ated the commander opened the Good Book at a marked place.

"I see that some of you are surprised at the altered appearance of our
out-door hall," Captain Ringgold began. "I regard the instructive
element of our voyage as one of the greatest importance; and if I were
to fit out the ship again for this cruise, I should provide an apartment
on this deck for our conference meetings. But I have done the best I
could under the circumstances, with the assistance of Mr. Gaskette, the
second officer of the ship.

"I see also that the map before you has challenged your attention,"
continued the commander, who proceeded to explain in what manner he had
caused the maps to be made. "Mr. Gaskette has been my right-hand man in
this work. He is not only a good navigator and a thorough seaman, but he
is a highly educated gentleman, a graduate of Harvard College, a person
of artistic tastes, as you may have learned from your intercourse with
him. The map before you is only one of three already completed, and the
work is in progress upon several others."

The company, including the ladies, received this explanation with
generous applause, and all the boys called for the subject of the
captain's remarks. He was presented to them, and thanked the commander
for his kind words, and hoped the maps would prove to be useful in the
conferences.

"I will begin what I have to say about the Land of Goshen by reading a
few verses from the first chapter of Exodus: 'And Joseph died, and all
his brethren, and all that generation. And the children of Israel were
fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding
mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there rose up a new king
over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold,
the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: come
on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to
pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our
enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their
burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Ramses.'

"Ramses II. is generally regarded as the Pharaoh of the oppression, and
doubtless the Israelites suffered a great deal of persecution in his
reign," the commander proceeded as he closed the Bible. "But the one who
proposed in the verse I have read to 'get them up o