ee

In Great Waters

entered, but two big games of poker were in progress
and the coins were ringing merrily down upon the
tables. Groups of men crowded round the players,
while a smaller group was centred at the stove.
The other end of the building being free, the mis-
sionary at once began preparations for a meeting.
First a set of lamps had to be borrowed from the
cookhouse to provide light, then facing the crowd
that began to gather as these preparations went on,
I announced my name. At that a man who had
taken his seat at my left got up and said, ‘You
expect to hold a meeting?” and I replied, “Yes,
I hope to do so.”’ ‘‘ Will you have a chairman or will
you run it yourself?”’ Thinking, and praying too,
on my feet, I replied, ‘‘That is just as the boys say.”
The man then rapped on the table and called aloud,
‘“‘Fellow-workers, Mr. Scott is here and is going to
hold a meeting, and wants to know if you will ap-
point a chairman for him, or will he run the meeting
himself.’’ In as many seconds, half a dozen fellows
moved that I run it myself. I thanked them and
then told them I would be glad if they would allow
me to finish what I had to say and then I would stay
and hear what any of them might wish to say, and
would answer any questions they might have to ask.
To all this the man at my left replied ‘‘That’s fair.”
So I began witha hymn. What should it be? The
tense feeling in the meeting did not make for slow
collected thought as to choice of the song. My eye
fell on a title; the very one for the occasion, I
thought, and immediately I announced it, ‘‘ Number