quartermaster on a
course. While the porpoise was very close to the ship and listening hard
the ash-shoot was emptied almost on his head, which scared him so badly
that he dived deep, and did not come up again for a long time. When he
did rise the people were singing, "On, then, Christian soldiers, on to
victory"; again he dived, and again came up with a snort, to hear them
singing with equal vigour, "Make wars to cease and give us peace." But
just then the third engineer opened the exhaust of the waste condenser
water, and my black friend got such a shock when the cloud of steam and
hot water burst from the ship's side that he altered his course three
points, and I saw him plunging and rolling away to the west of south.
One thing the porpoise did not hear, for he was below at the time. In
his course through the Liturgy the Captain had reached the Collect for
the day. I will warrant he was trained in a sterner school of theology
than the Anglican; his voice and tones were never meant for the smooth
diction of the Prayer-book; but that is neither here nor there. The
"Coallect for the fourth Sunday after 'Pithany" rolled from his tongue.
I never hope to hear it in a more appropriate time or place; there was
something almost startling in the coincidence that brought it round on
such a day, and there was significance in the words--"_O God, Who
knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers that by
reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright;
grant to us such strength and protection as may support us in all
dangers and carry us through, all temptations._" Thus prayed the
Captain, the Chief Officer standing besi