The Romance of the Early Days 25

bringing healing to the bodies and souls of the people,
until, at last, Crosby’s rugged frame broke under the
strain. To eke out the small grant from the Mis-
sionary Society and the uncertain income from
personal subscriptions, it had been necessary to run
the boat as economically as possible. ‘‘Porridge
and Prayers”’ were said to be the regular bill-of-fare.
When good Capt. Oliver, who built the boat out of
love to God, and ran her out of love to humanity,
had been working hard all one morning at needed
repairs, he turned suddenly to Crosby, and putting
his hand suggestively on his vest, said, “I think it
is about time for prayers!”’

Now she lay on the beach, left high and dry by
the tide in this sheltered bay like one ignobly cast
aside. She had not gone down in the stress of the
tempest. Her critics had said she was not sea-
worthy, though she was as staunch a craft of her size
as ever ploughed the deep, for Oliver wrought with
his heart in the building of her. She had traversed
the boisterous Hecate Strait many a time, had faced
the Naas wind when the mail steamers hesitated,
and had repeatedly braved fierce winter storms.
Again and again had she gone around Vancouver
Island visiting every human being she found on its
isolated, wreck-strewn, west coast, daring the
tempests of Cape Flattery, rounding Cape Cook and
Cape Scott safely, alike in winter and summer, for,
as the Indians said, ‘‘God was with her.’’ She had
been a terror to evil-doers, especially to those de-
grading businesses that thrive by exploiting and en-