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Old Ben was an old man-of-war's man with a small pension; he eked out a scanty living by the produce of a fishing-boat. He was a very outspoken old fellow, who never concealed what he thought, and was the great peacemaker of the village. At this time I knew but little of him. I afterwards discovered that he was a true and earnest Christian. He had a way of making everybody listen to him, and seldom spent a speech in vain; the reason was that his life showed that he meant what he said and firmly believed it; and there was another reason, he had a kind and good-humoured way of telling his mind which prevented people from being offended with him, and made them like him and look with favour on his advice for his sake.

So these boys, instead of answering him saucily, or turning away with a sneer to finish their dispute elsewhere, came up to him eagerly with the subject of their disagreement, one of them crying, "Daddy, he's a thief; he is, and I've said it-Tim I mean: he's stole my chisel that I bought last fair; I saw it in his hand, and he won't deny it, nor give it up, and Jack Ratcliffe is taking his part for all he knows it's true."

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"Stole your chisel!" said Ben, turning from the speaker, be Sam Collins, to his companions, who looked at each other with a knowing laugh and didn't answer.

"I'll fight him!" cried the wrathful Sam, "I'll fight both of 'em, though both of 'em's bigger than I am: I don't care for that, a thief's always a coward, isn't he, Ben ?"

"Mostly," said Ben, "but may be he'll give it up, he only took it to plague you, knowing what a nettlesome chap you are; wasn't that it?" turning as he spoke to the two boys.

"He's always at that game, calling out before he's hurt; if he's a mind to fight, let him; I don't mind paying him out for calling me a thief," said Tim Parry.

"Pooh! pooh!" said Daddy Ben, seating himself on the side of his boat, "what's the good of fighting your friends? Don't you know that's all the same as serving your ene

mies?"

"You said t'other day as 'twas right to love enemies, Daddy," said Jack.

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Very like I did, for it's true; but we mustn't serve 'em by doing their works of spite and malice. What sort of a chisel was yours?" asked Ben, looking at Sam.

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Sam began to describe it very particularly.

"Have you got it, Tim?" asked Ben, turning to him. "I told him once I hadn't, and once is enough," said Tim, stoutly.

"Try twice-that may do him good and you no hurt," said Ben.

Tim looked as if he would rather fight, but after a short deliberation, said "No."

"You'd best believe him," said Ben, looking towards Sam who was scuffling up the sand with his foot, with a scowl on his face. "I do.'

"I saw him with it-why do you believe him more than me?" asked Sam.

"Because I know he's right-here's your chisel, I found it in my boat while I was cleaning it; and I reckon you left it there the other day when you were in it with me." Saying this, he took the chisel from his pocket, to the confusion of Sam and the triumph of the other two.

"There now-don't go to fight because you've got it," said the old man, seeing that Sam was growing very angry with the taunts of Tim and Jack; " keep still a bit and I'll tell you what happened once on board the Mermaid:' maybe it'll be a lesson to you, Sam, not to be so quick in suspecting folks; and to you (looking at the others) not to be hard upon other's failings.

"There were two lads on board the 'Mermaid' when I served in her; one went by the name of Dolphin, he was so gay and sprightly, and the other was nick-named Shark, being the ugliest fellow that ever was seen in that ship, or on dry land either. But Shark wasn't bad-natured; he'd do a good turn for any one, and he'd give the last groat he had to a poor fellow that wanted it. I've known him clean deck and haul buckets to help a messmate when he's been half dead with the cold, over and over again.

"Dolphin was good-natured, too, but he thought more of himself; he had a ready tongue, and could make the crew laugh, and set 'em singing with a sort of a pipe he'd got, and keep 'em amused with long yarns of tales, till the time went, as you may say, no how: but he worn't so fond of putting his hand to a job he didn't fancy, you understand. Howsumever, he was a great favourite, and quite a-head of Shark in his consequence on board. He had a way of setting his eyes and twisting his mouth as if he was making

fun of something or somebody, and often did it, out of habit you see, when he hadn't got anything particular in his mind. "When first they came to the Mermaid,' nobody was fonder of him than Shark; he'd stare at him with his goggle eyes and grin with his no-end of a mouth, till you'd think he was going to swallow him clean up; but before long he took a fancy that Dolphin made game of him, and then his heart got filled with thoughts as black as a storm. When Dolphin found this out, instead of behaving Christian-like, and showing him he didn't turn him into fun, he plagued him dreadfully by lots of little ways of teasing (never meaning him harm, you understand), till Shark grew uglier than you can fancy; for the sin of hatred and revenge got so sweet to him, that it was as plain to be seen as the skin on his face.

