The cheer that greeted them was not unmingled with surprise.
“The best an’ the worst men i’ the ship!” gasped Joe Slag, amid laughter and hearty congratulations.
He was probably right, for it was the young Wesleyan minister and Ned Jarring who had effected this gallant rescue.
The performance of a good action has undoubtedly a tendency to elevate, as the perpetration of a bad one has to demoralise.
From that day forward Black Ned felt that he had acquired a certain character which might be retained or lost. Without absolutely saying that he became a better man in consequence, we do assert that he became more respectable to look at, and drank less!
Thus the voyage progressed until the good ship Lapwing sailed in among some of the innumerable islands of the Southern seas.
Story 1 -- Chapter 6.
Darkness, whether physical, mental, or spiritual, is probably the greatest evil that man has had to contend with since the fall. At all events, the physical and mental forms of it were the cause of the good ship Lapwing sailing one night straight to destruction.