"The old gent murmurs something to himself about a stone which the
builders wouldn't have at any price; and then he turns and puts it
straight:

"'If you undertake the work,' says he, 'you'll go through with it without
faltering--you'll devote your life to it?'

"'If I undertake the job, I'll do that,' says Joe. 'What may it be?'

"'To go to Africa,' says the old gent, 'as a missionary.'

"Joe sits down and stares at the old gent, and the old gent looks him
back.

"'It's a dangerous station,' says the old gent. 'Two of our people have
lost their lives there. It wants a man there--a man who will do
something besides preach, who will save these poor people we have
gathered together there from being scattered and lost, who will be their
champion, their protector, their friend.'

"In the end, Joe took on the job, and went out with his wife. A better
missionary that Society never had and never wanted. I read one of his
early reports home; and if the others were anything like it his life must
have been exciting enough, even for him. His station was a small island
of civilisation, as one may say, in the middle of a sea of savages.
Before he had been there a month the place had been attacked twice. On
the first occasion Joe's 'flock' had crowded into the Mission House, and
commenced to pray, that having been the plan of defence adopted by his
predecessor. Joe cut the prayer short, and preached to them from the
text, 'Heaven helps them as helps themselves'; after which he proceeded