THE LITTLE BROWN MAN 255 



When "Jimmy" next appeared he had a jug of 

 water in his hand and a bigger smile than ever. 



"Well, 'Jimmy,' you haven't forgotten me?" sug- 

 gested the big man in blue. 



"No. You capitain ! My word, you young fellow 

 now 1" 



And we all laughed, for though the years had been 

 tender to the man in blue, still, they had come and gone 

 by the decade since the previous meeting. "Jimmy's" 

 smiles became vocal. Professional diplomats use the 

 great gift of speech, it is said, to delude the enemies 

 of their country. "Jimmy's" adroit compliment was 

 the more delicate in that it was not official and he cannot 

 possess an enemy. 



When he puckers his lips to whistle, "Jimmy's" 

 smiles are singularly infectious. The Protector's yacht 

 is not a missionary, but merely, as her name signifies, 

 a messenger; but the Protector does not forbid the 

 hymnal. "Jimmy" has one, and as he studies the 

 pious poems, for he reads fluently, whistles appropriately. 

 While we lolled on deck, familiar tunes wooed my 

 wandering thoughts. "Jesu, Lover of my Soul," 

 came line after line, verse after verse, precisely, though 

 the tone was soft . Was the black boy thus accompanying 

 his work at the pump? No; for the strokes were not 

 in time, and the boy occasionally chatted with his chum. 

 I asked, and was told that "Jimmy" "mak'm good 

 fellow corroboree." Presently he came up smiling, 

 and with the last notes of "Abide with Me" on his lips. 

 Then I questioned him, and for a space we discussed 

 our favourite hymns and hummed them, or rather 

 I did, for "Jimmy" was too shy to do more than nod 

 in time before a stranger. He confided, almost in 

 a whisper, that when he was alone he learned the words 

 of the hymns, and afterwards picked up the tunes. Is it 



