When at last the lights were lit, and they saw a man’s face looking out from under the great head of the bear, they did not know whether to laugh more at him or at themselves.
They had been jumping here and there and dodging about, to get out of the way of James Chalmers in a bearskin!
The students were not the only people who were alarmed at the made-up bear. There was an Irishman who came to the college to sell fruit. One day, as he found his way along the halls, he met the bear. It was at the end of a passage, and they met so suddenly that the poor Irishman could save neither himself nor his basket from the paws of the great grisly creature.
CHAPTER II
THE “JOHN WILLIAMS”
WHEN James Chalmers was twenty-four years of age, he and his wife left England for Australia in the John Williams. The lady he had married was eager to help in the great work that he had undertaken, so they were both very happy when they knew that they had really started on their long voyage. They enjoyed life on board ship and won many friends amongst the passengers and amongst the sailors.
The ship in which they sailed was new, and was one of the swiftest on the sea. She had been built with money given by hundreds of children, that she might take Mr. and Mrs. Chalmers and others who went to live as they did, from island to island on the Pacific sea.
They arrived safely at Sydney, in Australia, and from that town they sailed for the second part of their voyage.
The name of the island on which their first home was to be was Rarotonga. They could not go straight to it because others were on board, and the John Williams had to sail here and there amongst many islands. At one, two of her passengers must be left behind; at another, new voyagers must come on board; while here, there, and everywhere great bales of cargo must be landed. In these bales there were beads and knives, tomahawks and tobacco, and iron in bars, and rolls of cloth.