“But surely you can’t regard that as a message to us when you know that you turned to it by mere chance,” said Sam.
“I do regard it as a special message to us,” returned Robin with decision.
“And what if you had turned up an entirely unsuitable or inapplicable verse?” said Sam.
“Then I should have concluded that God had no special message for us just now, but left us to that general comfort and instruction contained throughout the whole word. When, however, special comfort is sought and found, it seems to me ungrateful to refuse it.”
“But I don’t refuse it, Robin,” returned Sam; “I merely doubt whether it is sent to us or not.”
“Why, Sam, all the bible was sent to us for comfort and instruction.”
“True—true. I have not thought much on that subject, Robin, but I’ll try to believe at present that you are right, for we stand much in need of strong hope at all events. Here we are, none of us knows how far from the nearest land, with little food and less water, on a thing that the first stiff breeze may knock to pieces, without shelter and without compass!”
“Without shelter and compass, Mr Shipton!” said Jim Slagg, who had hitherto listened in silence to the conversation; “why, what d’ye call this?” (taking hold of the sail). “Ain’t that shelter enough, and won’t the sun guide us by day and the stars by night. It seems to me that you are too despondin’, Mr Shipton.”
“Don’t ‘mister’ me any more, Slagg. It was all very well aboard ship where we had our relative positions, but now we are comrades in distress, and must be on an equal footing.”
“Very good,” replied Slagg, looking round in his comrades’ faces, and raising his voice as if making a speech. “Bein’ equal, as you say, I takes the liberty o’ callin’ a general meetin’ o’ this free and—if I may be allowed the expression—easy Republic. Moreover, I move myself into the chair and second the motion, which, nobody objectin’, is carried unanimously. Gentlemen, the business of this here meetin’ is to appoint a commander to this here ship, an’ what could be more in accordance with the rule o’ three—not to mention the rules o’ four and common sense—than a Shipton takin’ command. Who’s goin’ to make the first reslootion?”