CHAPTER X.
It was nearly four years since our landing at Honolulu, or Jefferson as we more usually called it, thus lovingly preserving the memory of our former home. During this period our little world had prospered, some of our number had died, more had come to fill their places, boys had grown to young men, little maids to handsome young women, and our life in the old continent of the West seemed to have receded so far into the past as to be like one of those strange dreams wherein we seemed to be carried back to a previous yet recognisable state of existence. Of the more prominent members of our community Gell, though still under thirty, wore the grave aspect of a man of middle age. His strong faithful character had been deepened and softened by his sorrow, and his life was devoted to the service of his fellow creatures. To his proper function of teaching the young and of ministering to the religious needs of the community he added the self-imposed task of tending the sick, com-
