MEN AND MANNERS 71 



approach these fellows, and see if their Sundays could not be 

 spent in something more stirring than idleness. 



" We don't want no parsons nor policemen in our shelter ! " 

 said one of the crowd, who with his fellows afterwards took 

 solemn counsel, with many deep-drawn spells at their beloved 

 pipes. 



" I say, Mr. Flaxman," said one of them a few days after, 

 " I thort you was comin' to talk to us chaps at the shelter last 

 Sunday ; but you didn't turn up." 



This was enough for my friend, who possesses more than a 

 fair share of humour and a deep knowledge of these men's 

 ways, for he was reared among them ; and next Sunday he 

 was installed as the " little parson," and these simple-hearted 

 fellows, who could never gather courage to go to church, 

 mustered up, some thirty of them, sunburnt and weather- 

 stained, in blue guernseys and tanned jumpers, with their in- 

 dispensable pipes in their mouths, with which they soon filled 

 the place with smoke. Tactfully my friend chatted to them, 

 often in the vernacular, without ceremony and restraint, 

 spicing his talk with anecdote and proverb and a simple 

 story from the Bible. 



To this day these honest fellows attend the " little parson's " 

 services, reverent amidst their clouds of smoke, in this un- 

 consecrated hut, sometimes punctuating the missioner's 

 address with piquant comments, or breaking his discourse to 

 get back to some previous remark on which they want more 

 light or corroboration. Often these characteristic interjected 

 remarks, to every one else but themselves, would be very 

 funny, although uttered with all sincerity. And it is no un- 

 common thing for the congregation to ask their " bishop," 

 after he has concluded his address, to "go on and give us 

 another." 



