Rea TAS

8 In Great Waters

Se eo

no one shepherds them apart from money-making
purposes. I wonder what will become of them all.
Many of them have lived lives of amazing interest
and have had thrilling experiences. I could tell
you a hundred interesting stories of men I have met
here, my superiors in intellect and character, striking
personalities, splendid fellows.

These varying groups are all “our people.”
Some are opposed to the Church or ignorant of what
the Church stands for. Many of them are sincere
and intelligent believers, representing, in their
Church preferences, all the sects of Christendom.
Mostly they are remarkably well informed on public
affairs and questions of world wide interest. Also
they are very evidently given to thinking things out
for themselves. Let me tell you an incident showing
the type of men we often meet along these shores.
Once we were forced to lie all morning at anchor in
Squitty Bay. It was blowing too hard outside.
Two ranchers, named Mason and Millicheap, rowed
over to visit us. Among other subjects our talk
turned to books and writers. Millicheap is well
educated and widely-travelled. Here is a précis
of the ideas he expressed that morning. ‘‘He
wondered if the human mind had reached its best
dimensions in thought, that all it could do now was
to fill out and elaborate the content. We look back,
he said, for the choicest in literature. The great
lights are far behind us. Shakespeare, of course,
is pre-eminent. Personally he would dare to place
George Borrow and his Lavengro first in prose. He