"I was sorry for him; I knew he was kind at heart, and wished I could turn his evil thoughts away. One day I saw him sharpening his pocket-knife, looking as black as midnight. Got a job in hand?' I said, for I had uncomfortable feelings when I looked at him. He never answered, but ran his thumb across the edge and scowled and grinned till the ugliest shark wouldn't have said Thank ye' for the compliment of being named with him.

"My lad,' says I (quite careless you see), 'you look like as if you'd got all the cares of life upon you. Why don't you go and listen to them on the deck? there's Dolphin making 'em laugh with all sorts of fun.'

“' I know it,' he said between his teeth.

"Come along,' says I, I've been listening to him this ten minutes.'

"And you heard plenty about me,' said Shark in a growl.

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Not a word; I never heard him talk about you except to say what a good fellow you was, and he wondered what made you so awkward with him.'

"I saw his face as I passed by 'em now,' said Shark, with a grim nod.

"Never mind that,' I said.

Come down below the

coal sacks, they won't see you there, and I warrant it'll make you laugh like the rest.'

Now you see, lads, I didn't care about making him laugh. I only wanted to show him that Dolphin wasn't turning him into fun.

"So he followed me, sulky enough, and just as we got to the place and had hid, one of the fellows cried out I must go and ask Shark to write a letter to mother for me; I can't stop for the finish of that yarn, Dolphin, without you'll write the letter afterwards. No, boy,' cries Dolphin, I'm the one for a bit of fun, but Shark's the one for a real good turn.'

"Three cheers for Shark,' said another man who had been all the better for his help more than once; and with that up gets Dolphin and leads off the cheer.

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"Shark looked like the sun after a storm; I didn't show that I knew what he thought, but I just said it was a pity Dolphin's yarn was cut short. Soon after I saw Dolphin at the ship's head, looking about, I asked, for he wasn't as gay as usual. he says, ' and I'm lost without it.' one,' says I, borrow it.' 'Shark would as soon throw it into the sea as lend it to me,' he cries. Why,' says I. Dolph couldn't tell why, only he'd taken to look as black as a lobster for a long time. 'I take it you don't behave charitable to him,' I said, and thereupon I gave him my mind. 'I never made him into fun; if he fancied it, what was that to me?' he says. 'A great deal,' says I; 'you made him miserable and wicked too; you knew he was suspicious, and instead of showing him he was wrong, you made him worse by jibes; he's a good fellow, and if he's not so wise as some folks, he's got a deal more kindness in him.'

"You see, lads, I spoke up for Shark, being sorry for him. "Dolph looked sorry too. As it happened, Shark came by that minute. Here,' says I, Dolph has lost his knife; I saw you sharpen yours, perhaps you'd lend it him?'

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"Shark knew by my eye what I meant; he held out the knife and Dolph took it, and after that time they were fast friends.

“That night I reminded Shark of what sin he might have got into if he had gone on suspecting, and I showed him that verse, Charity thinketh no evil,' and he was thankful enough I can tell you. He now saw how giving way to bad thoughts, ever so little at first, may lead a man on till it brings him to do things at which his hair would have stood on end at first. I had a talk with Dolph too, and tried to make him see that it was Christian-like to bear one another's burdens, and when we saw a fault, in a

neighbour we ought to try and mend it for their good and not make it worse for our pleasure. Years after I met with Shark in another ship, and he told me plain out, that if it hadn't been for my speaking to him he would have sent that knife into Dolph's heart the first chance he had.

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So, boys, see what a fine thing it was that my poor mother taught me the Bible: now do you remember to learn it-you have better chances now than I had when I was a youngster; and then instead of fighting and harming one another in body and soul, you'll do your best to make peace wherever you go,"-as old Daddy Ben did.

Parts of this story I overheard the old man tell the boys as he sat on the side of his boat on the beach. Going up to him I began to talk about his past life. He told me his history, for he had all an old sailor's love for a long gossip. I was curious to know whether the part of peacemaker, which he always played in the village, sprang from a naturally kind disposition, or whether it was brought about by the grace of God. I asked him the question. Taking a well-thumbed Testament from his jacket-pocket he turned to two verses which he read as his answer, “ Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God." "And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." He added, "Since God has become my Father in Christ I must try to live like his child, and if he has forgiven me, the least I can do is to forgive all the world beside."

OLD JULIAN.

A TRUE STORY.

THE following narrative of the conversion of a poor Breton peasant, who had lived for more than fifty years in subjection to the false doctrines and superstitious practices of the church of Rome, is strictly true. The details were communicated to the writer by a friend to whom the subject of it was intimately known. It affords a striking illustration of the promise, "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not, I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight." God grant that it may be the means of leading others to search for themselves

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