“What! young chap!” exclaimed the latter, “are you a book-worm? I used to be fond of reading tales and adventures; let us have a look at the story you have got hold of.”
“It’s no story, it’s all true,” answered Peter; “it is God’s word.”
“Is that your style of reading? I have no fancy for it, though each man to his taste, I say,” observed the youth.
“You would find it a very interesting book, though, Owen Bell,” said Peter, who had heard the youth’s name. “I never get tired of it, but I read it whenever I can; for it’s only by reading it that we can know how to obey Christ, and be prepared to live with Him in heaven.”
“Oh, but I have to live down here and knock about at sea,” answered Owen Bell, with a careless laugh. “It will be time enough when I become an old chap, like Simon Hixon, to think about matters of that sort.”
“Who is Simon Hixon?” asked Peter.
“The oldest man on board. You might have heard him growling away and swearing at the cook, after dinner to-day, because the soup was not thick enough,” answered Bell.
“Does Simon Hixon read the Bible?” asked Peter.
“Not he. You had better just try and persuade him to do so, or to listen to you, for I doubt if he can spell his own name,” said Bell.
“Perhaps when he was young he might have said that he would begin to read the Bible when he was old, and you see he has not begun yet,” observed Peter.